ADAMS’S PATRIARCHAL CHARACTER. 247 
them. The island has a beautiful appearance, 
and is said to be extremely fruitful. Wild 
boars are found in the interior. 
Seven years after this visit of the Breton, 
the American merchant-ship Eagle, whose 
Captain I met in Chili, touched on Pitcairn 
Island. He found the population already in- 
creased to a hundred persons, and was delighted 
with the order and good government of the little 
colony. Adams reigned as a patriarch king 
amongst them, and, as sovereign arbitrator, 
settled all disputes, no one presuming to object 
to his decision. Every family possessed a por- 
tion of land; the fields were measured off from 
each other, industriously cultivated, and yield- 
ing abundant crops of yams and sweet potatoes. 
On Sundays, the whole population assembled 
at Adams’s house, when he read the Bible to 
them, exhorted them to concord and good con- 
duct, and took pains to confirm their virtuous 
dispositions. 
Every evening at sunset, when after the heat 
of the day the inhabitants of this delightful 
climate are revived by the refreshing coolness 
of the air, the young people formed a semi- 
