106 



Moresby, visited Norfolk Island to investigate the condition of the 

 settlers, which he pronounced to be perfectly satisfactory. During his 

 visit he divided all the land amongst the heads of families, and established 

 laws for the regulation of the island. In 1858 or 9, the "home-longings" 

 of a few of the settlers induced them to return to Pitcairn's Island with 

 their families. There they were found prospering and following the 

 good example of their fathers, by Sir Wentworth Dilke, who visited the 

 island eight years afterwards. Sir Wentworth relates that the first 

 islander who came on board rushed up to the Captain, and shaking him 

 violently by the hand, enquired with an earnest expression of simple 

 loyalty, "How's Victoria^" 



No later intelligence of Pitcairn's Island has come across my notice- 

 Meanwhile the settlers at Norfolk Island continued to increase and 

 multiply, and in ten years they numbered three-hundred, the two sexes 

 being exactly equal. Most of the men had taken up with whale-fishing 

 during a part of the year. The Bishop of New Zealand visited the island 

 several times, and in 1869 he wrote, "They are really a friendly, kindly, 

 amiable people." How they have fared since that date I am not able to 

 tell you, but two years since I saw a letter in the "Times" which 

 insinuated (I trust without foundation) that some of the vices of civili- 

 sation had begun to undermine the simplicity and rectitude which 

 distinguished the descendants of the mutineers for more than seventy 

 years. Thus ends a story as full of lessons for the preacher as it is of 

 material for the poet and the painter ; and if I have failed to tell it in a 

 way to awaken your interest and sympathy, the fault has been with 

 myself, and not with my subject. 



