520 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGKAPHY AND TRAVEL 



considerably over 1000 miles in length, and will never 

 be able to do much more than support the small popula- 

 tion — less than 6000 souls — which inhabits them. Coco- 

 nuts and pearl-shell are almost their only product, and 

 the latter is in many localities beginning to fail. All, or 

 almost all, are lagoon islands. 



The Gambler Islands form the S.E. prolongation of 

 the preceding. They consist of five high volcanic islets 

 inhabited by Eoman Catholic converts, whose numbers 

 were increased in 1^78 by the immigration of the bulk 

 of the inhabitants of Easter Island, 3 in number. The 

 most important is Mangareva or Peard Island, 



Pitcairn Island, celebrated as having been colonised by 

 the mutineers of the Bounty, lies at the extreme south- 

 eastern limits of the Low Archipelago, and far out of 

 sight of any other land. It is only two miles in extreme 

 length, and three-quarters of a mile wide, with a fertile 

 volcanic soil, but rocky and mountainous, rising to a 

 height of 2500 feet, so that nuich of its surface must be 

 too precipitous for cultivation. It is situated in 25° 3' 

 S. lat., or just beyond the southern tropic, and has a fine 

 climate, producing many tropical fruits and vegetables. 

 It was in 1790 that nine British sailors, six Tahitian 

 men, and twelve women arrived at this speck in the 

 ocean. By discord and murder they were reduced in ten 

 years to one man — an English sailor named Adams — 

 the Tahitian women, and nineteen children. The story 

 of how this ignorant English sailor suddenly rose to the 

 responsibilities of his position, and trained up this little 

 community to habits of industry and morality, and the 

 practice of true religion, is one of the most wonderful 

 and encouraging episodes in the social history of mankind. 

 The little colony was first discovered in 1808 by an 

 American ship, the Topaze, which brouoht the news to 



