I'lTCAIRX ISLAND 521 



England. They were afterwards visited by two frigates, 

 the Briton and the Tagus, and in 1825 by Captain 

 Beechey in the discovery ship Blossom, who found a 

 community of sixty-six persons living in a state of un- 

 interrupted peace and harmony, and in a veritable "garden 

 of Eden." Groves of coco-nut and bread-fruit trees 

 clothed the rocks down to the water's edge, while in the 

 deep valleys tropical fruits and vegetables flourished 

 luxuriantly. The village stood on a platform of rock 

 shaded by plantains and fig-trees, and surrounding an 

 open square covered with grass. It was encircled by 

 palisades to keep out the hogs and goats which roamed 

 over the island and, with fowls, supplied abundance 

 of animal food. The houses of the islanders were 

 clean and comfortable. Their clothing, entirely made 

 from the bark of the paper-mulberry, was neat and grace- 

 ful. They all lived as one united family, and crime, or 

 even dissension, was unknown. 



Injudiciously, as we think, this intensely interesting 

 social experiment was brought to an end by the inter- 

 ference of well-meaning people. The Pitcairn Islanders 

 were removed, first to Tahiti, then back again to Pitcairn 

 Island. Then in 1856 they were all removed to Norfolk 

 Island, far inferior to their own in climate and soil, though 

 somewhat larger. In 1858 some of them returned to 

 Pitcairn, where, in 1869, they were visited by Sir Charles 

 Dilke, and were doing well. In 1873 Commander K. 

 H. A. Mainwaring found seventy-six inhabitants on the 

 island, and he remarks that epidemic or endemic diseases 

 were unknown among them. In September, 1878, they 

 were visited by Eear-Admiral A. F. E. De Horsey, who 

 found them to have increased to ninety, all in good health, 

 and quite happy; and he adds, that Captain Beechey 's testi- 

 mony to their good qualities, given fifty-three years ago. 



