1286 AUSTRALASIA ILLUSTRATED. 



In 1825, the Blossom, a vessel fitted out for purposes of discovery, visited the Island ; 

 and from Captain Beechy, R.N., we get an account of the Islanders and their condition. 

 Adams and ten of his people put off in a boat to board the Blossom. The old 

 mutineer was then in his sixtieth year. His old habits of discipline were still so strong 

 that he held a low-crowned hat in his hand, until desired to put it on ; he wore a 

 sailor's shirt and trousers ; and he doffed his hat and smoothed his hair, after the 

 manner of His Majesty's sailors of nearly half a century before, whenever the officers 

 of the King's ship addressed him. The young men who accompanied him. we are told, 

 were tall and healthy, with good-natured countenances, and an engaging simplicity of 

 manner. Their dresses were whimsical enough ; some had long coats without trousers, 

 others had trousers without coats, and others, again, waistcoats without either. None of 

 them had shoes or stockings, and there were only two hats among them " neither of 

 which," says Captain Beechy, " seemed likely to hang long together." The Blossom stayed 

 at Pitcairn three weeks, observing the manners of the Islanders. The village consisted 

 of five houses, in which the people lived in the utmost simplicity, employing themselves 

 in work and devotion, and subsisting on temperate and wholesome fare. Three years 

 after Captain Beechy left, Mr. George Hunn Nobbs settled there. He had been a 

 lieutenant in the Chilian Navy, and after a career of adventure he settled clown at 

 Pitcairn to quiet life and work. He went thither from Callao, a voyage of three thou- 

 sand five hundred miles, in an eighteen-ton launch. He married a grand-daughter of Fletcher 

 Christian, and later on became the ordained chaplain of the Island. He succeeded to the 

 patriarchate of the little colony on the demise of John Adams, who died on the 2gth 

 of March, 1829, in his sixty-fifth year, leaving his name on the Island as a tradition 

 to be treasured with respect and honour. Vessels continued to visit Pitcairn, and in 

 1830, H.M.S. Scringapatam brought the inhabitants presents of clothing and agricultural 

 implements from the British Government. In 1831, the Government deported all the 

 Pitcairn Islanders to Otaheite in H.M. sloop Comet. Here twelve of their number died, 

 and five others died at Pitcairn, whither the party returned within seven months of their 

 departure. In 1833, a person named Joshua Hill arrived at the Island. He was seventy 

 years of age, and claimed to have been sent out to take charge of the little colony. 

 This ancient adventurer soon introduced disorganization and disorder among the quiet 

 Islanders, some of whom he suspended by the hand in the church, flogged, and other- 

 wise maltreated. Complaints were made to the naval officers serving on the Pacific 

 station, and presently Joshua Hill, who falsely claimed to be a near relative of the 

 Earl of Bedford, was secured by H.M.S. Imogenc and carried off to Valparaiso, in 

 1837. Mr. Nobbs, who had been driven away from Pitcairn by this "partially-deranged 

 impostor," returned to his charge, and the quiet and simple life of the Island was 

 resumed. From this time their career remained undisturbed for many years. A kind of 

 self-government was established, one of the inhabitants being elected Chief Magistrate, 

 with two Councillors. The increasing population, however, overtaxed the sustaining 

 capacity of the Island, and in 1852-3 the dry season and failing crop reduced the inhabi- 

 tants to the verge of privation. After much persuasion they were -induced to emigrate 

 to Norfolk Island, in the Morayshirc, on the 22nd of April, 1856, about sixty-seven years 

 after the memorable mutiny. The Pitcairn Islanders then numbered nearly two hundred 





