THE PASTOR'S REMUNERATION. 187 
the island. Indeed, many valuable qualities 
appear to be united in him for the due dis- 
charge of his office. His good common sense, 
and plainness of speech, accompanied with 
an inoffensive firmness of conduct and man- 
ner, and that kind and Christian demeanour, 
without which all other important points of 
character in the " messenger of grace " are 
useless and unmeaning, distinguish him as the 
man for the situation to which it has pleased 
God to call him. 
His remuneration had for many years 
been wholly inadequate to the necessities of 
his family, and to the maintenance of that 
respectable appearance which a person in 
such a position among the community ought 
to hold. For instance, in writing to a 
Clergyman at Valparaiso, in August 1844, 
Mr. Nobbs said, 
" My stock of clothing, which I brought 
from England is, as you may suppose, very 
nearly exhausted, and I have no friends 
there to whom I can with propriety apply for 
more. Until the last three years, it was my 
custom to wear a black coat on the Sabbath ; 
