LETTER OF ADMIRAL MORESBY. 209 
for many, very many favours. That they will 
long be gratefully remembered, admits not of 
a doubt; and that the inhabitants may con- 
tinue to conduct themselves as becomes people 
so highly favoured, is most devoutly to be 
wished. 1 ' 
A letter from Admiral Moresby, dated Port- 
land, at sea, lat. 25* 25' S., long. 126° 29' W. 
August 12, 1852, informed the authorities at the 
Admiralty that he had reached Pitcairn's Island 
early on Sunday, the 8th August. From that 
time to the period of his departure, on the 11th, 
he had remained on shore. The following im- 
portant testimony was borne by him as to the 
religious and moral state of the island, and to 
the character of the pastor : — 
"It is impossible to do justice to the spirit of 
order and decency that animates the whole com- 
munity, whose number amounts to 170, strictly 
brought up in the Protestant faith, according 
to the Established Church of England, by Mr. 
Nobbs, their pastor and surgeon, who has for 
twenty-four years zealously and successfully, by 
precept and example, raised them to a state of 
the highest moral conduct and feeling. 
" Of all the eventful periods which have 
chequered my life, none have surpassed in 
interest, and (I trust and hope) in future good, 
our visit to Pitcairn: and surely the hand of 
God has been in all this ; for by chances the 
most unexpected, and by favourable winds out 
of the usual course of the trades, we were carried 
in eleven days to Pitcaim's from Borobora. It 
is impossible to describe the charm that the 
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