210 LETTER OF THE ADMIRAL'S SECRETARY. 
society of the islanders throws around them, 
tinder the providence of God. The hour and 
the occasion served, and I have brought away 
their pastor and teacher, for the purpose of send- 
ing him to England to be ordained, and one of 
his daughters, who will be placed at the English 
clergyman's at Valparaiso, until her father's 
return. The islanders depend principally for 
their necessary supplies on the whaling-ships, 
which are generally American. Greatly to their 
credit, the men behave in the most exemplary 
manner, very differently from what I expected. 
One rough seaman, whom I spoke to in praise 
of such conduct, said, * Sir, I expect if one of 
our fellows was to misbehave himself here, we 
should not leave him alive."' They are guileless 
and unsophisticated beyond description. The 
time had arrived when preparation for partial 
removal was necessary, and especially for the 
ordination of their pastor, or the appointment of 
a clergyman of the Established Church." 
Extract of a letter from the Admiral's Secre- 
tary : — 
"At 6.30 A.M. of the 6th, as we were dancing 
along about eight knots an hour before a fresh 
breeze, we discovered a thin blue shadow, whose 
outline appeared to be too well defined to be a 
cloud; at 9 we were certain that we saw Pitcairn's 
Island. Having read so much about the mutiny 
of the Bounty \ and the subsequent romantic his- 
tory of the mutineers, which has resulted in the 
formation of a colony celebrated for their virtue. 
