LETTERS FROM THE REV. tf. H. NOBBS. 309 
but the sad tidings of his death rendered all my 
intentions useless. However, busying myself 
about these things kept me in a great measure 
from the painful impressions induced by sus- 
pense, and fretting myself about the safety of 
my dear wife. But a chapter from the Bible, 
and a few words of prayer, I found to be the 
panacea. At length the women returned:; ancl 
my wife and eldest daughter (who, though I did 
not know it, had gone) with them ; and I was 
truly thankful. . . . 
" A messenger now came from Bounty Bay, 
summoning me thither; as the sister and brother 
of the deceased were both attacked with spas- 
modic fits. Taking some remedies, I started, 
but met them on their way home. Poor Lydia 
M'Coy came home in the whale-boat with the 
corpse. On examining the injuries, I found the 
spine broken at the bend of the shoulders, and 
the occiput badly fractured; but there were no 
other bones broken that I could ascertain. 
" Such, and so sudden, was the death of Daniel 
M'Coy ; a young man beloved by all the com- 
munity, and most deservedly so. He is the 
third of the family who has met an untimely 
end within a very few years. William M'Coy 
died from lock-jaw, occasioned by a splinter of 
wood running into the upper part of his foot ; 
Matthew M'Coy, from wounds received by the 
accidental explosion of the Bounty's gun ; and 
now the third brother, Daniel, by falling from 
a precipice on the north-western side of the 
island. May the God of the widow support 
poor Lydia under the awful calamity! She has 
