THE PITCAIRNEKS' DAY. 143 
spite of the warning given by his friend, that he 
was unequal to the task. They, however, com- 
menced the perilous descent; but Mr. Belcher 
was obliged to confess his inability to proceed, 
whilst his companion, perfectly assured of his 
own footing, offered him his hand, and said he 
would conduct him to the bottom, if he would 
depend on him for safety. In the water they 
are almost as much at home as on land, and can 
remain nearly a whole day in the sea. They 
frequently swam round their little island. When 
the sea beat heavily on the island, they have 
plunged into the breakers and swum to sea 
beyond them. This they sometimes did, push- 
ing a barrel of water before them, when it could 
be got off in no other way; and in this manner 
we procured several tons of water without a 
single cask being stove." 
The Rev. Wm. Armstrong, late Chaplain at 
Valparaiso, and now residing in New Bruns- 
wick, in a letter to the author, from Valparaiso, 
dated October 1849, stated that an English 
man-of-war, the Pandora, had lately arrived 
direct from Pit cairn, and that the commander, 
Lieut. Wood, and the officers, had given the 
most pleasing account of the happy state in 
which their little community were living. They 
were described as a remarkably strong and 
healthy people. For instance, a young woman, 
eighteen years of age, had been accustomed to 
carry on her shoulders a hundred pounds weight 
of yams over hills and precipitous places, and 
for a considerable distance, where one unaccus- 
tomed to such exercise would scarcely be able 
