162 HIS ARRIVAL AT PITCAIRN. 
usefulness to his fellow-creatures. With his 
mind steadfastly set on Pitcairn's Island, he 
was detained until August, 1827, in Calcutta ; 
from whence, after a very narrow escape from 
shipwreck in the Straits of Sunda, he crossed 
the Pacific in a New York ship, called the 
Ocean, to Valparaiso. There, and afterwards 
at Callao, he suffered a further detention; but 
ultimately he succeeded in leaving Callao in 
a frail bark of eighteen tons burden, having 
expended one hundred and fifty pounds sterling, 
on the vessel and her outfit. He was accom- 
panied by only one other person, an American, 
named Noah Bunker, and arrived at Pitcairn, 
after a six weeks' voyage, in October 1828. 
His companion died soon afterwards ; and the 
vessel afforded the materials for a house for Mr. 
Nobbs. John Adams received him with kind- 
ness; and after Adams's death in March 1829, 
Mr. Nobbs, who had been engaged in keeping 
school from the period of his arrival, was ap- 
pointed the teacher. 
When he first entered upon his charge, the 
number of inhabitants was only sixty-eight. 
From that time until August, 1852, he had 
been with them, through evil report and good 
report, as their pastor, surgeon, and school- 
master, with the exception of a few months 
during which he was absent from the island, in 
consequence of the intrusion of a Mr. Joshua 
Hill, who arrived from Otaheite in 1832. This 
person, who was then about sixty years of age, 
informed the inhabitants that he had been 
authorized by the British Government to reside 
