KEMOVAL OF MR. HILL. 165 
to last long. He had given out, says Mr. Brodie, 
" that he was a very near relative of the Duke 
of Bedford, and that the Duchess seldom rode 
out in her carriage without him."* But whilst 
the people listened to his magnificent accounts 
of himself, and his noble friends, who should 
arrive on their shores, in H.M. S. Actteon, in 
1837, but Captain Lord Edward Russell, a son 
of the Duke of Bedford ! 
A spectre could not have been a more appal- 
ling visitant to the so-called relative, who would 
have been forthwith taken from the place by 
Lord Edward Russell; but this could not have 
been done without orders. Soon afterwards, 
Captain H. W. Bruce (since Admiral Bruce, 
Commander-in-chief on the coast of Africa) 
arrived in H.M. S. Imogene, and carried off Mr. 
Hill, landing him in 1838 safe at Valparaiso. 
Mr. Nobbs, during his absence from Pitcairn, 
was at the Gambier Islands, where he employed 
himself as a teacher, biding his time in patience, 
and employing, in his own homely and useful 
manner, the talent entrusted to him for the good 
of others. 
Gambier 's group, about three hundred miles 
W.N.W. of Pitcairn, consists of eight islands, 
surrounded by coral reefs, inclosing a lagoon in 
which there are several secure anchoring places, 
but which contains dangerous knolls of coral. 
Captain Beechey gives a pleasing account of his 
visit to these islands in January 1826, and of 
his interviews with the natives. His vessel rode 
afely in the lagoon, where the crew caught a 
* Brodie, p. 211, ed. 1831. 
