166 GAMBIER ISLANDS. 
large quantity offish. The people came out on 
rafts to the vessel, and were delighted with the 
presents which they received. One of them 
snatched up a small terrier dog, which was not 
intended for him ; and it was only by force that 
he was prevented carrying it away. Others 
wanted to possess themselves, without a title, of 
a large Newfoundland dog ; " but," says Captain 
Beechey, " he was big and surly enough to take 
care of himself." 
Of these islands, which afforded a safe asylum 
to the pastor, during his exclusion from Pit- 
cairn, the recent accounts, furnished by Captain 
Morshead, of H.M.S. Dido, are too valuable 
to be lost. That officer, who been instructed 
by Admiral Moresby, after leaving Pit cairn, 
to visit the Gambier Islands, with the view of 
ascertaining the capabilities of the group, as a 
place of call for the trans-Pacific steamers, sup- 
plied the following report : 
"On the morning of the 10th November, 1853, 
I stood close along the N.E. side of Crescent 
Isle, with Mount Duff in sight, and having got 
the S.W. end of Wainwright Island, on with 
the mountain, we carried six fathoms over the 
barrier reef; and passing to the eastward of 
Wainwright Island, anchored on the same after- 
noon in eighteen fathoms (sand) under Eelson 
Island, which, according to Captain Beechey, 
and the Pacific Directory, is good anchorage, and 
best water. I landed immediately to see the 
watering-place ; but it was with much difficulty 
that we succeeded in getting the gig over the 
reef, and found only a very small stream of 
