170 MR. NOBBS'S RETURN FROM GAMBIER. 
aloft till you are close over them. Our chrono- 
meter also agreed with the position as laid down 
by him. Should this ever become a halting 
place on the Pacific, it would require a fresh 
survey with lights and buoys. .The weather 
was very unfavourable during our stay, and our 
time was taken up with sounding for our passage 
out. It is upwards of four years since this was 
visited by a French man-of-war. I left here on 
the 19th November, and pursued our course 
to the southward with light winds and fair 
weather, and arrived at Valparaiso at noon on 
15th of December." 
After this digression, the reader will be glad 
to return to the history of Mr. Nobbs. In about 
nine months after he had been at the Gambier 
Islands, the people of Pitcairn recalled him, 
with the other Europeans; the request for their 
return being accompanied by an offer of pay- 
ment of all their expenses ; and they returned 
accordingly, without further delay. 
Mr. Nobbs's active life in the Chilian service 
has been briefly noticed. On the 9th of Novem- 
ber, 1839, when engaged in the quiet and seden- 
tary, but scarcely less laborious, duty of a pastor 
and teacher at Pitcairn, with his youthful pupils 
around him, he had the satisfaction of receiving, 
as a visitor to the island, General Friere, ex-pre- 
sident of Chili, who had known him eighteen 
years before. What a contrast to those former 
scenes is afforded by the picture presented by 
the plain and simple words, found in the Island 
Register, respecting this visit ! * 
* See p. 253. 
