286 SERMON PREACHED ON THE ISLAND. 
delivered the same discourse in the parish church 
of St. Dunstan in the East, City, and added the 
following passages : 
" And now, my brethren, will you bear with 
me for a few moments, whilst I refer to circum- 
stances which have come in a great measure 
under my own immediate notice, in the com- 
munity over which I have for nearly twenty- 
five years been the unworthy pastor ? 
" Many y ear s^ ago, an officer and some seamen 
belonging to the British navy, after committing 
an unjustifiable act that of mutiny fled for 
safety to Pitcairn, an isolated rock in the South 
Pacific Ocean, taking with them some Otaheitan 
men and women. Within ten years, all the 
men, with the exception of two, came to an un- 
timely end; one of these two died of con- 
sumption ; and the last of this party of mutineers 
was left on the island with five or six heathen 
women, and twenty fatherless children. After 
some time, this man, John Adams by name, 
became seriously impressed with the responsi- 
bility of the situation in which he was placed. 
Here were a number of young persons, between 
the ages of five and fifteen years, growing up in 
ignorance of the God who made them. And 
they would, humanly speaking, in a few years 
have become confirmed idolaters, from the ex- 
ample of their heathen mothers. 
" These considerations weighed heavily on 
Adams's mind ; and it was then that he had 
two alarming dreams, which so affected him, 
that he could scarcely eat or sleep for some time ; 
