JOHN BUFFETT. 201 
Arithmetic, with a Key to the same ? We often 
hear our teacher say, if he had these helps, the 
work would be much easier.* 1 
Before the engagement of Mr. Nobbs's ser- 
vices as an instructor, Mr. John Buffett, who 
had arrived at the island in the year 1823, 
afforded his assistance as teacher and pastor in 
the school and chapel. The life of Buffett has 
been one of remarkable adventure. He was 
born in a village near Bristol, in 1797, and was 
apprenticed, at an early age, to a cabinet-maker, 
But having a desire for a sailor's life, he left 
his business, and went to sea in the brig Wan- 
derer, of Bristol, engaged in the Newfoundland 
trade. He quitted the Wanderer at the end ot 
six or eight months, and entered the American 
merchant service, in which he remained between 
four and five years. In 1815, when a youth on 
board the Penelope, bound from England for 
Quebec, he was wrecked in the Gulf of St. 
Lawrence, the ship having struck on a bed of 
rocks. Most of the people perished; but he 
escaped with a few others in the pinnace safe 
to land, where, as the ground was covered 
with snow, and there were no inhabitants, he 
suffered severe privations. In a few days some 
Canadian fishermen, who sailed near, descried 
the shipwrecked mariners, and rescued them 
from their perilous situation. Some years after- 
wards, in a voyage from Jamaica to St. John's, 
New Brunswick, in the brig Weasel, Buffett was 
shipwrecked on Situate Bay, near Boston, and 
was again saved from the fate which seemed 
ready to overtake him. In 1821, he sailed as 
