228 ARRIVAL AT PITCAIRN. 
Just before we went to morning service we fired 
three guns, to let them know we had three 
passengers on / board. After church we were 
close enough to see people on the island ; and 
we observed them all come out of church, and 
launch their whale-boat. Of course, this was 
a most anxious tim^ for Mr. Nobbs. In about 
half-an-hour they came alongside, followed by a 
canoe, in which were old John Adams's son and 
grandson. They manifested the same honest 
genuine feeling of delight at Mr. Nobbs's return, 
as they did of sorrow at his departure. Of course, 
they were delighted to see us also once more. 
We observed that all the men looked ill and 
poor ; which, they told us, was the effect of the 
long drought having disappointed them in their 
crops. This had caused not quite a famine, but 
so near it, that for months they had been 
reduced to pumpkins, berries, cocoa-nuts, and 
beans, for their existence. When we got on 
shore, the effect of so low a diet was plainly 
visible ; they were not nearly the same gay 
people that they were before ; one and all looked 
thin and careworn. The Admiral, with Mr. 
Nobbs, Reuben, Jane, and myself, immediately 
landed in the cutter, and got rather wet in the 
surf. Every soul was on the beach to receive 
us ; and it would be a task my pen is totally 
unequal to, were I to attempt describing their 
delight at again receiving amongst them their 
old and beloved pastor. We at once proceeded 
in a body to the village ; and they then told us 
how dreadfully close they were, and how they 
had been pushed for food. The officers and 
