CAPABILITIES OF NORFOLK ISLAND. 411 
" As respects other matters we are going on 
very well. There have been fifty births since 
our arrival ; and it would appear that baptisms 
and churchings will be of weekly occurrence ere 
long. But Norfolk Island contains 8,607 acres, 
which will give a fifty acre lot to 172 families 
(there are now forty) ; so that there is plenty of 
room for increase ; though I am not at all anxious 
there should be any influx of strangers beyond 
those we have at present, save a parson and a 
doctor, when I am invalided or buried, as it may 
be providentially ordered by Him who doeth all 
things well. There have been no marriages this 
year, and but two deaths infants of a few days 
old. In short, since our arrival, now more than 
three years, the deaths which have occurred are 
those of a young woman, aged fifteen, from con- 
sumption ; a child of five years, from concus- 
sion of the brain, the result of an accident ; and 
four infants : total, six. Asthma and rheu- 
matism are the principal complaints, and they 
are less severe than at Pitcairn's. The last year 
and the present have been very productive, from 
the frequency of showers during the summer 
months ; but I perceive from a meteorological 
journal, kept here formerly, these are exceptional 
occurrences, and that long-continued droughts 
between October and February are frequently 
fatal to the corn and sweet potato crops. But 
Moses' injunction and promise are equally in 
force now, as in ancient days, ' Ye shall serve 
the Lord your God, and He shall bless thy bread 
and thy water.' 
" The number of persons belonging to the 
