tains, hogs, goats, and fowls, but affords no shelter for a ship or vessel of any description; neither could a ship water there without great difficulty.

"I cannot, however, refrain from offering my opinion that it is well worthy the attention of our laudable religious societies, particularly that for propagating the Christian religion, the whole of the inhabitants speaking the Otaheitan tongue as well as English.

During the whole of the time they have been on the island, only one ship has ever communicated with them, which took place about six years since, by an American ship called the Topaz, of Boston, May hew Folger master.

"The island is completely ironbound with rocky shores, and landing in boats at all times difficult, although safe to approach within a short distance in a ship.

(Signed) "T. STAINES." "We have been favoured with some further particulars of this singular society, which, we doubt not, will interest our readers as much as they have ourselves. As the real position of the island was ascertained to be so far distant from that in which it is usually laid down in the charts, and as the captains of the Briton and Tagus seem to have still considered it as uninhabited, they were not a little surprized, on approaching its shores, to behold plantations regularly laid out, and huts or houses more neatly constructed than those on the Marquesas Islands. When about two miles from the shore, some natives were observed bringing down their canoes on their shoulders, dashing through a heavy surf, and paddling off to the ships; but their astonishment was unbounded on hearing one of them, on approaching the ship, call out in the English language, Won't you heave us a rope, now? The first man who got on board the Briton soon proved who they were. His name, he said, was Thursday October CHRIST. OBSERV. APP.

Christian, the first born on the island. He was then about five and twenty years of age, and is described as a fine young man, about six feet high; his hair deep black; his countenance open and interesting; of a brownish cast, but free from that mixture of a reddish tint which prevails in the Pacific Islands: his only dress was a piece of cloth round his loins, and a straw hat ornamented with the black feathers of the domestic fowl. 'With a great share of good humour,' says Captain Pipon, we were glad to trace in his benevolent countenance all the features of an honest English face. I must confess,' he continues, I could not survey this interesting person without feelings of tenderness and compassion.' His companion was named George Young, a fine youth of seventeen or eighteen years of

age.

"If the astonishment of the captains was great on hearing their first salutation in English, their surprize and interest was not a little increased on Sir Thomas Staines taking the youths below, and setting before them something to eat, when one of them rose up, and placing his hands together in a posture of devotion, distinctly repeated, and in a pleasing tone and manner, For what we are going to receive, the Lord make us truly thankful.'

"They expressed great surprize on seeing a cow on board the Briton, and were in doubt whether she was a great goat, or a borned sow.

"The two captains of his majesty's ships accompanied these young men on shore. With some difficulty and a good wetting, and with the assistance of their conductors, they accomplished a landing through the surf; and were soon after met by John Adams, a man between fifty and sixty years of age, who conducted them to his house. His wife accompanied him -a very old lady, blind with age.

5 S

He was at first alarmed lest the visit was to apprehend him; but on being told that they were perfectly ignorant of his existence, he was relieved from his anxiety. Being once assured that this visit was of a peaceable nature, it is impossible to describe the joy these poor people manifested on seeing those whom they were pleased to consider as their countrymen. Yams, cocoa-nuts, and other fruits, with fine fresh eggs, were laid before them; and the old man would have killed and dressed a hog for his visitors, but time would not allow them to partake of his intended feast.

"This interesting new colony, it seemed, now consisted of about forty-six persons, mostly grown up young people, besides a number of infants. The young men, all born on the island, were very athletic, and of the finest forms, their countenances, open and pleasing, indicating much benevolence and goodness of heart: but the young women were objects of particular admiration, tall, robust, and beautifully formed, their faces beaming with smiles and unruffled good humour, but wearing a degree of modesty and bashfulness that would do honour to the most virtuous nation on earth; their teeth, like ivory, were regular and beautiful, without a single exception; and all of them, both male and female, had the most marked Engfish features. The clothing of the young females consisted of a piece of linen reaching from the waist to the knees, and generally a sort of mantle thrown loosely over the shoulders, and hanging as low as the ancles; but this covering appeared to be intended chiefly as a protection against the sun and the

the face from the rays of the sun; and though, as Captain Pipon observes, they have only had the instruction of their Otabeitan mothers, our dress-makers in London would be delighted with the simplicity, and yet elegant taste, of these untaught females. Their native modesty, assisted by a proper sense of religion and morality instilled into their youthful minds by John Adams, has hitherto preserved these interesting people perfectly chaste, and free from all kinds of debauchery. Adams assured the visitors, that since Christian's death, there had not been a single instance of any young woman proving unchaste; nor any attempt at seduction on the part of the men. They all labour while young in the cultivation of the ground; and when possessed of a sufficient quantity of cleared land, and of stock to maintain a family, they are allowed to marry, but always with the consent of Adams, who unites them by a sort of marriage-ceremony of his own.

"The greatest harmony prevailed in this little society; their only quarrels, and these rarely happened, being, according to their own expression, quarrels of the mouth. They are honest in their dealings, which consist of bartering different articles for mutual accommodation. Their habitations are extremely neat. The little village of Pitcairn forms a pretty square: the houses at the upper end of which are occupied by the Patriarch, John Adams, and his family, consisting of his old blind wife, and three daughters from fifteen to eighteen years of age, and a boy of eleven; a daughter his

aside and then the upper part of the body was entirely exposed; and it is not possible to conceive more beautiful forms than they exhibited. They sometimes wreathe caps or bonnets for the head in the most tasty manner, to protect

and a On the opposite side is the dwelling of Thursday October Christian; and in the centre is a smooth verdant lawn, on which the poultry are let loose, fenced in so as to prevent the intrusion of the domestic qua drupeds.

"All that was done was obviously undertaken on a settled plan, unlike to any thing to be met with on the other islands. In their houses, too, they had a good deal of decent furniture, consisting of beds, laid upon bedsteads, with neat covering. They had also tables, and large chests to contain their valuables and clothing, which is made from the bark of a certain tree, prepared chiefly by the elder Otaheitan females. Adams's house consisted of two rooms, and the windows had shutters to pull to at night. The younger part of the sex are, as before stated, employed with their brothers, under the direction of their common father, Adams, in the culture of the ground, which produced cocoa-nuts, bananas,the bread-fruit tree, yams, sweet potatoes, and turnips. They have also plenty of hogs and goats. The woods abound with a species of wild hog, and the coasts of the island with several kinds of good fish.

"Their agricultural implements are made by themselves from the iron supplied by the Bounty, which with great labour they beat out into spades, hatchets, crows, &c. This was not all. The good old man kept a regular journal, in which was entered the nature and quantity of work performed by each family, what each had received, and what was due on account. There was, it seems, besides private property, a sort of general stock, out of which articles were issued, on account, to the several members of the community; and for mutual accommodation, exchanges of one kind of provision for another were very frequent,as salt for fresh provisions, vegetables and fruit for poultry, fish, &c. Also when the stores of one family were low, or wholly expend ed, a fresh supply was raised from another, or out of the general stock, to be repaid when circumstances were more favourable ;

all of which was carefully noted down in John Adams's journal.

"But what was most gratifying of all to the visitors, was the simple and unaffected manner in which they returned thanks to the Almighty for the many blessings they enjoyed. They never failed to say grace before and after meals, to pray every morning at sun rise, and they frequently repeated the Lord's Prayer and the Creed.

It was truly pleasing, says Captain Pipon, to see these poor people so well disposed to listen so attentively to moral instruction, to believe in the attributes of God, and to place their reliance on Divine goodness. The day on which the two captains landed, was Saturday the 17th of September; but by John Adams's account it was Sunday the 18th, and they were keeping the Sabbath, by making it a day of rest and of prayer. This was occasioned by the Bounty having proceeded thither by the eastern route, and our frigates having gone to the westward; and the Topaz found them right according to his own reckoning, she hav ing also approached the island from the eastward. Every ship from Europe, proceeding to Pitcairn's Island round the Cape of Good Hope, will find them a day later-as those who approached them round Cape Horn a day in advance, as was the case with Captain Folger and the Captains Sir S. Staines and Pipon.

"The visit of, the Topaz is of course, as a notable circumstance, marked down in John Adams's journal, The first ship that appeared off the island was on the 27th December, 1795; but as she did not approach the land, they could not make out to what nation she belonged. A second appeared some time after, but did not attempt to communicate with them. A third came sufficiently near to see the natives and their habitations, but did not attempt to send

a boat on shore; which is the less surprising, considering the uniform ruggedness of the coast, the total want of shelter, and the almost constant and violent breaking of the sea against the cliffs. The good old man was anxious to know what was going on in the old world, and they had the means of gratify ing his curiosity by supplying him with some magazines and modern publications. His library consisted of the books that belonged to Admiral Bligh, but the visitors had not time to inspect them.

"They inquired particularlyafter Fletcher Christian. This ill-fated young man, it seems, was never happy after the rash and inconsiderate step which he had taken he became sullen and morose, and practised the very same kind of conduct towards his companions iu guilt which he and they so loudly complained against in their late commander. Disappointed in his expectations at Otaheite and the Friendly Islands, and most proba, bly dreading a discovery, this deIuded youth committed himself and his remaining confederates to the mere chance of being cast upon some desert island, and chance threw them on that, of. Pitcairn. Finding no anchorage near it, he ran the ship upon the rocks, cleared her of the live stock, and other articles which they had been supplied with at Otaheite; when he set her on fire, that no trace of inhabitants might be visible, and all hope of escape cut off from himself and his wretched followers. His Otaheitan wife died within a twelvemonth from their landing, after which he carried off one that befonged to an Otaheitan man, who watched for an opportunity of tak ing

his revenge, and shot him dead while digging in his own field. Thus terminated the miserable existence of this deluded young man, who was neither deficient in talent, nor energy, nor in connexions, and who might have risen in the service,

and become an ornament to his profession.

"John Adams declared, as it was natural enough he should do, his abhorrence of the crime in which he was implicated, and said that he was sick at the time in his hammock. This, we understand, is not true, though he was not particularly active in the mutiny. He expressed the utmost willingness to surrender himself and be taken to England: indeed, he rather seemed to have an inclination to re-visit his native country; but the young men and women flocked round him, and with tears and entreaties begged that their father and protector might not be taken from them, for without him they must all perish. It would have been an act of the greatest inhumanity to remove him from the island: and it is hardly necessary to add, that Sir Thomas Staines lent a willing ear to their entreaties; thinking, no doubt, as we feel strongly disposed to think, that if he were even among the most guilty, his care and success in instilling religious and moral principles into the minds of this young and interesting society have, in a great degree, redeemed his former crimes.

"This island is about six miles long by three broad, covered with wood, and the soil of course very rich: situated under the parallel of 25° S. latitude, and in the midst of such a wide expanse of ocean, the climate must be fine and admirably adapted for the reception of all the vegetable productions of every part of the habitable globe. Small, therefore, as Pitcairu's Island may appear, there can be little doubt that it is capable of supporting many inhabitants; and the present stock being of so good a description, we trust they will not be deglected. In the course of time, the Patriarch must go hence; and we think it would be exceedingly desirable that the British Nation should provide for such an event by sending out some zealous and intelligent

instructor, together with a few per sons capable of teaching the useful trades or professions. On Pitcairn Island there are better materials to work upon than missionaries have yet been so fortunate as to meet with, and the best results may reasonably be expected. Something we are bound to do for these blame less and interesting people. The articles recommended by Captain Pipon appear to be highly proper; cooking utensils, implements of agriculture, maize or the Indian corn, the orange tree from Valparaiso, a most grateful fruit in a warm climate, and not known in the Pacific Islands; and that root of plenty, not of poverty as a wretched scribbler has called it, the Potatoe; Bibles, prayer-books, and a proper selection of other books, with paper, and other implements of writing. The visitors supplied them with some tools, kettles, and other articles, such as the high surf would permit them to land, but to no great extent many things are still wanting for their ease and comfort. The descendants of these people, by keeping up the Otaheitan language, which the present race speak fluently, might be the means of civilizing the multitudes of fine people scattered over the innumerable islands of the great Pacific. We have only to add, that Pitcairn's Island seems to be so fortified by nature as to oppose an invincible barrier to an invading enemy: there is no spot apparently where a boat can land with safety, and, perhaps, not more than one where it can land at all: an everlasting swell of the ocean rolls in on every side, and breaks into foam against its rocky and iron-bound shores."

The above account, notwithstanding some slight discrepancies which occur in the statement, and some difficulties which remain unexplained, is, without doubt, substantially correct. We understand that government intends to send a ship to visit this interesting co

lony, with a view to supply it with the articles which are most suited to its wants. We trust that, with a judicious selections of books, one or two discreet instructors, of general knowledge, enlarged views, and conciliating manners, and above all of solid and fervent piety, will be sent at the same time, to whom the spiritual and intellectual concerns of the amiable inhabitants may be safely committed. The object is one worthy of the utmost solicitude. of the Church Missionary Society; and we shall rejoice to hear that it has taken under its special guardianship and protection this singular community, the members of which may be designed by Providence to be the evangelists of the Pacific Ocean.

HIBERNIAN SUNDAY-SCHOOL

SOCIETY.

IN our last volume, p. 845, we have given an account of the progress of this valuable institution down to the month of April 1814. The Report of the succeeding year is still more gratifying. Seventy-seven schools have been assisted for the first time with books or money, which makes, in the five years during which the Society has existed, a total of 252 schools, containing 28,598 scholars.

"Towards the conclusion of the last year, a circular letter was forwarded to the conductors of the several schools, requesting a report of their progress and return of their numbers. Your Committee anticipated much pleasure from the result of this application, and the event has surpassed their most sanguine expectations: the communications received, in answer to their letter, shewing the increasing stability and influence of some of the schools; the high patronage and active energy which established others; the important results produced by the exertions of individuals, possessing neither extensive influence nor large pecuniary resources; the interesting struggle, which in some cases has been main