The proprietor of a small
vessel of but eighteen tons' burthen, hearing me express my anxiety
to obtain a passage to Pitcairn's Island, remarked, it was a spot he
had long desired to visit, and if I would assist him in fitting out
his vessel, he would go with me. I accepted his proposal advanced
him what money I could command, and embarked from Callao de Lima,
with no other person than the owner of the little cutter; and in six
weeks arrived here (Pitcairn's Island) in safety.
"'Five months after my arrival, John Adams departed this life. After
his decease, the superintendence of the spiritual affairs of the
island, and the education of the children, devolved on me chiefly;
and from that time to the present (with the exception of ten months,
during which period I was banished from the island by brute force,
and recalled by letters of penitential apology), I have been with
them, and have lived to see the labor of my hands prosper; for there
is not a person on the island, between the ages of six years and
twenty-five, who has not received, or is not receiving, a tolerable
education.
"'There is one untoward but prominent object on the horizon of
paternal affection, and which, though imperceptibly, yet rapidly
approaches our increasing colony, and that is the imperious
necessity of a separation; for so very limited are the available
portions of the island, that some families who number ten or twelve
persons, have not five acres of arable land to divide among them.
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