at the back of my neck for carbuncle two years since;" and goes on to
tell of the flourishing condition of his flock.

In regard to the other personages who have figured in our little tale,
very few, perhaps none, now survive. So late as the year 1872 we read
in a pamphlet of the "Melanesian Mission," that George Adams and his
sister, Rachel Evans, (both over seventy years of age), were present at
an evening service in Norfolk Island, and that Arthur Quintal was still
alive, though quite imbecile. But dear Otaheitan Sally and her loving
Charlie and all the rest had long before joined the Church above.

There was, however, a home-sick party of the Pitcairners who could by no
means reconcile themselves to the new home. These left it not very long
after landing in 1856, and returned to their beloved Pitcairn.
Multiplying by degrees, as the first settlers had done, they gradually
became an organised community; and now, while we write, the palm-groves
of Pitcairn resound with the shouts of children's merriment and with the
hymn of praise as in days of yore. A.J.R. McCoy is chief magistrate,
and a Simon Young acts as minister, doctor, and schoolmaster, while his
daughter, Rosalind Amelia, assists in the school.

In a report from the chief magistrate, we learn that, although still out
of the beaten track of commerce, the Pitcairners are more frequently
visited by whalers than they used to be. Their simplicity of life,
manners, and piety appears to be unchanged. He says, among other
things:--

"No work is done on the Sabbath-day. We have a Bible-class every
Wednesday, and a prayer-meeting the first Friday of each month. Every
family has morning and evening prayers without intermission. We have a
public or church library, at which all may read. Clothing we generally
get from whalers who call in for refreshments. No alcoholic liquors of
any kind are used on the island, except for medical purposes. A
drunkard is unknown here."

So the good seed sown under such peculiar circumstances at the beginning
of the century continues to grow and spread and flourish, bringing forth
fruit to the glory of God. Thus He causes light to spring out of
darkness, good to arise out of evil; and the Lonely Island, once an
almost unknown rock in the Pacific Ocean, was made a centre of blessed
Christian influence soon after the time when it became--the refuge of
the mutineers.

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Lonel