Revised Jun 21 2021
It was partly in consequence of the failure of the scheme of emigration of 1831, and partly from the fear of interrupting the happy state in which the people had so long lived on their beloved island, that their friends in this country felt serious misgivings on hearing of the probable necessity of the removal of the community from Pitcairn, on the score of necessity. Captain Fanshawe, who visited the islanders in 1849, had written as follows: "I could not trace in any of them the slightest desire to remove elsewhere. On the contrary, they expressed the greatest repugnance to do so, whilst a sweet potato remained to them; a repugnance much enhanced by their emigration to Otaheite about eighteen years ago." George Adams, the son of the original John Adams, had declared subsequently that he should prefer remaining, that he might, when his time should come, die on his native island, and be buried in the grave of his father. Mr. Nobbs had said, in the hearing of the author, in November, 1852, that as long as two families should remain at Pitcairn, he would remain also.
Until recently, however, the people had not been encouraged by the hope, that in the event of their crops failing, or their population increasing, they might probably be transferred to some more roomy spot, blest with a genial climate and a fertile soil.
It will be seen, in the progress of this work, that a scarcity of provisions, followed by general illness at Pitcairn' s Island, in the year 1853, had caused a strong feeling of the necessity for a change of residence, and that this feeling had ripened into an actual proposition from the community for a removal to Norfolk Island. It was a part of their plan, should this petition be granted, that they might be allowed to live on Norfolk Island in the same seclusion from the rest of the world as they had hitherto done at Pitcairn.*
∗ See Nautical Magazine, vol. xxv. p. 208, April, 1856.
But it is due to the reader to refrain from anticipating the subject of this eventful history.
It was suggested in former editions of this work that, if found needful, a certain amount of emigration might take place, formed on the principle of serving the interests of others, as well as of the islanders themselves, by means of Christian instruction and example; the good leaven, thus infused into other communities, being likely, with God's blessing, to produce the happiest effects upon them. It was observed, that such means of Christian usefulness would, doubtless, be within the reach of the people, whatever their abode might be; and that they might thus, at no distant period, be the favoured instruments of spreading Christianity and civilisation through- out the numerous groups of islands in the Southern Pacific Ocean.