TO RETURN to John Adams and his small community. Five or six years had passed since the visits of the _Briton_ and the _Tagus_, and during that time the fact of the island being inhabited, and by whom, had become more widely known. About the year 1819 the East India Company’s ship _Hercules_, Captain Henderson, made a call at the island and left some useful and much-needed gifts for the islanders, consisting of carpenters’ tools, large iron boilers, etc., etc., the last mentioned being used chiefly for the purpose of boiling down salt water to obtain salt. In the month of October, 1823, an English whaleship, the _Cyrus_, Captain Hall, visited Pitcairn Island. John Adams, being now somewhat advanced in years, and beginning already to feel the infirmities of age, expressed to Captain Hall the wish that he could find among the ship’s crew someone to assist him in the arduous task of trying to impart instruction to his young people. The captain listened kindly, and promised to do what he could. Calling his men around him, he made known to them the wishes of the old man, and asked if any of them would be willing to accede to his request. After a few minutes’ hesitation, John Buffett, a young man twenty-six years of age, stepped forward and volunteered his services. Being bound by no home ties, he counted it no great sacrifice to remain. Buffett had in early youth been apprenticed to a cabinet maker in Bristol, his native place. Of a roving disposition, a sea life especially possessing a peculiar fascination for him, he left his early trade to serve on board His Majesty’s ship _Penelope_, and again on the _Impregnable_. He was shipwrecked in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and afterwards cast away on the coast of California, where he was received and cared for in the kindest manner by an old Spanish _comandante_ in the place. The latter made every effort to persuade Buffett to make his home in California, but he decided not to do so, and from thence he made his way to Honolulu, in the Sandwich Islands, where he joined the _Cyrus_. At last, after his many adventures, he arrived at Pitcairn Island, where, accepting his captain’s proposal, he resolved to end his days among the people with whom his lot was now cast. Among his shipmates on board the _Cyrus_ was a youth about nineteen years of age, named John Evans, a native of London. For love of Buffett, he determined to remain on the island, and for this purpose he ran away from the ship. Being of very small build, he contrived to hide himself in the hollow stump of a tree until the vessel had sailed, and it was safe for him to make his appearance. As there was no help for it, Evans also was allowed to become a member of the community.