A pleasing incident is here recorded, illustrating the old Bible truth, “Cast thy bread upon the waters; for thou shalt find it after many days.” During the sojourn of the Pitcairners at Tahiti, in the time of their deep sorrow and grief, when one and another of their number sickened and died, the second mate of an American whaleship, whose name was Coffin, learned of the dire distress that they suffered. Pitying their forlorn condition as strangers in a strange land, and obeying the impulse of a kind heart, he generously spent five dollars in procuring such food for those who were sick as he thought they would relish. Nor were the needs of the others forgotten. This act of disinterested Christian kindness was warmly remembered by all the people, and when, after nineteen years, the kind-hearted man came to Pitcairn as master of a ship, the people made him a present of ten barrels of yams, the cost of which was twenty dollars. This substantial proof of the recollection of his goodness toward them affected the captain to tears, and it was with difficulty that he could be prevailed upon to accept the gift, pleading that his former kindness might be allowed to pass unrewarded. But the people earnestly insisted upon his accepting what they considered but a small return for the unforgotten deed of kindness shown them in their extremity. [Illustration] [Illustration] CHAPTER VII. MR. JOSHUA HILL A NEW chapter now opens in the history of this island. About the year 1832-33 it was favored with a new arrival, in the person of Joshua Hill. He was a man of excellent education, but stern in his nature, and a tyrannically strict disciplinarian. He reached the island by way of Tahiti, to which place he had come from Honolulu. In England he had heard the curious story of the little island in mid-ocean, and how it was peopled, and he left home for the purpose of coming amongst the islanders as their pastor and teacher, considering his age no obstacle, although he was about seventy years old. But he was forestalled by Nobbs. It is only fair to acknowledge that at the time of his coming the condition of affairs on the island did not witness favorably to the management of those who were the acknowledged leaders. Like the Israelites in the times of the judges, “every man did what was right in his own eyes,” for, since the patriarchal rule of John Adams, no one had supplied, as he did, the place he held so long in the confidence, as well as the affection, of the people.