Closely following the first boat came another, but, meeting with some accident at the landing place, the boats soon returned to their ship, and she sailed away, much to the relief and satisfaction of the two families who had come to stay, and who were not a little dismayed at the thought of the stranger being so near to them. The two families and their belongings were soon safely landed. An inspection of the deserted village showed unmistakable proofs that the island had been inhabited by someone for a short time, at least, subsequent to the removal of the former inhabitants. A keg of salt, some old crockery gathered from the deserted houses, and sundry other household articles had been brought together, evidently for the use of someone in need. Some of the houses had been destroyed by fire, while others had been broken down. These were all so many evidences that the island had been lately occupied. The matter, however, was soon cleared up. A slate was picked up in the schoolroom whereon was written with some iron instrument the names of some men who had found an asylum on the island, after having lost their ship on Oeno, a low-lying coral island, surrounded by reefs, some eighty miles northwest of Pitcairn Island. Further particulars were afterwards obtained, first, from an American sailor who was left on the island by the captain of the whale ship _Hiawatha_, and later from a copy of the _Friend_, sent to the island by the people’s faithful friend, the Rev. Samuel C. Damon, of Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands. In the _Friend_ was the account of the loss of the _Wildwave_ on Oeno Island. The ship was under command of Captain J. N. Knowles, who, in the early part of 1858, was on a voyage from San Francisco to one of the Eastern States, and who, having lost his ship, came with such of the crew as were willing to Pitcairn Island, where they stayed until a boat had been constructed of such materials as the island afforded, to convey them to Tahiti, whence a passage home could be found. About twenty-three years afterwards one of the lads who had returned with the first party, now grown into a middle-aged man, was in San Francisco. While there he called at the office of Captain Knowles, and heard from that gentleman’s own lips the following interesting account of their enforced detention on Pitcairn Island:—