“Wives upon Pitcairn’s Island, it may be imagined, are very scarce, as the same restrictions with regard to relationship exist as in England.  George Adams, son of the Patriarch, in his early days, had fallen in love with Polly Young, a girl a little older than himself; but Polly, probably at that time liking some one else, and being at the age when young ladies’ expectations are at the highest, had incautiously said, she never would give her hand to George Adams.  He, nevertheless, indulged a hope that she would one day relent; and to this end was unremitting in his endeavours to please her.  In this expectation he was not mistaken; his constancy and attentions, and, as he grew into manhood, his handsome form, which George took every opportunity of throwing into the most becoming attitudes before her, softened Polly’s heart into a regard for him, and, had nothing passed before, she would willingly have given him her hand; but the vow of her youth was not to be got over, and the love-sick couple languished on from day to day, victims to the folly of early resolutions.

“The weighty case was referred for our consideration; and the fears of the party were in some measure relieved by the result, which was, that it would be much better to marry than to continue unhappy, in consequence of a hasty determination made before the judgment was matured.  They could not, however, be prevailed on to yield to our decision, and we left them unmarried.”

It gives us particular pleasure to have it in our power to relieve the anxiety of our sentimental friends, who cannot bear that a romance should end unhappily, by quoting the following passage from a letter addressed from Pitcairn’s Island to Captain Beechey, and dated the 19th March, 1830:—­“George Adams is married to Polly Young, and has two sons.”

The same communication, we are grieved to add, contains also this sentence:—­“I am sorry to inform you that John Adams is no more; he departed this life March 5th, 1829, aged 65, after a short illness.  His wife survived him but a few months.”—­His memory will not be so short-lived.  Of all the repentant criminals we have read about, we think the most interesting is John Adams; nor do we know where to find a more beautiful example of the value of early good instruction than in the history of this man—­who, having run the full career of most kinds of vice, was so effectually pulled up by an interval of leisurely reflection, and the sense of new duties awakened by the heaven-inspired power of natural affections.

This letter is from Mr. John Buffet, who still continues to officiate as clergyman of the colony.  He describes the natives ’as being all satisfied at present with their little island, which they do not wish to leave;’ which remark he thinks it right to make in consequence of his having received a letter from Mr. Nott, missionary, saying that a ship was coming to remove the inhabitants of Pitcairn’s Island