A little more than six years after this, there came a visitant of a rare and heart-gladdening kind, namely, a parcel of books. Although the Government of England was too busy to think of the far-off isle, there were Englishmen who did not forget her. The Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, happening, in 1819, to hear of an opportunity of communicating with Pitcairn, made up and despatched to it a parcel of books, containing, besides Bibles and Prayer-books, “works of instruction fitted for all ages.” Who can imagine the delight produced by this gift to minds which had been well educated and were thirsting for more knowledge? It must have been as food to the starving; as water to the dry ground.
Four years after that, a whale-ship from London, named the Cyrus, touched in passing.
As this visit was a noteworthy epoch in the lonely island, we shall devote a new chapter to it.
Chapter Thirty Three.
New Arrivals and Strange Adventures.
“My dear,” said Adams one morning to his spouse, as he was about to go forth to superintend the working of his busy hive, “I’m beginnin’ to feel as if I was gettin’ old, and would soon have to lay up like an old hulk.”
“You’ve done good service for the Master, John; perhaps He thinks you should rest now,” answered his wife. “You’ve got plenty able helpers to take the heavy work off your hands.”
“True, old woman, able, willin’, and good helpers, thank God, but they want a headpiece still. However, there’s a deal of life in the old dog yet. If that dear angel, Otaheitan Sally, were only a man, now, I could resign the command of the ship without a thought. But I’ve committed the matter to the Lord. He will provide in His own good time. Good-day, old girl. If any one wants me, you know where to send ’em.”