n Prayer and the Bible,[41] he was enabled,
after the slaughter of all his associates, to rear up all the children
in the principles and precepts of Christianity, in purity of morals, and
in a simplicity of manners, that have surprised and delighted every
stranger that has visited the island.

Captain Waldegrave says they are so strongly attached to those beautiful
prayers that are found in the liturgy of the Church of England, that
there is no danger of a dissenting minister being received among them.
It is to be hoped this may be the case; but it may be asked, will they
escape from the snares of George Hunn Nobbs? It would seem, indeed, that
this man has already thrust upon them what he calls a code of laws, in
which he enumerates crimes, such as murder and adultery, unknown and
unheard of among these simple people since the time that Adams was sole
legislator and patriarch. The punishment of adultery, to give a specimen
of Nobbs's legislation, is whipping for the first offence to both
parties, and marriage within three months; for the second, if the
parties refuse to marry, the penalties are, forfeiture of lands,
property, and banishment from the island. Offenders are to be tried
before three elders, who pronounce sentence. It is quite clear this
silly person does not understand what is meant by adultery. As to the
tenure of land, it is fortunately provided for previous to his arrival
on the island. The whole island, it seems, was partitioned out by Adams
among the families of the original settlers, so that a foreigner cannot
obtain any, except by purchase or marriage. Captain Waldegrave reckons,
that eleven-twelfths are uncultivated, and that population is increasing
so rapidly, that in the course of a century the island will be fully
peopled, and that the limit may be taken at one thousand souls.

The rate at which population is likely to increase may, perhaps, be
determined by political economists from the following data.

In 1790 the island was first settled by fifteen men and twelve women,
making a total of twenty-seven. Of these were remaining in 1800, one man
and five women, with nineteen children, the eldest nine years of age,
making in the whole twenty-five. In 1808, Mr. Folger makes the
population amount to thirty-five, being an increase of ten in eight
years. In 1814, six years afterwards, Sir Thomas Staines states the
_adult_ population at forty, which must be a mistake, as fourteen years
before, ninete