Revised Jun 22 2021
Before the engagement of Mr. Nobbs's services as an instructor, Mr. John Buffett, who had arrived at the island in the year 1823, afforded his assistance as teacher and pastor in the school and chapel. The life of Buffett has been one of remarkable adventure. He was born in a village near Bristol, in 1797, and was apprenticed, at an early age, to a cabinet-maker. But having a desire for a sailor's life, he left his business, and went to sea in the brig Wanderer, of Bristol, engaged in the Newfoundland trade. He quitted the Wanderer at the end of six or eight months, and entered the American merchant service, in which he remained between four and five years. In 1815, when a youth on board the Penelope, bound from England for Quebec, he was wrecked in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the ship having struck on a bed of rocks. Most of the people perished; but he escaped with a few others in the pinnace safe to land, where, as the ground was covered with snow, and there were no inhabitants, he suffered severe privations. In a few days some Canadian fishermen, who sailed near, descried the shipwrecked mariners, and rescued them from their perilous situation. Some years afterwards, in a voyage from Jamaica to St. John's, New Brunswick, in the brig Weasel, Buffett was shipwrecked on Situate Bay, near Boston, and was again saved from the fate which seemed ready to overtake him. In 1821, he sailed as mate from London in an American ship bound for Canton. From Canton he went to Manilla, and, after experiencing many trials and hardships by sea, proceeded to California, where he remained for some months. He then joined the whale-ship Cyrus, of London, John Hall, master, and having procured 1,700 barrels of sperm oil, touched, in the passage homeward, at Pitcairn's Island, for refreshment.
"The inhabitants," says Buffett, "being in want of some person to teach them to read and write, the captain asked me if I should like to remain there. 1 told him I should, and was discharged and went ashore. When our boat landed, the natives appeared very glad to see us. We ascended the hill, and were conducted to the village, where we saw John Adams. He was a man about five feet six inches high, stout made, and very corpulent."
Little did John Buffett, in his various wanderings, imagine that he should one day be well settled as an inhabitant of Norfolk Island.