ORIGINALLY CONSTRUCTED OF THE TIMBERS
FROM THE WRECK OF A SPANISH SHIP, A.D.
1685; WAS REBUILT IN 1720, AND BURNED BY
THE ISLANDERS IN 1790. THIS BUILDING OF
STONE WAS ERECTED A.D. 1800.


Through the kindness of a gentleman who had brought the key to gain
entrance into the interior, they all went in through the little side
door to see a comparatively small room, with about twenty-five pews, and
a quaint desk with a large chair each side of it. Mrs. Tracy said that
when this church was built, in 1800, that island had only fifteen
families and ninety-two persons, while Smutty Nose had three families
and twenty persons, and Appledore had not an inhabitant upon it. Reuben
said that there was a time, more than a hundred years before the
Revolutionary War, when the town of Gosport, which included all the
islands, contained from three hundred to six hundred inhabitants. Miss
De Severn wished that they had time to read some old preserved records
of that place, which were now to be seen at the hotel.

As they came out of the church, Reuben spied the weather-vane, in the
form of a fish, which crowned the little wooden tower, in which was the
bell, still used, although rather dismal in sound.

As they wandered on, Mrs. Tracy noticed that the march of improvement
had torn down most of the old fishing-houses, as well as the little old
school-house, which she knew had once been there. They soon came upon
the old burial-ground among the rocks, where they found inscribed on two
horizontal slabs the only two inscriptions which were there. On one they
saw this tribute:--