NAUSCOPIE. 



THE ART OP DISCOVERING THE APPROACH OF VESSELS WHEN ONE 

 HUNDRED LEAGUES AND UPWARDS DISTANT. 



Letter from Marat to Mr. Daly.* 







You know, my dear friend, that much of my time has lately been 

 taken up in preparing my work upon Light, Fire, &c. for the press : 

 it is, however, nearly completed ; you may, therefore, expect to hear 

 very regularly from me in future. Mr. Bottineau, whom I mentioned 

 to you in my last letter, has experienced here every kind of disap- 

 pointment. If he be able to raise sufficient money, he purposes 

 visiting London very shortly, where he is likely to meet with more 

 success ; for you gentlemen of the British isles will, I am convinced, 

 patronize the discovery which my friend has made. I, who have 

 made a study of optics, meteors, &c. am, I must confess, somewhat 

 sceptical respecting the science which he terms Nauscopie, or the art 

 of discovering vessels and lands at a considerable distance j but the 

 concurring testimony of hundreds of persons, the certificates he has 

 obtained from officers of high rank, all tend to shew that there must 

 be truth in his statement ; and although he may have been neglected 

 in France, I hope, for the honour of science, that a fair trial will be 

 given him in your country, and that he will not be treated as a 

 visionary. Certain it is, that if his art should prove to be true, in- 

 calculable advantages will be derived from it. I have seen an officer 

 who resided during six years in the Isle of France, and he assures 

 me that the whole population will corroborate the averments made by 

 Mr. Bottineau: but let the latter gentleman speak for himself; the 



* The contents of this letter and the accompanying certificates are so extra- 

 ordinary and startling, that we deem it expedient to reprint the substance of a 

 note prefixed to the translation of another letter from Marat to Daly, published 

 in the May number of this Magazine for the past year, by the gentleman in 

 possession of copies taken by himself from the original autographs. He was a 

 detenu, and in the year 1806 resided on his parole at Brussels. It being at that 

 period a fashion among French ladies to collect autographs, Madame Guille- 

 minot, sister-in-law to the general of that name, applied to a sister of Napoleon, 

 with whom she was intimate, for a few signatures of celebrated men. The 

 princess mentioned the request to Cambaceres, Chancellor of the Empire, by 

 whose direction an immense package of letters from the state paper office was 

 forwarded to Madame Guilleminot. From these the gentleman before men- 

 tioned was employed to make a selection, receiving at the same time permission 

 to copy, for his own use, such as he might think fit. He transcribed several 

 hundreds, and among them those which are translated in the present number 

 on the subject of Nauscopie. The presence of such documents in the state 

 paper office is partially, perhaps, to be attributed to the recklessness of the 

 Bureau Noir of the police, but chiefly to the frequent seizures of the papers of 

 individuals during the Revolution. Many of the letters forwarded to Madame 

 de Guilleminot had not passed through 'the post-office; they were original 

 draughts, defaced by erasures and interlineations. Our ensuing numbers will 

 be enriched with a selection from among the most interesting of the mass. 



M. M. No. 88. 2 U 



