lxiy Notes. 
NOTE C. p. ix. 
Tue following extract of a letter addressed to me, June 4th, 1838, by Mr. 
George W. Blunt, of New York (a son of the original publisher of Dr. 
Bowditch’s Navigator), of whom I had made some inquiries respecting the 
history of the work, will be interesting to the American reader. 
“The first edition of the American Practical Navigator was printed but 
not published in 1801. As soon as Mr. Blunt had printed the corrections 
and additions of Dr. Bowditch he disckarged all his hands, took the work, 
as far as printed, and a copy of Hamillon Moore, with all the errors marked, 
amounting to several thousand, and went to England. On his arrival there, 
he called on the publishers of Hamilton Moore, John and James Hardy, and 
Steele ; was introduced, and, after some conversation, one of the Messrs. 
Hardy observed, —‘ You have done us up in America with one of our best 
books.’ On being asked what he meant, he replied, Hamillon Moore. Mr. 
Blunt then said, that was his business in England ; showed them the copy 
of Moore, with the errors in it, and finally sold the printed copy of Bowditch 
on condition, that the American edition should not be sold until June 1802, 
to give them an opportunity to get theirs into the English market at the 
same time.” 
The London edition was announced (on its title-page) as “ originally 
written and calculated by Nathaniel Bowditch, Fellow of the American Acad- 
emy of Arts and Sciences ; revised, re-calenlated, and newly arranged, by 
Thomas Kirby, Teacher of the Mathematics and Nautical Astronomy.” In 
the prefatory Address of the English publishers, who recommended their 
edition as an “‘ Improvement ”’ of Dr. Bowditch’s work, they speak of having 
made an arrangement with Mr. Blunt, the American publisher ; which they 
were induced to do, “‘not only by Mr. Bowditch’s high reputation, but by 
reflecting upon the low state to which the existing Works on Practical 
Navigation had fallen in the opinion of men of discernment ;”’ and add, that 
they had ‘spared no expense in securing to the British nation the benefits 
of American science and diligence.” 
Unfortunately, either the English editor, Mr. Kirby, or his printers, per- 
formed their duty in so careless a manner, that many errors were found 
in the London edition of Dr. Bowditch’s work. This gave occasion to a 
British writer (Andrew Mackay, LL.D.) who published a rival work on 
