1 69 1.] CHARLES II AND THE ROYAL OAK. 51 



Times the Tide fills it to the Brink of the Banks. The little 

 Space which I have mark'd towards the Left, and at the 

 Mouth of it, is low Ground, which the Sea covers as often 

 as it rises. This side of the AVater is in general lower than 

 the other, and suljject to frequent Inundations by the Floods 

 in Hurricane time. 



Peter Thomas, one of our Pilots, of whom I have made 

 mention, chose to inhabit a little Island forni'd by the lUver. 

 He built his Cabbin there, and made a little Garden with a 

 double Bridge. He was a very pretty Lad, and us'd to perch 

 upon a Tree in an Inundation ; which brings to my Bemem- 

 brance the glorious Monarch Charles II when he was 

 mounted up in the famous Oak at Boscohel,^ whose Belicks 

 are Venerable to this Day. But whereas that King durst not 

 say a Word, or only Whisper to Captain Sans-Soucijr the 

 Companion of his Fortune, Master Peter Tliomas^ play'd on 



1 After the battle of Worcester Charles heard, at the house of John 

 Penderell, near the Boscobel \A'ood, that Colonel Careless was hiding 

 in the vicinity. At his suggestion the prince passed the third day of 

 his wanderings in concealment with Colonel Careless, among the 

 branches of an oak tree, which was called the Royal Oak, and remained 

 standing as late as the middle of the last century, when it was men- 

 tioned by Dr. Stukeley in his Itinerarium Curiosum, published in 1776. 



The reference to the Oak of Boscobel seems a favourite allusion of 

 Max. Misson, who in his New Voyage to Italy writes : " This is no ill 

 Thought ; and puts me in Mind of some of our Friends in London, who 

 have precious Snuff-Boxes, made of the Royal-Oak known as Boscobel.'' 



'^ " The Name of the Captain that accompany'd the King in the Oak 

 at Boscobel was Careless, an English Word which signifies Negligence, 

 or without Care. But the King thought fit to change his Name from 

 Careless to Carlos.'^ (See Sylvanus ^Morgan's Spheres of Gentry, and 

 Dr. Chamberlain's Present State of England, vol. i, ch. 4.) — Note by 

 the editor of the original edition. The translator has retained the 

 French equivalent for Careless — Sans-souci — in the text as it stands in 

 the French edition. 



3 This Peter Thomas is not mentioned in the list of Leguat's com- 

 panions on p. 6 (supra). He appears to have been one of the crew of 

 the ship, and to have made up his mind to remain at Rodriguez at the 

 last moment when the ship sailed, See note in Muller's 1883 edition, 

 p. 71, and p. 55 infra. 



E 2 



