6 Life and Character of Nathaniel Bowditch. 



that Captain Prince burst out a laughing, and said, ''Well, Mr. 

 Bowditch, can you be making your will now ?" " Yes," was 

 his good-natured reply. After this affair, (the French privateer 

 having hauled off without molesting them,) the supercargo re- 

 quested to be stationed at one of the guns, and his request was 

 granted. Captain Prince testifies, that in all cases of danger, he 

 manifested great firmness and presence of mind. 



The fourth and last voyage which they made together, was in 

 the same ship from Boston to Batavia and Manilla. They sailed 

 in August, 1799, and returned home in September, 1800. 



On their arrival at Manilla, a Scotchman, by the name of Mur- 

 ray, asked Captain Prince how he contrived to find the way there, 

 through such a long, perplexing, and dangerous navigation, and 

 in the face of the northeast monsoon, by mere dead reckoning, 

 without the use of lunars, — it being a common notion at that 

 time, that the Americans knew nothing about working lunar ob- 

 servations. Captain Prince told him that he had a crew of twelve 

 men, every one of whom could take and work a lunar observa- 

 tion as well, for all practical purposes, as Sir Isaac Newton him- 

 self, were he alive. Murray was perfectly astounded at this, and 

 actually went down to the landing-place, one Sunday morning, to 

 see this knoioing crew come ashore. 



Mr. Bowditch was present at this conversation, and as Captain 

 Prince says, sat " as modest as a maid," said not a word, but 

 held his slate-pencil in his mouth. Another person on the island, 

 a broker, by the name of Kean, who was present, said to Murray, 

 '' If you knew as much as I do about that ship Astraea, you 

 wouldn't talk quite so glib." "Why not? what do you know 

 about her?" " Why, sir, I know that there is more knowledge 

 of navigation on board that ship, than there ever was in all the 

 vessels that ever floated in Manilla Bay." 



The knowledge which these common sailors had acquired of 

 navigation, had been imparted to them by the kindness of Mr. 

 Bowditch. Captain Prince relates that one day the supercargo 

 said to him, " Come, Captain, let us go forward and see what the 

 sailors are talking about, under the lee of the long-boat." They 

 went forward, accordingly, and the Captain was surprised to find 

 the sailors, instead of spinning their long yarns, earnestly engaged 

 with book, slate and pencil, and discussing the high matters of 

 tangents and secants, altitudes, dip, and refraction. Two of them, 



