Life and Character of Nathaniel Bowditch. 9 



culations.' The cook soon returned with his books under his 

 arm. He had Bowditch's Practical Navigator, the Requisite Ta- 

 bles, Hiitton's Tables of Logarithms, and the Nautical Almanac. 

 I saw all this negro's calculations of the latitude, the longitude, 

 and the true time, which he had worked out on the passage. He 

 answered all my questions with wonderful accuracy, not in the 

 Latin of the caboose, but in the good set terms of navigation." 



Capt. Prince relates a little incident that occurred under his ob- 

 servation, that is worth preserving. In the year 1796, there was 

 an Englishman in Boston, who called himself a professor of math- 

 ematics. He boasted a great deal about his mathematical know- 

 ledge, and said that he had not found any body in this country 

 who knew any thing about the science. " I have a question," 

 said he, " which I have proposed to several persons here who are 

 reputed the most knowing, and they cannot solve it. " This Eng- 

 lishman was a friend of E. H. Derby, Jr. of Salem, to whom Capt. 

 Prince had some time previously said that he thought Mr. Bow- 

 ditch '^ the greatest calculator in America." Mr. Derby and the 

 Englishman being one evening at the theatre, and the latter re- 

 peating the remark about his question, " Well," says Mr. Derby, 

 " there is a young man sitting opposite in that box, who, I think, 

 will do it for you. You had better hand it over to him." Accord- 

 ingly, after the play was over, the problem was brought to the 

 house where Capt. Prince and Mr. Bowditch boarded, by a man 

 named Hughes, who asked him whether he thought he could 

 solve it. "Yes," was his instantaneous reply. The next morn- 

 ing Hughes called and asked him how he was getting along with 

 the question. "I've done it," says Mr. BoAvditch, "and I wish 

 you would tell the Englishman that the answer is the logarithm 

 of such a number," naming it. In addition to this, I have heard 

 that the American mathematician said, " Tell your friend that I 

 have got a question which puzzled me once a good while before 

 I could make it out, and I should like to have him try his hand 

 upon it." He gave him the question, and it was handed over to 

 the Englishman ; but nothing more was heard of it. For once, 

 he had probably got enough of mathematics. 



Capt. Prince states some facts in relation to the origin of one of 

 Mr. Bowditch's principal works, which will be interesting to all, 

 particularly to all seafaring men. Every thing relating to " The 

 Sailor's Own Book," must be acceptable to them. He states, 



Vol. XXXV.— No. 1. 2 



