13 Life and Character of Nathaniel BoiOcUtch. 



that has occurred, and that he has obseryed, during his voyage. 

 On his return his journal is examined by a special committee, 

 who extract whatever they think valuable, and copy it into large 

 volumes, kept for that purpose. Dr. Bowditch was accustomed 

 to say, that these volumes contained a mass of nautical informa- 

 tion that could be found no where else in the world. 



The quiet and leisure of the long East India voyages, when 

 the ship was lazily sweeping along under the steady impulse of 

 the trade-winds, afforded him fine opportunities for pursuing his 

 mathematical studies, as well as for indulging his taste for gene- 

 ral literature. It was at these times that he learnt the French 

 and Spanish languages, without any instructor. Subsequently 

 in life he acquired the German and the Italian. 



I have heard it stated, that, on the voyage to Manilla, the ship 

 sprung a leak, and was obliged to put into the Isle of France to 

 refit. Young Bowditch was the only one on board who knew 

 any thing about French, having learnt it from his grammar on 

 the voyage ; and this casual knowledge thus proved of essential 

 service to the interests of the owners, as well as to the crew of 

 the ship. He used to say, that nothing that he learnt ever came 

 amiss. 



He had previously commenced the study of Latin at the age 

 of seventeen. The first Latin book that he undertook to read 

 was a copy of Euclid's Geometry, which had formerly belonged 

 to the Rev. Dr. Byles, of Boston, and having been purchased at 

 the sale of his books, was presented to the young mathematician 

 by his brOther-in-law, David Martin, of Salem. The following 

 words I copy from the blank leaf in the beginning of the book, 

 "Began to study Latin Jan. 4, 1790." He afterwards read and 

 translated Newton's "Principia," a copy of which book, rare, 

 doubtless, at that tiine in this country, had come into his posses- 

 sion through the kindness of the learned and reverend Dr. Bent- 

 ley of Salem. Dr. Bentley told him that he could not give him 

 the book, as it had been presented to him by a friend, but said he 

 would loan it to him, and that he might keep it till it was called 

 for. He did keep it ; it was never called for ; and it is still 

 among his books. 



What he once learned he ever afterwards remembered, and it 

 may be mentioned as an instance of the singular tenacity of his 

 memory, that, on lately reading the splendid History of the Reign 



