Life and Character of Nathaniel Bowditch. 15 



that he had got the idea ; if he were in the fore part of the ship, 

 when the idea came to him, he would actually run to the cabin, 

 and his countenance would give the expression, that he had 

 found a prize." 



On quitting the sea, in 1803, he was appointed President of 

 the Essex Fire and Marine Insurance Company in Salem, the 

 duties of which he continued to discharge till the year 1823. 

 During this time he was frequently solicited to accept posts of 

 honor and emolument in various literary institutions, in different 

 parts of the country. Though his salary as President of the In- 

 surance Company was small, being only twelve hundred dollars, 

 yet the larger offers from a distance could not induce him to 

 leave his blessed New England home. Thus in 1806, he was 

 chosen to fill the HoUis Professorship of Mathematics at Harvard 

 University. In 1818, he received a letter from Mr. Jefferson, 

 requesting him to accept the Professorship of Mathematics in the 

 new University at Charlottesville, in Virginia. Mr. Jefferson said 

 in his letter, " We are satisfied we can get from no country a 

 Professor of higher qualifications than yourself for our mathemat- 

 ical department." And in 1820, on the death of Mr. Ellicott, 

 Professor of Mathematics at the United States' Military Academy 

 at West Point, he received a letter from Mr. Calhoun, then Secre- 

 tary of War, desiring him to permit his name to be presented to 

 the President to fill the vacant chair. Mr. Calhoun in that letter 

 said, " I am anxious to avail myself of the first mathematical 

 talents and acquirements to fill the vacancy." 



In the year 1806, Mr. Bowditch published his accurate and 

 beautiful chart of the harbors of Salem, Beverly, Marblehead, and 

 Manchester, the survey of which had occupied him during the 

 summers of the three preceding years. So minutely accurate 

 was this chart, that the old pilots said he had found out all their 

 professional secrets, and had put on paper points and bearings 

 which they thought were known only to themselves. They 

 began to fear that their services would no longer be needed, and 

 that their occupation and their bread were gone. 



On the establishment of " The Massachusetts Hospital Life 

 Insurance Company," in 1823, he was elected to the office of 

 Actuary, being considered the person best qualified for this 

 highly responsible station, from his habits of accurate calculation 

 and rigid method, and his inflexible integrity. Immediately on 



