Nat the Navigator. A Life of Nathaniel Bowditch. For Young Persons

by Henry I. Bowditch

SLAVE SHIP FROM GUINEA.

ABOLITION OF SLAVERY.

In order to understand this allusion to the Guineaman, you should know that, at the time we are reading of, the greater part of English merchants, especially those of Liverpool, were engaged in the horrid traffic called the Slave Trade. Immense numbers of vessels were annually sent from Liverpool and other places in England for the sole purpose of sailing to the coast of Africa, there to get a cargo of the poor natives, whom they carried to the West Indian Islands and America, in order that they might be sold, as slaves, into perpetual bondage. Men, women, and children, were taken indiscriminately, and crammed together, like bales of cotton or any other goods, between the decks of the vessels. You may imagine that those who could engage in such abominable proceedings must have lost all the feelings of humanity. They were used to blood and rapine; hence you can understand the reason why Mr. Bowditch uses the term of reproach that he does. I thank Heaven—and I feel sure you will agree with me—that, by the efforts of devoted men and women in England and elsewhere, that trade has been formally abolished by Great Britain, and that every man who now sets his foot on British soil becomes free. Thank God, also, that our late civil war has destroyed every vestige of American slavery, and that we can claim, that no slave can now breathe on the soil of England or America. But to return to the Astræa.

BATAVIA.

On December 17 they arrived at Batavia, the chief city of the Island of Java. The following will give you some idea of the place and persons in it:—

“Upon our arrival, after making our report to the custom-house, we proceeded to the Saabandar, who introduced us to the governor and the governor-general, who is commander-in-chief, and formerly lived in all the splendor of an Asiatic monarch. At present the outward marks of respect are far less than they were twenty or thirty years ago. In former times he was attended by his guards, preceded by two trumpeters. Every carriage was forced to stop, and the persons within obliged to dismount, under the penalty of one hundred ducatoons (about one hundred and sixty-seven dollars). Captain —— refused even to stop his carriage, and forced his coachman to drive on. The officers of an English squadron lying at Batavia, in order to show their contempt of the procession, formed a party similar to that attending the governor, only, instead of the aids with their staves, one of the officers bore a staff with a cow’s horn tipped with gold, and another an empty bottle. The rest of the officers of the fleet met this procession, and made their respects to it, as the natives did to the governor. At present, all these practices are brought into contempt, so that none now stop for any officers of government.”

THE PLANET JUPITER.

The Astræa remained but four days at Batavia, the captain finding that he could not fill his vessel with coffee, as he intended. Consequently, after taking a fresh supply of provisions and of water, they weighed anchor, and bore towards the north, with the intention of visiting Manilla, as on his second voyage. Traversing the Straits of Macassar, they passed slowly up through the China Sea, and anchored in Manilla Bay on the 14th of February, 1800. During this passage we find Mr. Bowditch still occupied in the study of science. When floating, becalmed, among the islands, during the quiet night, he is observing the appearance of the planet Jupiter, and studying the motions of its beautiful satellites. As he was thus occupied, he thought of the immense power of that Being who first put the bright planet in its appropriate place, and caused it to revolve around our sun, while its own little satellites, like four moons, were to keep it company, silently and grandly, in its mysterious course.

DEATH OF WASHINGTON.

After remaining at Manilla long enough to get a cargo, the ship was prepared for home. On the 23d of March it sailed, and during a passage of six months very little occurred to interrupt Mr. Bowditch’s daily labors. It arrived on the 16th of September, 1800. About a fortnight before this,—September 2, a ship was observed to windward, which bore down upon them. By the captain they were informed of the melancholy news (as Mr. Bowditch says in his Journal) “of the death of our beloved Washington. Thus,” continues he, “has finished the career of that illustrious man, that great general, that consummate statesman, that elegant writer, that real patriot, that friend to his country and to all mankind!”