latter he rapidly acquired a knowledge of and even fluency in speech
in French, Italian, Greek, and Arabic, and this determined him to
undertake mercantile life at Malta; but the plague having broken out
there in 1818, he was prevented from landing, and resolved to try his
fortune at Smyrna, but was unsuccessful. He then went to Alexandria,
and thence to Cairo, where he made the acquaintance and gained the
esteem of Mahomet Ali, then Pasha of Egypt.

He now formed the scheme of connecting the Red Sea with the
Mediterranean by a canal, and for this purpose surveyed the Isthmus of
Suez and convinced himself that the cutting of such a waterway was
quite feasible, and that such a connection would be of enormous
advantage to English trade with India. He laid his plans before
Mahomet Ali. "No sooner had the idea of renewing the ancient commerce
between India and the Mediterranean by way of the Red Sea taken
possession of my mind," wrote Buckingham, "than I began to think how
much this would be facilitated by the juncture of the two seas by a
navigable canal; and I bent all my thoughts to the object." But
Mahomet Ali would not hear of the project. He shrewdly asked, "Whose
ships would mostly use the canal?"

"The English vessels assuredly."

"Ah! and then the English would begin to think how nice it would be to
have Egypt so as to secure the passage. I am not going to sharpen the
knife that would cut my own throat."

The Pasha had a plan of his own; he had purchased two beautiful
American brigs then in the harbour of Alexandria, and he proposed
arming them and sending them round the Cape of Good Hope into the Red
Sea, for he desired to open up a trade with Egypt from India. But
Buckingham pointed out to him that he could not do this without great
risk of losing them, as the East India Company had supreme command of
all the Indian Ocean eastward of the Cape, and would seize and
confiscate all vessels found in those seas without their licence,
French and Portuguese vessels alone excepted.

James S. Buckingham now ascended the Nile beyond the cataracts to
Nubia, but was there seized with ophthalmic blindness. To add to his
distress, on his way to Kosseir he was attacked in the desert by a
band of mutineers of the army of the Pasha, who plundered and left him
entirely naked on the barren waste, many miles from any village, food,
or water; and even when he reached Kosseir, he was obliged to retrace
his steps, as the vessel which should have conveyed him forward had
been seized by the mutineers.

Buckingham next occupied himself with an endeavour to master the
hydrography of the Red Sea, visiting every part in the costume of a
Bedouin Arab.

The Pasha now proposed to him that he should go to India and sound the
merchants there as to establishing a through trade to Europe by the
Red Sea, and a Company of Anglo-Egyptian merchants took the matter up
with zest. But on his proceeding to Bombay he found that the
proposition was coldly received.

Whilst there, in May, 1815, Buckingham had the offer of the command of
the _Humayoon Shah_, a vessel built at the Portuguese port of Damann,
north of Bombay, by the Imaum of Muscat, for trade with China. The
retiring captain, named Richardson, in three successive voyages had
cleared £30,000, and the situation had been sought by several of the
marine officers of the East India Company. When these disappointed men
heard that Buckingham had secured the appointment, they were angry,
and applied to the Company to eject him from India and close every
port there in their power against him. This they did by refusing him a
licence to remain in India.

The British Government, in granting a charter of exclusive trade to
India and China to the East India Company, gave that Company thereby a
right to expel from their dominions all British-born subjects who had
not their licence to reside there, this being deemed necessary to
protect them from the competition of "interlopers" as they were
called, who might undersell them in their own markets. But though the
British Government might thus condemn all the twenty million of its
own native-born subjects to this state of ignominious dependence on
the will or caprice of a handful of monopolists, a body of some
twenty-four directors only--in whose hands lay the power of granting
licences or banishing those who did not possess them--it could not
authorize the exercise of such powers against the natives of any
foreign state; consequently James Silk Buckingham was advised to
become nationalized as an American citizen, in which case the East
India Company would be powerless to expel him.

In point of fact, the case stood thus: all foreigners who had no natural
claim on India as a part of their dominions might visit it freely and
reside and trade in it as long as they pleased, without licence from its
rulers; whereas British-born subjects, who had contributed by their
payment of taxes to support the very Government that made the charter,
were unjustly excluded, although the conquest of India had been made by
British blood and British treasure, and the country was still held under
the British flag. In short, all foreigners were free men there, and the
freeborn Englishman alone was a slave.

Buckingham so felt the iniquity of this system that later, when he
came to England, he agitated and wrote against the continuance of the
charter.

Buckingham returned to Egypt and occupied himself with making a chart
of the Red Sea. But the Anglo-Egyptian merchants, not relishing their
defeat by the East India Company, entered into a compact with Mahomet
Ali to send Buckingham to India as his envoy and representative; and
as such the Company could not refuse to allow him to reside there.
Accordingly, habited as a Mussulman, turbaned and long-robed, with his
speaking eye, jovial face, and dark, flowing beard, he looked every
inch of him a true-born Oriental, and his extraordinary knowledge of
various languages stood him in good stead as he made his way overland
to India, by Palestine and Bagdad. Proceeding still on his course, he
entered Persia, crossed the chain of the Zagros, and embarked at
Bushir in a man-of-war of the East India Company that was bound on an
expedition against some Wahabee pirates in the Persian Gulf, and going
ashore at Ras el Khyma, acted as interpreter to Captain Brydges,
Commander of the Squadron, assisted in bombarding the town, and then
proceeded to Bombay, which he reached after a journey of twelve
months. But his mission was again unsuccessful; either the Bombay
merchants had no confidence in the Egyptian Government, or they were
jealous of any interference with their own line of trade.

Now, however, the Company's licence reached him, authorizing him to
remain in their territories, and he regained the appointment to the
vessel _Humayoon Shah_, in the service of the Imaum of Muscat, and he
remained navigating the Eastern waters till Midsummer, 1818, when,
having received commands from the Imaum to proceed to the coast of
Zanzibar, on a slaving expedition, he threw up his engagement, worth
£4000 per annum, rather than be implicated in such a nefarious trade.

Buckingham next became proprietor and editor of the _Calcutta Mirror_, a
Liberal paper, that instantly obtained an extensive sale, and brought in
to its founder a net profit of £8000 a year. But his resolute advocacy
of Free Trade, free settlement, and free Press, and an exposure of the
misdoings of the East India Company, brought down on him the heavy hand
of Mr. John Adams, the temporary Governor-General. His paper was
suppressed, and he was ordered to quit Calcutta. His little fortune was
sacrificed in a vain attempt to fight the Governor and the Company, and
he was thrown back on the world, almost as poor, save in experience, as
when a youth he trudged from Corunna to Lisbon. He left his magnificent
library at Calcutta, in the hopes of being able to return, after having
obtained redress at home. But the redress he hoped for never came. Too
many interests were involved to accord it to him, and his library, like
his fortune and his hopes, was wrecked.

It was not till after many dreary years, that the East India Company,
under pressure from the Government, could be induced, as an indemnity
for the wrongs done him, to accord him an annuity of £200, in addition
to one of the like amount awarded him by the British Government, "in
consideration of his literary works, and useful travels in various
countries," September 1st, 1851. "Pompey and Cæsar berry much alike."

"The blow to him at Calcutta was altogether a very savage one," says Mr.
S. C. Hall, "but, like all injustice, it recoiled at length on those who
gave it. From the hour that Buckingham was driven from that city
(Calcutta), the power of the great Indian monopoly, both commercial and
governmental, was doomed. It was by no means his case alone which
accomplished that doom. But oppression and vindictiveness, by driving
him home, made him for a time the representative there of voices that
never entirely slept; whilst the impolicy that had aroused them was
persevered in to the last--not ceasing, even after the trade was thrown
open, but at length provoking that rebellion which was followed by John
Company finally having to make an assignment of his whole estate and
effects to John Bull." In England Buckingham started the _Athenæum_, a
literary weekly, but did not long retain it in his hand; he was not, in
fact, qualified for its editorship. He was a Liberal politician _avant
tout_, and a _littérateur_ only in a second or third place.

In 1832, the Reform Bill was passed, and the same general election
that sent Wm. Cobbett to the House of Commons for Oldham, sent James
S. Buckingham from Sheffield, for the avowed purpose of giving him the
best standpoint possible from which to assail the East Indian
monopoly. That Company had never made a more fatal mistake than when
it persecuted and drove him from India. Buckingham was a theme for
caricature in _Punch_ from 1845-1848.

It is open to question whether the East India Company could have
engaged J. S. Buckingham's services if, instead of hounding him out of
India, they had endeavoured to secure a man of such exceptional
ability and intense resolution of purpose in its service. In heart and
soul he was opposed to a monopoly, and if he had been engaged, he
would have accepted an engagement only for the purpose of remedying
some of the abuses of their government, and rectifying some of the
injustices done. But he was so utterly and conscientiously opposed to
the whole system, that it is more than doubtful whether he would have
met favourably any overtures made to him.

In England an excellent conception of his, which he was able to
realize, was the foundation of the "British and Foreign Institute." To
this he was moved by seeing so many Orientals and others adrift in
London, without any centre where they could meet and communicate their
ideas with statesmen and politicians of Great Britain, and where they
might gather for refreshment of mind and body alike. The Duke of
Cambridge became President, and the Society attracted to its soirées
the literary and intellectual of all lands.

His pen and his voice were employed for some years in advocating
reforms.

He died on June 20th, 1855, in his seventieth year, and his wife died
in the house of her son-in-law, Henry R. Dewey, 22nd January, 1865, at
the age of eighty.

It is greatly to be regretted that he did not live to complete his
Memoirs. He had two sons--James, who died in Jamaica, 1867, and
Leicester Forbes Young Buckingham, who ran away with an actress,
Caroline Connor, and married her at Gretna Green, 5th April, 1844. She
had made her first appearance on the London stage at the Haymarket
Theatre in 1842. The marriage was not happy and they separated, she to
return to the stage, where she acted under the name of Mrs. Buckingham
White. He died at Margate 17th July, 1867.

                      MARY ANN DAVENPORT, ACTRESS

Mary Ann Harvey was born in Launceston in 1759, and was educated at
Bath, where she was seized with a passion for the stage, and made her
first appearance on the boards at Bath as Lappet in _The Miser_ in 1779.

She remained at Bath two years, and during her residence there is thus
described by an eye-witness of her performances: "Miss Harvey, about
the years 1785 and 1786, was a lively, animated, bustling actress;
arch, and of exuberant spirits. Her style was pointed and energetic;
perhaps, indeed, she had less ease than was altogether the thing; but
when she had to speak satirically or in irony--when, in fact, she had
to convey one idea to the person on the stage with her and another to
the audience, she was alone and inimitable; she did not carry you away
with her so much as many young actresses that I have seen, but she
always satisfied you more amply. Then her voice--what a voice hers
was! Nay, what a voice she has still, though it has had a pretty fair
exercise for the last half century and upwards. Then it had all the
clearness for which it is even now distinguishable; and it had,
besides, a witching softness of tone that knew no equal then, and that
I have never heard exceeded since."

There was an _espiègle_ charm about her; she was not exactly
beautiful, but had a witchery of face and of manner that was
unsurpassed by any of her fellow-actresses, who may have possessed
more regularity of feature.

[Illustration: _M^{rs}. Davenport_,

in the Character of M^{rs}. Grundy]

She was not baptized at Launceston, S. Mary Magdalen. Harvey was a
common name at the time in the place; a Harvey was a builder, another a
hatmaker, another a carrier. There were a Joseph Harvey and Catherine
Penwarden married 27th January, 1756. These may have been her parents.

After leaving Bath, Miss Harvey joined the Exeter company, and there met
and married Mr. Davenport, an actor of ordinary talent and low comedy.

After she had been married a short while, Mrs. Davenport went to
Birmingham, where she remained a considerable time in hopes of
obtaining an engagement. But disappointed in this expectation, she
accepted an offer from Dublin, where Daly had opened his theatre, and
there she made her debut as Rosalind in _As You Like It_, a character
exactly suited to her, and in which she aroused great enthusiasm. Her
graceful figure, her voice, now full of tenderness, then of arch
humour, and her expressive face admirably suited the part. She
moreover performed the part of Fulmer in the _West Indian_. The
_Authentic Memoirs of the Green Room_ for 1796 says: "Mrs. Davenport a
tolerable substitute for Mrs. Webb, though not near so great.

          The Davenports, tho' not of play'rs the first,
          Are far from being in old folks the worst."

In 1794 she first performed at Covent Garden, as Mrs. Hardcastle, in
_She Stoops to Conquer_, and at that theatre she continued without a
rival till 1831, and occasionally filled up vacancies at the
Haymarket. Mr. Davenport died in 1841; by him she had a son and a
daughter. The former died in India, the latter in England.

Robson, in _The Old Playgoer_, says: "Brunton being the tall 'walking
gentleman,' there is no one else worth mentioning but dear, dear
Davenport, most truly not least though last. Lord! what a scream she
would give if she knew I was about to show her up! I can just remember
Mrs. Mattocks and Miss Pope.... But Mrs. Davenport was the McTab, the
Malaprop, the Nurse whose bantling, 'stinted and cried aye,' with a
villainous pain in her back, and a man Peter to carry her fan; the
'old mother Brulgruddery'; the Dame Ashfield with a 'damned bunch of
keys,' who immortalized 'What will Missus Grundy say to that?' and
would persuade a gentleman to put a ham under each arm and a turkey
into his pocket; Jeremy Diddler's beautiful maid at the foot of the
hill, who 'blushed like a red cabbage'; heigho! all visions--all gone.

"It was said of Mrs. Jordan that her laugh would have made the fortune
of any actress if she had not had the wit to bring out one word to
support it; but Mrs. Davenport's strong point was her scream. I wonder
whether she ever indulged her husband with it in the course of a curtain
lecture! Mercy on his nerves if she did! The appearance of her jolly red
face was the presage of mirth, and her scream the signal for a roar of
laughter. Good, cheerful soul! though an _old woman_ forty years, she
outlived nearly all her play-fellows, comfortably, happily, I hope."[28]

As an old lady her most celebrated personifications were the Nurse in
_Romeo and Juliet_, at which, in later times, she was hardly surpassed
by Mrs. Stirling.

The writer of the memoir in the _Georgian Æra_ says of her: "It has
not been inaptly said of her, that in the vulgar loquacity of the
would-be youthful Mrs. Hardcastle--the ugliness of the antiquated
virgin, Miss Durable--the imbecility of four score in Mrs. Nicely--the
sturdy brutality of Mrs. Brulgruddery--the warm-hearted cottager in
_Lovers' Vows_--the attempted elegances of Mrs. Dowlas--the fiery
humoured Dame Quickly--and the obtuse intellect of Deborah, she
overcame all rivalry."

In the edition of the _Authentic Memoirs of the Green Room_ for 1806 it
is said, after a mention of Mr. Davenport: "Wife to the above, and of
primary utility in a theatre as the representative of low, vulgar, and
antiquated characters. In this line she has not her superior on the
London stage. Her Mrs. Thorne in the _Birthday_, Lady Duberly in the
_Heir at Law_, Dame Ashfield in _Speed the Plough_, Widow Warren in _The
Road to Ruin_, Widow Cheshire in the _Agreeable Surprise_, Mrs. Pickle
in the _Spoiled Child_, with a long and diversified list of parts of a
similar description, deservedly rated high in the scale of histrionic
excellence--and what greatly enhances her value, she is not less to be
prized for the generality than for the intensive merit of her
performances. Wide and extensive as is the range of parts which she
sustains, there is not a single character in the whole list in which she
does not acquit herself with distinguished talent and ability."

This bright and merry actress was run over by a dray on July 20th,
1841, and died in S. Bartholomew's Hospital on May 8th, 1843, after a
lingering illness, at the age of eighty-four.

FOOTNOTE:

[28] _The Old Playgoer_, 1854, pp. 82-4.

                      THE ROYAL FAMILY OF PRUSSIA

"Over against Mousehole, across the great bay of Penzance, is Cudden
Point, jutting out into the sea, forming one horn of a promontory of
which the Enys forms the other, looking in the opposite direction.
Between these two lie three little coves, that of the Pixies, too
exposed and rocky for a harbour, but with its sides riddled with caves.

"Bessie's, called after Bessie Burrow, who kept the _Kidleywink_ on
the cliff, which was the great resort of the smugglers, bears on its
face to-day the traces of its history. A spot so sheltered and
secluded that it is impossible to see what boats are in the little
harbour until one literally leans over the edge of the cliff above; a
harbour cut out of the solid rock, and a roadway with wheel tracks
partly cut and partly worn, crossing the rocks below high-water mark;
and, climbing up the face of the cliff on each side of the cove, caves
and remains of caves everywhere, some with their mouths built up,
which are reputed to be connected with the house above by secret
passages. These are the trade marks of Bessie's Cove, and the world
has not yet known the degree of innocence which could believe that
these were made for the convenience of a few crabbers.

"The eastern and the most open is Prussia Cove. Here still stands
to-day the house in which John Carter, 'the King of Prussia,' lived
and reigned from 1770 to 1807."[29]

[Illustration: AT PRUSSIA COVE. "BESSY'S" COVE FROM BATTERY POINT

_From a drawing by A. Chevallier Taylor in the possession of J. B.
Cornish, Esq._]

The origin of the Carter family is obscure. It is supposed to have come
from Shropshire, and the name is not Cornish. But what could have
brought it to this wild and remote spot in the south-west is quite
unknown. The father, Francis Carter, was born in 1712 and died in 1774,
and his wife, Agnes, died in 1784. They had eight sons and two
daughters. The eldest of the sons was John, the famous Cornish King of
Prussia. He obtained this nickname in the following manner: He and other
boys were playing at soldiers, and the renown of Frederick the Great
having reached him, John dubbed himself the King of Prussia, and the
title not only adhered to him through life, but he has bequeathed the
name of Prussia to the cove, which formerly bore that of Porthleah.

John Carter, when he grew to man's estate, made himself fame as a
daring smuggler, and he was ably seconded by his brother Henry, who
contrived to his own satisfaction to combine perfervid piety with
cheating the customs.

Smuggling in those days was carried on upon a large scale, in cutters
and luggers armed with eighteen or twenty guns apiece. Harry Carter,
in his autobiography, says: "I think I might have been twenty-five
when I went in a small sloop about sixteen or eighteen tons, with two
men besides myself as smugglers, when I had very great success, and
after a while I had a new sloop built for me, about thirty-two tons.
My success was rather beyond common, and after a time we bought a
small cutter of about fifty tons, and about ten men." The measurements
at the present day would be ten, eighteen, and thirty tons.

John Carter was never caught. On one occasion the revenue officers
came to his house and demanded to ransack his sheds. One of these was
locked, and he refused to surrender the key, whereupon they broke it
open, but found that it contained only household articles. As they
were unable to refasten the door, the shed remained open all night,
and by morning everything it had contained had disappeared. The "King"
thereupon sued the officers for all his goods that had been taken from
him. It is perhaps needless to say that he had himself conveyed them
away. The officers had to refund the losses.

On one occasion when John Carter was absent from home, the excise
officers from Penzance came to Prussia Cove in their boats and
succeeded in securing a cargo lately arrived from France. They carried
it to Penzance and placed it under lock and key in the custom-house.
Carter, on his return, heard of the capture. He was highly incensed,
for the brandy had all been promised to some of the gentry round, and
he was not the man to receive an order and fail to execute it.
Accordingly, he made up his mind to recover the whole cargo. Assisted
by his mates, in the night he broke into the custom-house store and
removed every barrel that had been taken from him.

Next morning, when the officers saw what had been done, they knew who
the perpetrator was, for nothing had been touched and removed but what
the "King" claimed as his own; and these smugglers prided themselves
on being "all honourable men."

The most famous episode in John Carter's career was his firing on the
boat of the revenue cutter _The Faery_. A smuggling vessel, hard
pressed, ran through a narrow channel among the rocks between the Enys
and the shore. The cutter, not daring to venture nearer, sent her boat
in; whereupon Carter opened fire upon her from an improvised battery in
which he had mounted several small cannon. The boat had to withdraw.
Next morning the fight was resumed, _The Faery_ opening fire from the
sea. But in the meantime mounted soldiers from Penzance had arrived, and
these fired from the top of the hill upon those working the guns in the
battery, taking them in the rear. This was more than the smugglers could
stand, and they retreated to Bessie Burrow's house, and were not further
molested, the soldiers contenting themselves with remounting their
horses and riding back to Penzance. Unfortunately, with regard to John
Carter, the "King of Prussia," we have but scattered notices and
tradition to rely upon; but it is otherwise with his brother Henry, who
has left an autobiography that has been transcribed and published by Mr.
J. B. Cornish under the title _The Autobiography of a Cornish Smuggler_,
London (Gibbons and Co.), 1900.

But Harry Carter is somewhat reticent about the doings of the
smugglers, and avoids giving names, for when he wrote "free trade" was
in full swing. He wrote in 1809, when John his brother and the "Cove
boys" were still at it, and Prussia Cove had not ceased to be a great
centre of smugglers. He is much more concerned to record his religious
experiences, all of which we could well spare for fuller details of
the goings-on of his brothers and their comrades.

In 1778 an embargo was laid on all English trade, when the French
Government made a treaty with the States of America, and not knowing
of this, Henry Carter was arrested at S. Malo, and his cutter, with
sixteen guns and thirty-six men, taken from him. He was sent to the
prison at Dinan; and in like manner his brother John was taken, and
they were allowed to remain on parole at Josselin till the November of
1779, when they were exchanged by order of the Lords of the Admiralty
for two French gentlemen. "So, after I was at home some time, riding
about the country getting freights, collecting money for the company,
etc., we bought a cutter about 160 tons (50 tons), nineteen guns. I
went in her some time smuggling. I had great success."

In January, 1788, he went with a freight to Cawsand in a lugger of 45
tons in modern measurement, and mounting sixteen carriage guns. But he
was boarded, and so cut about the head, and his nose nearly severed in
two, that he fell bleeding on the deck.

"I suppose I might have been there about a quarter of an hour, until
they had secured my people below, and after found me lying on the deck.
One of them said, 'Here is one of the poor fellows dead.' Another made
answer, 'Put the man below.' He answered again, 'What use is it to put a
dead man below?' and so passed on. So I laid there very quiet for near
the space of two hours, hearing their discourse as they walked by me,
the night being very dark on the 30th January, 1788. The commanding
officer gave orders for a lantern to be brought, so they took up one of
my legs as I was lying upon my belly; he let it go, and it fell as dead
down on the deck. He likewise put his hand up under my clothes, between
my shirt and my skin, and then examined my head, and so concluded,
saying, 'The man is so warm now as he was two hours back, but his head
is all to atoms.' The water being ebbing, the vessel (that was grounded)
making a great heel to the shore, so that in the course of a very little
time after, as their two boats was made fast alongside, one of them
broke adrift. Immediately there was orders given to man the other boat
in order to fetch her, so that when I saw them in this state of
confusion, their guard broken, I thought it was my time to make my
escape, so I crept on my belly on the deck, and got over a large raft
just before the mainmast, close by one of the men's heels, as he was
standing there handing the trysail. When I got over the lee-side I
thought I should be able to swim on shore in a stroke or two. I took
hold of the burtons of the mast, and as I was lifting myself over the
side I was taken with the cramp in one of my thighs. So then I thought I
should be drowned, but still willing to risk it, so that I let myself
over the side very easily by a rope into the water. As I was very near
the shore, I thought to swim on shore in the course of a stroke or two,
but soon found my mistake. I was sinking almost like a stone, and
hauling astern in deeper water, when I gave up all hopes of life and
began to swallow some water. I found a rope under my breast, so that I
had not lost my senses. I hauled upon it, and soon found one end fast to
the side just where I went overboard, which gave me a little hope of
life. So that when I got there, I could not tell which was best, to call
to the man-of-war's men to take me in, or to stay there and die, for my
life and strength were almost exhausted. But whilst I was thinking of
this, touched bottom with my feet. Hope then sprang up, and I soon found
another rope, leading towards the head of the vessel in shoaler water,
so that I veered upon one and hauled upon the other, that brought me
under the bowsprit, and then at times upon the send of a sea, my feet
were almost dry. I let go the rope, but as soon as I attempted to run
fell down, and as I fell, looking round about me, I saw three men
standing close by. I knew they were the man-of-war's men seeking for
the boat, so I lay there quiet for some little time, and then crept upon
my belly I suppose about the distance of fifty yards, and as the ground
was scuddy, some flat rock mixed with channels of sand, I saw before me
a channel of white sand, and for fear to be seen creeping over it, which
would take some time, not knowing there was anything the matter with me,
made the second attempt to run, and fell in the same manner as before.

"My brother Charles being there, looking out for the vessel, desired
some Cawsand men to go down to see if they could pick up any of the
men dead or alive, not expecting ever to see me any more, almost sure
I was either shot or drowned. One of them saw me fall, ran to my
assistance, and taking hold of me under the arm, says, 'Who are you?'
So, as I thought him to be an enemy, made no answer. He said, 'Fear
not; I am a friend. Come with me.' And by that time were come two
more, which took me under both arms, and the other pushed me in the
back, and so dragged me up to the town. My strength was almost
exhausted. They took me into a room where were seven or eight Cawsand
men and my brother Charles, and when he saw me he knew me by my great
coat, and cried with joy. So then they immediately stripped off my wet
clothes, and sent for a doctor and put me to bed. The bone of my nose
was cut right in two, nothing but a bit of skin holding it, and two
very large cuts in my head, that two or three pieces of my skull
worked out of afterwards."

He was now hurried off in a chaise to his brother Charles' house,
where he remained for a week. Then as a reward of three hundred pounds
was offered for his apprehension, he was conveyed to a gentleman's
house in Marazion, where he remained concealed for two or three
weeks, and thence was taken to Acton House, belonging to Mr. John
Stackhouse, but only for a while, and shifted back to Marazion. Then
again to the castle. The surgeon who was called in to attend him was
blindfolded by the men sent to fetch him and conducted to the
hiding-place of Henry Carter.

[Illustration: JOHN CARTER'S HOUSE AT PRUSSIA COVE

_Demolished in 1906_]

In October he sailed for Leghorn, then on the same vessel loaded at
Barcelona with brandy for New York. It was no longer safe for him to
remain in England till the affair was blown over, and he did not return
till October in the year 1790, and was soon again engaged in alternate
preaching in Methodist chapels, and in smuggling brandy from Roscoff. On
one of these excursions in 1793 he was arrested at Roscoff, as war had
been declared between France and England. This was during the Reign of
Terror, at a time when the Convention had decreed that no quarter should
be given to an Englishman, and an English prisoner was placed on the
same footing as a "suspect" or "aristocrat," and stood a great chance of
losing his head under the knife. He does not, however, seem to have been
harshly treated, only moved about from place to place, sometimes in a
prison, at others lodged in a private house; a good many of his French
fellow-prisoners, however, suffered death. In his own words and
spelling: "There was numbers of gent and lades taken away to Brest that
I parssially know, and their heads chopt off with the gulenteen with a
very little notice."

Robespierre was executed on 28th July, 1794; and soon after his death
the Convention decreed the release of great numbers of "suspects" and
other prisoners. It was not, however, till August, 1795, that Henry
Carter got his passport and was able to leave. He arrived at Falmouth
on August 22nd. "Arived on shore aboute three o'clock in the afternoon
with much fear and trembling, where I meet with my dear little
(daughter) Bettsy, there staying with her aunt, Mrs. Smythe, then
between 8 and 9 years old.... I staid that night at Falmouth, the next
morning went to Penryn with my dear little Bettsey in my hand. The next
morning, on Sunday, took a horse and arrived at Breage Churchtown aboute
eleven o'clock, where I meet my dear brother Frank, then in his way to
church. As I first took him in surprise, at first I could harly make him
sensable I was his brother, being nearley two years without hearing
whether I was dead or alife. But when he come to himself as it were, we
rejoiced together with exceeding great joy indeed. We went to his house
in Rinsey, and after dinner went to see brother John (in Prussia Cove).
We sent him word before I was coming. But he could harly believe it. But
first looking out with his glass saw me yet a long way off. Ran to meet
me, fell upon my neck. We passed the afternoon with him, and in the
evning went to Keneggy to see brother Charles."

The autobiography ends abruptly in the year 1795, but the writer lived
on until April 19th, 1829, spending the last thirty years of his life
on a little farm at Rinsey.

In addition to the two authorities quoted, both due to Mr. Cornish,
there is a memoir of Henry Carter in the _Wesleyan Methodist Magazine_
for October, 1831.

FOOTNOTE:

[29] J. B. Cornish in the _Cornish Magazine_, 1898, p. 121.

                        CAPTAIN RICHARD KEIGWIN

The English East India Company had been founded December 31st, 1600,
and it obtained from Queen Elizabeth the exclusive privilege for
fifteen years of trading with India and all countries to the east of
the Cape of Good Hope, in Africa and in Asia. The first settlement
effected was at Surat in 1612, by Captain Thomas Best, who defeated
the Portuguese in two battles. But through the jealousy of the Dutch
and their encroachments, and the disturbances in England caused by the
Great Rebellion, the East India Company fell to decay. Although
Cromwell in 1657 renewed its privileges, the English made little
headway. On April 3rd, 1661, Charles II confirmed and renewed all the
ancient privileges, and handed over to the Company Bombay, which he
had received from Spain as the portion of Catherine of Braganza.

Dr. Fryer, a surgeon in the service of the Company, travelled in India
between 1673 and 1681, and has left some graphic descriptions of it.
He sailed from Madras to Bombay, passing up the Malabar coast, and
noting how that the Dutch were elbowing the Portuguese out of their
posts. At last he entered the harbour of Bombay, so called from its
Portuguese name Bona-baija. He found there a Government House, with
pleasant gardens, terraces, and bowers; but the place had been meanly
fortified, and the Malabar pirates often plundered the native villages
and carried off the inhabitants as slaves. However, the Company took
the place vigorously in hand, loaded the terraces with cannon, and
built ramparts over the bowers. When Fryer landed, Bombay Castle was
mounted with a hundred and twenty pieces of ordnance, whilst sixty
field-pieces were kept in readiness. The Dutch had made an attempt to
capture Bombay, but had been repulsed.

Bombay itself was an island, with a superb landlocked harbour, but it
had at its back the great and powerful kingdom of the Mahrattas.

But the vast expense of placing Bombay in a position of defence had
been so inadequately met by the revenue derived from it, that the
Company was dissatisfied with its acquisition, and being, moreover,
burdened with debt, it had recourse to the unhappy expedient of
raising the taxation and reducing the officers' pay. It was ordered
that the annual expenses of the island should be limited to £7000; the
military establishment was to be reduced to two lieutenants, two
ensigns, four sergeants, as many corporals and 108 privates. A troop
of horse was to be disbanded, and Keigwin, the commandant, was
dismissed. This was in 1678-9.

Richard Keigwin was the third son of Richard Keigwin, of Penzance, and
of his wife Margaret, daughter of Nicholas Godolphin, of Trewarveneth.
The family was ancient and honourable. His great-grandfather, Jenkin
Keigwin, had been killed by the Spaniards in 1595. Richard entered the
Royal Navy, became a captain and then colonel of Marines, and was
appointed Governor of S. Helena, then a possession of the East India
Company, by grant of Charles II. After that he was transferred to
Bombay, and had the commandantship there.

He was highly offended at being thrust out of his position, and he,
moreover, knew that Bombay was menaced by both the Sambhajee and the
Siddee, both of whom were desirous of gaining a footing on the island,
and each was jealous lest the other should anticipate him in its
acquisition.

In order that he might represent the danger that menaced of losing
Bombay Captain Keigwin resolved on reporting in person to the Company
how matters stood, and he accordingly went to the directors and laid
the case before them with such force that they consented to send him
back to Bombay with the rank of captain-lieutenant, and he was to be
third in the Council. But with singular capriciousness, in the
following year, when Keigwin was at Bombay, they rescinded the order,
reduced his pay to six shillings a day, without allowance for food and
lodging, and made further reductions in the general pay and increase
in the taxes. This embittered the garrison and the natives alike.[30]

"During the greater part of the reign of Charles the Second," says
Macaulay, "the Company enjoyed a prosperity to which the history of
trade scarcely furnishes a parallel, and which excited the wonder, the
cupidity, and the envious animosity of the whole capital. Wealth and
luxury were then rapidly increasing, the taste for spices, the tissues
and the jewels of the East, became stronger day by day; tea, which at
the time when Monk brought the army of Scotland to London had been
handed round to be stared at and just touched with the lips, as a
great rarity from China, was, eight years later, a regular article of
import, and was soon consumed in such quantities that financiers began
to consider it as a fit subject for taxation." Coffee, moreover, had
become a fashionable drink, and the coffee-houses of London were the
resorts of every description of club. But coffee came from Mocha, and
the East India Company had sole right to import that, as it had
absolute monopoly of the trade of the Indian Sea.

Nor was that all; vast quantities of saltpetre were imported into
England from the East for the manufacture of gunpowder. But for this
supply our muskets and cannon would have been speechless. It was
reckoned that all Europe would hardly produce in one year saltpetre
sufficient for the siege of one town fortified on the principles of
Vauban.

The gains of the Company were enormous, so enormous as in no way to
justify the cheeseparing that was had recourse to at Bombay. But these
gains were not distributed among a large number of shareholders, but
swelled the pockets of a few, for as the profits increased the number
of holders of stock diminished.

The man who obtained complete control over the affairs of the Company
was Sir Josiah Child, who had risen from an apprentice who swept out
one of the counting-houses in the City to great wealth and power. His
brother John was given an almost uncontrolled hand at Surat.

The Company had been popularly considered as a Whig body. Among the
members of the directing committee had been found some of the most
vehement exclusionists in the City, that is to say, those who had
voted for the exclusion of James, Duke of York, from any claim to the
crown of England on the decease of Charles II. This was an affront
James was not likely to forget and forgive. Indeed two of them, Sir
Samuel Barnardiston and Thomas Papillon, drew on themselves a severe
persecution by their zeal against Popery and arbitrary power.

The wonderful prosperity of the Company had excited, as already
intimated, the envy of the merchants in London and Bristol; moreover,
the people suffered from the monopoly being in the hands of a few
stockholders, who controlled the market. The Company was fiercely
attacked from without at the same time that it was distracted by
internal dissensions.

Captain Keigwin now called upon the inhabitants of Bombay to take an
oath of allegiance to the Crown, and to renounce the Company and
submission to its commands. With this the whole of the garrison,
militia and inhabitants, complied; the troops from expectation of
relief from the grievances of which they had complained, and the
inhabitants from anticipating relief from taxation.

Captain Keigwin and his associates then addressed a letter to His
Majesty and to the Duke of York, expressing their determination to
maintain the island for the King till his pleasure should be known,
and enumerating the causes which had impelled them to revolt--the
principal being to prevent Bombay from being seized by the Siddee, or
Admiral of the Mogul, who with a numerous fleet was lying near, or
else by the Sambhajee, the Mahratta rajah, who was watching his
opportunity to descend on Bombay and annex it.

Captain Keigwin and the conspirators next represented to the Court of
Committee that the selfish scheme of Josiah Child in England, and of
his brother John Child of Surat, had been at the bottom of the whole
mischief which caused the disaffection, and added that both the
garrison and inhabitants were determined to continue in allegiance to
the Crown alone till the King's pleasure should be made known to them.

But Keigwin was no match for the subtle and unprincipled Sir Josiah
Child and his brother John. Josiah had been originally brought into
the direction of the Company by Barnardiston and Papillon, and was
supposed, and he allowed it to be supposed, that he was as ardent a
Whig as were they. He had for years stood high in the opinion of the
chiefs of the Parliamentary opposition, and had been especially
obnoxious to the Duke of York.

There had for some time been interference with the monopoly by what
were called "interlopers" or free traders, to the great vexation of
the Company. These interlopers now determined to affect the character
of loyal men, who were determined to stand by the Crown against the
insolent Whigs of the Company. "They spread at all the factories in
the East reports that England was in confusion, that the sword had
been drawn or would immediately be drawn, and that the Company was
forward in the rebellion against the Crown. These rumours, which in
truth were not improbable, easily found credit among people separated
from London by what was then a voyage of twelve months. Some servants
of the Company who were in ill humour with their employers, and others
who were zealous Royalists, joined the primitive traders."

On December 27th, 1683, Captain Keigwin, assisted by Ensign Thornburn
and others, seized on Mr. Ward, the deputy governor, and such members
of the Council as adhered to him, assembled the troops and the
militia, pronounced the authority of the East India Company as at an
end by formal proclamation, and declared the island to be placed under
the King's immediate protection. Thereupon the garrison, consisting
of one hundred and fifty English soldiers and two hundred native
topasses, and the inhabitants of the island, elected Keigwin to be
governor, and appointed officers to the different companies,
store-keepers, harbour-masters, etc., declaring, however, that the
Company might, if their servants would acknowledge the King's
government as proclaimed, proceed in their several avocations without
molestation. Keigwin then took possession of the Company's ship
_Return_ and the frigate _Huntley_, and landed the treasure, amounting
to fifty or sixty thousand rupees, which he lodged in the fort, and he
published a declaration that it should be employed solely in the
defence of the King's island and government.

But Child looked ahead, and saw that inevitably James, Duke of York, at
no very distant period would be King of England. The Whigs were cowed by
the discovery of the Rye House Plot, and the execution of Lord Russell
and Algernon Sidney. It was high time for Child to turn his coat, and
this he did rapidly and with dexterity. He forced his two patrons,
Barnardiston and Papillon, out of the Company, filled their places with
creatures of his own, and established himself as autocrat. Then he made
overtures to the Court, to the King, and to the Duke of York, and he
soon became a favourite at Whitehall, and the favour which he enjoyed at
Whitehall confirmed his power at the India House. He made a present of
ten thousand pounds to Charles, and another ten thousand pounds to
James, who readily consented to become a holder of stock. "All who could
help or hurt at Court," says Macaulay, "ministers, mistresses, priests,
were kept in good humour by presents of shawls and silks, birds' nests
and attar of roses, bulses of diamonds and bags of guineas. His bribes,
distributed with judicious prodigality, speedily produced a large
return. Just when the Court became all-powerful in the State, he became
all-powerful at the Court."

Against such machinations as these Keigwin was powerless. Whatever
Child asked should be done to maintain the authority of the Company
was granted. Keigwin had appealed to hear the will of the King. The
King's answer was but the echo of the voice of Child.

On the 31st January, 1683-4, President John Child from Surat arrived off
Bombay with some commissioners, and met Keigwin with offers of pardon
for his rebellion, but the offer was indignantly refused. Keigwin would
deal with no one but the King himself, and some plain truths were told
to John Child, that it was he and his brother, by their greed after gold
and indifference to the welfare of the settlement, that caused all the
trouble. The consultation lasted till March, 1683-4, and then Child had
to return to Surat, without having effected anything.

In the meantime the Court of Directors sent in a report to the King,
on 15th August, 1684, with a long statement of its grievances, and a
claim for protection, according to the charter of the Society.

Charles II could do no other than order that the island should be
delivered over to the Presidency of Surat, and a Commission under the
Great Seal was issued to President Child and to the commanders of the
Company's ships, empowering them to receive the surrender of Bombay
from Keigwin and his associates and to offer a generous pardon to all,
except the four ringleaders, who should within twenty-four hours after
notice return to their duty.

Captain Tyrell, with H.M.S. _Phœnix_, frigate, was despatched, with
Sir Thomas Graham as admiral, to settle the affair.

But Captain Keigwin had no idea of resistance. It had been further
ordered that if Keigwin and his followers should attempt opposition,
all should be denounced as rebels, and a reward of 4000 rupees should
be paid to any one who should deliver up Keigwin, and 2000 for
Alderton, and 200 for Fletcher.

Sir Thomas Graham arrived in the Bay of Bombay on the 10th November,
1684, and with great promptitude landed without attendants, and had a
conference with Keigwin, who protested that he had only revolted
against the misgovernment of the Company, and to save Bombay from
being seized by one or other of the Indian princes who were aiming to
secure it. He at once accepted the offer made to him of pardon, and
surrendered Bombay. He went on board the vessel of Sir Thomas Graham
and arrived in England in July, 1685.

During his enjoyment of power Captain Keigwin had acted with integrity
and wisely and judiciously. He had relations with the native princes,
and he showed an amount of prudence and clear judgment that eventually
greatly benefited the East India Company. He induced Sambhajee, the
Mahratta rajah, to permit the establishment of factories in the
Carnatic and allow them 12,000 pagodas as compensation for losses
sustained at places plundered by the Mahrattas. Keigwin repressed the
insolence of the Mogul admiral, Siddee, with decision, and would
neither suffer him to keep his fleet at Mazapore, nor even to go
there, except for water. In fact, had the Company known it, they had
in Keigwin an admirable servant, a Clive before the time of that hero.

But the directors were a number of commercial speculators who saw no
further than a few years before them, and were eager at once to be
rich. They cast this man aside, who, had they employed him, would have
made India theirs; and, a disappointed man, he entered the Royal Navy
and died at the taking of S. Kitts, in the West Indies, in command of
H.M.S. _Assistance_, 22nd June, 1689.

It is one of the great mysteries of life and death that men who might
have revolutionized the world are swept aside and hardly anything is
recorded concerning them. Richard Keigwin was one such, full of
self-confidence, vigour of character, restraint, and judgment. But he
lived at a time and under a reign in which there was no appreciation
of merit, and corruption and self-interest bore him down.

FOOTNOTE:

[30] The Company levied a duty of half a dollar upon all ships anchoring
in the harbour, one rupee a year on each fishing-boat, and the same on
every ship. Lastly, with what seems unparalleled meanness, they ordered
that only half of the native labourers' wages should be paid in coin,
the other half in rice valued "at the Company's price," which would give
ten per cent clear profit after all expenses had been defrayed.

                         THE LOSS OF THE "KENT"

The _Kent_, Captain Henry Cobb, 1350 tons, bound for Bengal and China,
left the Downs on 19th February, 1825, with 20 officers, 344 soldiers,
43 women, and 66 children belonging to the 31st Regiment; 20 private
passengers and a crew, including officers, of 148 men on board, making
in all 641 souls.

A gale came on in the Bay of Biscay, and the ship rolled greatly. On
1st March the dead weight of some hundred tons of shot and shells,
pressed so heavily with the rolling that the main chains were thrown
by every lurch under water; and the best cleated articles of furniture
in the cabin and the cuddy (the large dining apartment) were dashed
from side to side.

One of the officers of the ship, with the well-meant intention of
ascertaining that all was fast below, descended with two of the
sailors into the hold, whither they carried with them for safety a
light in a patent lantern; and seeing that the lamp was burning dimly,
the officer took the precaution to hand it up to the orlop deck to be
trimmed. Having afterwards discovered that one of the spirit casks was
adrift, he sent a sailor for some billets of wood to secure it, but
the ship in his absence having made a heavy lurch, the officer
unfortunately dropped the light, and letting go of his hold of the
cask in his eagerness to recover the lantern, it suddenly stove, and,
the spirits communicating with the lamp, the whole place was
instantly in a blaze.

Major (afterwards Sir Duncan) McGregor, who was on board at the time
with his wife and family, says:--

"I received from Captain Spence, the captain of the day, the alarming
information that the ship was on fire in the after-hold. On hastening to
the hatchway whence smoke was slowly ascending, I found Captain Cobb and
other officers already giving orders, which seemed to be promptly obeyed
by seamen and troops, who were using every exertion by means of the
pumps, buckets of water, wet sails, hammocks, etc., to extinguish the
flames. With a view to excite the ladies' alarm as little as possible,
on conveying the intelligence to Colonel Faron, the commanding officer
of the troops, I knocked gently at the cabin door, and expressed a wish
to speak with him; but whether my countenance betrayed the state of my
feelings, or the increasing noise and confusion upon deck created
apprehension, I found it difficult to pacify some of the ladies by
assurances that no danger whatever was to be apprehended from the gale.
As long as the devouring element appeared to be confined to the spot
where the fire had originated, and which we were assured was surrounded
on all sides by water-casks, we ventured to cherish hopes that it might
be subdued; but no sooner was the light blue vapour that at first arose
succeeded by volumes of black dingy smoke, which speedily ascended
through all the four hatchways, rolled over every part of the ship, than
all further concealment became impossible, and almost all hope of
preserving the vessel was abandoned.

"In these awful circumstances, Captain Cobb, with an ability and
decision of character that seemed to increase with the imminence of the
danger, resorted to the only alternative now left him--of ordering the
lower decks to be scuttled, the combing of the hatches to be cut, and
the lower ports to be opened, for the free admission of the waves.

"These instructions were speedily executed by the united efforts of
the troops and seamen; but not before some of the sick soldiers, one
woman, and several children, unable to gain the upper deck, had
perished. On descending to the gun-deck with one or two officers of
the 31st Regiment to assist in opening the ports, I met, staggering
towards the hatchway, in an exhausted and nearly senseless state, one
of the mates, who informed us that he had just stumbled over the dead
bodies of some individuals who must have died of suffocation, to which
it was evident that he himself had almost fallen a victim. So dense
and oppressive was the smoke that it was with the utmost difficulty we
could remain long enough below to fulfil Captain Cobb's wishes; which
were no sooner accomplished than the sea rushed in with extraordinary
force, carrying away in its restless progress to the hold the largest
chests, bulkheads, etc."

The immense quantity of water that was thus introduced into the vessel
had, indeed, for a time the effect of checking the fury of the flames;
but the danger of sinking was increased as the risk of explosion, should
the fire reach the powder, was diminished. The ship became water-logged,
and presented other indications of settling previous to going down.

"The upper deck was covered with between six and seven hundred human
beings, many of whom from previous sea-sickness were forced on the
first alarm from below in a state of absolute nakedness, and were now
running about in quest of husbands, children, or parents. While some
were standing in silent resignation or in stupid insensibility to
their impending fate, others were yielding themselves up to the most
frantic despair. Several of the soldiers' wives and children, who had
fled for temporary shelter into the after cabins on the upper decks,
were engaged in prayer with the ladies, some of whom were enabled,
with wonderful self-possession, to offer to others spiritual
consolation; and the dignified deportment of two young ladies in
particular formed a specimen of natural strength of mind finely
modified by Christian feeling.

"Among the numerous objects that struck my observation at the period,
I was much affected by the appearance and conduct of some of the dear
children, who, quite unconscious in the cuddy cabin of the perils that
surrounded them, continued to play as usual with their little toys in
bed. To some of the older children, who seemed alive to the reality of
the danger, I whispered, 'Now is the time to put in practice the
instructions you have received at the regimental school and to think
of the Saviour.' They replied, as the tears ran down their cheeks, 'Oh
sir! we are trying to remember them, and we are praying to God.'

"It occurred to Mr. Thomson, the fourth mate, to send a man to the
foretop, rather with the ardent wish than with the expectation, that
some friendly sail might be discovered on the face of the waters. The
sailor, on mounting, threw his eyes round the horizon for a moment--a
moment of unutterable suspense--and, waving his hat, exclaimed, 'A
sail on the leeboard!'

"The joyful announcement was received with three cheers upon deck. Our
flags of distress were instantly hoisted and our minute guns fired;
and we endeavoured to bear down under our three topsails and foresail
upon the stranger, which afterwards proved to be the _Cambria_, a
small brig of 200 tons burden, having on board twenty or thirty
Cornish miners and other agents of the Anglo-Mexican Company.

"For ten or fifteen minutes we were left in doubt whether the brig
perceived our signals, or, perceiving them, was either disposed or
able to lend us any assistance. From the violence of the gale, it
seems that the report of our guns was not heard; but the ascending
volumes of smoke from the ship sufficiently announced the dreadful
nature of our distress, and we had the satisfaction, after a short
period of suspense, to see the brig hoist British colours and crowd
all sail to hasten to our relief.

"I confess that when I reflected on the long period our ship had
already been burning--on the tremendous sea that was running--on the
extreme smallness of the brig, and the immense number of human beings
to be saved--I could only venture to hope that a few might be spared;
but I durst not for a moment contemplate the possibility of my own
preservation."

To prevent the rush to the boats as they were being lowered, some of
the military officers were stationed over them with drawn swords.
Arrangements were made by Captain Cobb for placing in the first boat,
previous to letting it down, all the ladies and as many of the
soldiers' wives as it could safely contain. They hurriedly wrapped
themselves up in whatever articles of clothing could be found, and at
about 2 p.m. or 2.30 p.m. a mournful procession advanced from the aft
cabin to the starboard cuddy port, outside of which the cutter was
suspended. Scarcely a word was uttered; not a scream was heard. Even
the infants ceased to cry, as if conscious of the unspoken,
unspeakable anguish that was at that instant rending the hearts of
their parting parents--nor was the silence of voices in any way
broken, except in one or two cases, where the ladies plaintively
entreated permission to be left behind with their husbands.

Although Captain Cobb had used every precaution to diminish the danger
of the boat's descent, and for this purpose had stationed a man with an
axe to cut away the tackle from either extremity should the slightest
difficulty occur in unhooking it, yet the peril attending the whole
operation nearly proved fatal to its numerous inmates. After a couple of
unsuccessful attempts to place the frail bark fairly on the heaving
surface of the water, the command was given at length to unhook. The
tackle at the stern was, in consequence, immediately cleared; but the
ropes at the bow having got fast, the sailor there found it impossible
to obey the order. In vain was the axe applied to the entangled tackle.
The moment was inconceivably critical, as the boat, which necessarily
followed the motion of the ship, was gradually rising out of the water,
and must, in another instant, have been hanging perpendicularly by the
bow, and its helpless inmates in that event would have been shot down
into the boiling surf. But at that moment, providentially, a wave
suddenly struck and lifted the stern, so as to enable the seaman to
disentangle the tackle, and the boat, dexterously cleared from the
wreck, was seen after a little while from the poop battling with the
billows on its way to the _Cambria_, which prudently lay to at some
distance from the _Kent_, lest she should be involved in her explosion,
or exposed to the fire of her guns, which, being all shotted, afterwards
went off as the flames reached them successively.

The men had, accordingly, a considerable distance to row. The better
to balance the boat in the raging seas through which it had to make
its way, as also to enable the seamen to ply their oars, the women
and children were stowed promiscuously under the seats, and
consequently exposed to the risk of being drowned by the continual
dashing of the spray over their heads, which so filled the boat during
the passage, that before they arrived at the brig the poor creatures
were crouching up to their breasts in water, and their children kept
above it with the greatest difficulty by their numbed hands.

However, in the course of between twenty minutes and half an hour, the
little cutter was seen alongside the brig.

But the perils of the passage were not over; the boat was heaved up
against the side of the rolling and pitching _Cambria_, and the
difficulty of getting the women and children out of the cutter and on
to the deck was great. Moreover, the boat stood in imminent danger of
being stove in against the side of the brig whilst its passengers were
disembarking.

Here it was that the Cornish miners on board the _Cambria_ notably
distinguished themselves, and above all Joseph Warren from S. Just, a
famous wrestler. Being a man of enormous strength, he stood on the
chains and caught first the children as they were tossed to his arms,
passed them up on deck, and then lifted the women bodily from the boat
as it heaved up within his reach, and passed them over his head to the
men above.

The women showed great self-possession. They had been urged to avail
themselves of every favourable heave of the sea, by springing towards
the friendly arms that were extended to receive them; and
notwithstanding the deplorable consequence of making a false step, or
misjudging a distance, under such critical circumstances, not a single
accident occurred to any individual belonging to this first boat.

Three out of the six boats originally possessed by the _Kent_ were
swamped in the course of the day, one of them with men in it; and the
boats took three-quarters of an hour over each trip, so that night
settled down, adding to the difficulties and dangers, and bringing
ever nearer the prospect of the fire reaching the powder magazine and
blowing all who remained on board into eternity.

Sir Donald McGregor tells some pathetic stories of the rest of the
crew and passengers. One woman had vainly entreated to be allowed to
go to India with her husband, and when refused, had contrived to hide
herself in the vessel as a stowaway till it was well out at sea. As he
was endeavouring to reach one of the boats, he fell overboard, and his
head, coming between the heaving boat and the side of the ship, was
crushed like a nut in her sight. Sad instances occurred where a
husband had to make election between the saving of his wife and that
of his children. The courage of some utterly failed them. Nothing
would induce them to enter or try to enter one of the boats leaping on
the waves beside the burning ship. Rather than adventure that they
would remain and take their chances on the wreck. Some, making false
leaps into the boats, fell into the waves and were drowned.

At last all who could or would be saved were brought on board the
_Cambria_.

"After the arrival of the last boat, the flames, which had spread
along her upper deck and poop, ascended with the rapidity of lightning
to the masts and rigging, forming one general conflagration that
illumined the heavens, and was strongly reflected upon several objects
on board the brig.

"The flags of distress, hoisted in the morning, were seen for a
considerable time waving amid the flames, until the masts to which
they were suspended successively fell over the ship's sides. At last,
about 1.30 in the morning, the devouring element having communicated
to the magazine, the long-threatened explosion was seen, and the
blazing fragments of the once magnificent _Kent_ were instantly
hurried, like so many rockets, high into the air, leaving in the
comparative darkness that succeeded the dreadful scene of that
disastrous day floating before the mind like some feverish dream.

"I trust that you will keep in mind that Captain Cook's generous
intentions and exertions must have proved utterly unavailing for the
preservation of so many lives had they not been most nobly and
unremittingly supported by those of his mate and crew, as well as of
the numerous passengers on board his brig. While the former, only
eight in number, were usefully employed in watching the vessel, the
sturdy Cornish miners and Yorkshire smelters, on the approach of the
different boats, took their perilous station upon the chains, where
they put forth the great muscular strength with which Heaven had
endowed them, in dexterously seizing, at each successive heave of the
sea, on some of the exhausted people and dragging them upon deck. Nor
did their kind anxieties terminate there. They and the gentlemen
connected with them cheerfully opened their stores of clothes and
provisions, which they liberally dispensed to the naked and famished
sufferers; and they surrendered their beds to the helpless women and
children, and seemed, in short, during the whole passage to England,
to take no other delight than in ministering to all our wants."

Captain Cook of the _Cambria_ at once turned the vessel and steered
for Falmouth.

On reaching Falmouth report of the distressed condition of those who
had been rescued was sent to Colonel Fenwick, Lieutenant-Governor of
Pendennis Castle, and the people of Falmouth showed the utmost
kindness and hospitality to those who had been saved.

On the first Sunday after they had disembarked, Colonel Fearon, all
the officers and men, Captain Cobb and the sailors and passengers
attended church at Falmouth to give thanks to Almighty God for their
deliverance from a fearful death.

                                      "FALMOUTH, _March 16th, 1825_.

                 "_To the Committee of the Inhabitants of Falmouth._

  "GENTLEMEN,

    "In tracing the various links in the ample chain of mercy and bounty
    with which it has pleased a gracious Providence to surround the
    numerous individuals lately rescued from the destruction of the Hon.
    Company's ship _Kent_, we, the Lieut.-Col. Commanding, and officers
    belonging to the right wing of the 31st Regiment, cannot but reflect
    with increasing gratitude on the beneficence of that arrangement
    whereby ourselves and our gallant men, after the awful and
    afflicting calamity that befell us, were cast upon the sympathies of
    the inhabitants of Falmouth and the adjacent towns, who have so
    widely opened their hearts to feel, and munificently extended their
    hands to provide for our numerous and necessary wants.

    "We were thrown upon your shore as penniless strangers, and ye took
    us in; we were hungry and ye gave us meat; naked and ye clothed us;
    sick and ye relieved and comforted us. We have found you rejoicing
    with those of us who rejoiced, and weeping with such of us as had
    cause to weep. You have visited our fatherless and widows in their
    affliction, and sought by increasing acts of the most seasonable,
    effective, and delicate charity, to alleviate the measure of our
    sufferings.

    "Under such circumstances, what can we say, or where shall we find
    words to express our emotions? You have created between us and our
    beloved country an additional bond of affection and gratitude, that
    will animate our future zeal, and enable us, amidst all the
    vicissitudes of our professional life, to point out Falmouth to our
    companions in arms as one of the bright spots in our happy land
    where the friendless shall find many friends, and the afflicted
    receive abundant consolation.

                    "In the name and on behalf of the officers of the

                       "Right Wing of the 31st Regiment,

                           "R. B. FEARON, Lieut-Col., 31st Foot."

Joseph Warren, the S. Just miner and wrestler who had so powerfully
assisted in the rescue of the unfortunates from the _Kent_, strained his
back in heaving up the women on deck, that ever after deprived him of
power to wrestle or exercise his ancient strength. One of the ladies
whom he had rescued paid him an annuity through the rest of his life,
and he died at his old home at S. Just-in-Penwith, 28th January, 1842.

                      VICE-ADMIRAL SIR CHARLES V.
                                PENROSE

The Penrose family is one of the most ancient in Cornwall. The name
signifies the Head of the Moor, and it belonged _par excellence_ to
the Land's End, where, at S. Sennen, we find the Penroses seated as
landed gentry from the time of Edward I. They had branches in Sithney,
Manaccan, and S. Anthony-in-Meneage. They mated with the best in the
county--the Trefusis, the Killigrews, the Eriseys, and the Boscawens.
One broke away from the circle of beautiful Celtic names, and took to
wife a daughter of Sir Anthony Buggs, Knt. Happy must the lady have
felt to cease to be Miss Buggs and become Madame Penrose!

Charles Vinicombe Penrose was the youngest son and child of the Rev.
John Penrose, vicar of Gluvias, and was born at Gluvias, June 20th,
1759. In the spring of 1775 he was appointed midshipman on board the
_Levant_ frigate, Captain Murray, under whose command he passed the
whole period of his service during the next twenty-two years of his
life, and who (with one trifling exception) was the only captain with
whom he ever sailed, either as midshipman or as lieutenant. In 1779
young Penrose was made lieutenant, and was appointed to the _Cleopatra_.

All the summer and a part of the winter of 1780 were passed in cruising
off the Flemish bank. Captain Murray was then sent with a small
squadron to intercept the trade which the Americans were carrying on
with Gothenburg by passing to the north of the Shetland Isles. The
biting cold made this a source of extreme hardship, and the young
lieutenant, now first lieutenant, suffered severely. The illness of the
captain, and the incapacity of some of the officers, threw on him almost
the whole care of the ship, and this under circumstances that required
the skill and caution of the seaman to be ever on the alert.

[Illustration: VICE-ADMIRAL SIR CHARLES V. PENROSE, K.C.B.]

"I had, however," he wrote, "no time to nurse myself, though I had
pleurisy, besides my chilblains. For these latter I used to have warm
vinegar and sal ammoniac brought frequently on deck, and, to allay the
raging pain, dipped thin gloves into the mixture, and put them on
under thick worsted mittens. At one time rheumatism had so got hold of
me that I was not able to stand, but lay wrapped up in flannel on an
arm-chest, on the forepart of the quarter-deck, to give my orders.

"On one occasion, in a severe gale, the ship covered with frozen snow,
the main topmast was carried away; we were the whole day clearing the
wreck, and I was much fatigued but obliged to keep the first watch. We
were lying to under bare poles, and I had sent all the men under
shelter except one man at the helm and the mate of the watch; and I
had, with much difficulty, cleared a place for myself between two of
the guns, where, holding by a rope, I could move two or three short
paces backwards and forwards. About nine o'clock my messmates sent to
ask if I would have anything, and I thoughtlessly ordered a glass of
warm brandy and water, which they as thoughtlessly sent. I drank about
half, and gave the rest to the mate. In a minute I felt a glow of
warmth. Health, animation, freedom from fatigue, all came in their
climax of comfort. The next minute I fell sleeping on the deck.
Fortunately for me, my comrade was an old seaman, and he instantly
knew my case and dragged me down the ladder. I was put to bed; was
badly treated, as I was rubbed with spirits; but after excruciating
pain, I recovered. Had the officer of the watch been a young gentleman
without experience, I should never have told my story."

In 1781 the _Cleopatra_ was in the action off the Dogger Bank, but in
1783 was paid off. "At this time," wrote Mr. Penrose, "after having
been for eleven years conversant only with nautical affairs, I really
felt a great puzzle to know how a shore life could be endured. I had
entered into my profession with all my heart, and was at this time as
nearly a fish as a finless animal can become."

In 1787 he married Miss Trevenen, the elder sister of his brother's
wife, and by her had three daughters. He was not at sea again till 1790,
when he accompanied Captain Murray in the _Defence_, and was engaged in
the West Indies. At the latter end of 1796 he was again returned to the
_Cleopatra_, in which ship he had the melancholy satisfaction of
conveying to England his friend and admiral, who had been seized with a
paralytic affection from which he never recovered. The voyage home was
tempestuous; but at length, and nearly at its close, the wind had come
right aft, and the captain, who, though ill, was on deck, believed
himself to be making rapid way up the Channel. On a sudden a light,
which he knew to be the Scilly light, flashed across him, and he saw
that he was between Scilly and the Land's End. He instantly stood to the
south, but had hardly changed his course when he saw, close astern in
the dark night, a wave break under the bow of a large ship, steering
exactly in the direction which he had left. "I never felt so sick
before," he wrote. "I felt certain that in an hour's time she would be
on the rocks, the wind blowing almost a storm. I shouted through the
trumpet, I threw up lights, and fired guns, to give the alarm, but with
the inward conviction at the time that it was all in vain--and so it
was. This ship was never heard of again; and though fragments of a wreck
were found the next morning on the coast near the Land's End, nothing
was discovered to indicate what wreck it was."

The _Cleopatra_, on her return to England, was laid up for some months
at Portsmouth in dock, and shortly after her repairs were completed
the mutiny broke out at Spithead. Captain Penrose had the satisfaction
that his own crew, from the beginning to the end of this anxious
period, stood firm to their duty; a consequence undoubtedly of the
manner in which he invariably treated his men, with kindly
consideration and as reasonable beings.

He now went ashore, as his health was broken, and in May, 1798, went
to reside at Ethy, near Lostwithiel, where, so soon as his health was
re-established, he settled his family and looked out for fresh
employment. He was appointed early in 1799 to the _Sans Pareil_, of
eighty guns, and served in the West Indies till 1802, when he returned
to England, having suffered from sunstroke. In 1810 Captain Penrose
was appointed to the chief command at Gibraltar, with the rank of
commodore. He hoisted his flag on board the _San Juan_, and had to
direct the proceedings of a large flotilla which proved of great
utility in the defence of Cadiz and Tarifa, and in other operations
against the French under Marshal Soult. On December 4th, 1813, he was
promoted to be Admiral of the Blue, and shortly after to superintend
the naval service connected with Wellington's army, then advanced as
far as the Pyrenees. His orders were to proceed to the small port of
Passages, and there hoist his flag on board the _Porcupine_. Admiral
Penrose arrived at Passages on January 27th, 1814. The chief business
which now devolved on the naval service was to make the necessary
preparations for throwing a floating bridge across the Adour. This
bridge was to be composed of small coasting vessels, decked boats,
cables and planks. Above the bridge were to be anchored for its
protection as many gunboats as could be furnished, and, to guard both
these and the bridge from fire-ships or rafts, a boom was also to be
laid across the river further up the stream. These measures were
consequent on the investment of Bayonne. Great difficulties were to be
expected in passing the bar of the Adour, which, at the place where
the bridge was to be built, was four hundred yards wide, and where the
ebb-tide ran at the rate of eight miles an hour. The Admiral
determined to superintend the operation in person. On the afternoon of
the 22nd the _Porcupine_, conveying some transports and several large
coasting vessels laden with materials, left the harbour. But squally
weather and baffling winds came on during the night, and he was unable
to bring the flotilla to the bar before the morning of the 24th.

The passing of the bar, a most perilous service, has been described,
as seen from the shore, by Mr. Gleig in the _Subaltern_.

It was nearly high water, and the wind was fair; both officers and
soldiers gathered on the heights around, and the passage of each
vessel was eagerly watched, from the moment it was immersed in the
foaming breakers until it issued forth in the placid waters of the
river beyond. Some few vessels broached to and sank; but, on the
whole, the attempt fully succeeded, and with fewer casualties than
could have been expected. General Sir John Hope, who commanded on
shore, said, in a letter to the Admiral: "I have often seen how
gallantly the navy will devote themselves when serving with an army,
but I never before witnessed so bold and hazardous a co-operation, and
you have my most grateful thanks. I wrote to you in the course of last
night, to say how much we stood in need of boats, seamen, etc., but
when I saw the flotilla approach the wall of heavy surf, I regretted
all I had said."

So soon as the boats had thus entered the river, no time was lost in
running those which were intended to form the bridge up to their
stations, where the bridge was rapidly formed; and at dawn on the
following day, it was declared that infantry might cross it with
safety. On the 27th Bayonne was closely invested by Sir John Hope, and
Marshal Soult completely routed at Orthez by Wellington.

On March 22nd Admiral Penrose received instructions from the Duke to
occupy the Gironde. On the 24th he sailed in the _Porcupine_, taking
with him some brigs and a bomb vessel, and he was joined at the mouth
of the river by the _Egmont_, the _Andromache_, the _Challenger_, and
the _Belle Poule_. On the 27th he entered the river, the _Andromache_
taking the lead. The want of pilots and the haziness of the atmosphere
rendered the navigation difficult. The course taken was within easy
reach of the shot from the enemy's batteries, but these passed clear
of the ships, and every considerable danger was successfully overcome,
when a clear sun broke forth to animate the progress up the stream.

The abdication of Napoleon, 6th April, 1814, and the restoration of
the Bourbons followed, and Admiral Penrose left the Gironde on May
22nd, and returned to Passages to superintend the embarkation of the
troops and stores. The difficulties were great. The inadequate supply
of transports precluded the affording, even to the sick and wounded,
the accommodation of which they were in need; and the hatred borne by
the Spanish population to the British troops burst forth more and more
as their strength diminished. Although English blood and treasure had
been poured forth to assist Spain against the despotism of Napoleon
and in driving the French out of the country, not a spark of gratitude
was manifested by the Spaniards. It was thought on this occasion
highly probable that some outrage would be attempted in the rear of
the embarkation. Indeed, a plan had been formed by some Spaniards to
seize the military chest, and for security it had to be conveyed on
board the _Lyra_, and a volley of stones was hurled at the last boat
that left the shore. During Admiral Penrose's whole stay on this
ungrateful coast, he never received a visit or the smallest mark of
attention from a single Spaniard; and on his leaving Passages, not one
individual in the town was seen to look out of a window to watch the
sailing of the fleet.

The _Porcupine_ anchored in Plymouth Sound, September 6th, and the
Admiral struck his flag on the 12th, with but little expectation, now
that peace had revisited Europe, of being again actively employed. On
the 16th, however, he received a letter from Lord Melville, offering
him the command of the fleet in the Mediterranean, become vacant by
the recall of Admiral Hallowell. The offer was accepted, and on
October 3rd Admiral Penrose hoisted his flag at Plymouth, on board the
_Queen_, and left Plymouth on the 8th.

Whilst in the Mediterranean, he heard on March 12th, 1815, of the
escape of Napoleon from Elba, and of his having reached Prejus.

In January, 1816, Admiral Penrose was promoted to the rank of Knight
Commander of the Bath.

On March 1st he received letters from Lord Exmouth, who appointed a
meeting at Port Mahon to proceed against Algiers and Tunis to put an
end to the piracies that were carried on from these two places. The
squadron sailed for Algiers March 21st. Admiral Penrose wrote: "On
arriving at their destination, the ships anchored in two lines out of
gun-shot from the batteries, and by signal made all ready for battle;
but all went off quietly, and the slaves in whose behalf the
expedition was undertaken were ransomed on the terms which Lord
Exmouth proposed." From Algiers the squadron sailed for Tunis, and
here also the Bey submitted to the demand made on him, and thus ended
this impotent expedition. The Bey of Algiers was by no means so
overawed that he desisted from his nefarious practices, and a second
expedition was sent against him under Lord Exmouth in 1816.

By an unfortunate oversight, rather than intentional lack of courtesy,
no notice had been sent to the Admiral in command of the Mediterranean
that Lord Exmouth had been despatched to bombard Algiers and destroy
the piratical fleet. Admiral Penrose was at Malta, and hearing in a
roundabout way that Lord Exmouth, with a fleet fitted out at home, had
entered the Mediterranean and was on his way to Algiers, he deemed it
advisable to leave Malta and visit this fleet. He did not arrive off
Algiers till the 29th August. The action had been on the 27th, and the
first objects seen on entering the bay were the still smoking wrecks
of the Algerine navy, and then the fleet of Lord Exmouth engaged in
repairing the injuries which it had sustained.

Admiral Penrose was cut to the quick by the slight put upon him, and
he wrote to remonstrate with the Admiralty, but received in reply only
a rebuke for expressing his indignation in a tone that the Admiralty
did not relish.

There is no need to attend Admiral Penrose in his cruises and visits
to the Ionian Islands, but his diary may be quoted relative to an
expedition made early in 1818, in company with Sir Thomas Maitland, to
visit Ali Pasha.

The history of this second Nero, with whom to our disgrace we entered
into alliance, and supplied with cannon and muskets, may be given in
brief.

Ali, surnamed Arslan, the Lion, was an Albanian born about the year
1741. His father, driven from his paternal mansion, placed himself at
the head of some bandits, surrounded the house in which were his
brothers, and burnt them in it alive. The mother of Ali, daughter of a
bey, was of a vindictive and ferocious character, and on the death of
her husband had the formation of the character of Ali in her hands,
and she inspired him with remorselessness, ambition, and subtlety. Ali
assisted the Sultan in the war with Russia, and was rewarded by being
created a pasha of two tails and governor of Tricala, in Thessaly.
Soon by means of intrigue and crime he obtained the pashalics of
Janina and Arta; then he was granted the government of Acharnania,
and, finding himself strong enough to do what he liked, he attacked
neighbouring provinces, and banished or put to death in them all the
Mussulman and Christian inhabitants whose goods he coveted, or who had
given him umbrage. Then he attacked the Christian Suliotes and
massacred them. Previsa and some other Christian towns on the coast
had belonged to the republic of Venice. In 1797 the Queen of the
Adriatic, having been overthrown by Bonaparte, Ali took the
opportunity, at the feast of Easter, to descend on them when all the
inhabitants were keeping holiday, and massacre over six thousand and
plunder the houses. The English Government entered into negotiations
with him, gave him a park of artillery and six hundred gunshots. Thus
furnished he attacked Berat, the pasha of which was the father of his
two sons' wives. He took the place and threw the pasha into a
subterranean dungeon under his palace at Janina.

He seized on the Albanian towns of Argyro-Kastro and Kardihi. The
inhabitants of the latter surrendered without striking a blow; but as
they had at some former time offended his mother, he put all the males
to the sword, and handed over the women to his sister, who, after
having delivered them up to the most horrible outrages, had them
stripped stark naked and driven into the forests, where nearly all
perished of cold and hunger. When Napoleon fell, Ali got the English
to cede to him the town of Parga. It was concerning this cession that
the English Government thought it no shame to send Sir Thomas Maitland
to Ali to negotiate with him at Previsa. "The General embarked with
the ladies (Lady Ponsonby, Lady Lauderdale and her daughters) in the
_Glasgow_, and with the two ships we proceeded to the anchorage of
Prevesa. On the evening of our arrival I despatched the second
lieutenant to find at what time on the following day Ali would receive
us. His report of the chief himself was wittily characteristic: 'He is
exactly like a sugar hogshead, dressed in scarlet and gold.'

"A long and heavy pull we had the next day in the _Glasgow's_ fine
barge against a very cold wind, but at last we reached the land. The
palace of the ferocious chief whom we had come to visit was built of
wood, and on the water's edge, so that the boats landed at one of the
doors, contrived, no doubt, to enable the owner to escape in that
direction if requisite. It was an immense building, badly finished,
not painted, and badly furnished, but calculated to lodge about three
thousand persons. The chief, with all his heads of departments, and
his son and grandson, received us in a small room, one end of which
was occupied by a comfortable and well-cushioned divan. Here we were
soon served with coffee in beautiful china and gold cups and saucers,
and magnificent pipes.

"Sir Thomas introduced me as the naval commander-in-chief. Before we
returned to our ships an excellent collation was provided on a long
table; but the climate was severe in this wild mansion, and after
trying many bottles of execrable light wines, great was my joy in
finding a flask of excellent brandy.

"I had several good opportunities of watching the countenance of the
extraordinary man who was now our host, and I never could observe the
smallest indication without of what was passing in his breast. Simple
benevolence was apparently beaming from the whole expression of this
human butcher. At one time particularly, when I know for a certainty
that he was both angry and mortified at some turn in the investigations,
I sat opposite him at only a yard's distance, and could not perceive the
smallest outward token of the storm within. He once questioned me about
my family, whether I was married, etc.; and when I told him I had three
daughters, 'What, no sons? Why have you not them?' and burst forth into
one of his frightful haugh-haugh laughs, which were quite disgusting,
and resembled the grunt of a wild beast.

"As a high honour, on the day on which the ladies were with us, he sat
at the head of the table at dinner. The dinner was much more profuse
than elegant; and one of Ali's first operations was to cut off the
fore-quarter of a roasted lamb, and with his hand tear out the flesh
between the shoulder and the breast, which he devoured with great
glee. Lady Lauderdale sat on his right hand, and I was next her. Ali,
understanding that she chose some turkey, had one brought before him,
and helped her with a fore-quarter of an immense bird, which, of
course, puzzled her greatly. Whereupon, bowing for permission from our
host, I cut off a proper portion from the wing, and helped myself to
the remainder. When Ali saw what a small portion I had allotted to the
lady, he grunted out his peculiar laugh, but luckily did not persist
in the cramming system.

"Even at this more distinguished feast good wines were not the order
of the day, and I had again recourse to the brandy bottle. I know not
what Ali had in a particular bottle placed near himself, as he
indulged no one but Sir Thomas Maitland with a taste of it, but I do
not recollect hearing it praised. The chief took a good portion of
this bottle to himself, heedless of the Koran and the prophet.

"Immediately after dinner dancing boys were introduced, and performed
a great number of evolutions, showing the most extraordinary
flexibility in every part of the body. These poor creatures must have
been Nazarites from their birth, as their hair was long enough to
reach to the floor as they stood, and great part of their skill was
displayed in throwing about these profuse locks with their arms. I
think these boys must have been of Indian extraction.

"The ladies having heard that Ali had bought a diamond of great value
from poor Gustavus, the ex-King of Sweden, expressed a strong desire to
see it. He assented graciously, and ordered a plate to be brought to
him. He then searched in the folds of his own fat neck, and at last
untied a string to which was affixed a little bag of either oil-cloth or
bladder. Out of this he took a coarse paper parcel, and having opened
the envelope, and three or four interior papers, he, with a pretended
air of indifference, threw out on the plate a considerable number of
diamonds, which some of our party valued at £30,000. Among these was the
diamond of the ex-King, which had been valued at £12,000; but owing
partly to his necessities, and, perhaps, partly also to a change in
value, Ali purchased it, I think, for £7000 or £8000.

"The strangest part of this story was that such a man could display
such a treasure, showing that it was usually concealed about his
person, before a considerable number of his own subjects as well as
strangers. There seemed to be the freest possible ingress and egress
to and from the hall in which we sat; and beside his officers of
state, there were many menials in the hall at the time. In what, then,
consisted the confidence which he must have felt? It could not have
been derived from conscious virtue, or security of attachment; and,
except at the gate which led from the great square of the palace
towards the town, I never saw anything like guard or sentinel.

"Besides the dish of diamonds, Ali kept by his side a brace of pistols
richly set with valuable jewels, a present from Napoleon; and in his
girdle he always wore a dagger, the hilt of which must have been worth
£2000 or £3000; one stone especially being very large. Probably the
reign of terror might operate to some degree as a safeguard; but the
appearance of the people immediately about Ali's person indicated much
more confidence than fear.

"Our ladies had been introduced into the harem, and to the favourite
Fatima, who, as we were told, was the best _scratcher_ Ali ever had.
One of his chief luxuries was to have his immense, coarse carcase
scratched for a considerable time daily by his female friends."

The end of this man, Ali Pasha, may be briefly told. He had become
independent, disregarding the authority of the Sultan, and a menace to
the State. Accordingly an army was despatched to Janina, and a fleet
to make a descent on the coasts of Epirus. Ali, in spite of his great
age, exhibited great energy, and prepared to resist, but his fatal
avarice stood in his way. With his enormous treasures he could have
secured the fidelity of his troops, but he could not make up his mind
to deal liberally with his defenders, and most deserted. His own sons
and grandsons, with one exception, passed over into the enemy's camp.
He set the town of Janina on fire, and retired himself into the
fortress, which was defended by Italian and French artillerymen, and
which bristled with cannon. This was in August, 1820. At the beginning
of 1821 the Sultan gave the command of his forces to Khorchid Pasha,
and the siege was begun. Ali had previously sunk one portion of his
treasure in the lake in spots where it could be recovered by himself
when the storm blew over; the rest was in his cellar heaped up over
barrels of gunpowder, and a faithful attendant stood ever by with a
lighted fuse in his hand. Khorchid was particularly desirous of
securing the treasure. He proposed an interview in an island of the
lake. After some hesitation Ali, who had now but fifty men in his
garrison, consented. The interview took place on the 5th February,
1822; Khorchid had taken the precaution to surround the island with
soldiers, but concealed. When they met, the officer of the Sultan
produced a firman granting complete forgiveness to Ali for all his
crimes and defiance, on condition that he surrendered some of his
treasures. Ali then drew off his ring, handed it to the general, and
said, "Show that to my slave, and he will extinguish the fuse."

Ali was detained in the palace on the isle till messengers had been
sent to the fortress, and the slave, obedient to the token, had put
out the light, whereupon he was at once stabbed. When Khorchid knew
that the treasure was secure, he summoned the soldiery, and they fired
into the kiosk from all sides and through the floor, till Ali was
struck mortally.

The moral infamies of this man are not to be described.

When the negotiations with Ali Pasha were ended, the Lord High
Commissioner and the ladies returned to Corfu, and Sir Charles Penrose
went back to his fleet.

He returned to England in 1819, being succeeded in his command by
Admiral Freemantle.

He again made Ethy his home, taking occasional flights to London to
obtain some other naval appointment, which would not compel a
severance from his family, but none was available, and, finally, as
his wife's health and his own began to fail, he was content to remain
in his quiet Cornish home. There he died January 1st, 1830, at the age
of seventy; and Lady Penrose died in 1832.

The Life of Vice-Admiral Sir C. V. Penrose, K.C.B., together with that
of Captain James Trevenen, was written by their nephew, the Rev. John
Penrose, and published by John Murray, 1850, with portrait.

                     SIR CHRISTOPHER HAWKINS, BART.

Kit Hawkins, as he was familiarly termed in Cornwall, played a
considerable part at the close of the eighteenth century, and before
the passing of the Reform Bill, as a borough-monger. There was a
contemporary with a similar reputation, Manasseh Lopes, a Jew diamond
merchant from Jamaica, and both purchased their baronetcies by
subservience to the Government in finding places for their nominees in
the pocket boroughs they had got into their hands. When Manasseh Lopes
drove into Fowey with his candidates, the town band stalked before the
carriage playing "The Rogues' March"; when Kit Hawkins arrived in
Grampound or S. Ives with a carriage and four, and his candidates with
him, the band played "See the Conquering Hero Comes"--but he conquered
not with weapons of steel, but with golden guineas, handed over to him
by the candidates, a share of which passed to the electors.

The Cornish Hawkins family pretended to derive from a very distinguished
Roman Catholic stock in Kent, whose place, Nash, was plundered in 1715
by the rabble, on account of the Jacobite proclivities of the Hawkins
family and the excitement caused by the rebellion in Scotland of the
Earl of Mar. On this occasion all the family plate, portraits, and deeds
were carried off; some were burnt, some were recovered.

But not a shadow of evidence is forthcoming to show that there was any
descent of the Hawkins family in Cornwall from that in Kent. The
story given out was that on account of the religious persecution in
the time of Queen Mary, two of the Kent Hawkinses left the paternal
nest: one settled in Somersetshire and the other in Cornwall, where
each became the founder of a family. It was forgotten, when this
fiction was given to the world, that the Hawkins stock in Kent was
Roman Catholic, and not at all likely to be troubled by Queen Mary.

The first Cornish Hawkins of whom anything is known is Thomas of
Mevagissey, who married a certain Audrey, her surname unknown, by whom
he had two sons, John and Thomas, and three daughters.

John Hawkins, of S. Erth, the eldest, married Loveday, daughter of
George Tremhayle, by whom--who was living in 1676--he had four
surviving sons and three daughters, viz. Thomas; George, Vicar of
Sithney; Reginald, D.D., Master of Pembroke College, Cambridge; and
Francis. Thomas, the eldest, of Trewinnard in S. Erth, married
Florence, daughter of James Praed, of Trevethow, near Hayle, by whom
he had a daughter, Florence, the wife of John Williams, merchant, of
Helston; and as his second wife he had Anne, daughter of Christopher
Bellot, of Bodmin, by whom he had six daughters and four sons, of
which latter, John, Thomas, and Renatus died young, and only
Christopher lived. Thomas Hawkins, the father, died in 1716.

Christopher Hawkins, of Trewinnard, only surviving son, married Mary,
daughter of Philip Hawkins, of Penzance, a supposed descendant of the
Hawkinses of Devonshire, by whom he had a daughter, Jane, married to
Sir Richard Vyvyan, of Trelowaren, Bart., and a son, Thomas Hawkins,
of Trewithen, M.P. for Grampound, who married Anne, daughter of James
Heywood, of London, by whom he had four sons--Philip, who d.s.p.;
Christopher; Thomas, who d.s.p.; John, of Bignor, Sussex, who married
the daughter of Humphrey Sibthorpe, M.P. for Lincoln--and a daughter,
who married Charles Trelawny, son of General Trelawny. Thomas Hawkins
died on December 1st, 1770, and was succeeded by his second son,
Christopher Hawkins, of Trewithen and Trewinnard, born at Trewithen
May, 1758.[31] The seat Trewithen in Probus descended to his father
from his grandmother's brother, Philip Hawkins, M.P. for the pocket
borough of Grampound.

Christopher Hawkins came in for a good deal of land, derived through
the marriage of the ancestors of Philip Hawkins, of Trewithen, with
the heiresses of Scobell and Tredenham and that of his own
great-grandfather to the co-heiress of Bellot of Bochym.

Christopher never married, and was of a frugal mind, buying land in
all directions, and securing the pocket boroughs, where possible, as
excellent investments. It was said of Trewithen--

          A large park without deer,
          A large cellar without beer,
          A large house without cheer,
          Sir Christopher Hawkins lives here.

But this was not fair, for there was certainly hospitality shown at
Trewithen. Polwhele says: "Not a week before his death, I passed a
delightful day with the hospitable baronet. To draw around him the few
literary characters of his neighbourhood was his peculiar pleasure; and
at Trewithen the clergy in particular had always a hearty welcome."

He purchased the manor of S. Ives in or about 1807, the fair at
Mitchell, in Enoder, commanding the election to that borough, and the
four fairs at Grampound giving him control there also over elections.

A good many of the Cornish boroughs had been so constituted in the
reign of Edward VI by the Protector Somerset, that he might get his
own creatures into Parliament. Such were Camelford, Mitchell, Newport,
Saltash, West Looe, Bossiney, Grampound, and Penryn. Queen Mary raised
S. Ives into a borough in 1550, and Elizabeth created six more to
serve her own political purposes, S. Germans, S. Mawes, Tregony, East
Looe, Fowey, and Callington.

Mitchell is a mere hamlet, and in 1660 the franchise was solemnly
transferred from the inhabitants at large to nominees of the lord of the
manor. In 1689 it was determined that the right of election lay in the
lords of the borough, who were liable to be chosen portreeve thereof,
and the householders of the same not receiving alms. But the borough in
the latter years of its existence became a battleground of many
combatants, and as the right of voting was, until 1701, left in great
ambiguity by successive election committees, the result of the contest
could never be predicted. In 1701, the right of election for this
distracted borough was again changed. This time it was vested in the
portreeve and lord of the manor and the inhabitants paying scot and lot.
In 1784, Hawkins and Howell were elected members, and sat in Parliament
for Mitchell for twelve years, till 1796, and Sir Christopher became by
purchase the sole owner of the borough; and after Howell had ceased to
represent Mitchell, he continued as its representative to 1806, when he
surrendered his seat to Arthur Wellesley, subsequently Duke of
Wellington. The electors by this time had been reduced to five. In the
eleven years, 1807-18, there were nine elections at Mitchell, not owing
to feuds, but retirement of members. No event of importance occurred
after 1818 to 1832, except the extraordinary and significant revelation
that at the contested election of 1831, when Hawkins (Sir Christopher's
nephew) got two votes, Kenyon five, and Best three. Five voters to
return two members. In 1833 those five electors found their borough
disfranchised, a fate it richly deserved.

Penryn had been raised into the position of a borough returning two
members of Parliament, in 1553.

Mr. Courtney says of 1774: "About this period the borough of Penryn
began to be notorious through the county for the readiness of its
voters to barter their rights for pecuniary considerations. The
franchise was on such an extended basis that almost every householder,
though many of these were labourers, indigent and ignorant, was an
elector." In 1807 there were, however, but 140; in 1819 they had risen
to 328. Each got a "breakfast" and £24 for his vote.

In 1780, Sir Francis Bassett gave a feast to the whole borough; he
continued his patronage till 1807, as Lord de Dunstanville. In 1802
Swann and Milford contested a vacant seat in the borough, and
Dunstanville to secure the second seat had to resort to putting
faggot-voters on the poor-rates, the night before the election.
Petition being made against the election, it ended in a compromise,
and Swann received £10,000 besides expenses. Lord de Dunstanville,
disgusted at the expense and the weakening of his influence, abandoned
the borough. Swann thereupon gave a "breakfast" to his supporters; a
"breakfast" was synonymous with a bribe of £24. Penryn was concerned
at the retirement of its lordly patron, and founded a club in 1805 for
electors, such as would most conduce to the pecuniary welfare of the
voters. When the election of 1806 was imminent and the former patron
had withdrawn, a deputation of the members was sent to Trewithen to
that notorious election-monger, Sir Kit, to tender to him the goodwill
of the constituency. "The details of the negotiations conducted at
this interview," says Mr. Courtney, "became the subject of subsequent
investigation; but it was admitted that the voters stopped there for
four hours and dined at the baronet's table, which on this occasion,
no doubt, was more freely supplied than according to local gossip was
the custom on ordinary days. The deputation informed Sir Christopher
that Mr. Swann--the Black Swan as he was called by his enemies--who
had been nursing the borough since 1802, must obtain one of the seats,
but that the other was at his disposal. These two worthy politicians,
Hawkins and Swann, thereupon coalesced, drink and food were freely
supplied; two voters, one for each candidate, went round and gave each
elector a one-pound note to drink their health with, and the result
was that on the 1st November, 1806, the poll showed a large majority
for Swann and Hawkins over Mr. Trevanion and his colleague William
Wingfield." A petition followed, and the evidence was of such a
compromising character that Mr. Serjeant Lens abandoned the case on
behalf of Hawkins. The evidence produced was that the deputation of
voters, headed by a clergyman, which had gone to Trewithen to offer
him the borough, had associated with Sir Kit to sell their votes and
interest for twenty-four guineas apiece paid to themselves, and for
ten guineas to be handed to each of the overseers, and that the offer
was duly accepted. An address to the King for the prosecution of Sir
Christopher Hawkins and eighteen members of the committee was carried
to the House of Commons. The trial took place at Bodmin on the 19th
August, 1808, when Cobbett attended in person to watch the trial and
report proceedings in his _Political Register_. The questions in
dispute centred on the terms of the agreement; the chief witness swore
that the documents signed by Hawkins stipulated that twenty-four
guineas should be given to each of the leaders of the party, ten
guineas apiece to the two overseers and twenty shillings to each of
the voters. But this evidence was unsupported, no other of the
committee could be induced or intimidated into admitting that this had
been the agreement; no one in Penryn desired to kill the goose that
laid the golden eggs, and the defendant was acquitted, "to dabble in
borough-mongering for the rest of his life."

At the election of 1807, Sir Christopher had no place in Parliament,
but Swann sat again for Penryn.

In 1812 Hawkins wooed the borough in vain, in opposition to Philip
Gell. The Black Swan was the other member elected, but great
indignation was roused against him when it was found that he had left
his bills unpaid for treating and breakfasting his adherents.

Then a committee approached Sir Manasseh Lopes, but he declined to buy
the votes at the price of £2000.

But Swann managed to recover favour and increase the number of voters
in his constituency by 200 votes, and to form a company to provide
granite from the vicinity for Waterloo Bridge over the Thames, so
providing work for the voters of Penryn, and Hawkins and Swann were
returned. The usual petition followed, and evidence of bribery came
out. One voter swore that he had received £5, and his wife another £5;
another £7; and many others various sums from ten shillings to ten
pounds. Swann was declared guilty and imprisoned 1819-20.

In the election of 1827 it was admitted that £1850 had been distributed
among the electors. Seventy votes had been sold at £10 apiece.

Grampound had had its elections controlled by Lord Eliot. In the
election of 1796 the fifty electors received for their votes £3000, and
the patron, Eliot, pocketed £6000 himself. The patronage was then sold
to Sir Kit Hawkins, to whom a friend wrote in 1796: "Fame speaks loudly
of your doings. The borough, by her own account, is all your own, and
such is certainly preferable to Tregony. The small number of voters in
one, and the vast number in the other, pulls down the balance in favour
of Grampound, and from the continuance of Eliot we may infer that a
possession once obtained may last forty or fifty years."

But after the election of 1806 the recognized, nay undisputed patron,
Sir Christopher, keeping voters in his pay, and holding the nomination
to two seats, found that his power was weakened. His candidate, the
Nabob Fawcett, did not pay as he had promised. The electors
accordingly determined to transfer their favours to some other great
man, and eventually elected Andrew C. Johnstone, Governor of Dominica,
by twenty-seven over the Hawkins candidate, who polled only thirteen.

"Up to this time," says the historian, "a decent veil of reserve had
been thrown over the delinquencies of the Grampound electors; now it
was cast aside, and their deformities were disclosed to the view of
the whole political world. Enquiry followed enquiry, and prosecution
prosecution." The borough engaged the attention of members of
Parliament and Press correspondents. Great Cobbett went to Bodmin in
1808 to see the trial of Sir Kit, the Mayor, Recorder, and four
capital Burgesses. This petition unseated the anti-Hawkins candidate,
and a new writ was issued. It was now arranged that Cochrane, patron
of the anti-Kittite, should give £5000 for one, or £8400 for the two
seats, to be distributed, and that each of the elected should pay £12
10s. to the wives of the several electors. Each voter eventually did
get about £80. The anti-Kittites polled twenty-seven, and Mr. Hawkins'
nominee fourteen. What does the Mayor do? Strike off sufficient votes
from the anti-Kittite, so as to give the local baronet a majority of
one, and returned his nominees as duly elected. A second petition
restored Cochrane.

Sir Kit, discerning that his influence over the electors at Grampound
was passing away, determined to increase the number of voters. The
electors had consisted of an indefinite number of freemen elected at
Easter and Michaelmas by the eligers. This election was artfully
deferred till good Kittites could be secured to fill the places desired.

In 1812 Cochrane was still in possession, but he made way for
Johnston, associating Teed with him. This man gave each elector £100
in promissory notes. Johnston was, however, expelled the House in 1814
for frauds on the Stock Exchange. Thereupon in came Sir Christopher
Hawkins again. He was again brought before the notice of the House in
1818, when there appeared six candidates. Innes and Robertson were
elected by thirty-six votes: the rest (eleven) went to Teed. After
that, on Teed's petition, the whole secret of the nefarious system
came to light. The voters, it appeared, had applied to Sir Kit; but
that worthy baronet was tired of their solicitations, and refused to
advance a penny. So they turned to the Jew Manasseh Lopes, who gave
£2000 to be distributed among forty electors. But when the money
arrived, the Mayor intercepted £300 for himself, another took £140, so
that the rank and file got only £35 apiece instead of the expected
£50; £8000 was paid privily by a sitting member. Again a petition, and
Manasseh Lopes was convicted of bribery in both Devon and Cornwall,
was fined £10,000, and incarcerated at Exeter for two years.

Lord John Russell was prepared to extirpate bribery, and in particular
to disfranchise Grampound; the House of Commons agreed without a
dissentient voice, but the death of George III hindered proceedings,
and the last two members were returned.

S. Ives had been erected into a borough by Philip and Mary in 1558.
Here, after 1689, the Praeds, Whigs, were all-powerful. In 1751, after
long being stewards of the Earls of Buckinghamshire, the Stephens family
began to assert itself. Thenceforth during the long reign of George III
a severe contest for influence over the elections was waged between the
two families. In 1774 a Praed got ninety-five votes, a Drummond
ninety-eight, and Stephens was left out in the cold with seventy-one.
But the usual petition showed Praed's corruption too manifestly. Money
had been lent to the voters, with the tacit understanding that in the
event of election it was not to be asked for, and forty persons, sure
voters for Stephens, had been omitted from the rates. In 1806 Sir Kit
Hawkins, gained a share in representation; his candidate, Horner. But
Stephens got 135 votes and Horner 128; the other candidate opposing him
was left far in the rear, with only five votes. But Horner was out again
at the next election. In 1820 Sir Christopher had the appointment to
both seats entirely in his own hands.

Tregony had been made into a borough under Queen Elizabeth in 1562.
Before 1832 it was described as "destitute of trade, wealth, and
common activity."

Writing in 1877, the last Cornish historian remarks that the condition
of Tregony had passed from bad to worse. Many of its houses were then
in ruins, and the scene of desolation was spreading. In early times
Tregony had been a seaport on a tidal creek, but that was silted up,
and no boat could now reach it, so that its commercial importance was
wholly gone.

During the eighteenth century the representatives of Tregony were men
of little importance, small placemen unconnected with Cornwall. In the
long array of aliens and Court satellites, the name of one Cornish
gentleman stands out in bright relief; 1747-67, for twenty years (a
long period) Mr. Trevanion represented it. The election of 1774
excited much notice. Lord North advised a note to be written to Lord
Falmouth: "His Lordship must be told in as polite terms as possible,
that I hope he will permit me to recommend to three of his six seats
in Cornwall. The terms he expects are £2000 a seat, to which I am
ready to agree." Later on, he says that his candidate Pownall must get
in for Lostwithiel, and Conway represent Tregony, and he added: "My
noble friend (Falmouth) is rather shabby, desiring guineas instead of
pounds," but signified his will to pay rather than drop the bargain.
Again: "Gascoyne shall have the refusal of Tregony for £1000," and the
Minister complained that he saw no way of bringing him in at a cheaper
rate than any other servant of the Crown.

In 1776 the Boscawen influence was sold to Sir Kit Hawkins, but he did
not retain it for long, for he disposed of it to a Nabob, Barwell, and
the two continued on friendly terms. When the living of Cuby fell
vacant--Cuby is the parish church of Tregony--Sir Kit asked Barwell, who
now had the presentation, to give it to a friend of his, alleging that
"he had great interest" and assuring Barwell that his clerical friend
would reside in the place, and by his great activity in the borough
prevent, if possible, any opposition arising to Mr. Barwell. But at the
very next election Sir Kit ran and returned two members against Barwell.

In the contest of 1784, Lord Kenyon, a lawyer, obtained the seat by
purchase, polling 90, while his two opponents got 69 each.

In 1806 an O'Callinghan and a Yorkshire Whig, through Darlington's
interest polled against Barwell's interest 102 against 86. At this
election the following trick was played. A Tregony tailor and
publican, called Middlecoat, offered to seat Sir Jonathan Miles for
4000 guineas. At the poll the returning officer, who was biased or had
been tampered with, struck off many good votes from Miles, and gave
bad ones to others. Sir Jonathan petitioned and, for the expenses of
the petition, sent Middlecoat a large sum of money, and he prevented
the witnesses from appearing, and the sitting members were accordingly
pronounced to be duly elected. Middlecoat had secured £2500 from the
sitting nominees (Barwellians) to keep back the witnesses, as well as
£4200 from Sir Jonathan to bring them forward.

In 1812 O'Callinghan was unseated, and petitioned, showing that £5000
had been distributed among the voters; nevertheless the sitting
members were received. Holmes, one of them, said--to show what was the
degraded condition of the borough--that out of 127 votes in his
favour, 98 had been evicted into the street the day after the
election, some having been called on to pay their rents, but were
unable to do so at the moment, and others, whose annual rents were
only £8, had been mulcted in costs to the extent of £98.

Middlecoat, and four others of like spirit, went to London in 1818 to
search for candidates for Tregony and Grampound, offering the former
for £6000 and the latter for £7000. A banker and a general came down
before the election, but found that the voters would make no promise
unless the money were paid down. So they had to return to London
"proclaiming their disappointment at every turn, and cursing the
scoundrels who would not trust them."

Christopher Hawkins was returned for Mitchell in 1784, re-elected in
1790 and 1796. In June, 1799, he vacated his seat by accepting the
Stewardship of the Chiltern Hundreds. In August, 1800, he was elected
for Grampound, again in 1802 and 1806. In 1818 he was returned for
Penryn, and in June, 1821, for S. Ives. He was created baronet on July
28th, 1791. He was Recorder of Grampound and S. Ives and, at the time
when he relinquished his seat finally, he was the father of the House
of Commons.

Sir Christopher encouraged the famous engineer and inventor Richard
Trevithick, and in the life of that worthy, by Francis Trevithick, are
given some letters that passed between them; but Mr. F. Trevithick
persistently calls Sir Christopher Sir Charles. Sir Kit was the first
man to adopt a steam thrashing-machine in 1812, an invention of
Trevithick; it was used for the first time at Trewithen in February in
that year. A committee of experts was called in to witness its
operations and report on them, and this is their report, dated
February 12th, 1812:--

"Having been requested to witness and report on the effect of steam
applied to work a mill for thrashing corn at Trewithen, we hereby
testify that a fire was lighted under the boiler of the engine five
minutes after eight o'clock, and at twenty-five minutes after nine
o'clock the thrashing mill began to work, in which time one bushel of
coal was consumed. That from the time the mill began to work to two
minutes after two o'clock, being four hours and three-quarters, fifteen
hundred sheaves of barley were thrashed clean, and one bushel of coal
more was consumed. We think there was sufficient steam remaining in the
boiler to have thrashed from fifty to one hundred sheaves more barley,
and the water in the boiler was by no means exhausted. We had the
satisfaction to observe that common labourers regulated the thrashing
mill, and in a moment of time made it go faster, slower, or entirely
cease working. We approve of the steadiness and the velocity with which
the machine worked, and in every respect we prefer the power of steam,
as here applied, to that of horse.

                                        MATTHEW ROBERTS, Lansellyn.
                                        THOS. NANKEVILL, Golden.
                                        MATTHEW DOBLE, Barthlever."

Sir Christopher entered into negotiation with Trevithick about
constructing a breakwater to the harbour at S. Ives, at Pendinas Point.
It was begun, but never completed, owing to the death of the baronet.
But a good thing he did achieve, though done for a political purpose, by
indirect bribery, was the establishment of a free school at S. Ives, in
Shute Street; the charge of admission was one penny per week, and in it
navigation was taught. It was opened on April 11th, 1822.

In the diary of Captain John Tregerthen Short of the events taking
place at S. Ives between 1817 and 1838 we have: "1828, June 10th. At
10 a.m. Sir Christopher Hawkins, Bart., and Wellesley Long Pole, Esq.,
the former supporting the cause of the Right Hon. Sir Charles
Arbuthnot, attended at the Town Hall, where Wellesley Long Pole, Esq.,
resigned the contest, and Sir Charles Arbuthnot was elected without
opposition. Immediately afterwards Mr. Wellesley Pole made an active
and successful canvass of the town for another election, and left S.
Ives at 10 p.m., having given each voter 5s., and Sir Christopher
Hawkins gave all his friends 5s."

"July 21st.--All Mr. Wellesley's voters had a public dinner; each
received one guinea to defray the expense of the dinner, which came to
7s. 3d. per man." Oh, what a falling off is here! Only 5s. each voter,
whereas elsewhere, at Grampound, Tregony, Penryn, and Mitchell, a free
and independent elector would turn up his nose at £10. But Captain
Short does not inform us what the _douceurs_ had been that were paid
previous to the election.

Sir Christopher Hawkins died of erysipelas at Trewithen on April 6th,
1829.

Captain Short enters on that day:--

"Sir Christopher Hawkins, Bart., departed this life this morning in
the seventy-first year of his age. His death will be greatly felt and
deplored by hundreds. His charitable contributions amongst the
indigent will be found greatly wanting. A more generous and benevolent
landlord could not be found. He was never known to distrain for rent.
He established a Free School in S. Ives for the education of the poor,
and gave the sum of £100 towards enlarging the Wesleyan Methodist
Chapel in this town."

The _Gentleman's Magazine_ for 1830 says that Sir Kit Hawkins's
property at S. Ives was sold then, "which secures the purchaser a seat
in Parliament, for the borough was lately sold by auction in London
for the sum of £55,000. It is reported that the purchaser is the
Marquess of Cleveland."

A bad bargain, for three years after the Reform Bill was passed, and
S. Ives ceased to be a pocket borough.

FOOTNOTE:

[31] Baptized at Probus 29th May, 1758.

                             ANNE JEFFERIES

Moses Pitt, a publisher in London, a native of S. Teath, in 1696
published the following letter to the Bishop of Gloucester. There are
two editions of it, with slight and insignificant variations both in
the preliminary address and in the account of Anne Jefferies.

The preamble we omit.

"Anne Jefferies (for that was her maiden name), of whom the following
strange things are related, was born in the parish of S. Teath, in the
county of Cornwall, in December, 1626, and she is still living in
1696, being in the seventieth year of her age. She is married to one
William Warren, formerly hind to the late eminent physician Dr.
Richard Lewes, deceased, and now lives as a hind to Sir Andrew
Slanning, of Devon, Bart.

"In the year 1691 I wrote into Cornwall to my sister Mary Martyn's son,
attorney, to go to the said Anne and discourse her, as from me, about
the most strange passages of her life. He answers my letter September
13th, 1691, and saith: 'I have been with Anne Jefferies, and she can
give me no particular account of her condition, it being so long since.
My grandmother and mother say that she was in Bodmin jail three months,
and lived six months without meat; and during her continuance in that
condition several eminent cures were performed by her; the particulars
no one can now state. My mother saw the fairies once, and heard one say
that they should give some meat to the child, that she might return unto
her parents, which is the fullest relation can now be given.' But I, not
being satisfied with the answer, did in the year 1693 write into
Cornwall and my sister's husband, Mr. Humphry Martyn, and desired him to
go to Anne Jefferies to see if he could persuade her to give me what
account she could remember of the many and strange passages of her life.
He answered by letter, January 31st, 1693, and saith: 'As for Anne
Jefferies, I have been with her the greatest part of one day, and did
read to her all that you wrote to me; but she would not own anything of
it as concerning the fairies, neither of the cures she then did. I
endeavoured to persuade her she might receive some benefit by it. She
answered that if her own father were now alive she would not discover to
him those things which did happen to her. I asked her the reason why she
would not do it; she replied that if she should discover it to you, that
you would make either books or ballads of it; and she said that she
would not have her name spread about the country in books or ballads, or
such things, if she might have £500 for doing it; for she said she had
been questioned before justices, and at the sessions, and in prison, and
also before the judges at the assizes, and she doth believe that if she
should discover such things now she would be questioned again for it. As
for the ancient inhabitants of S. Teath Church-town, there are none of
them now alive but Thomas Christopher, a blind man. (NOTE: This Thomas
Christopher was then a servant in my father's house, when these things
happened, and he remembers many of the passages you write of her.) And
as for my wife, she then being so little did not mind it, but heard her
father and mother relate most of the passages you wrote of her.'

"This is all I can, at present, possibly get from her, and therefore I
now go on with my relation of the wonderful cures and other strange
things she did, or happened to her, which is the substance of what I
wrote to my brother and that he read to her.

"It is the custom in our county of Cornwall for the most substantial
people of each parish to take apprentices the poor children, and to
breed them up till they attain to twenty-one years of age, and for
their services to give them meat, drink, and clothes. This Anne
Jefferies, being a poor man's child of the parish, by Providence fell
into our family, where she lived many years. Being a girl of a bold,
daring spirit, she would venture at those difficulties and dangers
that no boy would attempt.

"In the year 1645 (she being nineteen years old), she being one day
knitting in an arbour in our garden, there came over the hedge to her,
as she affirmed, six persons of small stature, all clothed in green,
which she called fairies. Upon which she was so frightened that she fell
into a kind of convulsive fit. But when we found her in this condition,
we brought her into the house and put her to bed, and took great care of
her. As soon as she recovered out of her fit she cried out, 'They are
just gone out of the window! Do you not see them?' And thus in the
height of her sickness she would often cry out, and that with eagerness,
which expressions were attributed to her distemper, supposing her
light-headed. During the extremity of her sickness my father's mother
died, which was in April, 1646; he durst not acquaint our maid Anne of
it for fear it might have increased her distemper, she being at that
time so very sick that she could not go, nor so much as stand on her
feet; and also the extremity of her sickness, and the long continuance
of her distemper had almost perfectly moped her, so that she became even
as a changeling; and as soon as she began to recover, or to get a little
strength, she in her going would spread her legs as wide as she could,
and so lay hold with her hands on tables, chairs, forms, stools, etc.,
till she had learnt to go again; and if anything vexed her, she would
fall into her fits, and continue in them for a long time, so that we
were afraid she would have died in one of them.

"As soon as she recovered a little strength she constantly went to
church to pay her devotions to our great and good God. She took mighty
delight in devotion and in hearing the Word of God read and preached,
although she herself could not read. The first manual operation or
cure she performed was on my mother. The occasion was as follows: One
afternoon in the harvest time, all our family being in the fields at
work (and myself a boy at school), there was none in the house but my
mother and this Anne. My mother, considering that bread might be
a-wanting for the labourers, if care were not taken, and she having
before caused some bushels of wheat to be sent to the mill, which was
but a quarter of a mile from our house, desired to hasten the miller
to bring home the meal, that so her maids as soon as they came from
the fields might make and bake the bread; but in the meantime how to
dispose of her maid Anne was her great care, for she did not dare
trust her in the house alone, for fear she might do herself some
mischief by fire, or set the house on fire, for at that time she was
so weak that she could hardly help herself, and very silly withal. At
last, by much persuasion, my mother prevailed with her to walk in the
gardens and orchard till she came from the mill, to which she
willingly consented. Then my mother locked the door of the house and
walked to the mill; but as she was coming home, she slipped and hurt