Revised Jun 4 2021
[Copy.]
“I AM aware that pedantry and egotism become no one, and myself perhaps less than any. (Pro. xxvii. 2.) But for certain reasons, the following credentials, as a memorandum, I hope will be pardoned on the present occasion—they are truths.
“I observe, in limine, that I have visited the four quarters of the globe, and it has ever been my desire to maintain, as far as lay in my power, the standing of an English gentleman. I have lived a considerable while in a palace, and had my dinner parties with a princess on my right, and a General's lady upon my left. I have had a French cook, a box at the Opera. I have drove my dress carriage (thought the neatest then in Paris, where I spent five or six years; as well I have known Calcutta, and the handsomest lady (said), Madame R——, to grace my carriage. I have drove a curricle with my two outriders, and two saddle-horses, besides a travelling-carriage. A valet, coachman, foot man, groom, and, upon extraordinary occasions, my maître d'hôtel. I have (at her request) visited Madame Bonaparte, at the Tuileries, St. Cloud, and Malmaison. I might thus mention many others of note abroad. I have frequently dined with that remarkable woman, Madame Carburas, afterwards the Princess de C——. I have had the honour of being in company, i.e. at the same parties, with both his late Majesty George IV. then Prince Regent, and his present Majesty William IV. then H. R. H. Duke of Clarence, as well with their royal brothers. I have ridden in a royal Duke's carriage, with four horses and three footmen, more than once, and have dined at his table, and drunk the old hock of his late father George III. I have visited and dined with some of our first families, and have been visited by a Duke, and others of the first noblemen. I have known and dined with (abroad and in England) Madames Catalini, Grassini, Georges, &c. And I have given the arm to Lady Hamilton (of Naples renown), whom the hero of the Nile has given his (one) to more than once. I have dined with a viceroy Governor (who was a General and a Count), and with Admirals, both on board their ships and on shore. I have entertained Governors, Generals, Captains (R. N.), on board my ship, more than once. And I have commanded several ships, and went to sea at the beginning of the French Revolution. I have been acquainted with many military and naval officers. I have since 1807, my admittance, from the late President, Sir Joseph Banks, to the sittings of the Royal Society. I have occasionally breakfasted with Sir Joseph, and visited, and even presented a friend (the actual President of the bank of the N. N. S. of America) to his evening parties. My admittance to the Royal Society has always admitted me to similar institutions abroad. May 1, 1794 I received the dress sword, and nautical instruments, &c. of a noble lord (at his death), a Vice-Admiral of the Red. I sailed from England (Portsmouth,May 1st, 1794) to the East Indies and China, in the largest fleet, possibly, that ever was; it was under Lord Howe, down the British Channel, just one month before his great victory. I have visited the Falls of Niagara and Montmorency, the natural bridge in Virginia, the great Reciprocating Fountain in East Tennessee, the great Temple of Elephants at Bombay. I have dined with a prince; as well as with a princess and with a count, a baron, an ambassador, a minister (ordinary and extraordinary), and have travelled with one for some weeks. I have dined with a Chargé d'Affaire, and lived with consuls &c. I have visited and conversed with ' Red Jacket,' the great Indian warrior. I have visited and been visited by a bishop. I have frequently partook of the delicious Hungarian wine (tokay), Prince Easterhazy's; as also of Prince Swantzerburgh's old hock, said to have been 78 years old; and I was intimate with the brother-in-law of this last German nobleman. I have dined with a principal Hong merchant at Canton. I have sat next to the beautiful Madame Recamier and Madame Carbanus, at the great dinner parties. I have written to the Prime Minister of England; and have received the (late Earl of Liverpool's) answer with his thanks, &c. I was at Paris when the allies were made there. I have visited and breakfasted with the late Warren Hastings, Esq., at his seat in Gloucestershire. I have had permission with a party of friends, to hunt over his grounds. Entertained &c. two or three days at the sporting lodge of an Earl, now a Marquis. I have made a crimson silk net for a certain fashionable Marchioness, which she actually wore at her next great party of five or six hundred persons. I have danced with the Countess Bertand, i. e. Mademoiselle Fanny Dillon, before she married the Marshall. I was at Napoleon's coronation. I have been invited to the Lord Mayor's, and to the dinner of an Alderman of London; to those also of the first merchants and bankers, as the late Mr. Thelusson (afterwards Lord Rendlesham, the formerly rich Messrs. A. and B. Goldsmiths, &c. And at Paris 1 have had a credit of 400,000 francs, at one time, on the house of Perregan, Lafitte, &c., and other bankers at Paris for considerable sums. Delepent and Co. for 40,000 francs, and Recamier's, at one time for upwards of 100,000 francs. Lafitte's house at another time for 50,000 francs; again for 12,000 francs. Mar 7, 1811 I have had at a time, nearly £5000 sterling at the Bank of England I wrote and published in the London Morning Post (7th March, 1811, on naval power. I have seen the Vestrises, father, son, and grandson, at once (the only time), dance on the stage at the opera at Paris. I have given a passage to many on board my ship, but never in my life received a farthing as passage-money from any person. I am decidedly against the use of ardent spirit (malt liquor may do for those who like it), tobacco, &c. And as for wine, that only at dinner; it even then ought to be good, if not the very best, as the Gourmet would have it, when speaking of Clas-Vangeat, and Romance, &c. I have had a fine band of music on board my ship, and my four kinds of wine on my table. (I am not sleeping on a 'bed of roses' now, but in an humble hut or cabin.) After all, what does the foregoing amount to?—vanity of vanities. I will merely add, that I have had a year in the Church of Christ, and that I am a life member of the Bible Society. That I am looking with the blessed Lord's help to something of far more intrinsic worth and consideration—'the price of our high calling'—the life to come. I am now in my sixty-second year of age, and of course it is high time that I should look upon this world as nearly to close on me. I might perhaps say much more, but must stop.* I am now an humble teacher upon Pitcairn's Isle for the time being.
“June, 1834.
“Touching J. Hill's, &c.,
“June, 1834,”
∗ “I have had a Member of Parliament, an East India Director, call on me to ask a favour, wh1ch indeed, no one else could grant. I have his note thus still. And I have had a beautiful Egyptian lady write to me (I have her note also still), the wife of one of Bonaparte's Generals.”