This letter has be translated from the original French
Dear Brother,
As we are in
port, and I find myself with more leisure time than I had expected, I will take
this time to write you of a most peculiar situation which has arisen.
I thank the
Almighty each day to have left behind the prison hulks and I pray for the poor
wretches there formerly in my care. Here in the Acasta I have the charge of two
assistants in addition to “loblolly boys”.
One, Reid, seems adequate if unimaginative. The other, Girard, was
temporarily promoted to position of surgeon during the absence of an actual
surgeon. Imagine my surprise to find, upon my arrival, that he was imprisoned
having shot a Marine in a duel! You can well imagine my opinion of one who-having
sent their days attempting to aleve human suffering, would willingly try to
take another human life!
Through some
manipulation of the Captain he was returned to the ship to occupy his former
position as one of my assistants. Upon his return I had another surprise. He is
French! Well, not exactly truly French but Creole, and imbued with all the
superstition and jocularity of those crude but honest folk. He is, apparently, a favorite among many of
the crew, who call him by his Christian name of Baptiste. You might expect that
finding me a fellow Frenchman would incline me to his favor, but such is not
the case. Having been around him for a
bit now I take less offense at this, as I think my greatest fault with him is merely that I am not the Acasta’s
former surgeon. This fellow, a Doctr Roberts, was apparently also favored among
the crew, and it seems Girard was dog loyal to him. I have since learned this
duel was less over a personal insult to Girard and more over an insult to the
good Doctr Roberts. It seems the last word of Doctor is that his transport
vessel has gone missing and this is also a source of anxiety for poor Girard.
I do believe that Doctor Roberts and I would have gotten on very well. It seems he was also a student of Natural History, with an interest
as great as my own. Many of his collected specimens are still aboard. Girard
has a proprietary curatorship over these, as he helped in the collection of
most of them and plans to deliver them to Doctor Roberts in the future. The poor
fellow will not entertain the notion that Roberts may already be lost.
When discussing the collection of some particular specimen,
Girard will sometimes become animated to the point he even forgets he dislikes
me, which is almost entertaining. He has an excellent informal knowledge of Natural
History, again infused with many simple superstitions, and good powers of
observation. He can read both French and English and is actually attempting to
learn Latin. I think he could be most useful in my own studies were I ever able
to win him over.
Finding him possessed of those positive attributes I was
then disappointed to learn he is an avid patron of the cockfighting pit! How
can one so often involved with trying to heal suffering find entertainment in
such contrived combat between two creatures, human or otherwise? Such is the
inconsistency of Man!
One other small incident, and abord ship where there is no
escaping one another, small injuries can quickly become large grievances. Early
in our acquaintance Girard came upon me sitting reading. He quickly informed me
that the chair I was in was, in some unspecified but very potentially dangerous
way, broken and should not be used. The chair was perfectly fine, but I vacated
it regardless. He said he would have the carpenter see to it and later put a
line across it lest I forget and transgress again. I later asked one of the
Loblollies of the chair. It seems it was the former throne of the good Doctor
Roberts.
And now I find that I have become weary of my rendition. As always,
I keep you and your family in my prayers as I trust you do me,
Your loving Brother,
Ducett
No comments:
Post a Comment