Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 03.djvu/312

Barrow beset by ice, and while improving his mind by writing in a journal observations of the thermometer, the barometer, and the compass, exercised his body by learning to ‘hand, reef, and steer;’ so that Captain Potts told him that another voyage would make him as good a seaman as any on the ship. He returned home in time to attend his old master's funeral, and see Robert Walker, then eighty years old, stand with streaming eyes by his son's grave. His friend Gibson urged him to complete the knowledge he had gained of nautical science; ‘for,’ he said, ‘without a profession you cannot tell to what good use knowledge of any kind may be applied.’ A Colonel Dodgson offered him the superintendence of his estate in the West Indies; but on finding this to mean an overseership of negroes he declined it. Gibson's son introduced him to a Dr. James, master of a school at Greenwich, with whom he engaged himself as a mathematical assistant for three years. These years proved very happy and useful ones, and in his leisure hours he taught mathematics to the wife of Sir George Beaumont and the son of Sir George Staunton, to whom he ‘was indebted for all the good fortune’ of his life. Sir George recommended him to Lord Macartney, who was going on an embassy to China, and he was made comptroller of the household in his suite. His observations of the country and language are recorded in his ‘Autobiography’ (1847), his ‘Travels in China’ (1804), his ‘Life of Lord Macartney’ (1807), and in numerous articles in the ‘Quarterly Review,’ and his advice was asked by government on two subsequent occasions with regard to our dealings with the Chinese empire. His first care on coming home was to visit his parents. A fortnight later saw him in London, where he lived with Sir George Staunton, assisting him in his literary work till he accompanied Lord Macartney as his private secretary to the Cape of Good Hope. While in London he had been teaching himself botany in Kew Gardens, so that he looked forward to the study of South African natural history with a not uneducated appreciation of its novelties. Lord Macartney at once sent him on a double mission, viz. to reconcile the Kaffirs and Boers, and to obtain more accurate topographical knowledge of the colony, there being then no map which embraced one-tenth of it. In pursuit of these objects he traversed every part of the colony, and visited the several countries of the Kaffirs, the Hottentots, and the Bosjesmen, performing ‘a journey exceeding one thousand miles on horseback, on foot, and very rarely in a covered wagon, and full half the distance as a pedestrian, and never except for a few nights sleeping under a roof.’ On his return he received proof of Lord Macartney's approbation by being appointed auditor-general of public accounts. While drawing up an account of his travels he received news of his father's death. Upon Lord Macartney's return to England disturbances again broke out between the Boers and natives, and Barrow was employed by General Dundas on a mission of reconciliation. At its close he married Miss Anna Maria Trüter, and in the year 1800 bought a house looking on Table Mountain, where he intended to settle ‘as a country gentleman of South Africa.’ Three years later all these plans were upset. In 1802 the treaty of Amiens was signed. The Cape was evacuated, and a year later Barrow was once more in England. Here his friend General Dundas strongly recommended him to his uncle, at whose house he met Pitt. He describes Pitt and Dundas as being ‘as playful as two schoolboys.’ On Pitt returning to office in 1804, Dundas, now Lord Melville, was made first lord of the admiralty, and he appointed Barrow second secretary, a post which he occupied with but small intermission for the next forty years. The history of his life during that period ‘would be, in fact, nothing less than that of the civil administration of our navy.’ He owed his appointment mainly to the ability he had shown at the Cape and in his history of the colony, with its unrivalled map. On appointing him, Lord Melville inquired if he was a Scotchman, and to the answer, ‘No, my lord, I am only a borderer, I am North Lancashire,’ rejoined that both he and Pitt had been so taunted with giving away all the good things to Scotchmen that he was glad to have chosen an Englishman for once. One piece of patronage which, in his new position, fell to the lot of Barrow himself must have given him special pleasure. He found out the son of his old benefactor, Gibson, and made his son his private secretary. Of the stirring events of the following year his ‘Autobiography’ contains interesting reminiscences. ‘Never,’ he writes, ‘can I forget the shock I received on opening the board-room door the morning after the arrival of the dispatches, when Marsden called out, “Glorious news! The most glorious victory our brave navy ever achieved—but Nelson is dead.”’ In 1806, on a change of first lords, Barrow lost his appointment, but was awarded a pension of 1,000l. a year, and was reappointed to the post in 1807. From 8 April 1807 to 28 Jan. 1845 he was second secretary, serving, he says, in all ‘for forty years, under twelve or thirteen several naval administrations, whig and tory, including that of the lord high admiral,