Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 20.djvu/416

Rh 398 R E N R E N Ariadne, which used to be in the Gallery of the Capitol. The Louvre contains twenty of his pictures, the National Gallery of London seven, and others were once there, now removed to other public collections. The most interesting of the seven is the small Coronation of the Virgin, painted on copper, an elegantly finished work, more pretty than beautiful. It was probably painted before the master quitted Bologna for Rome. For the life and works of Ki-ni, see Passeri, Vite de" Pittori, and Malvnsia, Felsinn Pittriee ; also Lanzi. Storia Pittorica. (W. M. It.) RENNELL, JAMES (1742-1830), probably the most celebrated of English geographers, was born oil 3d Decem- ber 1742, near Chudleigh in Devonshire, where his father John Rennell, a man apparently of gentle blood, was the owner of a small farm called Waddon. 1 The register of Chudleigh records the baptism of James Rennell on 21st December. John Rennell, who had married Ann Clark in 1738, seems to have fallen into embarrassed circumstances, and to have taken service in the artillery, with which he served in the duke of Cumberland's campaign in Flanders of 1747-48. The date of his death is uncertain, but he appears never to have rejoined his family. As a boy the son James found a valuable friend in the then vicar of Chudleigh, Gilbert Burrington, by whose advice and assistance he entered the navy in the beginning of 1756. Throughout his Indian career Rennell kept up a regular correspondence with Mr Burrington, and always regarded him with affection and gratitude. The earliest of Rennell's existing letters show him, in March 1758, as an acting midshipman on board the " Bril- liant," 36, Captain Parker, afterwards the famous Admiral Sir Hyde Parker, the elder of two of that name. When attached to the " Brilliant " James Rennell was present at several of those desultory expeditions against the French coast and shipping on which so much strength was squan- dered in the wars with France. Among these was a landing directed against the works and ships at Cherbourg (August 1758), and two other expeditions to the vicinity of St Malo, which were more futile, and the last of which ended somewhat disastrously. A MS. plan of the Bay of St Cast, where the re-embarkation took place (September 1 1, 1758), executed by James Rennell at the age of sixteen, and probably his first attempt at topographical work, is now before us. It bears the inscription " Plan of St Gas Bay, J.- Rennel feet. 1758. To the Rt. Honble. Lord Howe this plan is dedicated by his obedient humble servant, J. Rennel." 2 In 1760 Captain Parker, leaving the "Brilliant," took the "Norfolk" to India, and Rennell was to have gone with him, but through some accident missed his ship and went out in the " America," 50, Captain Haldane. On reaching India he rejoined Captain Parker, now in com- mand of the " Graf ton," 58, with the fleet engaged in the blockade of Pondicherry, which Coote was besieging on the landward side. The Annual Register for 1830, in a sketch of Rennell's career, gives an anecdote for which we cannot vouch, finding no allusion to it in his letters. It is to the effect 1 There were several branches of the family round Chudleigh, and the name occurs on several monuments in Chudleigh church. Four generations of Thomas Rennells, clergymen of some note, were reckoned as relations by James Rennell : (1) T. Rennell, fellow of Exeter College, Oxford, M.A. of 1699, rector of Bishop's Leighton ; (2) T. R., rector of Barnack, called "a very profound scholar . . . with a rich library ;" (3) T. R., of King's College, Cambridge, master of the Temple, and dean of Winchester ; (4) T. R., editor of the British Critic, Christian advocate at Cambridge, vicar of Kensington. As Rennell calls the second his cousin, the first was probably his grandfather's brother ; he could hardly have been his father's brother on account of the dates. 2 He writes the name indifferently Rennel and Rennell till February 2, 1760, when he says to Mr Burrington : "You desired that in future I would write my name with a double I. I shall in the future, but am inclined to think it will be of little use to me." There is, we believe, here some reference to the clerical relations, whom he at that time thought neglectful that, some sloops of war belonging to the enemy being moored in shallow water, Rennell asked the use of a boat. Accompanied by one sailor he reconnoitred the sloops, and ascertained what he had surmised to be true, viz., that owing to an unusually high tide it was possible to reach those vessels. This information was acted on with com- plete success. Whatever amount of truth there may be in this anecdote, we know, at least, from his letters that he took part in -the cutting out of the " Baleine " and "Hermione," the former a 40-gun frigate, the latter an armed Indiaman, both at anchor before Pondicherry, within a half musket-shot of the place, and that he was a volunteer in one of the boat divisions which attacked the " Baleine." This vessel had no sails bent, and the captors, being exposed for an hour to a very heavy fire from the ramparts, lost severely. We do not know what good guidance had first turned the lad's attention to surveying, but his letters show that he went to India provided with useful books and instru- ments, and they contain from time to time notices of various surveys executed by him, e.y., of the harbour of Trinconomale" (or Trincomalee, as we now call it), and of the bay and roads of Diego Rayes, 3 whither the East Indian fleet had gone as the rendezvous of an intended attack on Mauritius, which did not come off. Captain Parker appears to have been friendly to Rennell, but had little hope of obtaining promotion in the navy for him, and counselled him to try his fortune in the Company's service. Rennell acquiesced, and in the summer of 1762 went, apparently as a surveyor, on board a Company's vessel which was despatched on a reconnais- sance to Manila and the neighbouring islands. The only trace we have 'been able to find of this voyage consists in sundry charts and coast-views published by Alexander Dalrymple, a friend of Rennell's in after days. Such are the Bay of Camorta in the Nicobar Islands, 1762; View of Quedah; Chart of Sambeelan Islands in the Straits of Malacca, 1763 ; View of Malacca, July, 1762; Chart of Abai Harbour, on north-west of Borneo, 1762. Of the expedition we have no particulars, but we gather that Rennell looked back on his treatment and service on Doard with dissatisfaction, though his performance of the duties assigned him recommended him as a man of merit to the authorities at Fort St George. He had missed a great chance in the navy, for during his absence orders came for the expedition against Manila, which ended in the capture of that place in 1762, an expedition in which Captain Parker took the "Santissima Trinidad," a prize of enormous value. Kennell, however, made many friends at Madias, and had several offers of employment, though he did not think himself at liberty to accept any till the return of Captain Parker and his final discharge from the "Graftoii's" books (July 1763). He now obtained the command of a vessel in the Government service, but whilst she lay oiF Madras, shortly afterwards, a cyclone destroyed every ship save one in the roads, and Rennell's among them. Fortunately he was on shore when the gale came on ; but he lost everything. The city of Madura was then being besieged by a British force in combination with one sent by the nawab of the Carnatic ; and Mr Palk, governor of Fort St George, employed Rennell 4 to superintend the landing of troops and stores for that operation. For his conduct of this service he received the thanks of the Government and a handsome present. Apparently about this time 8 From Rennell's notice of its size and position this is evidently the island now called Rodriguez, about 350 miles north-east of Mauritius. 4 This siege of Madura belongs to an obscure passage of Indian history, an account of which must be sought in Nelson's Manual nf Madura (Madras, 1868), and Bishop Caldwell's History of Tinncn-lly (Madras, 1881). Mohammed Yusuf Khan, a man of great ability, who had been " commander of all the Company's sepoys" (at Madras), and afterwards governor of Madura for the nawab and the Company, threw off his allegiance in the beginning of 1763. A joint expedition was sent against him, and for a long time had indifferent si. Eventually Marchand, the chief of a French contingent in Yusuf s service, betrayed him to the English commandant, and in the lattiT part of 1764 it is said that ho was hanged, whether by order of the Fort St George Government or of the nawab is doubtful.