Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 11.djvu/202

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. XL FEB. 27, im

No statement has ever been made that any of the letters to or from Harington in ' Nugse Antiques ' were copied from the original letters ; and it is pretty evident that they were copied from commonplace books. But though many interesting MSS. of Harington, from the family collection, are in the British Museum, these do not contain any of the originals of the ' Nugse Antiques ' correspondence. It is possible that the Georgian Haringtons thought that the books from which they had printed all they considered worth preservation had no further value. The father of the editor of the ' Nugse ' had sold the fine old family house of Kelston, built by Sir John Harington' s father, and it was not only pulled down to the foundations, but no sketch or drawing of it has been preserved. It is a fact, however, that many of the old MS. copies in the family books are still in the possession of the Harington family, and I have had the pleasure of seeing them.

CHAS. HUGHES.

Manchester.

ROBERT DRURY, MARINER.

THE life of this worthy in the ' D.N.B.' is based entirely on his own autobiography as given in his ' Madagascar,' without the slightest attempt at checking his narrative. His biographer seems to believe his state- ments implicitly. On the other hand, the late Capt. S. Pasfield Oliver, when re-editing Drury's ' Journal ' for Mr. Fisher TJnwin's " Adventure Series," two years later (in 1890), tried to sift the story, and came to the conclusion that

" it seems certain that there was such a person as Robert Drury, and that he was wrecked with Mr. Benbow in the Degrave ; but there are many indications that his subsequent history would not bear a searching cross-examination."

Two other writers who cast a doubt on Drury's tough yarns are Emile Blanchard, the well-krown publicist, who in the Revue des Deux Mondes for 1872 ridiculed tho idea that the Malagasy should have reduced a European to slavery ; and Mr. William Lee, who in his biography of Defoe admits that

he had been a captive as stated that he wrote a large account of his adventures that he was seen, questioned, and could give any information re- quired after the publication of his book. In the latter part of his life Defoe had many imitators ; I think that one of them very ably edited Drury's manuscript. Possibly Defoe may have read it and inserted some sentences, but as I am in doubt even of that, I cannot place the book in the list of his works."
 * it is certain there was a Robert Drury that

The latest contribution to the controversy comes from such competent writers as MM, Alfred arid Guillaume Grandidier, the lead- ing authorities on everything connected with Madagascar, who in 1906 published an anno- tated French translation of Drury's book in vol. iv. of their " Collection des Ouvrages- anciens concernant Madagascar." Owing to its importance, I may be allowed to quote their verdict in the original text :

" Pour nous, il nous semble certain qu'un homme ayant longtemps v6cu la vie des indigenes a pu seul donner les tres ve>idiques et tres nouveaux renseignements qu'on trouve a chaque page du livre de Drury ; jusqu' a nos voyages, il y a une foule de details sur les moaurs des peuples du Sud dont Drury seul avait par!4, et son dictionnaire contient une foule de mot* parfaitement exacts et qui e"taient inconnus avant lui."

On the other hand, MM. Grandidier do- not think Drury wrote his narrative himself,, for in certain parts they consider it " fan- taisiste et apocryphe," and they decidedly will not believe that he had ever been a slave among the Malagasy. For all such blunders and inaccuracies they throw the blame on his unknown editor. At a certain place they point out that Drury is stated to make his way through a " massif de mon- tagnes," where there are no hills at all (p. 266) ; and on another page (p. 328) he is made to view a broad expanse of the tents of the encamped natives, who, in our days at least, do not use tents. Then on p. 95 we find a foot-note to the effect that " cette partie du recit, comme d'autres du reste, n'est certainement pas veridique." There are other foot-notes in the book to the effect that the incident is parely fictitious or that it is an " evenement con- trouve."

Moreover, MM. Grandidier seem ta attach undue importance to the fact that there is in the British Museum a copy of the 1807 edition of the ' Journal ' in which " Hughes Minet, 1'arriere - petit - fils " of Capt. Young, the Commander of tho ship in which Drury was wrecked on the Madagascar coast, has added several MS. notes in the margin, to the effect that as far as he was able to judge from numerous conversations he had with his mother, who was the grand- daughter of Capt. Young the details of the narrative were in accordance with family traditions, and deserved full credit. Family traditions were, no doubt, based upon the sailor boy's narrative expanded and edited by Defoe or one of his imitators. Let me state, en passant, that I have not been able to discover Minet's book ; the only copy