NAVAL – MISCELLANY
Group of miscellaneous correspondence from Naval commanders, taking in the French Revolutionary Wars, the Rio de Janeiro station and the discovery of the descendants of the Bounty mutineers on Pitcairn, comprising:

Autograph letter signed ('Hood') to 'My dear Sir', sending best wishes on his voyage, informing him that 'The instructions respecting the Ariel will be dispatched to you by a messenger tonight', and discussing the appointment of Mr Fraser who is to be Lieutenant, and others, 2 pages on a bifolium, some staining, 4to (234 x 190mm.), Admiralty, 3 February 1789

Autograph letter signed ('Howe') to Isaac Heard Esq, Garter King of Arms ('Sir'), acknowledging his congratulations for his great victory against the French fleet on the 'Glorious First of June', one page, stained, 4to (243 x 194mm.), Portsmouth, 18 August 1794

Near contemporary copy of Sir Thomas Staines' despatch to the Admiralty reporting his unexpected discovery of Pitcairn Island and his encounters with the descendants of the mutineers of the Bounty; with later notes and pen trials in another hand, 2 pages, dust-staining and marks, tears at folds, frayed with some losses, folio (415 x 330mm.), 'Briton, Valparaiso, 18 October 1814'

Autograph letter signed ('Henry Hotham') to Admiral Lord Keith ('My dear Lord'), marked 'Private', reporting on the ships in the Gironde ('...the White Flag being established in all the Ports...'), going on '...Since the troops who have acted under the tricolor flag have been withdrawn from the country & La Vendee, the Royalists have drawn larger supplies of arms than before... I have reason to suspect that some part of the articles they have received from us have been and will be put to their private uses and amusements...', concluding '...The White Flag flies everywhere around this bay, and at L'Orient...', 4 pages on a bifolium, dust-staining particularly on verso where folded and exposed, creased at folds, 4to (230 x 185mm.), 'Superb, Quiberon Bay', 26 July 1815

Copy letter signed ('Jn Barrow') to Rear Admiral Sir Michael Seymour, marked 'Duplicate', enclosing a copy of a letter from the Under Secretary of State and two extracts from despatches received from His Majesties Consul General in Peru complaining of the lack of protection offered to British subjects and commerce by His Majesty's ships in the Pacific [present], 20 pages, light dust-staining, one report held with silk thread, folio (315 x 200mm.), Admiralty, 23 August 1834; with copies of nine official letters, engraved with manuscript insertions, one manuscript, all signed by Sir John Barrow ('Jn Barrow') to Rear Admiral Sir Graham Hamond, Commander in Chief at Rio de Janeiro, enclosing in each case a printed memorandum for distribution to the captain of each vessel under his orders, c.19 pages on bifolia, Britannia watermarks, folio (315 x 195mm.), Admiralty, 23 October 1834 to 28 January 1836
Footnotes:
'THE WHITE FLAG FLIES EVERYWHERE AROUND THIS BAY AND AT L'ORIENT': Admiral Sir Henry Hotham writes from Quiberon Bay on the surrender of the French; Viscount Howe acknowledges a letter of congratulations from the Garter King of Arms after his great naval victory; explorer and Secretary to the Admiralty John Barrow oversees British interests in South America; and Sir Thomas Staines reports on the discovery of the descendants of the Bounty mutineers.

The copy of the Staines despatch was found among the papers of Dr. George Bellamy, naval surgeon and later Mayor of Plymouth from 1811-12 (the Briton had arrived in Plymouth in April 1815). The later comments on the manuscript may well be his. Thomas Staines (1776-1830) was not the first to discover the mutineers, that credit went to Captain Mayhew Folger of Nantucket on the Boston sealer Topaz who had landed in Pitcairn in October 1808, eighteen years after the mutiny. A Narrative of the Briton's Voyage to Pitcairn Island by its first Lieutenant, John Shillibeer, was published in 1817.