I consulted Ld. B., on the subject of paying the crews of the felucca employed in getting up the boat. He advised me to sell her by auction, and to give them half the proceeds of the sale. I rode your horse to Via Reggio. On Monday we had the sale, and only realised a trifle more than two hundred dollars.
The two masts were carried away just above board, the
bowsprit broken off close to the bows, the gunwale stove in, and the hull half
full of blue clay, out of which we fished clothes, books, spyglass, and other
articles. A hamper of wine that Shelley
bought at Leghorn, a present for the harbour-master of Lerici, was spoilt, the
corks forced partly out of the bottles, and the wine mixed
| LAST DAYS OF SHELLEY AND BYRON. | 147 |
We found in the boat two memorandum-books of Shelley’s, quite perfect, and another damaged, a journal of Williams’s, quite perfect, written up to the 4th of July. I washed the printed books, some of them were so glued together by the slimy mud, that the leaves could not be separated, most of these things are now in Ld. B’s custody. The letters, private papers, and Williams’s journal, I left in charge of Hunt, as I saw there were many severe remarks on Ld. B.
Ld. B. has found out that you left at Genoa some of the ballast of the ‘Bolivar,’ and he asked me to sell it for him. What a damned close calculating fellow he is. You are so bigoted in his favour that I will say no more, only God defend me from ever having anything more to do with him.
P. S.—On a close examination of Shelley’s boat, we find many of the timbers on the starboard quarter broken, which makes me think for certain, that she must have been run down by some of the feluccas in the squall.
