An Account of the Principal Events of My Life by Henry Bould.

 Here's some stimulating news.
A member of the Prott team, Dr Dennis Groves, has recently spent time at  The Bodleian Library in Oxford studying the manuscript of An Account of the Principal Events of My Life by Henry Bould.

Bould, you may recall,  was the only survivor of the crew of  HMS Dreadful that left Tamba- Tamba under Mr Jeffries
Midshipman Henry Bould was born in Bristol in 1757. A conventional Young Gentleman, his early career was unremarkable. He supported Summer's mutiny as he was a believer in 'fair play'  and thought that Captain Stokes was no longer fit to command.
Captured by the French shortly after leaving Tamba-Tamba, Bould spent ten years as a prisoner in Guadeloupe. He escaped and made his way to the United States. He was granted a Royal Pardon in 1798 and returned to Portsmouth the following year. He lived to the age of 96 in quiet retirement in Bath Spa.

 Dr Groves

Dennis Groves writes: An Account of the Principal Events of My Life is a remarkable document. Quite how it has never been  published commercially is beyond me, as it contains all the elements of the great adventure stories.
However, our interest here lies with Tamba- Tamba, and of the approximately half a million words that Bould wrote,  just a few pages tell us anything about the island and the events that occurred there.
Bould comes across as being  the sort  who, almost naively, sees the good in everyone, and seems to be able to justify the actions of others even at his own expense.
He attributes Captain Stokes' 'decline of reason' to the ardours of a long journey with a fractious crew.
He writes admiringly of Summers, but seems that he was scarcely aware of Cock until Tome- Tome.
Following the death of Summers Bould's main motivation was to be able to return to England. He sided with Jeffries, he tells us, simply because he felt that being on board the ship was preferable to being 'marooned on an unknown island'.
According to Bould's account the relations between the two factions were almost cordial even when they were arguing on the most important point of all- whether to leave the island or not. There was some dislike of Cock and Rowley, says Bould, as it seemed to the ordinary men that they 'were grown too clever, not like the regular fellows of before.'  He also refers to Cock as 'godless' on more than one occasion.

Bould found Tamba- Tamba most pleasant island. He was ill at ease in Wessels island, and welcomed the absence of natives. He observed that Cock was probably correct in his conviction that men could live easily on the island, but that they were in fact , 'creating a most desolate gaol for themselves by remaining there'.
Bould refers to the ease with which the men were able to catch turtles and a variety of fishes, and although he describes the interior of the island as being 'mostly forested; so dense as to prove impenetrable' (200 years of human presence have taken their toll there, I'm afraid!), he alludes to 'various species of mamals (sic) or rodents and great sorts of birds' that were also eaten.
Bould doesn't really tell us anything startlingly new about the island, and his account of the disputes between Cock (he scarcely mentions Cock alone, it is always Cock and Rowley) and Jeffries are far from dramatic. This is, however, a remarkable document and would be of great interest to any enthusiasts of Tamba-Tamba history.