The Mayflower and Her Log; July 15, 1620-May 6, 1621 — Volume 3 by Azel Ames
page 38 of 48 (79%)
page 38 of 48 (79%)
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Fuller's attendance alike on her passengers and crew, and the increased
mortality of the seamen--after his removal on shore. [The author is greatly indebted to his esteemed friend, Mr. George Ernest Bowman, Secretary-General of the Society of MAY-FLOWER Descendants, for information of much value upon this point. He believes that he has discovered trustworthy evidence of the existence of a small volume bearing upon its title-page an inscription that would certainly indicate that the MAY-FLOWER had her own surgeon. A copy of the inscription, which Mr. Bowman declares well attested (the book not being within reach), reads as follows:-- "To Giles Heale Chirurgeon, from Isaac Allerton in Virginia. Feb. 10, 1620." Giles Heale's name will be recognized as that of one of the witnesses to John Carver's copy of William Mullens's nuncupative will, and, if he was the ship's-surgeon, might very naturally appear in that relation. If book and inscription exist and the latter is genuine, it would be indubitable proof that Heale (who was surely not a MAY-FLOWER passenger) was one of the ship's company, and if a "chirurgeon," the surgeon of the ship, for no other Englishmen, except those of the colonists and the ship's company, could have been at New Plymouth, at the date given, and New England was then included in the term "Virginia." It is much to be hoped that Mr. Bowman's belief may be established, and that in Giles Heale we shall have another known officer, the surgeon, of the MAY-FLOWER.] |
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