THE JAVA GOVERNMENT GAZETTE — AUGUST 7, 1812
INVERNESS,—DECEMBER 6.
MERMAID.
The following affidavit respecting the appearance of this doubtful monster, on the shores of Scotland, has appeared in a contemporary print:—
At Campbelltown, the twenty-ninth day of October eighteen hundred and eleven years. In presence of Duncan Campbell, Esq. sheriff-substitute of Kintyre, appeared John M’Isaac, son to Lachlan M’Isaac, tenant in Corphine, aged twenty-three years, who being solemnly sworn and examined, depones, that he resides on the said farm of Corphine, which is situated on the east coast of Kintyre about four miles south from Campbelltown ; that, about three or four o’clock of the afternoon of Sunday the 13th current, having taken a walk towards the sea-side, he came to the edge of a precipice above the shore, from which he saw the appearance of something white upon a black rock at some distance from him.
Depones, that, having approached nearer to this rock, be observed this white object moving, which excited his curiosity so much that he resolved to get as near to it as possible, unperceived ; that in order to accomplish this purpose, he crept upon all fours through a field of corn, till he got among the rocks near to the white object above-mentioned, and then from rock to rock until he came within 12 or 15 paces of the rock on which it lay ; that, upon
