4-2 



A VOYAGE TO 



>779- The mortification I felt at meeting with this unexpected 



December. 



■_ .. - delay, could only be equalled by the extreme impatience 

 with which we had fo long waited for an opportunity of 

 receiving intelligence from Europe. It often happens, that 

 in the eager puriuit of an object, we overlook the eafieftand 

 mod obvious means of attaining it. This was actually my 

 cafe at prefent ; for I was returning under great dejection 

 to the fhip, when the Portugueze officer, who attended me, 

 afked me, if I did not mean to vifit the Englifh, gentlemen 

 at Macao. I need not add with what tranfport I received 

 the information this queflion conveyed to me; nor the 

 anxious hopes and fears, the conflict between curiofity and 

 apprehenfion, which paffed in my mind, as we walked .to- 

 ward the houfe of one of our countrymen. 



In this ftate of agitation, it was not furprifing, that our 



reception, though no way deficient in civility or kindnefs, 



mould appear cold and formal. In our inquiries, as far as 



they related to objects of private concern, we met, as was 



indeed to be expected, with little or no fatisfaction ; but the 



events of a public nature, which had happened fince our 



departure, and now, for the fir ft time, burft all at once 



upon us, overwhelmed every other feeling, and left us, 



for fome time, almoft without the power of reflection. For 



fcveral days we continued queftioning each other about the 



truth of what we had heard, as if defirous of fceking, in 



doubt and fufpencc, for that relief and confutation, which 



the reality of our calamities appeared totally to exclude. 



Thclc fenfaiions were facceeded by the mod poignant 



regret at finding ourfelves cut off, at fuch a diflance, from 



the fecne, where, we imagined, the fate of fleets and armies 



was every moment decidi 



The 



