1844.] STATEMENT. 167 







with the widow of my late brother, Mr. Edward Presgrave, who, as you 

 are aware, was the Eesident Councillor at Singapore for several years. 



" In the Singapore Free Press Price Current, under date 30th 

 September last, a statement appeared regarding the detention of an 

 European female at Borneo, a copy of which I have the honor to annex 

 to this letter. 



" This statement was copied into the Indian newspapers, but did 

 not at the time attract my attention. It seems, however, that a copy 

 of a Bombay journal, containing the statement referred to, reached my 

 brother-in-law, Mr. Cooper, in London, in January last, who upon 

 perusing it was immediately struck with the circumstances which 

 seemed to him to render it at least not impossible that the unfortunate 

 female detained at Borneo, might be no other than the widow of my 

 late brother, Mr. Edward Presgrave. Mr. Cooper addressed me on 

 the subject by the Mail which has just arrived, and although the evi- 

 dence on which his conjectures are founded does not appear to be very 

 conclusive, I feel urged by every sentiment of natural affection to 

 exert myself to the utmost to ascertain who the female in question is, 

 and I am confident that, for such an object, I shall not apply in vain 

 for the kind assistance of Government, as far as it can be afforded. 



"In 1830, my brother died at Penang, and his widow shortly after 

 took her passage in the ' Guilford ', bound from China to England, 

 which touched at Singapore on her homeward voyage ; no tidings have 

 ever reached England or this country of the fate of the ' Guilford ' 

 or of her crew and passengers. It is obvious that in her homeward 

 course she might have been lost in the neighbourhood of Borneo. The 

 female alluded to in the statement of the Singapore paper is stated to 

 have been about fifteen years on the island ; this is certainly a longer 

 period than has elapsed since the loss of the ' Guilford ', but from the 

 very loose manner in which natives speak in regard to dates, the dis- 

 crepancy is not of any great importance. The female is described as 

 being about forty years of age, fair, with light air and blue eyes, a 

 description which would exactly correspond with that of my sister-in- 

 law, supposing her to be now alive. 



" I feel strongly the slightness of these grounds, but at the same 

 time, as the idea of the possibility that the widow of my late brother 

 may be a captive in the Island of Borneo, has occurred to my relatives 

 in England as well as to myself, I cannot forbear making every exertion 

 to arrive at the truth. It would ill become me to endeavour to point 

 out in what mode the Government might most easily ascertain whether, 



