EXPATRIATION. 11 



CHAPTER II. 



VOYAGE TO INDIA MADEIRA TENEHIFFE CAPE OP GOOD HOPE 

 ARRIVAL AT MADRAS. 



I HAD hardly completed my sixteenth year, when a volatility 

 of disposition, an unconquerable attachment to field sports, 

 to the prejudice and disparagement of other and more im- 

 portant pursuits, and a precocity of intellect directed in a 

 totally opposite direction, than towards the quiet and dignified 

 profession (the Church), for which I was originally intended, 

 induced some of Taj friends to suggest that my follies and 

 escapades might be effectually cooled, or rather warmed, down, 

 by a voyage to India; a proposition to which I cordially 

 assented, anything like change or adventure being delightful 

 to me. Accordingly, a cadetship was easily procured, and 

 arrangements made for dispatching me to those sunny climes, 

 from whence, considering my tastes and habits, it was no 

 doubt considered very unlikely I should ever return. 



I am sorry to confess, even at this distant period, that 

 military glory, in its legitimate sense, formed no very great 

 portion of my inducements for the step I was taking. 

 Adventure of any kind was the first object, and India was 

 chiefly associated in my mind with nabobs, shawls, diamonds, 

 and bayaderes, and with still greater temptations elephants, 

 tigers, leopards, and other ferce naturae, affording inexhaustible 

 delights to the dreams of an embryo sportsman. My mind 

 was absorbed in a confused dream of Williamson's Indian 

 Field Sports and the Arabian Nights' Entertainments. 



I was impatient to change this very matter-of-fact country 

 for all the enchantments of Eastern romance, and my preli- 



