lo UNPUBLISHED LETTERS OF THE 



Letter 3 — addressed to Eevd. Malacliy Hiteliins,*' St. Hilary, 



Marazion, 

 On board the "Union," off Falmouth, 



July 23rd, 1805. 

 My Deah Sir, 



I hope you will not attribute my silence to disrespect, or 

 conceive that I have forgotten the many obligations I owe you 

 for the kindness you have always shewn me. I could not 

 have remained so long without writing, if Cousin Tom had not 

 sent me information about you and Mrs. Hitchins from time to 

 time, — but now finding from Eichard that you are still expecting 

 to hear from me, I sit down with pleasure to fulfil a promise I 

 had almost forgotten. After leaving Cornwall last autumn, I 

 continued at Cambridge till February last, when I came to town 

 expecting to sail immediately, but that not being practicable, 

 Mr. Cecil offered me the situation of an assistant in his church, 

 "whioh I accepted. In April, I was appointed to a chaplaincy on 

 the Bengal establishment on the nomination of the chairman, 

 Mr. Grrant, and at the beginning of this month left town for 

 Portsmouth. At day-break last Wednesday the signal gun was 

 fired by the Commodore, and the whole fieet, consisting of 15 

 sail under convoy of the Belliqueiix, Capt. Byng, got under 

 weigh from St. Helen's and sailed down the channel with a fine 

 breeze from the N.E. When we got on board at Portsmouth, I 

 expected to have set foot on the shores of England no more, 

 but found to my no small surprise and pleasure that the fleet 

 was to wait at Falmouth, till tidings should be received of the 

 motions of the combined fleet. We came to in this harbour 

 Friday afternoon. Could I have been certain we should have 

 continued till now, I should have come down to St. Hilary, 

 without doubt, for I long to see you once more, tho' it would 

 oblige me to undergo a second time the pain of parting from 

 you. Fortescue will have told you that we met one another in 

 London. It was but seldom that I saw him, because he was 

 not out of the ofiice but at those hours of the evening in which 

 I was most engaged : but from the conversation I had with him, 

 there appeared to be much religious impression on his mind. I 

 wish he had found a more useful acquaintance than Mr. Grray. 

 To his profession he is certainly not much attached — and yet I 

 do not think he neglects the study of it. 



