254 



actuates our hearts. As this is a faithful picture of my feelings, 

 so I will flatter myself that it is not a very erroneous one of yours. 

 I know of no person in India, to whom I have been so long and 

 uniformly attached; and I shall hope ever, though we should meet 

 no more, to retain a warm place in your remembrance. You will 

 ever live in mine!" 



These unpremeditated effusions, at the period of separation 

 between persons long united in the bonds of friendship and affec- 

 tion, will not I trust be deemed irrelevant to their present situa- 

 tion. Were they introduced only to gratify my own feelings, they 

 would need an apology; but they are inserted from a nobler mo- 

 tive. They evince, in a variety of individual characters, a mind 

 superior to the fascinations of ambition, wealth, and luxury, in apart 

 of the globe where these passions are supposed to be amply grati- 

 fied ; and by many incompetent judges in England are presumed to 

 engross almost the whole pursuits of their countrymen in India. 

 From an intimate correspondence of nearly twenty years I might 

 have adduced many other proofs of sound judgment, extensive 

 knowledge, and liberal sentiment, which do honour to our na- 

 tional character, but I have limited myself to our correspondence 

 during the last months of my residence in India, in which, al- 

 though I may have gratified private feeling, I have also given un- 

 deniable proofs of the noblest virtues being deeply rooted, and 

 residing, in the hearts of Britons settled in the oriental regions. 



After leaving the Malabar coast we had a continuance of fair 

 winds and pleasant weather, until we passed the line ; where, in- 

 stead of the calms so often experienced, a strong western gale 



