DETENTION OF LETTERS. 21 



invited him to my hotel. He then introduced 

 himself as Mr. 11. Scott, the surveying draughtsman 

 attached to the Mission. 



His first explanation was the cause of his non- 

 arrival sooner, which was owing to the utter 

 ignorance of my arrival on the part of Captain 

 Harris, the chief of the Embassy, until the night 

 but one before, when the King had forwarded 

 by one of his pages two notes, which I had en- 

 deavoured to send to him, the last one dated from 

 Dinnomalee. The other was the one which had 

 been sent by Esau Ibrahim, who, it will be remem- 

 bered, was despatched from Mullu, on the other 

 side of the Hawash, with a note to Ankobar, 

 informing Captain Harris of my being on the road 

 with stores. Both these letters had been inter- 

 cepted and detained, until public rumour spreading, 

 the King could not have kept the Embassy much 

 longer ignorant of my being in the country ; and 

 he therefore made a virtue of necessity, and sent 

 the letters before they were demanded. 



An answer had been sent to me by Capt. Harris 

 the day before by the messenger now in prison, 

 confined by the Wallasmah for having brought a 

 letter for me, after the King had issued orders 

 that all correspondence between the English 

 already in the country and those arriving should 

 be prevented. Mr. Scott was not at all surprised 

 when I informed him of the circumstance, though 

 I certainly considered such- a proceeding to be very 



