390 



CAPT. SPEKES RETURN. 



warned me that all was not riglit. On Monday, 

 April ISth, arrived H. M.'s ship Purious, Captain 

 Sherard Osborne, carrying the late Lord Elgin 

 and his secretary, the supposed author of the re- 

 view in Blackwood. We were kindly invited to 

 take passage on board : my companion's sick 

 certificate was en regie, whilst mine was not, and 

 he left Aden in such haste that he did not take 

 leave of his host. Still we were, to all appear- 

 ance, friends. 



Eefore parting with me, Capt. Speke volun- 

 tarily promised, when reaching England, to visit 

 his family in the country, and to await my 

 arrival, that we might appear together before the 

 Uoyal Geographical Society. But on board the 

 Eurious he was exposed to the worst influences, 

 and he was persuaded to act in a manner which 

 his own moral sense must have afterwards 

 strongly condemned, if indeed it ever pardoned 

 it. Erom Cairo he wrote me a long letter, re- 

 iterating his engagement, and urging me to take 

 all the time and rest that broken health required. 

 Yet, hardly had he reached London before he 

 appeared at "VYhitehall Place to give his own 

 views of important points still under discussion. 

 Those were the days when the Society in ques- 

 tion could not afford to lack its annual lion, 



