CHAPTER I. 
O N Friday the 20th of January 1809, having taken charge 
of some presents prepared for the occasion, and a letter from his 
Majesty the King of Great Britain addressed to the Emperor of 
Abyssinia, I embarked at Portsmouth on board the Marian, a 
merchant vessel commanded by Captain Thomas Weatherhead, 
^ and on the 23d we set sail on our destination, in company 
with an East India fleet, under convoy of his Majesty's ship 
Clorinde. We had scarcely got out of the harbour before we 
encountered a sudden gale from the north-west, which in the 
course of the ensuing day came round to the south-west, and 
