MANGALORE. 5 
and of stating to him my ideas and feelings ; in which I had the 
happiness of finding that he fully concurred. At length I pro- 
posed to his Excellency, that he should order one of the Bombay 
cruizers to be prepared for a voyage to the Red Sea ; and I offered 
my gratuitous services to endeavour to remove our disgraceful 
ignorance, by embarking in her, for the purpose of investigating 
the eastern shore of Africa, and making the necessary inquiries into 
the present state of Abyssinia, and the neighbouring countries. His 
Excellency approved of the plan, and it was determined that, in 
order to obviate any difficulties which might arise, from the com- 
manding officer differing with me in opinion, with respect to the 
eligibility of going to particular places, he should be placed under 
my orders. The necessary instructions were immediately transmit- 
ted to Bombay J and I hastened my departure for Columbo, as it was 
desirable to reach the Red Sea as early in the year as possible. 
When I arrived at Tanjore I received dispatches from Bombay, 
acquainting me that the Antelope cruizer would be at Mangalore 
ready to receive me, and convey me to the Red Sea in the begin- 
ning of February ; at the same time I had letters from Mr. Lumsden, 
Chief Secretary at Calcutta, inclosing, under a flying sealj the proper 
orders to Captain Keys, to consider himself as under my command. 
At Madras I heard that he was actually arrived ; yet from my ser- 
vant's indisposition there, and the previous delay at Columbo, I was 
unable to reach Mangalore before the 8th of March. This was par- 
ticularly unfortunate, as it precluded the possibility of my reaching 
Suez, previously to the change of the monsoon in the Arabian Gulf. 
It was however some consolation to know that the very heavy gales 
in that quarter rarely set in before June, by which time I hoped 
