with the greatest economy, or contracting debts; which, at the 
common interest of nine per cent, annually compounded, soon 
swelled the amount to an enormous sum, and involved the bor- 
rower in distress and difficulty for many years. The small salaries 
then allowed by the Company to their junior servants, occasioned 
much inconvenience and anxiety to those who had no other re- 
sources for their maintenance; and caused us, at different times, 
to address two letters upon the subject, to the government of 
Bombay; which will hardly be credited by the young gentlemen 
who now occupy the same situation in the Company’s service: I 
introduce them in evidence of these assertions, and to convince 
the English reader, that those who dedicate their best years in the 
torrid zone, in the service of their country, are not to be envied 
their independence when they return to their native land: and it 
must also be remembered, that very few, comparatively, ever 
enjoy that blessing: how many of that fortunate class may now 
be reckoned, I am not competent to decide; but thirty or forty 
years ago, the average of the calculations at the India House, re- 
specting those of every description who went to the different 
settlements in India, including the Company’s recruits, and of 
those who returned home, was, I am informed, in the proportion 
of eighty-three to one. 
