chap. xy. REGRETS ON ACCOUNT OF MY DEPARTURE. 
405 
jesty for her kind attentions and hospitality and the presents 
she had given me, and said I hoped to he ready in eight 
days. 
It was intimated that had I asked for a shorter time it 
might have been approved, as the queen had directed that 
Mr. Cameron should be told, in answer to his letter from the 
Cape, that he might stay six months; but I had asked to ex¬ 
tend my visit to ten months. I said I should be unwilling to 
return in the midst of the fever season, and therefore thought 
it more frank to ask at once for the period during which I 
wished to stay, as I would rather leave now than at any inter¬ 
mediate time. The officers then left. I knew that the wife 
of the chief officer had experienced relief from her sufferings 
after the medicine I had given her, so that I was not sur¬ 
prised at the regret he seemed to feel on account of the mes¬ 
sage he had to deliver. 
I had a long and deeply affecting conversation with the 
friends who visited me in the evening. The prospect of my 
approaching departure was to them exceedingly painful; but 
they expressed themselves grateful for the intercourse we had 
held, and promised to give increased diligence to complete, 
before my departure, some accounts of the principal events 
which have occurred amongst them during the last twenty 
years. Many of them urged important inquiries respecting 
their future progress ; and the grief of all at the prospect of 
my departure was truly distressing. I endeavoured to en¬ 
courage them, and offered such advice as seemed best suited 
to their peculiar circumstances. 
The next day I employed myself, when not occupied with 
visitors and applicants for medicine, in experiments; and in 
the afternoon, after adding full one third part of the vinegar 
to the ordinary pyrogallic mixture, I succeeded in getting a 
tolerably good negative of the young chief who had accom¬ 
panied me from Tamatave. I also received a note saying that 
D 1) 3 
