ment or improvement, carrying out a bill on some house of agency; or a sum of money for equipment in India. The bill is the better mode of the two, for it serves as an introduction, and provides against probable loss, for the exchange on English money varies very much in India, and a system of fraud is practised on Johnny Newcome at each of the presidencies, which it requires no common prudence to repel.

The passage to India now seldom exceeds four months and a half, but it is a period to which great importance ought to be attached. An adventurer is fortunate, who meets with a gentlemanly experienced commander of the ship, for much depends upon his temper and manner, in keeping up proper ceremony and preserving that agreeable harmony which is so very easily disturbed by selfishness and imprudence, in the narrow sphere to which the passions and inclinations of society are confined on board a vessel, where there is no such thing as avoiding daily intercourse without the most intolerable imprisonment. Indeed the situation of a set of fiery impatient young men, cooped up within the sides of a wooden house, surrounded by the ocean for four months, is so critical that it requires every possible attention and care to prevent the many unhappy consequences which may arise out of accidents. When good temper and a general disposition to please prevail, the hours fly away swiftly, and there is so

little to draw away attention while scudding before the trade or monsoon, which steady weather is experienced during the greatest part of an Indian voyage, that an improving course of reading may be pursued, and the mind invigorated while the imagination is amused.

There is a roving disposition, or propensity, in human nature, which leads young men to think little of the pain of separation from the delightful associations of boyhood till after departure. It is then that the unobserved tear trickles down that cheek which, perhaps, felt but a faint flush of emotion when bidding adieu to objects, the loss of whom affection had never been taught by experience to appreciate. Even during the voyage, the painful sensations of an exile, far from all he loves, are not so keenly felt as when he lands, and meets with none of those endearments which usually awaited him upon returning home from former excursions. The mind is very highly excited during a voyage to India, and imagination is kept on the alert by the most pleasing visions of expectation. It often happens that these delightful day-dreams are found to be just as unsubstantial vapours as their nocturnal sisters, and it therefore becomes an exercise of prudence in every young man, to prepare his understanding for a situation in which he will require the full exercise of his reason to combat those yearnings for a return to joys which he is apt to imagine are fled for ever.

But he may rest assured, that such feelings will not continue to destroy his peace of mind; and that he will soon form new associations and friendships; to part with which will, at some future period, occasion no inconsiderable wound to his dearest sympathies. Let each adventurer, therefore, think seriously upon these probable changes in his mind, and he will be able to endure them without that despair which has maddened several amiable young men into acts of suicide.

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CHAPTER III.

CAUTIONS TO BE OBSERVED, ON ARRIVAL IN INDIA.

UPON landing at any of the presidencies, crowds of natives, who speak tolerable English, press upon strangers, and it requires no small share of prudence to guard against imposition. They approach with the most insinuating address, and produce characters which are calculated to remove suspicion. The necessity a stranger is under of placing himself in the power of some interested person, as well from want of information as for the supply of his absolute wants, ensures employment to great numbers of the most cunning description of men in India. Their objects are, to get charge of the luggage for the purpose of conveying it to some tavern, the proprietor of which rewards them for bringing him guests; to engage such servants as the stranger may require, all of whom pay for their places; to exchange English money and purchase the refit, which every one requires after a long voyage, by which they make considerable profit. To avoid the consequences of reposing confidence in such designing knaves, I would suggest that the stranger should leave his luggage on board the ship, and go on shore with any letters of introduc

tion he may have, or for the purpose of reporting his arrival at one of the public offices, where he will receive information that may be serviceable. Such young men as do not belong to the civil or military service, will do well to be guided by the advice of the captain of the vessel; for I can assure them, that by placing themselves at the disposal of an agent, who will offer himself at the landing-place, they may, probably, be led into folly and inconvenience, which they will long remember with deep regret. In short, I consider caution on this head of such importance, that I have known the worst misfortunes of several adventurers originate in connections which they accidentally formed with natives, on arrival in India.

The next point, to which I would advert, is the caution that ought to be exercised in the choice of companions. In general, our youth contract in public schools, from mixing with ranks in life far above them in fortune, notions of extravagance and splendour, which are agreeable to the generous and liberal feelings of that animated period of existence. But if these propensities be not checked, they inevitably lead to the formation of habits, which completely destroy that prospect of independence for which a man is adventuring his life, and spending his time in an uncongenial climate, at a distance from all the associations of childhood. If the inconsistency of human nature was not proverbially known, it would surprise any