officers and privates marched through the Mysore dominions, so engrossed conversation, that little attention could be given to any other subject. The failure of British policy and intrepidity in the late unfortunate expedition to Bednore, and the loss of the flower of the Bombay army, were universally deplored. This, added to the sacrifice of all our northern possessions, to obtain an ignominious peace with the Mahrattas, threw a gloom over the oriental hemisphere on our departure from India. Important and advantageous have been the succeeding events in that quarter of the globe, where those fatal catastrophes are now so happily reversed. Tippoo destroyed, Mysore restored to the descendant of its ancient rajahs, many of the Guzerat purgunnas once more in possession of the Company, and British protection extended over the greater part of the rich and populous regions of India, in a retrospective view leave the mind absorbed in wonder, looking forward in incalculable conjecture. I never visited Tellicherry without a sigh to the memory of an amiable female, with whom in my juvenile years I had the happiness of being intimately acquainted. At a season when youth, beauty, innocence, decked her virgin form with superior charms, and attracted universal love, a sable cloud, commencing its portentous aspect at this settlement, obscured her brighter prospects; and after a scene of accumulated sorrow, led her an early victim to the grave, which to her was indeed a haven of repose; an asylum where the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest." The mournful history of the lovely Maria would call forth the sympathetic tear from every heart of sensibility. It is suppressed from delicacy to the survivors; for the same reason the following lines are veiled in ambiguity; they were suggested by reading some stanzas in La Pitié, by De Lille, one of the most beautiful poems in the French language. C'est la Pitié elle-méme! The tale of woe to which they allude has frequently employed my pen in the tropical shades of Malayala, (or Malabar) and the romantic scenery of her native Salopia. LINES ON MARIA. Ah hapless maid! sweet nymph of Salop's vale! As some gay flower that decks the verdant mead, Yet not like vulgar nymphs shall die thy name, And oft as o'er Malaya's wilds I stray, Still shall Maria's sainted form be nigh, O! if there be some valley deep retir'd, There blooming maids with wreaths of cypress crown'd, When summer suns unfold the buds of spring, And scattering roses o'er thy urn shall sing. "Hail, nymph belov'd!" shall chant the virgin choir, "Hail! of our sex, the honour, grace, desire!" "Time, which destroys, renews fair Nature's face, Repaints each hue, retouches every grace, Recalls the zephyr, renovates the bower, Again resuscitates the faded flower, Ne'er shall record upon the sculptor'd shrine More soft and lovely traits than once were thine! "Hope of thy parents! glory of thy age, "Adieu, sweet nymph, adieu! may thy blest shade Sometimes revisit this sequester'd glade! For thee shall Philomel each note prolong, And choose her sweetest, most entrancing song; Zephyr shall follow through the silent dell, And Echo call thee from her rocky cell. "Adieu! when garlands crown returning spring, We will return, and vernal offerings bring: Accept, to sooth thee in Elysian bowers, Our hymns, our tears, our sorrows, and our flowers!" Chara Maria, vale! The General Elliot was to receive her final dispatches for Europe from the governor and council at Bombay, by a cutter to be sent after us to Tellicherry. This vessel arrived on the 17th of February, with the packets for the court of directors, and orders for our immediate departure to St. Helena and Europe, without touching at the Cape of Good Hope. By this opportunity I received a letter from the government secretary at Bombay, enclosing a copy of a paragraph from the governor and council's address to the court of directors, dated the 10th of February 1784,per ship General Elliot, which closed my public career in the company's service. Self-respect and a laudable pride of character, induce me to insert in these memoirs the most pleasing recompence I could have received for having zealously devoted to them the best years of my life, and suffering much from the enervating influence of the climate. "In the month of December last Mr. James Forbes, senior merchant on this establishment, addressed us a letter, requesting permission to proceed to England for the benefit of his health, and enclosing a certificate from the late surgeon of the Baroche factory, pointing out the same as necessary for the re-establishment of a relaxed constitution, occasioned by frequent attacks of bilious fevers. In November 1775, Mr. Forbes had occasion to solicit our permission to proceed by the Betsey snow to the Cape of Good Hope, and from thence to England, for the same complaint; we have therefore complied with Mr. Forbes's request to take his passage in the General Elliot; and as he has on all occasions afforded us much satisfaction, and proved himself a diligent and faithful servant to his employers, we beg leave strongly to recommend that he be permitted to return to India without prejudice to his rank in the service, whenever his health may permit of his soliciting you for that purpose. "Attested to be a true copy, JAMES HATLEY, Secretary." Our cargo being entirely completed, and the packets from the chief and council of Tellicherry closed, they finally dispatched the Governor Elliot on the 18th of February. We sailed the next morning for Chetwa, a Dutch settlement on the Malabar coast, a little to the southward of Calicut, and fifteen leagues north of Cochin. There we filled up our water casks, received a large supply of poultry and fresh provisions, previously provided, and parted from a valuable friend, who had thus far accompanied his wife and children, on their way to England. He returned to Bombay with two other gentlemen, who then left us, in a vessel detained for the purpose. We neither landed at Chetwa nor Calicut; the latter was in |