child may possibly inherit it from her race, -I hope she may;-but watch it, let not the privilege of keen and quick perception degenerate into an uneasy sensitiveness. Beware of this, for mortal happiness at least hinges upon due regulation of feeling; and where feeling is once excited principle is insufficient to control it, albeit conscientiously guiding the conduct. "These are the first vital considerations. With regard to Christian qualities, which spring out of religion and temper, I need not say anything to you. I will only observe that I wish my child to be indulged, even now, in giving to the poor, but at the same time to be taught that giving money, which entails no personal sacrifice, is the least part of Charity—the most difficult, not to speak or think ill of others. How full of the milk of human kindness were our grandmother, our mother, and her own sweet mother! 6 ... "In manner, from my soul I loathe all affectation.' I hate, too, primness. I hope my child will be frank and free, and natural, yet perfectly decorous, attentive to her seniors, kind to her servants and the poor, and affectionate to her friends. . . . You may judge how much I feel in parting with my only child, and will allow for a father's anxiety. . . . Expecting to embark shortly for China, and knowing the uncertainty of human life, I have wished to provide against the event of my not living to write again, by saying now all that was uppermost in my mind regarding the education of my child. And now, may God in His mercy, whatever be in store for me, take you and her under His especial and gracious protection, through Jesus Christ our Lord." The little girl on whom so much love and thought were bestowed did not live to reach England. She died seven days after leaving Calcutta, and the news that he was childless reached the father, when worn by overwork and anxiety, at Tinghae, in September. A few sentences from his letter to his sister, on receiving intelligence of his child's death, are here inserted, instead of in the midst of his letters from China: "To tell you that I am not heart-broken, that I had not fondly hoped and trusted that, so safely embarked, in good health, her teething finished, that I had not fondly hoped and trusted that the danger was past, and that she would reach you in safety,—that my only earthly solace had been in picturing your meeting and her sojourn amongst you, that, for myself, my only hope and thought and vision had not hung upon the prospect that, should life be my lot, I might see her again and ultimately give her a home,—would be to tell you what is false and what you would not believe. . . . But, believe me, even in the first hour of these overwhelming tidings, I grieved for you and Robert too, and poor dear Jane; and yet how vain! God will console you and send you far better solace, other objects, other motives of thought and action.. ... "Dearest sister, I feel that I have deserved this further bitter, bitter chastisement; that I did not bear the awful calamity of my widowhood as I ought to have done; that I have been selfish in my sorrow. God only knows how I shall bear this further loss of my only, sweet, fair child; but I must try. I fear myself; but she is safe, and I must endeavour to restrain and overcome myself. "It is a bitter thought that you never even saw her; that the wide sea is drifting her little bones I know not whither; that only one brief week after I had been permitted to embark her with so much thought, and care, and hope, and thankful confidence, my sweet child died, before she had learnt to love or even rightly know her father;-but this is weakness. God knows best. It was no doubt best for you, for her: and at that day,' wherever I may be, she will surely be yielded up by the wide waters, and be numbered by her Saviour amongst the angels of God." CHAPTER VIII. "Ship Marion,' at Sea, May, 1840. "WE embarked on the evening of the 10th April, hoping to reach Singapore in about three weeks. Our party consists of Colonel Oglander, who is destined to be our commandant, Captain Caine, A.D.C., Major Becher, deputy quarter-master-general, Major Hawkins, deputy commissary-general, Major Wilson, paymaster of the forces, Captain Moore, deputy judge-advocate-general, Dr. King, Dr. Graham, and the deputy adjutant-general. We have, moreover, twelve clerks belonging to the different departments, a sergeant's party of the Queen's 49th, and about sixty native followers. Belonging to the ship, twenty-two Europeans, including the captain, officers, and cuddy servants; and sixty-five Lascars or native Mussulman sailors. Of these last, some are active young men, acquainted with their business; others the veriest wretches imaginable. . . . . The 'Marion' conveys all the medical stores, a proportion of the ordnance stores, and ten lacs of rupees and dollars. She is therefore of some consequence to the expedition, to say nothing of her being head-quarter ship. "Wind and tide were against us, and the authorities gave us a steamer too feeble to tug us, and it was thus the 19th April before we got clear of the sandheads. On the 28th it blew a gale, which gathered strength as the day advanced. While we were at dinner, consuming such viands as we could collect in their dance, a tremendous sea carried away our starboard-quarter boat. The barometer was falling rapidly. We were under close-reefed topsails. The captain lowered his royal and top-gallant yards, and lay the vessel to. The three close-reefed sails, about 5 P. M., split to ribbons with furious flapping and clatter, and the mizen topmast, the bare pole, bowed from sheer force of wind to such a degree that it was evident it must soon go. The fore topmast went first, however; then the mizen; then the main. It was now blowing a hurricane. The stern boat was lifted clean above the poop, where it hovered for a moment; then broke loose and fell. The larboardquarter boat was stove in; and in the attempt to cut away the fragments, which were slashing to and fro upon the poop, Mr. Page, the third officer, and James Gerard, a fine young seaman, were carried away and seen no more. The long boat was flung from her props into the waist, knocking down the nettings, breaking away her keel, and crushing in her fall a native servant, and several sheep, to death. The jib-boom and both binnacles were carried away, and such was the force of the wind that the chief officer could only reach the wheel by creeping along the deck upon his hands and knees. The mainsail and foresail, though closely furled upon their respective yards, were now blown away and torn to pieces. Their furious clatter as they fought to break loose, the howling of the hurricane, the raging of the sea, the fearful slashing and banging of the topmasts, rigging, blocks, and cross-trees, which were all hanging over the side, the bawling of the officers and the cries of the crew, formed altogether a scene to which it is diffi |