he sailed, (January 30, 1780,) my father received the following pleasing letter from Mr. Brohier, the Resident. "Dear Sir. As your departure draws near, I take my last farewell of you, your dear lady and son, by a reiteration of my best wishes for your health and happiness; a prosperous voyage; with a joyful meeting of all your friends in Old England. May the blessings of God attend you always, is the sincere wish of, Dear Sir, your most obedient humble servant and friend-S. BROHIER."

In the month of April, the vessel reached the Cape; but my father's health was rapidly declining before he left the country. A complication of disorders, with a broken-down spirit, brought on an inflammation of the bowels. After a short but severe illness, borne with exemplary patience, he expired (according to the testimony of ONE whose truth was as undoubted as her affection) in "great resignation to the divine will*." As I have said in the open

* The "testimony" above alluded to, is the letter written by my mother to her aunt, Mrs. Frognall, herself recently become a widow, immediately on the death of my father at the Cape. A more moving picture of mental desolation can scarcely be conceived. It is as follows: Very great, indeed, my ever dear and kind Madam, are the trials of your poor Betsey, who is now left a disconsolate widow in a strange land, without a friend near her. Unfortunate as the married state has been, the great love the dear departed had for me, makes his loss an almost insupportable affliction. His great resignation to the divine will, and wish to be with his Saviour, is, therefore, now my greatest comfort; for never poor creature was more patient than he was under the most dreadful pains. The original cause of his death was a decay of nature or consumption, as he had laboured under many disorders a long time. To describe what I have undergone, and still feel, would be impossible.

ing of this parental memoir, I have no recollection whatever of the figures or countenances of those about whom I am speaking; but I have something more than an indistinct recollection of the moment, when, the boat nearing the side of the vessel, the coffin, which contained my father's body, was lowered into it-and the boat was rowed slowly and solemnly towards the shore. There are distinct remembrances in children of an earlier age than I then was, but this I do distinctly remember. No tomb ever marked the spot of his interment. The reader will readily imagine the feelings of HER who was left behind. Only three days elapsed between the death of my father and the necessity of my mother's departure from the Cape, in a Dutch company's vessel, called the Hoysom, of which a Mr. Endemans was the tain; and on board of which there was not one lady, or single person, that could speak English except herself and her female black servant. Her miser

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Were it not for my child, and a black woman-servant (which I brought from India), I should really be quite stupid with grief. Oh! my dear Madam, if I should ever be so blessed as to be under your protection again, I shall never know how to be half thankful enough for such a happiness; as I may say with certainty that I have never known true bliss since I left you. And did I not, in this my great distress, have a firm reliance upon a merciful God, who heareth the prayer of the widow and the fatherless, I should be wretched indeed."

In a letter to my Uncle, written on board the ship Hoysom, about the same time, she says, "In my husband's will (which was made at Judda), I am left whole and sole executrix and possessor of every thing he died worth; and if it had been a million, I am sure he loved me so well that he would have done the same." Then follows an allusion to the ill-fated bond of the Nabob.

able, forlorn situation is sufficiently developed in the letter quoted in the last note; but there are other letters from her which throw a yet more darkening gloom upon her sorrows.

The vessel was bound for Middleburg, in Zealand. When it arrived I know not, but from that spot my mother was doomed never to move. There may be an intensity of sympathy in a BROKEN HEART, from the effects of which the hardiest temperament may not recover. With my mother, there seems to have been no spring of mind to counteract her bodily ailment, whatever it was. The BOND OF THE NABOB, which had precipitated her husband's departure, was ever uppermost in her thoughts*, and haunted her

*This bond is expressly mentioned in her will, and in almost every letter which she wrote to her confidential friends. A “tale" (as referred to at the end of a preceding note, p. 31), is said to be connected with it. It shall be as briefly told as possible. Some sixteen or seventeen years after the death of my parents, a gentleman of the name of Latham was at an evening party in the city, when (as the fashion was in those days) some one was called upon to sing a song. He sang one of Charles Dibdin's sea-songs. Mr. Latham, who had but just returned to England after a long residence in India, immediately observed, "that is one of Tom Dibdin's songs: the words are precisely his." He was corrected in this error; and then added, "there is a good slice of property for his son, or heir, if he have left any behind him, as a bond of the Nabob of Arcot is paid off, and the assets are lying in the hands of Mr. Darke, to be paid to the claimant."

By the merest accident this intelligence reached the ears of my uncle and guardian, Mr. William Compton. Not a moment was to be lost. We both waited upon Mr. Latham, and found him quite firm and confident of the fact. Letters of administration with probates of the wills of my father and mother annexed, were instantly taken out, and addressed to the house of Kindersley, Watts, and Co., of Fort St. Georgeappointing them agents or attornies to collect the assets due to me. At

hours of retirement. At length, nature gave way. A "wounded spirit," like hers, was glad perhaps to take shelter in the grave from a prolongation of bodily sufferings; and although the leaving her only child in a foreign country-without one friend, scarcely one acquaintance, to stand by her in her latter moments *-might have torn the breast of any mother into a thousand pieces, yet she appears to have resigned her breath with that tranquillity and that consciousness of ultimate happiness which was to last for ever, which renders such a departure INSTRUCTIVE beyond every other earthly lesson. She says, in her will, dated Oct. 10, 1780, that "she

this time all was hope, if not ecstacy, in my own bosom. The sum due, with the accumulation of interest, was estimated at several thousand pounds. A college friend, more in earnest than in jest, asked me "if I would take 3500l. for the chances?" Upon every consideration, I declined this offer. At length came the answer from Messrs. Kindersley, merely acknowledging the receipt of the documents-which had cost, I think, about 301. A second letter from the same quarter quickly succeeded. A "little cloud" was beginning to make its appearance in the horizon of my hopes. The third letter contained matter which wholly darkened the entire firmament; and from that day to this (some thirty-six years ago) the appropriation of the assets in question remains wholly unaccounted for. There can be no doubt, however, as I am compelled to believe, that the circumstances of the holder of the bond were too desperate to justify the indulgence even of a shadow of hope of success.

*Let it be allowed me here to apply the beautiful and too apposite verses from Pope's Elegy on an unfortunate Lady.

"By foreign hands thy dying eyes were closed,
By foreign hands thy decent limbs composed;

By foreign hands thy funeral rites adorned;

By strangers honoured, and by strangers mourned !"

should like to have a modest tombstone placed upon
her
with a few lines to the purport of an un-
grave,
fortunate traveller being, through mercy, in the arms
of Redeeming Love." She then adds, that "she
dies in charity with all mankind.” I believe, as in
the case of my father, the spot of her interment was
never indicated by a tombstone.

"With many a proof of recollected love
Together down they sink in social sleep;
Together freed, their gentle spirits fly

To scenes where love and bliss immortal reign."

THOMSON.

On a revision of what I have written, I feel that, whatever laudable motives might have induced the raising of THIS MONUMENT (in the absence of all others) to the memories of those so endeared to me, some apology seems nevertheless due for its extension, and, probably in part, wearisomeness of detail. But if the heart runs away with the head, it is difficult to attend to the observance of the " tain boundaries" prescribed by Horatian authority.

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* Her will is in parts very quaint, but written with the utmost composure and self-possession. Among other things, she observes, in a codicil, thus: "I, Elizabeth Dibdin, have likewise by me a MARRIAGE SETTLEMENT of twenty thousand rupees, of which I never received a farthing, or laid any claim to, on the creditors, when my husband died." This settlement is in my possession, with the seals and signatures of my parents and the two trustees, " Hercules Durham and James Urwin.” It seems that 10,000 rupees were actually vested in them, and 10,000 more were to be so vested: but what has become of the absolute property, and what was the result of the contingent property, are, I fear, EQUALLY UNRESOLVABLE. So dark, so impenetrable, seems to be the cloud which has set upon the earthly destinies of my Parents!