was taken into dock for the purpose of undergoing a thorough repair. During the delay which this event occasioned, I spent my time very agreeably, owing to the polite attentions paid to me by the inhabitants, and particularly by Sir James Mackintosh, who, with the peculiar liberality distinguishing his character, allowed me to have free access to his extensive library, containing a more valuable selection of books than was probably ever before seen within the limits of our Eastern Empire.
On the 4th of October, we again set sail from Bombay; and on the 4th of December reached the Cape of Good Hope, where I was welcomed most kindly by my former friends and acquaintance, several of whom, owing to our long delay, had entertained serious alarm for my safety. At this time, I was sorry to learn from Lord Caledon, that no satisfactory intelligence had been received, since my visit to the Settlement, respecting Mr. Cowan or the party which had gone up with him into the country; but on the contrary, that there was too much reason to suppose that they had fallen victims to the ignorance and mistaken jealousy of some of the barbarous tribes of natives in the interior; thus further adding to the melancholy list of those enterprising and unfortunate travellers who have fallen a sacrifice to their generous efforts, in attempting to diffuse the blessings of civilization among the hitherto oppressed inhabitants of Africa.
On the 12th of December, the Marian left the Cape of Good Hope, and on the 29th touched at St. Helena; and, after a remarkably fine passage, on the 10th of January, 1811, reached the coast of England, when, on the following day, I had the pleasure of landing at the Port of Penzance, in Cornwall. Thence I proceeded to London, where, after laying a statement of the transactions which had occurred during the two years I had been absent, before the Marquess Wellesley, then Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, I had the honour of receiving his unqualified approbation of my proceedings; a circumstance which I may be excused for mentioning with some degree of pride, as His Lordship's pre-eminent talents and extensive knowledge of Eastern affairs added a peculiar value to the opinion which he had officially to
