of the Scotch poor, writing a long letter, on foolscap paper, to her son, a sailor in the Mediterranean. She greeted me warmly, and amused me by coming out, after many haltings and ha's, with "Aweel, Maister John, your wife — how is she? She's na black is she, sir?"'
His furlough, like this visit, came too soon to an end; and on Saturday, September 20, 1845, 'the Liverpool left Southampton at 3 p.m.' He returned alone to India, for he did not know what instructions awaited him on arrival, or where he would have to set up his home. Arriving in Calcutta on November 7, he waited till January 8 before orders reached him from Lord Hardinge to proceed to Khátmándu, and to take charge of the Nepál Residency. In eight days he had left Calcutta, and reaching Segaulí on February 2, he arrived at his destination on February 8, with his old Haidarábád friend Ravenshaw, who from Patná had accompanied him. On February 27 Ravenshaw returned, and he was left to his new life. His predecessor had been Henry Lawrence, who wrote to him shortly after he assumed office in Nepál that the more the Rájá and the Durbar were left to themselves the better. 'It was my endeavour to bring matters back to Mr. Gardiner's system (Mr. Gardiner had been the first Resident after the war of 1815); two visits a year, and half a dozen letters to Government.' This was not the kind of work which was likely to interest either the man who wrote that advice, or the man to whom it was given. Matters were ripening at the time for
