been on the paddle-box getting what air I can, and watching a black wall of cloud covered with fleecy masses, which rests on the bank to our right, and seems half inclined to sweep over us with one of those refreshing pelts of which we had a succession last night.  It is this habit of showers which renders the vicinity of the Line more bearable than the summer heat of other parts within the Tropics.  However, the cloud sticks to the shore, so I have come down to write this line to you.

[Sidenote:  Singapore.]

Singapore.—­Sunday, March 13th, Seven A.M.—­This place looks wonderfully green and luxuriant after China.  The variety of costumes and colours too, Malay, Indian, Chinese, &c., and the pretty villas perched on each hillock among flowering trees, give it a festival air.  Heavy showers of rain also keep the temperature down.... 3.30 P.M.—­I went to church and embarked immediately after; and here we are, about ten miles from Singapore, going well through a calm sea, with a slight breeze rather against us.  Twenty months ago I left this place at about the same hour with poor Peel for Calcutta.

March 21st.—­Six A.M.—­I have been an hour on deck watching the great bright stars eclipse themselves, and the sun break through the clouds right astern of us.  It is a lovely day, and we are a little bent over by a breeze from the shore of Ceylon, along which we are now running. Noon.—­Just anchored at Galle, after a run of about 270 miles in twenty-four hours....  We are surrounded by curious boats about two feet wide, prevented from capsizing by outriggers—­beams of wood floating on the water on one side of them, and attached to them by poles of about eight feet in length.  I believe these boats are wonderfully fast and safe.

[Sidenote:  Ceylon.]

Colombo.—­Sunday, March 27th.—­We came yesterday to this place.  A drive of seventy-two miles through an almost uninterrupted grove of cocoa-nut trees, interspersed with bread-fruit, jack-fruit, and other foliage, with occasional gleams of the Gloriosa superba.  The music of the ocean waves hissing and thundering on the shore accompanied us all our journey.  The road was good and the coach tolerable, so it was pleasant enough.  To-day the heat is very great; hardly bearable at church.  All Sir H. Ward’s family are on the hill—­Newra Elyia—­some 6,000 feet above the sea; this being the hottest season in Ceylon.  My writing is not very good, for I cannot sit still for the heat.  I am walking about the room in very light attire, taking up my pen from time to time to indite a few words.

H.M.S.  ’Furious.’—­At Sea, April 9th.—­Will this letter be delivered to you by the post or by the writer in person? Chi sa?...  You will like to have a complete record of my experiences during my long absence.  I am now again at sea, and I cannot say how this fact rejoices me.  I