“Will you tell Dr. Butler[117] that I have taken the treasure of a servant, Friese, the native of Prussia Proper, into my service from his recommendation.  He has been all among the Worshippers of Fire in Persia, and has seen Persepolis and all that.

“H——­ has made woundy preparations for a book on his return; 100 pens, two gallons of japan ink, and several volumes of best blank, is no bad provision for a discerning public.  I have laid down my pen, but have promised to contribute a chapter on the state of morals, &c. &c.

    “The cock is crowing,
    I must be going,
    And can no more.”

GHOST OF GAFFER THUMB.

“Adieu.—­Believe me,” &c. &c.

LETTER 36.

TO MR. HODGSON.

“Falmouth, June 25. 1809.

“My dear Hodgson,

“Before this reaches you, Hobhouse, two officers’ wives, three children, two waiting-maids, ditto subalterns for the troops, three Portuguese esquires and domestics, in all nineteen souls, will have sailed in the Lisbon packet, with the noble Captain Kidd, a gallant commander as ever smuggled an anker of right Nantz.

“We are going to Lisbon first, because the Malta packet has sailed, d’ye see?—­from Lisbon to Gibraltar, Malta, Constantinople, and ’all that,’ as Orator Henley said, when he put the Church, and ‘all that,’ in danger.

“This town of Falmouth, as you will partly conjecture, is no great ways from the sea.  It is defended on the sea-side by tway castles, St. Maws and Pendennis, extremely well calculated for annoying every body except an enemy.  St. Maws is garrisoned by an able-bodied person of fourscore, a widower.  He has the whole command and sole management of six most unmanageable pieces of ordnance, admirably adapted for the destruction of Pendennis, a like tower of strength on the opposite side of the Channel.  We have seen St. Maws, but Pendennis they will not let us behold, save at a distance, because Hobhouse and I are suspected of having already taken St. Maws by a coup de main.

“The town contains many Quakers and salt fish—­the oysters have a taste of copper, owing to the soil of a mining country—­the women (blessed be the Corporation therefor!) are flogged at the cart’s tail when they pick and steal, as happened to one of the fair sex yesterday noon.  She was pertinacious in her behaviour, and damned the mayor.

“I don’t know when I can write again, because it depends on that experienced navigator, Captain Kidd, and the ’stormy winds that (don’t) blow’ at this season.  I leave England without regret—­I shall return to it without pleasure.  I am like Adam, the first convict sentenced to transportation, but I have no Eve, and have eaten no apple but what was sour as a crab;—­and thus ends my first, chapter.  Adieu.

“Yours,” &c.

In this letter the following lively verses were enclosed:—­