book I formerly mentioned having purchased from one of the men in

Hydrabad,) and which had been of great use to myself; and I hope the blessing of God has rendered it of great service to her also. In a word, we parted with very sorrowful hearts, but our sorrow was not without hope, for that blessed religion which had formerly supported our minds, and cheered us in many a gloomy hour, left us not even now, when we needed comfort; but told us that the sufferings of the present time were not worthy to be compared with the glory that should be revealed in us at our meeting in Emmanuel's land; and that our light afflictions which might intervene, were but for a moment, and would, by the divine blessing, work out for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.

[16] She had already a Bible of her own.

The invalids left Bangalore upon the 13th September, 1813, and proceeded to Punamalee, a depôt for recruits from Europe, and invalids from India, homeward bound. We were ordered there to be in readiness for the first Company's ship that should touch at Madras. We arrived at Punamalee upon the 1st of October, 1813. I had in this place a severe attack of the bile upon the stomach; but it was not the disorder generally called by that name in this country; for it has nearly all the symptoms of the flux, being accompanied with great pain in the bowels, which are generally much swelled, along with a considerable degree of sickness. I was so much exhausted by it in two days, that I could not turn myself in the bed without assistance. I continued about a week very ill, and had more the appearance of getting a grave in India, than of ever seeing my native country again; but it was the wise saying of a worthy divine, that man is immortal until his day come; for while there are more days, there are means stirred up. But often, since I came to India, have I been inclined to take up the language of good Hezekiah, "I have said in the cutting off of my days, I shall go to the gates of the grave; I am deprived of the residue of my years. I said I shall not see the Lord, even the Lord, in the land of the living; I shall behold man no more with the inhabitants of the world." But I can now add, with the same good man, "O Lord, thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption; thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back: for the grave cannot praise thee; death cannot celebrate thee; they that go down to the pit cannot hope for thy truth: the living, the living, he shall praise thee, as I do this day." O that I may devote my spared life unto thy service.

While we lay at Punamalee, Paddy L--, of our regiment, drowned himself in a tank, at the back of the barracks, upon a Sabbath morning. This man was going along with us for Europe, with a bad discharge, in consequence of having made himself unfit for further service by shooting off his hand, for which dreadful outrage against the laws of both God and man, as well as against his own body, he was sentenced to receive corporal punishment; to be kept in confinement during his stay with the regiment; and to be sent home with a blank discharge. He had also been frequently confined, after we came here, for different crimes; and once while he was in the _Cungie-house_,[17] having obtained a light, on pretence of lighting his pipe, he set fire to the place, attempting to burn both it and himself; and it was with considerable difficulty that his life, at that time, was saved, being taken out half suffocated, and as black as a chimney-sweep. I cannot inform the reader what were his diabolical motives for drowning himself; but we need not wonder much at it, when he was so depraved as to commit such crimes as I have mentioned, and indeed many others which I decline noticing; only this I will say, that "destruction and misery are in the way of such people, and the way of peace they have not known;" and no marvel that "their feet run into evil, and make haste to shed blood, seeing they have no fear of God before their eyes."

[17] The _Cungie-house_ is intended to answer the same purpose as the black-hole for soldiers in this country; where the prisoners receive for subsistence boiled rice, and the water with which it is made ready, which kind of food is called _Cungie_; and from which also the place above mentioned receives the appellation _Cungie-house_.

While here also I received a letter from Serjeant Gray, giving us the melancholy intelligence of his wife having had a severe attack of the flux, and of that disorder terminating in her dissolution, and earnestly soliciting me to send him a word of consolation, and an advice suited to the particularly trying circumstances in which he was placed; to which request I most readily complied in the best way I was able. My wife and I were much affected at the unexpected news; and no wonder, considering that great intimacy which had always subsisted between our families ever since the time I received Doddridge's Rise and Progress in Hydrabad. Our attachment to one another was such, that during the time the regiment was in Trichinopoly, when our huts were at a considerable distance, we very seldom passed a day, if duty would permit, without being in one another's company, and frequently we even dined together; and this friendship subsisted until we left the regiment, when we had truly a sorrowful parting; but we then little imagined that one of us was so near the eternal world. Surely the language of Divine Providence to us at this time was, "Be ye also ready, for at such an hour as ye think not the Son of Man cometh." Surely this is an important, universal, and perpetual admonition, "O that we were wise, that we understood this, that we would consider our latter end." My letter no sooner reached the regiment, than Mrs. Copwick seeing it, wrote off immediately to Punamalee, requesting me very kindly "to send her also a word of advice before our embarkation; adding, that although she had not forgotten my former counsels, yet she had a great desire to have something from me in writing, that would not only refresh her memory, but also excite her gratitude to her heavenly Father, who had used me as an instrument, that Christ might be formed in her soul, and that it might also be a help to support her mind, under her severe trials, and encourage her to a continuance in well-doing, trusting that at last she might receive the end of her faith, even the salvation of her soul."

I need scarcely inform the Christian reader with what joy I received this delightful letter, and with what comfort and enlargement of heart I answered it; all that I shall say is, that I wish God may bless every mean which I have been enabled to use for her eternal advantage, and that we may finally meet again upon the right hand of the judge, when he which soweth, and they which reap, shall rejoice together.

I have since learned from good authority, that Serjeant Gray has followed his wife to the narrow house appointed for all living, and that Mrs. C.'s wicked husband is also gone from our world, dying as he had lived, and that God, in his kind providence, has provided a friend who took an interest in the welfare of his widow, and obtained a place for her in the family of a respectable clergyman in the country, to take the superintendence of his children, having made ample provision both for her and the orphans. In their happy experience, therefore, was that promise fulfilled[18], "Leave thy fatherless children, I will preserve them alive, and let your widows trust in me."

[18] Only, to be sure, in a certain sense; but it would have been verified strictly if the serjeant had been one of God's people.

My dear reader, you may naturally enough think that the writer of this little work is very defective in his duty, when he has travelled so many hundred miles in India, and has scarcely so much as even dropped a hint of the appearance of the country, the customs and manners of its inhabitants, their religion, &c.; but my reason for this is, that I may make this work appear as regular and satisfactory as possible; for I have designedly delayed entering upon these things until I was just going to take farewell of the country. And now, as I am going to take a long, and, I hope, a last adieu of that part of the world, where I have suffered much, and, I bless God, have enjoyed much, I will attempt a very brief account of these, in their regular order, before I step on board ship, and close my bodily eyes--for ever perhaps--upon this scene.