.

Falconer's answer to this letter has not been preserved. It did not
delay his departure from Dover in the _Aurora_ frigate. The vessel
touched at the Cape; set sail again, and was never afterwards heard of.
It is supposed that she was either burnt at sea, or driven northward by
a storm and wrecked on the Madagascar coast. Falconer intended to have
prefixed some complimentary lines to Mr. Murray to the third edition of
"The Shipwreck," but they were omitted in the hurry of leaving London
and England for India.

Notwithstanding the failure of MacMurray to obtain the aid of Falconer
in his partnership, he completed alone his contract with Mr. Sandby. His
father at Edinburgh supplied him with the necessary capital, and he
began the bookselling business in November 1768. He dropped the prefix
"Mac" from his surname; put a ship in full sail at the head of his
invoices; and announced himself to the public in the following terms:

"John Murray (successor to Mr. Sandby), Bookseller and Stationer, at No.
32, over against St. Dunstan's Church, in Fleet Street, London, sells
all new Books and Publications. Fits up Public or Private Libraries in
the neatest manner with Books of the choicest Editions, the best Print,
and the richest Bindings. Also, executes East India or foreign
Commissions by an assortment of Books and Stationary suited to the
Market or Purpose for which it is destined; all at the most reasonable
rates."

Among the first books he issued were new editions of Lord Lyttelton's
"Dialogues of the Dead," and of his "History of King Henry the Second,"
in stately quarto volumes, as well as of Walpole's "Castle of Otranto."
He was well supported by his friends, and especially by his old brother
officers, and we find many letters from all parts of the world
requesting him to send consignments of books and magazines, the choice
of which was, in many cases, left entirely to his own discretion. In
1769 he received a letter from General Sir Robert Gordon, then in India,
who informed him that he had recommended him to many of his comrades.

_Sir R. Gordon to John Murray_.

"Brigadier-General Wedderburn has not forgotten his old school-fellow,
J. McMurray. Send me British news, and inform me of all political and
other affairs at home." [He also added that Colonel Mackenzie, another
old friend, is to be his patron.] "I hope," says Sir E. Gordon, in
another letter, "that you find more profit and pleasure from your new
emplo