ence to a few lines from the Singapore Authorities.

[Footnote 29: 1846; now in full operation. Vide Appendix I. p.
303.]

The ships of war in these seas are too much in harbour; they might be
far better employed in occasional visits to the different ports of
Borneo, Palawan, the eastern coast of the Malayan Peninsula, Siam, and
Cochin China. Visits to those countries twice or thrice a year, would
not interfere in the slightest degree with their regular duty; it ought,
indeed, to form part of it; and would be of incalculable value to
British merchants. The Authorities of those different States, knowing
that the visits of British ships of war were to be regular and frequent
in future, would be cautious how they meddled with British subjects.
With all the gasconade common to Orientals generally, the chiefs of the
countries I have mentioned, are cowards at heart, tyrants as they are
when opportunity offers; and they dread the sight of a ship of war in
their harbours. No better check could be kept upon their conduct; and
the plan proposed would not cost Great Britain a shilling, inasmuch as
the ships required to carry it into execution, are in commission, and,
as I said before, spend far too much time in port. Such a catastrophe
as the loss of the Golconda, with four hundred souls on board, ought to
be sufficient to call forth the utmost exertions on the part of our
naval officers in the China Sea. This ship, a vessel of 800 tons,
sailed from Singapore in September 1840 (or 1841), bound to China,
with the head-quarters of the 37th Madras Native Infantry on board,
and has never since been heard of. In my humble opinion, the China Sea
and its coasts ought to have been thoroughly searched for any remains
of this unfortunate ship, it being far from impossible, that some of
her people may be in existence in Cochin China or on the neighbouring
coasts or islands. When the unfortunate barque Fifeshire disappeared
in the same mysterious way, on the same voyage, three of her men
turned up from Cochin China, twelve months after she had been given up
and paid for by the under-writers. No endeavour was made to trace the
Golconda,--wherefore, let those explain, who had it in their power to
cause due search to be made. Being unable to divine their reasons, I
hope, for their own sakes, they were sufficient to quiet their own
consciences.

My wanderings are drawing near a close, and I have little more to say.
On our passage down