e fitting one to undertake the
commission, which was of such a nature as would involve the transfer of
many thousand pounds. He furthermore informed me that a year or two
before, the Company had rendered certain aid to the native King of
Juanna, an island lying between Madagascar and the east coast of Africa,
at a time when there was war betwixt him and the king of an island
called Mohilla, which lyeth coadjacent to the other country; that I
should make Juanna upon my voyage, and that I should there receive
through Mr. Longways, who was the Company's agent at that place, a
pacquet of the greatest import, relating to the settlement of certain
matters betwixt the East India Company and the king of that island.
Concluding his discourse, he further said that he had no hesitation in
telling me that the pacquet which I would there receive from Mr. Longways
concerned certain payments due the East India Company, and would, as he
had said before, involve the transfer of many thousand pounds; from
which I might see what need there was of great caution and
circumspection in the transaction.

"But, sir," says I, "sure the Company is making a prodigious mistake in
confiding a business of such vast importance as this to one so young and
so inexperienced as I."

To this Mr. Evans only laughed, and was pleased to say that it was no
concern of his, but from what he had observed he thought the honorable
Company had made a good choice, and that of a keen tool, in my case. He
furthermore said that in the pacquet which he had given to me, and which
was addressed to me, I would find such detailed instructions as would be
necessary, and that the other should be handed to Mr. Longways, and was
an order for the transfer above spoken of.

Soon after this he left the ship, and was rowed ashore, after many kind
and complacent wishes for a quick and prosperous voyage.

It may be as well to observe here as elsewhere within this narrative
that the Company's written orders to me contained little that Mr. Evans
had not told me, saving only certain details, and the further order that
that which the agent at Juanna should transfer to me should be delivered
to the Governor at Bombay, and that I should receive a written receipt
from him for the same. Neither at that time did I know the nature of the
trust that I was called upon to execute, save that it was of great
import, and that it involved money to some mightily considerable amount.

The crew of t