mall, with diminutive portholes.
We shall be a large party, and, I fear, very closely packed.

[Sidenote: Russell on the Indian Mutiny.]

_May 22nd._--Have you read Russell's book on the Indian Mutiny? I have
done so, and I recommend it to you. It has made me very sad; but it
only confirms what I believed before respecting the scandalous
treatment which the natives receive at our hands in India. I am glad
that he has had courage to speak out as he does on this point. Can I
do anything to prevent England from calling down on herself God's
curse for brutalities committed on another feeble Oriental race? Or
are all my exertions to result only in the extension of the area over
which Englishmen are to exhibit how hollow and superficial are both
their civilisation and their Christianity?... The tone of the two or
three men connected with mercantile houses in China whom I find on
board is all for blood and massacre on a great scale, I hope they will
be disappointed; but it is not a cheering or hopeful prospect, look at
it from what side one may.

[Sidenote: Shipwreck.]

_Galle, May 23rd_.--L'homme propose, mais.... I ended my letter
yesterday by telling you that I was about to embark for Singapore amid
torrents of rain and growlings of thunder; but I little thought what
was to follow on this inauspicious embarkation. We got on board the
Peninsular and Oriental steamer 'Malabar' with some difficulty, there
was so much sea where the vessel was lying; and I was rather disgusted
to find, when I mounted the deck, that some of the cargo or baggage
had not yet arrived, and that we were not ready for a start. I was
already half wet through, and there was nothing for it but to sit
still on a bench under a dripping awning. About twenty minutes after I
had established myself in this position, the wind suddenly shifted,
and burst upon us with great fury from the north-east. The monsoon,
now due, comes from the south-west, and therefore a gale from the
north-east was unexpected, though I must say that, as we were being
assailed by constant thunderstorms, we had no right, in my opinion, to
consider ourselves secure on any side against the assaults of the
wind. Be this however as it may, the gale was so violent that I
observed to some one near me that it reminded me of a typhoon. I had
hardly made this re