that Solon should accompany me. I should have been
very sorry to have parted from him, and yet I would not have declined
Captain Armstrong's offer on that account. I was so impatient to be off
that the week I was detained at Trincomalee appeared to pass very slowly
by. I spent a good deal of my time with Mr Fordyce. I wished to show
him, as much as possible, how sensible I was of all his kindness to me,
and I felt as if I had somewhat neglected him after I had met my
grandfather. He had begun to get over poor Nowell's death, but he had
very far from recovered his usual buoyancy of spirits. My grandfather
was very much engaged, partly in the business which had brought him to
Trincomalee, but chiefly in placing his affairs in a condition which
would enable him to return to England. I was very glad to find that he
intended to intrust the charge of many important matters to my friend
Lumsden. I had always found him at school a highly honourable and
conscientious boy; and I had every reason to believe that he was still
guided by the same high principles which then influenced his conduct.

The last words of my grandfather to me were, "Good-bye, Ralph, my dear
boy; I trust that we may meet again before many months are over, in Old
England, and that you will bring home Alfred safe with you."

Scarcely had Solon and I set our feet on the deck of the _Star_, than
the anchor was hove up, and sail being made, we ran out of the harbour
and stood away to the southward. The first land we sighted was that of
the Maldive Islands, of which there are said to be upwards of forty
thousand. They are all of a coral formation, and rise to an elevation
not exceeding fourteen feet above the ocean. Generally they are much
lower. The sea might easily be sent rolling over them, were they not
protected by long coral reefs and sandbanks of a circular form. Through
these reefs there are passages of great depth, called atolls. The water
inside is perfectly smooth. We entered by one of them, brought up off
Mali, the chief island, which is about seven miles in circumference. It
is the residence of the chief of all the group, who is called the
Sultan, and is now dependent on the British Government of Ceylon. The
people are Mohammedans, and their numbers are said to amount to upwards
of one hundred and fifty thousand souls. They produce Indian corn, and
millet, and sugar, and cotton; and there are numerous fine trees on the
islands--the