ving promised that the Dido should return again to the Straits
station as soon as she had completed her voyage to Calcutta.

On the 11th March, 1844, we anchored off the grand City of Palaces,
and well does it merit the name. We could not have, timed our
visit better. The governor-general, the Earl of Ellenborough,
was being _feted_ on his return from the frontiers, which _fetes_
were continued on the arrival, a few days after ourselves, of the
Cornwallis at Kedgeree, when the flag of Sir William Parker was shifted
to the Dido. The admiral experienced the same style of hospitable
entertainment that had previously been given to General Sir Hugh Gough
on his return from the Chinese expedition. At Calcutta I was kindly
invited by the "Tent Club," and introduced to that noble and most
exciting of all field-sports, "Hog-hunting in India;" but with which
the pleasures of the day did not cease. The subsequent convivial
meeting was a thing not easily to be forgotten. Although under a
tent pitched by the edge of the jungle, thirty miles from the city,
none of the comforts of the house were wanting; there were the punkah
and the hookah, those luxuries of the East, to say nothing of heaps
of ice from the far West, which aided considerably the consumption of
champagne and claret; and to better all these good things, every man
brought with him the will and the power to please and to be pleased.

A few days before my departure from Calcutta, the governor-general
finding it necessary to send treasure to China, the admiral desired
me to receive it on board. Although a welcome cargo, it delayed for a
couple of months my return to Borneo. I found Mr. Brooke awaiting my
arrival at Singapore; but as I could not then receive him on board,
Captain Hastings took him over to Sarawak in the Harlequin.

On arriving at Hong Kong, Rear-Admiral Sir T. Cochrane appointed
Mr. Frederick Wade as first lieutenant, Lieutenant Wilmot Horton having
been promoted to the rank of commander for his gallant defence when
the Dido's boats were attacked by the very superior force of pirates
off the island of Sirhassan.

Having landed the treasure at Hong Kong, and completed stores and
provisions, I sailed from Macao on the 21st June, and working down
against the monsoon, arrived at Singapore on the 18th July. I here
found letters from Mr. Brooke, stating that the Sakarrans had been
out in great force; and although he was not aware of any danger to
himself or h