blin--Departure from India--Letters to Mr. Ellis, Mr.
Sharp, Mr. Napier, and Mr. Z. Macaulay.

FROM the moment that a deputation of Falmouth Whigs, headed by their
Mayor, came on board to wish Macaulay his health in India and a happy
return to England, nothing occurred that broke the monotony of an
easy and rapid voyage. "The catching of a shark; the shooting of an
albatross; a sailor tumbling down the hatchway and breaking his head; a
cadet getting drunk and swearing at the captain," are incidents to which
not even the highest literary power can impart the charm of novelty
in the eyes of the readers of a seafaring nation. The company on the
quarterdeck was much on a level with the average society of an East
Indiaman. "Hannah will give you the histories of all these good people
at length, I dare say, for she was extremely social; danced with the
gentlemen in the evenings, and read novels and sermons with the ladies
in the mornings. I contented myself with being very civil whenever I was
with the other passengers, and took care to be with them as little as I
could. Except at meals, I hardly exchanged a word with any human being.
I never was left for so long a time so completely to my own resources;
and I am glad to say that I found them quite sufficient to keep me
cheerful and employed. During the whole voyage I read with keen and
increasing enjoyment. I devoured Greek, Latin, Spanish, Italian, French,
and English; folios, quartos, octavos, and duodecimos."

On the 10th of June the vessel lay to off Madras; and Macaulay had his
first introduction to the people for whom he was appointed to legislate
in the person of a boatman who pulled through the surf on his raft. "He
came on board with nothing on him but a pointed yellow cap, and walked
among us with a self-possession and civility which, coupled with
his colour and his nakedness, nearly made me die of laughing." This
gentleman was soon followed by more responsible messengers, who brought
tidings the reverse of welcome. Lord William Bentinck, who was then
Governor-General, was detained by ill-health at Ootacamund in the
Neilgherry Hills; a place which, by name at least, is now as familiar to
Englishmen as Malvern; but which in 1834 was known to Macaulay, by
vague report, as situated somewhere "in the mountains of Malabar, beyond
Mysore." The state of public business rendered it necessary that the
Council should meet; and, as the Governor-General had left one member