have
determined to go by way of Lisbon, and, as my servants term it, to see
'that there Portingale'--thence to Cadiz and Gibraltar, and so on our
old route to Malta and Constantinople, if so be that Captain Kidd, our
gallant commander, understands plain sailing and Mercator, and takes
us on our voyage all according to the chart.

"Will you tell Dr. Butler[117] that I have taken the treasure of a
servant, Friese, the native of Prussia Proper, into my service from
his recommendation. He has been all among the Worshippers of Fire in
Persia, and has seen Persepolis and all that.

"H---- has made woundy preparations for a book on his return; 100
pens, two gallons of japan ink, and several volumes of best blank, is
no bad provision for a discerning public. I have laid down my pen, but
have promised to contribute a chapter on the state of morals, &c. &c.

"The cock is crowing,
I must be going,
And can no more."

GHOST OF GAFFER THUMB.

"Adieu.--Believe me," &c. &c.

LETTER 36.

TO MR. HODGSON.

"Falmouth, June 25. 1809.

"My dear Hodgson,

"Before this reaches you, Hobhouse, two officers' wives, three
children, two waiting-maids, ditto subalterns for the troops, three
Portuguese esquires and domestics, in all nineteen souls, will have
sailed in the Lisbon packet, with the noble Captain Kidd, a gallant
commander as ever smuggled an anker of right Nantz.

"We are going to Lisbon first, because the Malta packet has sailed,
d'ye see?--from Lisbon to Gibraltar, Malta, Constantinople, and 'all
that,' as Orator Henley said, when he put the Church, and 'all that,'
in danger.

"This town of Falmouth, as you will partly conjecture, is no great
ways from the sea. It is defended on the sea-side by tway castles, St.
Maws and Pendennis, extremely well calculated for annoying every body
except an enemy. St. Maws is garrisoned by an able-bodied person of
fourscore, a widower. He has the whole command and sole management of
six most unmanageable pieces of ordnance, admirably adapted for the
destruction of Pendennis, a like tower of strength on the opposite
side of the Channel. We have seen St. Maws, but Pendennis they will
not let us behold, save at a distance, because Hobhouse and I are
suspected of having already taken St. Maws by a coup de main.

"The town contains many Quakers and salt fish--the oysters have a
taste of copper, owing to the soil of a mining country--the women
(blessed be the Corporation t