were I not
sustained by the consolations of my religion. Among the passengers there
was a most estimable clergyman, by whom Arowhena and I were married
within a very few days of our coming on board.

After a prosperous voyage of about two months, we sighted the Land's End,
and in another week we were landed at London. A liberal subscription was
made for us on board the ship, so that we found ourselves in no immediate
difficulty about money. I accordingly took Arowhena down into
Somersetshire, where my mother and sisters had resided when I last heard
of them. To my great sorrow I found that my mother was dead, and that
her death had been accelerated by the report of my having been killed,
which had been brought to my employer's station by Chowbok. It appeared
that he must have waited for a few days to see whether I returned, that
he then considered it safe to assume that I should never do so, and had
accordingly made up a story about my having fallen into a whirlpool of
seething waters while coming down the gorge homeward. Search was made
for my body, but the rascal had chosen to drown me in a place where there
would be no chance of its ever being recovered.

My sisters were both married, but neither of their husbands was rich. No
one seemed overjoyed on my return; and I soon discovered that when a
man's relations have once mourned for him as dead, they seldom like the
prospect of having to mourn for him a second time.

Accordingly I returned to London with my wife, and through the assistance
of an old friend supported myself by writing good little stories for the
magazines, and for a tract society. I was well paid; and I trust that I
may not be considered presumptuous in saying that some of the most
popular of the _brochures_ which are distributed in the streets, and
which are to be found in the waiting-rooms of the railway stations, have
proceeded from my pen. During the time that I could spare, I arranged my
notes and diary till they assumed their present shape. There remains
nothing for me to add, save to unfold the scheme which I propose for the
conversion of Erewhon.

That scheme has only been quite recently decided upon as the one which
seems most likely to be successful.

It will be seen at once that it would be madness for me to go with ten or
a dozen subordinate missionaries by the same way as that which led me to
discover Erewhon. I should be imprisoned for typhus, besides being
handed over to