tters that Miss Roberts meditated a tour into Cutch or
Guzerat, which probably was prevented by her subsequent illness. "It
is my intention," she wrote from Parell, December 30th, 1839, "to go
into the provinces, as I have received numerous invitations; I am at
present divided between Guzerat and Cutch: by going to the latter, I
might have an opportunity of seeing Scinde, the new Resident, Captain
Outram, being anxious that I should visit it." She adds: "I have
received much attention from the native gentlemen belonging to this
presidency, and have, indeed, every reason to be pleased with my
reception." She had projected a statistical work on this part of
India, and in her private letters she speaks with grateful enthusiasm
of the liberality with which the government records were opened to
her, and of the alacrity with which Europeans and natives forwarded
her views and inquiries. In a letter dated in February, 1840, she
says: "I am very diligently employed in collecting materials for my
work; I am pleased with the result of my labours, and think I shall be
able to put a very valuable book upon Bombay before the public. I
hope to go in a short time to Mahableshwar, and thence to Sattara,
Beejapore, &c." Her literary aid was invoked by the conductors of
periodical works at Bombay, to which she furnished some amusing
pictures of home-scenes, drawn with the same spirit and truth as her
Indian sketches. She likewise undertook the editorship of a new weekly
paper, the _Bombay United Service Gazette_, and with the benevolence
which formed so bright a feature in her character, she engaged
with zeal in a scheme for rescuing the native women, who (as her
observation led her to believe) impede the progress of improvement,
from the indolence in which they are educated, by devising employments
for them suited to their taste and capacity. The concluding chapter
of this volume contains some very sound and salutary reflections upon
native education.

Perhaps too close and unremitting application, in a climate which
demands moderation in all pursuits that tax the powers of either mind
or body, produced or aggravated a disease of the stomach, with which
this lady was seriously attacked when on a visit to Colonel Ovans, the
Resident at Sattara. Some indication of disordered health manifested
itself whilst she was in the Hills. Writing from thence in April, and
adverting to some incident which caused her vexation, she observed:
"My healt