to man,
and myself. I shall be very happy to visit St. Petersburg and to become
the coadjutor of Mr. Lipoftsoff, and to avail myself of his acquirements
in what you very happily designate a most singular language, towards
obtaining a still greater proficiency in it. I flatter myself that I am
for one or two reasons tolerably well adapted for the contemplated
expedition, for besides a competent knowledge of French and German, I
possess some acquaintance with Russian, being able to read without much
difficulty any printed Russian book, and I have little doubt that after a
few months' intercourse with the natives I should be able to speak it
fluently. It would ill become me to bargain like a Jew or a Gypsy as to
terms; all I wish to say on that point is, that I have nothing of my own,
having been too long dependent on an excellent mother, who is not herself
in very easy circumstances.

I remain, Revd. and dear Sir, truly yours,

GEORGE BORROW.

To the Rev. J. Jowett

(_Endorsed_: recd. Aug. 13, 1833)
HAMBURG, _August_ 4_th_, 1833.

REVD. AND DEAR SIR,--I arrived at Hamburg yesterday after a disagreeable
passage of three days, in which I suffered much from sea-sickness, as did
all the other passengers, who were a medley of Germans, Swedes, and
Danes, I being the only Englishman on board, with the exception of the
captain and crew. I landed about seven o'clock in the morning, and the
sun, notwithstanding the earliness of the hour, shone so fiercely that it
brought upon me a transient fit of delirium, which is scarcely to be
wondered at, if my previous state of exhaustion be considered. You will
readily conceive that my situation, under all its circumstances, was not
a very enviable one; some people would perhaps call it a frightful one.
I did not come however to the slightest harm, for the Lord took care of
me through two of His instruments, Messrs. Weil and Valentin, highly
respectable Jews of Copenhagen, who had been my fellow-passengers, and
with whom I had in some degree ingratiated myself on board, in our
intervals of ease, by conversing with them about the Talmud and the book
Sohar. They conveyed me to the Konig von Engeland, an excellent hotel in
the street called the Neuenwall, and sent for a physician, who caused me
to take forty drops of laudanum and my