PREFACE. ix government of India, by which I was so unjustly, without a trial or a hearing, banished from that country, while I was proceeding in an action for damages against those slanderers, in the Supreme Court of Justice at Calcutta ; when, no justification being in the slightest degree proved, damages were awarded against them accordingly. These remarkable documents, placed as they are in illustra tive juxtaposition, will, it is hoped, reward the attention of even the most indolent and indifferent ; and it is, therefore, with a view to lessen the chances of their escaping the reader's attention, that I advert to them so pointedly in the Preface ; again repeating my urgent request, that he will examine the evidence therein deve loped, for himself, and let it have its due weight on his mind, in ' estimating the real merits of the question. I pass from this subject, to advert to a few of the more pro minent circumstances connected with the preparation of the present volume, and on which I desire to found my claim to some degree of indulgence for any imperfections which it may be sup posed to display. The notes of the journey, copious as they were in their ori ginal form, were taken under all the disadvantages of Asiatic travelling, which are now so well known as to require little more than a bare mention to be immediately understood. They continued in this state, from the period of their being first made in 1816, up to the moment of my quitting India in 1823. The same may be said of the sketches, which were rude and a