Note 38 — Chapter IV

The first letter appears to have been written on the 10th of August. On the 22nd, Brigadier Malcolm landed at Calcutta. On the same day a letter was sent to Sir Harford Jones, directing him to wait for further orders, and on the 29th another and more urgent communication was addressed to him, with the intent of annulling his mission. It appears that in those days a letter took more than three weeks to accomplish the journey between Calcutta and Bombay. The Governor-General’s letter of the 10th of August must have reached the latter place about the 5th of September. Jones says, “In seven days from receiving Lord Minto’s letter, I embarked on board La Nereide, and she, with the Sapphire, and a very small vessel belonging to the Company, called the Sylph, sailed out of Bombay harbour for Persia on the 12th of September, 1808.” Malcolm had calculated that the letter of August 22nd would reach Bombay by September 13th; and that in all probability Jones would not embark before that date. But, as usual, he was over-sanguine.