of our having every opportunity of perfecting ourselves in that branch of naval architecture in England.

Having been encouraged by Mr. Seppings, and hearing the same thing from the then worthy superintendent, Rear-Admiral Sir Charles Malcolm, he at once applied to the government for sending two of us to this country. Government approved of the measure, and very kindly promised to recommend us to the notice of the Honourable Court of Directors of the East India Company.

To these two sincere advisers of our Father and Uncle we owe every thing, they were actuated by the best of motives, and a disinterested anxiety for our welfare, which we shall never forget. It was through Sir Charles Malcolm and Mr. Seppings that we have had the good fortune of coming to England, and we here beg to convey to them our best thanks and grateful feelings for it, as well as for the kindness and attention we subsequently received from them in England.

With the specific object, therefore, of acquiring a correct knowledge of the construction of steam vessels and ships, we left our relatives and friends at Bombay, and embarked on the 29th of March, 1838, on board the Buckinghamshire, with our friend and preceptor, Dorabjee Muncherjee, and two servants of our own caste. We

have spent a large sum of money upon our maintenance and education, and we humbly hope that our residence in this country has been attended with the desired result.

We had the opportunity of daily visiting Chatham dock yard, where large steamers were being built, by the kind permission of the Lords of the Admiralty, to whom we feel most grateful. We have availed ourselves of the able instruction of John Fincham, Esq., the talented master shipwright of Chatham dock yard, who was for many years the superintendent of the school of naval architecture at Portsmouth, and who is also the author of several works on ship building; to him we feel particularly indebted for the information that he imparted to us.

We have also to acknowledge the uniform kind disposition shown to us by all the officers of that as well as other royal yards that we have visited. We more particularly allude to Richard Blake, Esq., master shipwright of Portsmouth yard, and T. Hawkes, Esq., master shipwright of Plymouth yard. It would be invidious to name others, as we here publicly acknowledge our thanks to all from whom we asked for information, and we may state without vanity that we have made such progress as to enable several of our professional friends to give us testimonials so strongly worded as amply to compensate for our

long separation from our families, friends, and country.

Language will not express the gratitude we owe to the Honourable Court of Directors of the East India Company, particularly their two late, and the present Honourable Chairman, Sir James Law Lushington, Sir Richard Jenkins, and William Butterworth Bayley, Esq., also the worthy Secretary, James Cosmo Melville, Esq., and J. C. Mason, Esq.,of the Marine department, for the uniform kindness, patronage, and liberal encouragement we received from them officially, and the zeal and disinterestedness which they evinced for our welfare, in return for which we can only offer the assurance of earnest and indefatigable attention to our duties in India.

To our worthy patron, Sir Charles Forbes, we feel highly obliged, and we cannot sufficiently express ourselves in acknowledging his numerous acts of patronage, sound advice, and real friendship, not only towards us, but to the family to which we belong, and the paternal care with which he watched over our studies, movements, comforts, &c., during our residence here, and we must take the liberty of referring our readers to that part of our work where we have expressed our gratitude to him and his family, but which we consider not at all adequate to the good-will he entertains towards our countrymen

generally, and his unceasing exertions for promoting their welfare and happiness.

We must not forget our worthy and able instructor, the Rev. George Hopkins, of Egham, in whom, during our stay of twelve months under his superintendence, we found not only an instructor, but a very sincere and disinterested friend, alike anxious for our acquirements, health, and comfort, and it is justice to him that we must with pleasure state, that though himself a clergyman of the Church of England, he never upon any one occasion condemned or ridiculed that, to us dearest of all, the religion of our forefathers; on the contrary, he, to his honour be it spoken, evinced considerable anxiety that we should persevere and act up to what we firmly thought and believed to be true. It is to him that we are mainly indebted for the success we have had in studying our profession at Chatham, as we read the writers on naval architecture with ease and profit, in consequence of the preparatory instructions we received from him. It is also due to the sound knowledge he imparted to us in the limited time of twelve months that we have been able to compile this volume, we shall, therefore, always recollect him with feelings of respect, esteem, and admiration.

To our kind friend, Captain Robert Cogan, of the Indian navy, we are much indebted for the

assistance and advice he cheerfully afforded us when we needed them, we therefore convey our thanks to him.

From Sir William Symonds, the Chief Surveyor of the Navy, and his assistant, John Edye, Esq., we have received much kindness and attention, which we shall ever gratefully recollect.

It would indeed be an endless task to enumerate here all from whom we have received courtesy in England, but the above-named gentlemen we could not consistently pass over, and we candidly acknowledge that we return to our native land deeply impressed with the hospitable and affable character of the British people, and the civilities we have experienced during our short sojourn will never be obliterated from our memory.

With regard to our observations upon the different scenes in England, we cannot imagine that they will afford either instruction or amusement to Europeans, but we do think that to the natives of India who may be about to visit Eng. land, they will prove useful, they will point out to them such things as are worth inspection, they will give them a faint idea of what those places are about which they have heard so much, and our remarks may teach them that although worshipping their Creator through a different medium, that they will in England receive much