pupils, in the Mauritius, in consequence of his having become possessed of that article, it must, in some degree, although in a secondary point of view, be placed to the credit of my misfortunes! as well as, another circumstance, which I will have occasion to allude to by and by.

But, cheap as the copy of Parkhurst's Lexicon may have been considered by the purchaser, and eagerly as he appears to have bid for it, with the assistance of his two friends in need, the price, as reported by the informant of Messrs Chambers, (and I have no reason to consider it incorrect,) seems to have been much above our common run of prices at these sales; and if that was solely to be accounted for, from the circumstance of our having had an African prince as a customer, it is a pity, both for the sake of the civilization of that unfortunate race, and my own sake, that African princes of this description, had not been more widely scattered, through the various districts which my agents were at this time perambulating, for the arduous work they had to perform was getting to be so exceedingly up-hill-the remittances so miserably small-and the produce so excessively discouraging

that, even with the golden prospects that yet remained in the distance, in the north, I began to fear, that, although I might have enough to be prepared for my payments of the ensuing 4th of April, yet, it would go hard with me, to make up those stipulated for to be paid on the 4th of October, in the face of the coming summer, (the worst season in the year, for sales of the kind,)—and to put on more salesmen in such a season, and in such times, was therefore out of the question. -The most prudent step, therefore, I thought I could adopt, was to submit, first to my highest creditor, and after having met with his approbation, to the others principally concerned, what I entitled at top "Reasons, &c. submitted by G. Miller, to the gentlemen to whom this is addressed, being the greater part of his principal creditors, for having an extension of NINE, instead of six months, between the periods of his future payments." To which, the gentleman to whom I first submitted it, not only gave his unqualified consent, and confirmed it by his signature, but, before doing so, appended the following statement of his sentiments:-"I have considered the

reasons adduced by Mr Miller for having the periods of his future payments extended, and, in testimony of my conviction of the reasonableness and propriety of the measure, in times of such unexampled difficulty, most readily agree, upon his settling his first instalment, to allow him to put back the second for three months, should he find it necessary for his accommodation, as also, to cancel his bill at 18 months from the first of October last, and to accept, in its stead, of another at twenty-seven months from the first of April next, including the difference of interest, which, allowing the present bill for the fourth instalment to stand as it is, in place of the third, will answer every requisite purpose of establishing an intervention of nine months, instead of six, betwixt each future payment, with the least possible additional expense for stamps."

To the honour of all the other gentlemen to whom it was addressed, they, at once, and at sight, put their names to this document, with its very suitable and appropriate recommendation; and my mind was so far set at rest, in this respect.

Indeed, the reasonableness of the thing could not have been objected to by any one, while my great exertions, and the prudent way I had now gone to work, by adopting a measure so apparently replete with good consequences, towards the saving of stock, until we saw if there was any appearance of times mending, must have rather excited the goodwill and confidence of the gentlemen to whom I made the application, as otherwise-which was so far well, as I see that, in course of the month of March, I had been a good deal afflicted by a disease, to which I had before been sometimes liable, and to which, according to medical men, anxiety of mind is one of the predisposing causes.

In allusion to this, one friend writes, of date the 10th of March, "I am concerned to notice that the recurrence of any complaint should render you unable to attend to your business," &c.; and in Mr's letter, of the 24th of February, I see, that in allusion to the same complaint, which appears even before that time to have overtaken me, he expresses a hope that I am getting better, feelingly adding, "if it is the complaint I allude to, you are truly to be pitied;" and as

this gentleman, must have been satisfied as to this point, before he appended his recommendation to the document above mentioned, it may have had some influence, independently of the reasonableness of the thing, of making him go about the business with so much alacrity;-or, to use his own words, above quoted, to " most readily agree" to the measure.

Yet, there was one cold-blooded individual, the same to whom I alluded on a former occasion, as being "a solitary exception," who also, at this time, neither seemed to pity me, in my struggles-my anxieties brought on by these struggles-nor my bodily indisposition, which, it is much to be feared, was the consequence of them both-but evidenced, by a certain overt act, that I might not be far wrong in the opinion I had formerly hazarded ;—and, by the legacy he left me, at the time of the explosion of the East Lothian Bank, to settle with the Directors afterwards in the best way I could, too fully demonstrated, that, in all my struggles, not only up to the time now under consideration, but up to the period at which that disastrous event took place, I had, indeed, experienced little sympathy from him, although, for the reasons mentioned formerly, I again abstain from entering into particulars.

My case, indeed, was certainly sufficiently distressing at this time, to have any need of aggravation from such a source; and the greatest satisfaction I have, on reflection, is, that there was no other of my creditors who behaved in such a manner-that, as formerly, so Now, this one was the solitary exception.

Meantime, I soon had, what I then considered another, and a great ground of comfort, in addition to what I received from the happy consideration, that I would now, at all events, whether the times mended or not, have, at least a longer time to turn my auction stock into cash; and that was, that although my monthly remittances from the north, had been long in arriving at the extent to which I expected they would have come before now, they were at last, beginning to assume a more promising appearance; as that of the 19th March had, I see, come up to £50,-which, coupled with the continued weekly demand for books-more, more books-borne out by

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the statement of my agent, of the 22d, that he really stood in need of them; as it plainly appeared, that, up to that date, he had £3,150: 13: 4,-or, in round numbers, upwards of three thousand pounds worth subscribed for:-all of which, could not fail to be somewhat exhilarating, after the gloom that had so recently enveloped my prospects, and made me so tremblingly alive to the difficulties of my situation.

It was during the exhilarating process my mind was undergoing, from such considerations as these, or rather, in the letter accompanying the encouraging statement above alluded to, that the first hint seems to have been given me, as to the propriety of extending the business still more northward, or into Caithness, &c., under the management of the young man's brother, who certainly, had already proved himself to be, a very efficient assistant and active labourer in the vineyard.

But although our correspondence continued, and both brothers had written me on the subject, and to the same purport, as to the apparent propriety of taking in the additional ground, with an offer of the services of the younger brother, in the management, in case I came to the resolution of making the attempt; I judged it expedient to come to no final determination on the subject, until I had an opportunity of witnessing their proceedings on the spot, at Inverness, and conversing with them personally on the matter, and having business otherwise to take me to Aberdeen, about the time, I made up my mind to go forward, and set out on my journey on the morning of

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the of April.

CHAPTER XX.-1817 (CONTINUED.)

In travelling, oddities sometimes met with on the road.-Leave Edinburgh for Aberdeen by the morning coach. My fellow traveller on the present occasion.-Arrival at Perth.-Lose sight of my companion. Find that he had walked forward, while the passengers dined. Followed by the Guard.—Over, take the pedestrian.-Conversation that ensued after he had got into the coach. -Little thanks for my conduct-Method I adopted, to bring about a reconciliation at Arbroath.-The Mystery elucidated.—I will ever feel happy for the little I was enabled to do on that occasion.-Arrival at Aberdeen in the morning.-Part with my friend on the most amicable terms, and retire to rest. Proceed after breakfast to the business of the day, before my friend was stirring.-Business of considerable, but lamentable and unhappy impor tance, to transact.-Melancholy discovery.-Another example, although for merly alluded to, of strange events sometimes taking their rise from apparently very inadequate causes.-What may be truly said to have been the origin of my popular philosophy.—Conversation which led me, to resolve to proceed with that work,-The conclusion I came to in consequence of the information I received from Mr --Never afterwards lose sight of my object, until I had finally carried it into execution. Upon my return to the inn in the evening, find my friend had gone to the country.-That I missed him, was not his fault. Next morning early, leave Aberdeen for Inverness, by way of Huntly. Transact business in passing through Elgin.-Cross, but not for the first time, the blasted heath of Shakespeare under cloud of night.-Arrive at Inverness next morning.-Meeting with the brothers. Still come to no decision, in respect to extending the business farther northward.Gaelic service in a Gaelic church.-Twisted spire of Inverness jail steeple.A GHOST story, in which, one of my men was seriously frightened.-Extract from his letter written soon after.-How it is supposed to have originated.—Allusion to my own fright, in the inn at Dalwhinnie.-Pleasant party in coming through the Highlands-One of them determined not to starve, or let others starve by the way. A useful hint from Dunbar, received at Inverness.Summer sales. -Routes of the different auctioneers.-Information received from Inverness, after my return.-Pleasing intelligence from another quarter.

In the course of my pilgrimage, I have more than once, fallen in with, a somewhat strange oddity of a character, in travelling by some of those convenient vehicles, which are now become so abundant on the road, whether in the form of His Majesty's Royal Mail, or under the less assuming appellation of Stage Coach.-But the gentleman who took his seat opposite me in the stage in which we started from Edinburgh, next morning, had nothing remarkable in either his manner or