same line of business, and offering the opportunity for adjusting a thousand matters, which, either owing to remote residence, or to the pressure of other concerns, could not else be brought to immediate conclusion.

The taverns in India are upon a very different plan : they are either of the first rate, at which public dinners are occasionally given ; or they are of that mean description which receive all who have a rupee to spend, under the determination of extracting that rupee, in some shape or other. The former class is very confined in numbers, but the latter are abundantly numerous, and may be readily distinguished by the promiscuous company, the shabbiness of the treatment, and the excess of imposition practised, especially on novices. It is extremely easy to avoid the necessity for running into the mouths of these leviathans : all that is requisite, being merely to call at the first office, or shop, and to enquire for the residence of the gentleman to whom the letter of introduction maybe addressed. No ceremony should be used, in explaining the circumstances, and in soliciting the aid of a servant to lead the way. I never yet heard of a want of civility on such occasions.

In-speaking thus confidently regarding a letter of introduction, I am pre-supposing, that the case alludes to a person not appointed to the service of the Company : for I cannot conceive

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