of the year 1817, he was paid off, and went
as third mate of a Free-trader to Calcutta.
He returned home, and, in 1819, obtained an
appointment in the Bengal Marine (Pilot-
Service) of India, where he served till 1824. At
the request of the Bengal Government, he now
volunteered for the Arracan War, and received
the command of the Honourable East India
Company's cutter, Matchless, together with a
division of gun-boats, and repaired to the scene
of action in Arracan, with the south-eastern
division of that army and flotilla. He was five
times in action, saw much rough work by land
and by sea, and escaped with only one wound in
the right thigh. He remained two years and
a half in this service, and after having
received the thanks of all the authorities in
that province, he returned to Calcutta in
1827, with a constitution already undermined
from the baneful fever of Arracan, where so
many thousands had died.

Weakened as he had been, Mr.
Waghorn nevertheless rallied to the great
project he had secretly at heart, namely, "A
steam communication between our Eastern
possessions and their mother-country,
England." Even before his departure from
Calcutta on furlough, in 1827, ill in health, and
only imperfectly recovered from the Arracan
fever, still, between its attacks, his energies
returned. He communicated his plan to the
officials, namely, the Marine Board at
Calcutta, who forthwith advanced it to the
notice of the then Chief Secretary to the
Bengal Government, the present Mr. Charles
Lushington, M.P. for Westminster; through
whom he obtained letters of credence from
Lord Combermere, then acting as Vice-
President in Council (Earl Amherst, Governor-
General, being on a tour in Upper India),
to the Honourable Court of Directors of
the East India Company in London,
recommending him, in consequence of his
meritorious conduct in the Arracan War, "as
a fit and proper person to open Steam
Navigation with India, viá the Cape of
Good Hope."

On his homeward voyage, Mr. Waghorn
advocated this great object publicly by
every means in his power (the numerous
attestations of which lie open before us) at
Madras, the Mauritius, the Cape, and St.
Helena. Directly he arrived in England, he
set about the same thing, and advocated the
project at all points, particularly in London,
Liverpool, Manchester, Glasgow, Birmingham.
But the Post Office, at that time, was opposed
to ocean steam-navigation; and so,
unfortunately, were the East India Directors,—with
the single exception of Mr. Loch. Two whole
years were thus passed in fruitless efforts to
make great men open their eyes. At length,
in October, 1829, Mr. Waghorn was summoned
by Lord Ellenborough, the then Chairman of
the Court of Directors, to go to India, through
Egypt, with despatches for Sir John Malcolm.
Governor of Bombay, &c., and more especially,
to report upon the practicability of the Red
Sea Navigation for the Overland Route.

On the 28th of October, having had only
four days' previous notice from the India
House, Waghorn started on the top of the
Eagle stage-coach from the Spread Eagle,
Gracechurch Street. All his luggage weighed
about twenty pounds. The East India
Company's steam-vessel Enterprise was expected
to be at Suez, in the Red Sea, from India, on
or about the 8th of December. It was much
desired that despatches from England should
reach her at this place, which Mr. Waghorn
undertook they should do. He could not speak
French nor Italian, both of which would have
been very advantageous; but he had some
knowledge of Hindostanee, and a little Arabic.

On this "trip," as Waghorn calls it, so
extraordinarily rapid was the first part of his
journey, viz. to Trieste (accomplished in nine
days and a half, through five kingdoms) that
an enquiry was instituted by the Foreign
Office respecting it; for at this time our
Post Office Letters occupied fourteen days in
reaching that place. Yet Waghorn had been
obliged to travel upwards of one hundred and
thirty miles out of his direct way, in
consequence of broken bridges, falling avalanches,
and the disabling of a steamer.

Instantly enquiring for the quickest means
of getting on to Alexandria, he was informed
that an Austrian brig had sailed only the
evening before, and having had calms and
light airs all night, she was still in sight
from the tops of the hills. Away he dashed
in a fresh posting carriage, because if he
could reach Pesano, through Capo D'Istria,
twenty miles down the eastern side of the
Gulf of Venice, before the Austrian vessel
had passed, he might embark from this port
as passenger for Alexandria. On reaching
Pesano, he could still distinguish the vessel,
and he accordingly strove to increase the
rapidity of his chase to the utmost. He
got within three miles of the vessel. At
this juncture a strong northerly wind sprang
up, and carrying her forward on her course,
she was presently lost to sight. Exhausted
in body, and "racked," as he says, by
disappointment after the previous excitement,
he returned to Trieste.

Ascertaining that the next opportunity of
getting to Alexandria would be by a Spanish
ship, which was now taking in her cargo in
the quarantine ground, he instantly hastened
there. The captain informed him that he
could not possibly sail in less than three days,
and required one hundred dollars for the
passage. Waghorn directly offered him one
hundred and fifty dollars if he would sail in
eight-and-forty hours. Whereupon the
captain found that it was just possible to do so
and he kept his word.

"After a tedious passage of sixteen days," says
Waghorn, to whom every hour that did not fly
was no doubt tedious, "I arrived at Alexandria,
but hearing that Mr. Barker, who held the