to my first request they informed me, that it was impossible, in the
advanced state of the session (it being then the middle of March), that the
examinations of so many could be taken; but I was at liberty, in
conjunction with the Bishop of London, to select eight for this purpose.
This occasioned me to address them again; and I then found, to my surprise
and sorrow, that even this last number was to be diminished; for I was
informed in writing, "that the Bishop of London having laid my last letter
before their Lordships, they had agreed to meet on the Saturday next, and
on the Tuesday following, for the purpose of receiving the evidence of some
of the gentlemen named in it. And it was their Lordships' desire that I
would give notice to any three of them (whose information I might consider
as the most material) of the above determination, that they might attend
the committee accordingly."

This answer, considering the difficulties we had found in collecting a body
of evidence, and the critical situation in which we then were, was
peculiarly distressing; but we had no remedy left us, nor could we
reasonably complain. Three therefore were selected, and they were sent to
deliver their testimony on their arrival in town.

But before the last of these had left the council-room, who should come up
to me but Mr. Arnold! He had but lately arrived at Bristol from Africa; and
having heard from our friends there that we had been daily looking for him,
he had come to us in London. He and Mr. Gardiner were the two surgeons, as
mentioned in the former volume, who had promised me, when I was in Bristol,
in the year 1787, that they would keep a journal of facts for me during the
voyages they were then going to perform. They had both of them kept this
promise. Gardiner, I found, had died upon the Coast, and his journal,
having been discovered at his death, had been buried with him in great
triumph. But Arnold had survived, and he came now to offer us his services