"You recollect that Colonel Despard was murdered on this voyage under
very mysterious circumstances on shipboard. His Malay servant Uracao was
convicted and executed. Potts distinguished himself by his zeal in
avenging his master's death.

"About a year after this Potts himself came to England and visited me.
He was, as you know, a rough, vulgar man; but his connection with my
murdered friend, and the warm recommendations of that friend, made me
receive him with the greatest kindness. Besides, he had many things to
tell me about my poor friend, and brought the newspapers both from
Manilla and Calcutta which contained accounts of the trial.

"It was this man's desire to settle himself somewhere, and I gave him
letters to different people. He then went off, and I did not see him for
two years. At the end of that time he returned with glowing accounts of
a tin mine which he was working in Cornwall. He had bought it at a low
price, and the returns from working it had exceeded his most sanguine
expectations. He had just organized a company, and was selling the
stock. He came first to me to let me take what I wished. I carelessly
took five thousand pounds' worth.

[Illustration: "EDITH SHE WATCHES ME, AND ENABLES ME TO WRITE THIS IN
SAFETY."]

"On the following year the dividend was enormous, being nearly sixty per
cent. Potts explained to me the cause, declaring that it was the richest
mine in the kingdom, and assuring me that my L5000 was worth ten times
that sum. His glowing accounts of the mine interested me greatly.
Another year the dividend was higher, and he assured me that he expected
to pay cent. per cent.