East India Company. 'Charles,' said the director, coming to the place
where we were standing, and tapping one of his sons on the shoulder,
'do you recollect what your brother told us about the proportion of tin
which is used in casting brass cannon at Woolwich?' The young gentleman
answered that he could not recollect, but referred his father to me;
adding, that his brother told him I was the person from whom he had the
information. My memory served me exactly; and I had reason to rejoice
that I had not neglected the opportunity of gaining this knowledge,
during our short stay at Woolwich. The East India director, pleased with
my answering his first question accurately, condescended, in compliance
with his children's entreaties, to examine my models, and questioned me
upon a variety of subjects: at length he observed to the gentleman with
whom he had been conversing, that I explained myself well, that I knew
all I did know accurately, and that I had the art of captivating the
attention of young people. 'I do think,' concluded he, 'that he would
answer Dr. Bell's description better than any person I have seen.' He
then inquired particularly into my history and connexions, all of which
I told him exactly. He took down the direction to Mr. Y----, and my
good master (as I shall always call Mr. R----), and to several other
gentlemen, at whose houses I had been during the last three or four
years, telling me that he would write to them about me; and that if he
found my accounts of myself were as exact as my knowledge upon other
subjects, he thought he could place me in a very eligible situation. The
answers to these letters were all perfectly satisfactory: he gave me the
letter from Mr. R----, saying 'you had better keep this letter, and take
care of it; for it will be a recommendation to you in any part of the
world where courage and fidelity are held in esteem.' Upon looking into
this letter, I found that my good master had related, in the handsomest
manner, the whole of my conduct about the discovery of the vein in his
mine.