_June 4th._--This morning I was awakened by the appearance of Loch in my room, carrying a bag with letters from England. I jumped up and opened yours, ended on the 10th of May. Your letter is a great compensation for our shipwreck and delay, and it is at once a strange coincidence and contrast to what happened on the last occasion. Then your first letters to me were shipwrecked, and delayed a month in reaching me. This time I have been shipwrecked myself almost in the same place, and I have got your dear letter a month sooner than I had anticipated. How differently do events turn out from our expectations!... I suppose we shall get off to-morrow, though the steamer for China is not yet arrived.... I have saved a considerable portion of my effects, some a good deal damaged. But some of my staff have lost much more, as they travel with a greater quantity of clothing, &c., than I do. At last, on the 5th of June, they were able to leave Ceylon; and they reached Penang, after a rough passage, on the 11th. [Sidenote: Penang.] _Steamer 'Pekin,' Straits of Malacca.--June 12th._--You may perhaps remember that, when I first visited Penang in 1857, the Chinese established there mustered in force to do me honour. There was a sketch in the 'Illustrated News,' which portrayed our landing. No similar demonstration took place on this occasion; whether this was the result of accident or design, I cannot tell.... I have every inducement to labour to bring my work to a close; to reach sooner that peaceful home-life towards which I am always aspiring.... I think that I have a duty to perform out here; but as to any advantage which will accrue to myself from its performance, I am, I confess, very little hopeful.... It is terrible to think how long I may have to wait for my next letters. If we go on to the North at once, we shall be always increasing the distance that separates us. It is wearisome, too, passing over ground which I have travelled twice before. No interest of novelty to relieve the mind. Penang and Ceylon are very lovely, but one cares little, I think, for revisiting scenes which owe all their charm to the beauties of external nature. It is different when such beauties are the setting, in which are deposited historical associations, and the memories of great deeds or events. I do not feel the slightest desire to see again any even of the most lovely of the scenes I have witnessed in this part of the world. Indeed, so tired am I of this route, that I sometimes feel tempted to try to return by way of the Pacific, if I could do so without much loss of time.... This is only a passing idea, however, and not likely to be realised. [Sidenote: Singapore.]