ELIZA DRAPER Tellicherry April 1769 P.S. Mr Draper presents you his respectful Compliments, with t[he sin]cerest assurences of his doing every thi[ng i]n his power for Stephen, if you se[nd him] to Bombay. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Illustration: Belvidere House, by Lee Woodward Zeigler, from an original sketch by J. B. Frazer. ] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ To M^{RS}. ANNE JAMES. Bombay 15^{th}. April 1772. I NOW have before me, Dearest of Women, and Friend twenty sheets of your writing received this year; and mean to answer every page of it which I’ve not yet replied to distinctly—the first Letter is dated 15^{th}. May 1771 by Tryon of the Deptford, this I answered months ago—as I did that of the 5^{th}. April, by Captain Allen, the contents of which related wholly to himself & M^r. Cooper his Nephew, and one of the same date, by M^r. Allen his Purser to the same effect—Your next is dated 28^{th}. April and enclosed an Account of Money Matters—that of the 20^{th}. should have been handed first, but as it contains much more importantant [_sic_] matter, I purposely omitted giving it the Precedence—from meaning to speak at large on some parts of it.—You say my dear, _that you had_ “_suffered much Uneasiness at hearing that I thought you had not acted a friendly part by me in protecting two unfortunate People,[46] and requesting me to make a contribution amongst my friends in their Favor:—that, this Report touched you to the heart; tho’ you disbelieved it, as it was inconsistent with my Humanity, my opinion of you, and the reverse of all my letters, and yet, when you found, that I had wrote to Becket,[47] your Ideas’ were rather confused; for if I had, had a proper reliance on you, I need not have applied to him; as I might have supposed, you would find some means to secure my letters, if violent measures had been the Widows Plan; but, that you, was perfectly easy as to that matter; and imagined I should have been the same; knowing you to be my Friend—that there was a stiffness, in my calling you M^{rs}. James, which eat you to the heart, particularly, when I said I could not accost you with my usual Freedom—What had you done to create reserve, & distance? and had my letter concluded in the same style, you should have believed I was altered, not you._”