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HISTORY OF THE INDIAN NAVY. 510

"Para. 10. It is not without much concern that we advance
to tlie further observation, that the immediate employers of
Mr. Hawkins cannot justly be acquitted of a grave responsi-
bility for the measures, for the execution of which he was
involved. Mr. Hawkins was despatclied to enlist young men
at those ports which are notoriously the great emporia of the
slave trade on the eastern coast of Africa. It ought not to
have escaped those who so despached him, that there were
dangers peculiarly incident to such an expedition, unless con-
ducted with the utmost circumspection ; it was obvious that
such enlistments would not be distinguished by the natives
from their ordinary traffic, and that the two things would
become identical in reality as well as appearance.
"Para. 11. In the instructions addressed to ^Ir. Hawkins, he
was desired to perform the duty with delicacy and considera-
tion, and to avoid as much as possible giving umbrage to the
Mahomedan governments ; but not a solitary caution was given
to him to be careful to observe the slave laws, which the due
execution of his orders placed him in the most innniuent
danger of violating.
"Para. 12. These observations illustrate the iuijn-udence
with which the Government engaged in such an enterprise, and
the negligence with which they on)itted to take any precaution
against so probable a result as that which followed."
By letter of the loth June, 1832, the Court presented Commander
Hawkins with .i£;4()0 "to meet the ex])enses of his return to
Bombay," and on his arrival there, Lord Clare, to whom he had
addressed a petition, granted him relief, subject to the con-
tirmation of the Court, to the extent of 11.287 rupees, to reim-
l)urse the legal expenses incurred on his trial. In November,
Lord Glenelg, President of the Board of Control, requested him
to proceed overland to India with important despatches on the
])rospect of a Dutch A\'ar. ( "unnnaniler Hawkins consented
with alacrity, and innnediately slarteil in the depth of wintrr,
by way of Vienna, C(jnstantinople, and thence through AruK'nia,
by Tabreez, Teheran. Shiraz, and ]>ushire, to IJoiidiay. \Vrit-
ing from Tabreez on the 2t)th of December, 18;)2, he says: "1
arrived here yesterday in time for Christmas dinner, and go
away to-morrow. I have accomplished my journey quicker
than it has ever been done before; crossing tlu! mountains
with the thermometer M deg. below zero, and the icich'S for
the last fortnight hanging in thick dusters to my upper-lip,
thi' breath from my nostrils freezing as quickly as emitt»Ml.
]\ly boots were not taken off for a fortnight, and the Tartar
(lead beat half way, and unable to proceed with me. iNumerous
adventures which I have no time to describe; in all thirty-
seven days on the road from England, and 1 had reached half
wav in six ilavs I'rom Constantinople, and in that period only