WCP7114

Malta —

March 17th /62

My dear Brooke /

I've reached this dear old military hothouse last night. M^rs Grant¹ & Charlie² came ashore for a few hours and then we were forced to part & they are now bowling away for Old England. She is pretty well and perhaps is better than when she left but feels the cold acutely & is still weak & very thin — he is fatter than ever and was a great favorite aboard with the passengers — I received a few very affectionate lines from the Rajah³ [2] at Suez — and again rec[eive]^d a letters here from Lackington⁴ & the Rajah the R[ajah] wishes me to go direct & start again to see Rome — but Mama⁵ recommends me to take the trip at once as she says there would be no chance of moving any of them from Lackington. I felt very seedy this [one illeg. word struck through] morning & like a fish out of water. The stillness is marked after the noise of a steamer and parting with all, not that I had made one acquaintance aboard — but there were pretty Dutch lasses who were nice to look at — I have just posted a letter [3] for Julia⁶ from M^rs Grant. The Southampton steamer is not in yet tho' much behind her time — I sent your box of Japanese work on by CG⁷ to be delivered to Emma⁸. I bought her rather a handsome Pinang table — which be in Southampton Custom House until I free it — I have been strolling around this place with Wallace who stays here for a week or two — listening to the band - looking at old scenes which seem much altered by time. I think I shall stop here for a fortnight or three weeks [4] then go home by Marseilles taking the tour around the Italian Coast & spending one week between Naples & Rome — I must find something to do here — either in studying Italian or Music or something or other — or I shall be very miserable — but the stay here is ^more conducive to health than flying into bitterly cold weather suddenly — Well dear Brother I trust all goes right with you — and conclude that you must ere this have taken your cruise to Mukah & those places — I wrote to Watson⁹ from Suez — & intend corresponding with [5] him and Hay¹⁰ — but this time am too unsettled to do so — Wallace & Self went to the Opera last night — a comic one — the Company is pretty good for Malta - Buffo & Basso¹¹, the same individuals as when ^when I was here last time — When is the new steamer to be commenced? I hope if she is Klee[?] , you will not sell the gun boats as the Militia[?] when a little more flourishing, might keep them a going on the Coast near Sarawak which steamer is occupied farther away. Have [6] the books arrived? I have been reading Sir Cha[rle]s Napeir's¹² Life¹³ a ponderous undertaking — his journal & much of the treatment to natives & policy in general in Scinde¹⁴ resembles the tone of the Rajah — Where there is difference, it is owing to our being supported by an army and the other dependent on the affections of the people — Lowe¹⁵ has been staying at Burrator with the Rajah — I hope he will be gone before I arrive at home for I could not be very cordial but suppose old sores must be allowed [7] to heal when they cant [sic] again torment — Please tell me of Batang Lupar affairs when you write. I hope they will not go adrift in my absence. It is pleasantly cold here & I begin for the first time this morning to feel stronger and more elastic in I have been in a kind of sleepy coma since leaving you, appetiteless &c &c — I wish Emma would come out as far as Avignon or somewhere in South Italy — She has been suffering severely lately — but is now better & should take advantage of it for a change [8] before the disease makes head again. — And now Dear Brooke I must conclude as the little news there is (I think) is) exhausted. Many Loves to Julia — & loves to Stuart¹⁶ & the Crookshanks¹⁷.

Believe me ever y[ou]r | Aff[ectionan]^t[e] Brother | CA Johnson [signature]

Please tell Stuart I will write to him soon — & give him a sermon which he likes so much[.]