| Description | William is alive and well and has been regularly employed, so that the last fourteen days have slipped by. He notes delays in the post at his present location and a day's fever, caught while examining land - 'it yielded to a good dose of jalop & castor oil'. He lists previous episodes of fever. He is now at the small factory of Noorpoor trying to resolve a quarrel between indigo planters and an Indian, where the former has murdered one of the latter's servants. He describes the case and [E C] Craster has sent William to enquire into it. He encloses some collodion photographs taken at [John James] Gray's house, describing a 'strange character' who is an assistant at Gray's indigo concern, and noting that Gray has just married. Gray has taken some pretty scenes of Indian cottage life, and William promises to send copies of these. He has written to Warwick for a new seal, having lost the one his mother gave him, dropping it from his watch chain while riding. A note states 'Enclosed 5 fine pictures'. In a postscript, William states that: 'I had a bad boil on one side of my face which made me take myself in that attitude & I could not see myself in the camera or I wd. not have had my eyes so turned away...' |