text:  After a delay of weeks I found myself still ungazetted grew sad angry impatient; and after some consideration on the various modes of getting rid of _ennui_ which were to be found in enlisting the service of that Great Company which extended its wings from Bombay to Bengal as Sheridan said impudently enough like the vulture covering his prey; or in taking the chance of fortune in the shape of cabin-boy on board one of the thousand ships that were daily floating down the Thames making their way to the extremities of the earth; or in finishing my feverish speculations in a cold bath at the bottom of the Thames itself; I did what I felt a severer exertion than any of them--I wrote a full and true statement of my vexations to my lordly brother