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NARRATIVE
OF THE
LIFE AND TRAVELS
OF
SERJEANT B——.
WRITTEN BY HIMSELF.
"Call upon me in the day of trouble, I will deliver thee, and thoushalt glorify me."
"I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord."
EDINBURGH:
PRINTED FOR DAVID BROWN,
16, SOUTH ST. ANDREW'S STREET;
CHALMERS AND COLLINS, GLASGOW;
KNIGHT & LACEY, 24, PATERNOSTER-ROW,
LONDON.
1823.
Printed by Balfour and Clarke,
Edinburgh, 1823.
ADVERTISEMENT.
In justice to the unpretending Author of this volume, it is necessaryto notice that the idea of publishing it in no respect originated withhimself. The circumstances which led to its appearance may be verybriefly stated.
On the Serjeant's arrival in this country from India, he foundhimself surrounded by an extensive circle of relations, to which theexcellence of his own character soon added many personal friends. Asmight be expected, the occurrences of his past life and travels,frequently formed the topics of conversation at their occasionalmeetings; and as he had from an early period, for his own amusementand edification, been in the habit of keeping an exact journal of all"the providences that befel him," he frequently had recourse to it forthe purpose of aiding his recollection, and exhibiting more vividlythe state of his feelings at various periods, and under the variousincidents of his life. Many passages of the Journal excited a verypleasing and deep interest in those to whom they were communicated,and the desire of perusing it gradually extended itself to personsin a higher condition of life. A clergyman particularly, under whosepastoral care he was for some time placed, was so much struck with theinteresting, as well as the instructive character of these "simpleannals," that he urged the Author, in a very kind but pressing manner,to collect the more material passages in the original Journal intosomething like a continued narrative; and to transcribe them ina connected and legible form, for the private enjoyment of hisparticular friends. Our Author, to whom nothing is more agreeable thanto have his mind or hands usefully occupied, undertook the task, andexecuted it with a degree of neatness, which would have done greatcredit to a more practised scribe. The manuscript volume was, ofcourse, in very great request in his own neighbourhood, and wasperused by none without peculiar pleasure; but, for several years, noidea of printing it presented itself to his own