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Rh imposing. Demanding to speak to Neal Sing apart, he warned him of the important consequences which might result from such a step. He then explained to him under what auspices he had come into the country and the terrible vengeance which the king would exact for any injury he might receive in his states, in order to convince the dreaded English government that it had not been done by his instigation. This reasoning had so much effect that Neal Sing proposed to set him free, modestly asking to retain only his baggage. But this was exactly what the ardent naturalist least desired to part with. To travel without his tents, his books, his instruments, his magnificent collections—loss of liberty would have been far preferable to this. "When I deemed the moment favourable," adds Jacquemont, in his letter, "I offered him a present, and the support of my recommendation to the king. He at once asked me for two thousand rupees. Some of his soldiers who had gathered round, exclaimed, 'No, no; ten thousand rupees!' My only reply to this, was a contemptuous expression of impatience, which none of them dared resent, and which lowered the mutineers so much in the eyes of their companions that no one afterwards dared to interrupt my conference with the chief. 'Neither ten thousand, nor two, nor one thousand, for the best of all reasons, because I have them not; but, in consideration of your wretched state, I will give you five hundred rupees!' Five hundred rupees!' he exclaimed, 'when four hundred of us here have been perishing with hunger these three years. Two thousand rupees, or remain a prisoner.' Without paying the least regard to the alternative, I shrugged my