"I arrived here in an English frigate from Smyrna a few days ago ... and afterwards when we were at anchor in the Dardanelles, swimming from Sestos to Abydos, in imitation of Monsieur Leander ...."
"In four days {from Constantinople} with a favourable wind I arrived in the frigate at the island of Zea, from whence I took a boat to Athens where I met my friend the Marquis of Sligo who expressed a wish to proceed with me as far as Corinth."
"It is now several months since I have received any communication from you, but at this I am not surprised, nor indeed have I any complaint to make {since} you have written frequently, for which I thank you."
"I have just been two years (to a day on the 2d. of July) absent from England, and I return to it with much the same feelings which prevailed on my departure, viz. indifference, ...."
"... I am so convinced of the advantages of looking at mankind instead of reading about them, and of the bitter effects of staying at home with all the narrow prejudices of an Islander, that I {think} there should be a law amongst us to set our…