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30 Jul 60 John India Mother ______________________________________________________________________________________________

My dear Mother

I cannot write you a long letter for the plague of flies is upon us. There is no keeping them away. One hand is not enough & writing becomes pain & grief to one.

I hope to get away in about ten days time and if no unforeseen accident occurs, I trust I shall be able to leave Bombay by the mail of the 26^th Aug^t , bringing me home a fortnight after you get this. I am very glad to leave this country in the score of health alone even if there were no other considerations to induce me to leave it. I find that there is always something wrong with me. Nothing serious it is true, but when a person becomes seriously ill they have a poor chance of recovery in this country.

I hope my Father is, before this, well enough to move to some sea side place for a change of air as that is no doubt the best thing that he could do. I shall however direct this to H.P.P. as of course I shall not know where you may have decided upon going. I find disposing of my kit a very different thing from buying – and unfortunately so many people have died here lately that articles of Europe produce are a glut in the market & won’t fetch anything, so I am reduced to my wit’s ends to try & get rid of things.

I am sorry to say Arthur is again hard up. This is rather too much of a good thing. Julius & I have sent him £50 between us during the year & I know my Father sent him out some money last summer & in the very letter in which he thanks me for one remittance, he asks for another. I sent him a wigging in return. I like moderation in every thing & he was going rather far.

I shall have a very nasty march down as far as Surat * & shall be regularly left in the lurch if the steamers have not begun to run. We are shut in for so long in this delightful part of the globe and no matter what calls one, we cannot move out of it during the monsoon.

I really do not know what to say now, as I hope to see you so soon after your receipt of this letter. I shall close it in the hope it will save the post, there being no regularity here.

Kind love to my Father & little Helen.

Believe me

My dear Mother

Your affectionate Son

JWLaurie

July 30^th 1860

* Surat – a port and major city, 175 miles north of Bombay (now Mumbai) known for textiles and diamond industries