adds:  “I have received much attention from the native gentlemen belonging to this presidency, and have, indeed, every reason to be pleased with my reception.”  She had projected a statistical work on this part of India, and in her private letters she speaks with grateful enthusiasm of the liberality with which the government records were opened to her, and of the alacrity with which Europeans and natives forwarded her views and inquiries.  In a letter dated in February, 1840, she says:  “I am very diligently employed in collecting materials for my work; I am pleased with the result of my labours, and think I shall be able to put a very valuable book upon Bombay before the public.  I hope to go in a short time to Mahableshwar, and thence to Sattara, Beejapore, &c.”  Her literary aid was invoked by the conductors of periodical works at Bombay, to which she furnished some amusing pictures of home-scenes, drawn with the same spirit and truth as her Indian sketches.  She likewise undertook the editorship of a new weekly paper, the Bombay United Service Gazette, and with the benevolence which formed so bright a feature in her character, she engaged with zeal in a scheme for rescuing the native women, who (as her observation led her to believe) impede the progress of improvement, from the indolence in which they are educated, by devising employments for them suited to their taste and capacity.  The concluding chapter of this volume contains some very sound and salutary reflections upon native education.

Perhaps too close and unremitting application, in a climate which demands moderation in all pursuits that tax the powers of either mind or body, produced or aggravated a disease of the stomach, with which this lady was seriously attacked when on a visit to Colonel Ovans, the Resident at Sattara.  Some indication of disordered health manifested itself whilst she was in the Hills.  Writing from thence in April, and adverting to some incident which caused her vexation, she observed:  “My health is failing me, and I can scarcely bear any increased subject of anxiety.”  She experienced in the family of Colonel Ovans all the attention and sympathy which the kindest hospitality could suggest; but her disorder increasing, she removed, in the hope of alleviating it by change of air, to Poona, and arrived at the house of her friend, Colonel Campbell, in that city, on the 16th of September.  She expired unexpectedly on the following morning.  Her remains are deposited near those of one of her own sex, who was also distinguished for her literary talents, Miss Jewsbury.

The death of Miss Roberts excited universal sorrow amongst all classes, European and native, at Bombay, as well as at the other presidencies, especially Calcutta, where the most cordial and flattering tributes to her memory appeared in the public journals.  She had nearly completed her inquiries, and accomplished all the objects for which she had revisited the treacherous clime of India, and one of her latest letters to the writer of this Memoir expressed a cheerful anticipation of her speedy return to England!  “I positively leave India next October, and am now looking joyfully to my return.”