These volumes have, through many hindrances, got completed at last. The copious Index, without which a book of this kind is almost useless, forms a keystone to the structure, which has been, in this case, a somewhat laborious task; but the labour has been mitigated through the help contributed by some friends, whom I here heartily thank without naming them.

At the end of the Preface to Vol. II, it was mentioned that Mr. Scharf, C.B., had recently identified at Chevening a portrait of Thomas Pitt's wife, Jane Innes. I have now to thank that generous friend for a sketch of the picture by his own accomplished hand, of which a reduction is presented opposite page clviii. My thanks to Lord Stanhope are also due for the permission to publish this drawing.

Just as the sheets of Index have been passing through the press, I have obtained, through the kind effort of Dr. John Anderson, a photograph from the portrait of Elihu Yale at Yale College, U.S.A., which affords another most interesting illustration of these documents.

This completes four entirely unpublished portraits of Anglo-Indian notables of the seventeenth century, with which I have been enabled, through the kindness of various friends, to add value to this compilation, viz., those of Thomas Pitt and of his wife, of Sir Streynsham Master, and of Elihu Yale.