Address:
To M^rs Flinders
      Partney near Spilsby
            Lincolnshire

Annotation:
Sep^r 28           N^o 24
1805

                                  Isle of France May 15. 1805

My dear love
      Even yet I have no certain prospect of liberty. Orders or letters
of some kind, I have reason to believe have been received by this governor
concerning me, but I cannot learn any thing of them; however, my companion
in misfortune, M^r Aken, has very unexpectedly obtained permiƒsion to de-
-part on his parole as a prisoner of war, which gives me an opportunity of
writing to England and sending many papers relating to my voyage. I have
desired him to call upon M^r Bonner, from whom he will learn who is in town
of my friends, and answer all their questions. He is also to lay a train of cor-
-respondence by which I may receive letters here, should it appear that I am
still likely to remain a prisoner. He will also write to thee and say what he
shall be able to have learned from the Admiralty, or by other means, of the
probability of my release. Thou dost not know M^r Aken; he came into the
Investigator at Port Jackson to succeed M^r Thistle. He is a plain man, but a
good one, and earnest to do all he can for my relief, in return for good offic-
-es I have done him.
      As yet I am totally a stranger to the following important
questions. What the state of thy health is. Whether I am promoted to
the list of post-captains. What has been done with the little fortune left
me by my dear deceased father. Whether my agent has received bills
for about £500 I have transmitted at different times. How my mother
in law is situated, and my good but poor uncle and aunt at Spal-
-ding. Whether T.F. is married or any ^ ^others of that family. Whether thou hadst
any concern in the "Village Anecdotes" written by M^rs Le Noir of Yorkshire
of which I have seen a review. These, with twenty-thousand other things
concerning thee, thy family, and our friends, I am most desirous to learn;
and therefore they will form a part of thy letter. It is not a little inter
-esting to know also what the public say of my voyage, my imprison-
-ment, and of me: but thou knowest well enough that I am ambitious
of fame.
      For some time my health has been neither well nor ill, but
such a mawkish kind of health as a prisoner, who was not much op-
-preƒsed with any particular disease, may be supposed to have. My
employment is to write up the accounts of the Investigators voyage, and