Address: Captain Flinders

Annotation: Rec^d June 15.1811         M^rs Tyler

My dear Sir                           Partney Sep^tr 19 1803

        The receipt of your obliging favour bearing date
June 18 1802 I duly receiv'd, & was very happy to hear of your being in
such good health & spirits, may the God of all our mercies continue these
bleƒsings to you, & bring you home in safety to those who ardently long for
your arrival. — It gave me pleasure upon the receipt of yours, to feel that
my conscience did not accuse me of what you laid to my charge, Viz of not
writing to you, on the contrary if I remember right in one of the pacquets.
I hope you have long ere this rse^d from England you would find an
epistle from me, sufficiently long to try your patience in reading, as such I
am willing to flatter myself, I do not now stand accus'd of neglect —
In yours you request me to say all I can about her you have left behind,
you may be sure it gives me great, & heart felt pleasure, to have it in my
powers to say, that she is wonderfully restor'd to health, & has been for some
time as well as I ever knew her, I hope this bleƒsing will be continued to
her for many years to come, for the mutual happineƒs of you both, as it is
certainly the ^ ^greatest comfort under heaven, for without this, every thing loses its
relish, & life itself becomes a burthen — You bid me ^ ^{rebuke you, &} tell you of all your
faults, but as yet I have not had an opportunity of being witneƒs to any

thing which calls either ^ ^for rebuke ^ ^{or reproof} Shoud [sic] you be restord [sic] to us again, which I
sincerely hope you will, & my advice in any case can be of the least use,
I will always be at your service, & shoud [sic] I ever see anything ^ ⁱⁿ your
conduct that appears to require reprehension, I will then endeavour to
comply with your request. — Since I wrote to you the Lord has been pleas'd
to take your Father to himself, & I doubt not but he is now in glory
loving & praising, that great God & saviour, who saved him with an
everlasting salvation, by the account I heard from M^r Wilson the
clergyman who saw him when he was near departing, I am not afraid to say
may my [illegible] end be like his, — his sufferings I believe were great, but the
Lord was with him, & supported him under them all, & he is now where
pain, sickneƒs, & sorrow shall never enter, & where it is my desire, that you,
& I may meet him when we have done with all things here. — You are
pleas'd to enquire much about your Sister Bell, she is in good health, &
full of spirits, but with respect to writing to you, I have frequently heard
her say she durst not venture, she looks upon you as such a Critic, and
was I to pay attention to this I certainly shou'd remain silent, but I
expect you will overlook all errors, & especially in this, as I have had very
little time given me, but was not willing to let the Packet be sent off with
out giving you a line. — You particularly request me to say if I think you
can do anything more to contribute to the comfort of your Wife than you have
done, I do not think she wants any comfort the World can give but yourself,
what you have been kind enough to leave her, is fully adequate to all her
wants, & I daresay with respect to temporal things she is as happy as
she wishes, or can be made in your absence, she has never left us but for a day

or two at a time to Enderby 'till this summer, when she went to visit
your friends, the result of which she will no doubt inform you, I have heard
her often say these visits are very comfortable, & pleasant to her. —
And now my dear sir what more shall I say, if I tell you Bonoparte [sic]
has been menacing an Invasion & we are taught to believe [illegible]
it for 2 or 3 months past ^ ^{it is perhaps what you will be told by several of your correspondents} what will be the end God only knows, but
I ^ ^am willing to hope that God will avert the threatened danger. There are many
thousands writing in Prayer to the Lord to save this guilty Land, & on
those Prayers I have a much greater dependance, [sic] than upon fleets, &
armys. I believe, for God has told me so in his word, that the effectual
fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much, & when Abraham
            interceeded [sic] for Sodom, the Lord declar'd
            If there were but ten Righteous found
            in the City, he would not destroy it for
            tens sake, & I am sure there are a many
tens pleading for this island, & I hope they will prevail, & turn the course
of our enemies into foolishneƒs. — I know you have an high opinion of the
Wooden Walls of old England, & in the hands of the Lord they have been a
means many times, of saving us from destruction, but at the time the mutiny
was on board the fleets, it shew'd us how small our dependance was there.
No my dear Sir nothing short of the Lord of hosts, is in reallity [sic] to be
trusted in 'Put not your trust in princes nor in any child of man, for
there is no help in them says the Scripture, & I believe it true — we have
had an attempt at an insurection [sic] in Ireland, which has been prevented
almost miraculesly [sic], & as the Lord appear'd for us there, I hope he will here
also. — M^r Tyler begs me to remember him in the kindest manner to you

his health is not what I coud [sic] wish, indeed we both begin to feel the
infermilies [sic] of age in some degree — M^rs Mallison who is almost always
an Invalid, desires her best regards — I shall now take my leave with
wishing you every bleƒsing, both for time & eternity, & that the Lord may
      bring you home in health & safety is the sincere desire of
            your very Affect^te Mother
                        Ann Tyler