Annotation: 8 Sept 1800

Dear Flinders

            I have this moment received with
great pleasure your kind and friendly Letter of the 4^th Ins^t
and I have read with much delight that part which alludes
to your various employments since our separation in 1793. –
it is a happy thing for the Country, for knowledge in general;
and I hope and trust will to yourself prove fortunate, – that
you should have been selected to perform a Service
which required more than common abilities to execute,
but poƒseƒsing a knowledge of your worth & merits I
without the smallest hesitation pronounce that it
could not have been committed to a more able hands.
I have I aƒsure you my good friend often made
enquiries after you, and have received very
satisfactory answers from our worthy friend Sir Tho^s
Pasley – but like yourself since our separation