Calcutta 20 ^th February
                                    1811

My Dear Flinders
          By some accountable mistake
your letter of July only reached me yesterday but you
must have been already apprized of my having taken
charge of the trunk which you request me to look after.
The white ants as I informed you have made such
ravages on the trunk that it is totally unfit for {saving}
and I am sorry that you will find the greatest part
of your papers in the same state. As soon as I was
aware of the [illegible] which afflicted the trunk I had
it opened where the quantity of white ants which it
contained extended any thing I had ever seen before.
The whole seemed alive. I have had everything put