-sibly neceƒsary to see, I should be glad to have some little account
of your movements, — where you reside and with whom; that my mo-
-tions may be regulated accordingly. As for my own movements they
will be these; — as soon as we shall be ordered up to Woolwich or to
Deptford, which we expect daily, to be paid off, I shall go up to London
occasionally to put the busineƒs I have got to do into a fair training;
and after the ship is paid off shall reside there altogether till the prin-
-cipal part is executed; and this will probably take two months and
more. But if the absence of people from London at this time, should ob-
-lige me to defer some part till they return, then I shall take that oppor-
-tunity of coming into Lincolnshire, if so long a time as three weeks
can be spared.
      You see that I make everything subservient to busineƒs. In-
-deed my dearest friend, this time seems to be a very critical period of
my life. I have been long absent, — have done services abroad that
were not expected, but which seem to be thought a good deal of. I have
more and greater friends than before, and this seems to be the moment
that their exertions may be most serviceable to me. I may now per-
-haps make a bold dash forward, or may remain a poor lieute-
-nant all my life.
      When you write, direct to me at Deptford or at the Nore;
in expectation of which, immediately on the receival of this, I con-
-clude with aƒsuring my dear friend Annette, that with the greatest
sincerity I am her most affectionate friend and brother
                                    Matt^w Flinders
P.S. Inclosed with this is a letter from the Rev. M^r Johnson, in-
-trusted to my care. I left his family well and himself tolerably
so. His son is now at school in Yorkshire, and came home a little
before us.
      I ought to have began my letter by saying that six dif-
-ferent