H M Ship Bedford Downs
            November 1^st 1810.

My dear Sir,

    Some apology would be neceƒsary for the
abrupt manner I left you, except under the peculiar
circumstance that my departure was taken. – I felt so
Sensibly the affecting Scene of your meeting M^rs Flinders
that I could not have remained any longer in the room
under any consideration; nor could I be persuaded to
call a second time that day – though I had the strongest
desire to See M^rs Flinders before I left London. Will
you have the goodneƒs to say to M^rs F that I had only
Received her addreƒs from M^r Standert the evening before
your arrival, and had proposed to call the very morning
you reached London.

Captain Flinders's being in England seems to me even
now a mystery – had I not seen the well known
countenances I still might doubt–: after the
unjust and unexpected detention you have suffered,
all things may be reconcilable to some minds — and
persons may doubt without deserving the charge
of obstinacy —