Address:
Miss Isabella Tyler
      Partney near Spilsby
          Lincolnshire

Annotation: Capⁿ F. 1806

                            Isle of France Dec. 7. 1806

My dear demi-sister

                And so you scold and rant because
I have not written to you; but pray who has the most time,
you or me; and it is very certain, that no letter, so long even
as my thumb, nor even a postscript in your sisters letters
has ever ever come to me; and forsooth, if rights are to
measured by affections, mine is certainly the greatest, for I
love you infinitely more than you do me: this is a truth
not to be denied, and therefore I request your writings may
be regulated accordingly. There is, indeed, a report amongst
the whales in the Indian Ocean, that a scrap of a letter
from you did pass by for Port Jackson, and a flying fish
in the Pacific even said he saw it, but there is no be-
-lieving these travellers. If you will take the trouble to
give it under your hand, I will then believe that you have
written to me. A certain philosopher being informed that
his friend

his friend was dead, replied that he would not believe
it without having it certified under his own hand: a
very commendable prudence this, and worthy of imitation
in all intricate cases. As I have a fund of justice at the
bottom of my conscience, which does not permit me to
exact more from others than I would perform myself, -
      I do hereby certify, that I have this day addressed a
      letter to my well-beloved sister Isabella Tyler, spinster,
      of the parish of &^c in which letter I do desire for her all
      manner of blessings, spiritual and temporal; that she
      may speedily obtain a husband six feet high if it so pleas-
      es her, with the wishing cup of Fortunatus, &^c
                    Given under my hand this 7^th day of
                                              &^c &^c
      As I trust you will now believe, that I have duly
and truly written to you, I shall proceed in my letter.
And first my dear Isabella, let me kiss your pretty mou
[drawing of face]; and next present my respectful and most affectionate re-
-membrances to your excellent mother and to your aunt,
and say that I die with impatience to see you and them.

Having many letters to write, and amongst others to M^r
Tyler and my beloved wife who will inform you further,
I conclude with assuring my dear Isabella of the af-
fectionate regards
                of her demi-brother and friend
                            Matt^w Flinders

N.B. This letter being written from an island off
      Africa, on the south side of the Equator, by
      one who has three times made the voyage
round the world, seen all manner of things, sea-fights,
shipwrecks, the anthropophagi, and men "whose heads do
"grow beneath their shoulders," it is to be considered as
a curiosity, and put into the casket accordingly: au-
trement, vous verrez: Prenez garde à vous. Je viendrai dans
un tourbillon, et vous menacerai d'avoir trop de bon sens.