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Port Jackson Novr. 18 1788
Sir
From the intimacy which subsisted between you & my Friend Capt Charles Hamilton I have taken the Liberty of sending home some birds & a kangaroo skin properly stuffd to your Care to be forwarded to him as soon as possible at the same time I beg your acceptance of five birds & a kangaroo skin all properly prepard and stuff'd. I have likewise sent two living Opussums one for you the other for Capt Hamilton & two Beautifull Paroquets alive one for Mrs. Charles Hamilton the other for your daughter I sincerely wish they may reach you safe understanding you was a naturalist as well as a botanist I have sent you some beetles viz two species from S America & some Flower seed such as I could at Present Collect in this Country & specimens of two sorts of Gum the production of this Country the one Red & the other yellow the first is the red astringent gum well known in England the other I have taken the liberty of naming the balsam Tolu of New South Wales. These I have used medicinely & Found them to answer my most sanguine Expectations. I have sent you some of the sweet Tee [Tea - native sarsaparilla] of this Country which I recommended & is generaly used by the marines & Convicts as such it is a Good antiscorbotic as well as a substitute for that which is more costly.
This Country produces a variety of Flowers & shrubs totaly unknown in Europe & 5 or 6