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Norfolk Island May 8th, 1792
Dear Sir.
I feel my self much obliged to you & more than I can express, for your very kind attention to me, of which, I have received a recent proof of, by your letter, which I have received by the Pitt; the arrival of that Ship has cut out a little Work for me, as I have not had an Opportunity of writing to our friend Phillip, he has left me to tell my an story, & as I am certain that you will see my letter to Government, I shall say no more about the Island; only that I think Starving is at a very removed distance from us, & which you will have no pains to believe, when I tell you that out of the last Years Crop we have issued out 25,000 Weight of Flour, which of Course is a great deduction in the Expences of this Island to Government, & There is now 4 months Flour in the Ricks & Granarys. This with 70 people off the Store entirely, & twice as many who will go off next Year, together with the birds of the Air & the fish in the Sea, will enable us to do very well, If I did not think that these was a certainty of your being a fuller acct. of the Island in & of letter alluded to as above, Island enter into farther particulars -
It is a fortunate Circumstance for you & me, that my worthy associate Capt. Paterson is here; Notwith standing a severe & painfull Rheumetis are to gether with the Liver & Bile, he has with uncommon pains visited every thing on the Earth, & under the Earth, & on the Water round our Earth, in search of every thing that can give you any information, you may wish for;
As he tells one he has wrote to you, More will be needless for me to say, then that whenever he leaves this Island, I shall loose a valuable second, & you will have the Natural history of this Island as Complete as possible, & the pleasure of hearing that he is beginning