Letter received by Banks from WilliamBligh, 4 June 1788 (Series 46.23) - No. 0001

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No 21

False Bay  Cape of Good Hope
June 4th 1788

Dear Sir

On the 24th May, the day I arrived here, I wrote to you a particular account of my proceedings which I sent express to Table Bay, from whence a Dutch ship was immediately to sail, but for fear that should miscarry this letter will in great part be a duplicate as an opportunity offerd by a French packet from Isle de France to Havre de Grace.

I left Teneriffe on the 10th of January and past the coast of Brazil and Rio de la Plata with good weather, but after that it became changeable with high winds and some heavy gales. - As I advanced to the southward and finding the season closing fast in upon me I fully determined to loose no time by putting in on either at Falkland Islands or in the neighbourhood of Tierra del Fuego. I therefore carried all possible sail night and day to make the coast of the latter which I did on