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Discovery Teneriffe
May 5th 1791
Sir Joseph
I received your last letter at Falmth [Falmouth] but delayed writting to you in return untill the Chatham should arrive from Portsmouth, which she did by the way of Gurnsey [Guernsey] on the 31st of March, & as we left Falmouth early on the next morning the final hour of our departure was so much occupied that it was not in my power to send on Shore the few lines I had wrote to you from thence. - The Chatham has been so lumbered on her decks with Provisions &c that she proved top-heavy & unable to carry sail sufficient to keep up with us; this together with a succession of bad weather & contrary winds occasioned a tedious passage to Madeira, which we did not make till the 24th of April, & a few squalls of wind, off the Land, with some intervals of calm, was I believe; the only cause of our leaving the Island, next day, for this place, without any further perseverance to gain the intended road of Funchall. We arrived here on the 28th of April, & the following day I waited on the Governor with Capt. Vancouver to obtain his leave to botanize on the Island during our stay, which he readily granted. - I went