Letter received by Banks from Matthew Flinders, 5 July 1801 (Series 65.28) - No. 0001

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H.M.S. Investigator Spithead
July 5. 1801

You will no doubt, Sir Joseph, be surprised, and as little pleased to receive a letter from me dated at this place, as I am to date still from hence.

No instructions or sailing orders having been sent down, or any thing by which I could judge that their Lordships had the Investigator in their recollection, I wrote to them on the 2nd, requesting some instruction as to my neutrality towards French ships, & those of other nations; for without an order to desist, the articles of war will oblige me to act inimically towards them; I also represented the prejudice that each days delay would be to the success of the voyage on account of the advanced state of the seasons; and indeed the main object of the letter was to remind their Lordships that we were still lying here, and waiting only for orders.  To this letter no answer has as yet been returned.  

I have been able to learn, that the instructions, the passport, Mr Dalyrmples memoir, and the supplemental order 

[Different hand] July 6.