Mrs D. N. Twort has presented to the Society a letter from Sir Joseph Banks, the text of which is reproduced below. The name of the person to whom the letter was addressed is unknown, but its contents are of considerable interest. The following notes may be of assistance in placing the reader in possession of the facts relevant to the circumstances in which the then President of the Society wrote the letter. Charles Philip Yorke, F.R.S., was First Lord of the Admiralty, and the Board of Admiralty had recently promoted Captain Matthew Flinders with the highest seniority possible without a special order from the King in Council, on his release from French captivity. In command of the Investigator , he had, largely at Sir Joseph Banks’s instigation, taken out a scientific expedition to Australia, in 1801. Returning to England in another ship in 1803, his last news was that England and France were at peace. His ship, the Cumberland of 29 tons, was very leaky, and he accordingly put in to He de France (Mauritius) with the additional intention of surveying that coast. Although he was in possession of a French passport, he was arrested by the Governor, who put the worst interpretation on his activities and kept him in confinement for nearly seven years. He was eventually released and reached England on 24 October 1810, four days before the date of the letter.
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Jan 1, 1976
W.B Breda 
