LONDON, Sept. 30, 1791

My dear Friend,

I have many apologies to make for not giving you earlier intelligence of our arrival; but my excuses are good ones, and no doubt will convince you my silence cannot be attributed to the slightest shadow of negligence or forgetfulness.

We arrived at Penzance, in Cornwall, the 2d instant, when (not being able to walk), I was carried in an arm chair by two men to the house of Mrs Dennis, who friendly invited us to shelter under her hospitable roof while we remained there.

The hurry and fatigue of moving, with the restraint one customarily feels more or less of, upon going to a strange house, prevented me writing you the first day; but the day subsequent I wrote as follows:

My dearest Madam,

“I am returned to this blessed land; join with me in fervent prayer and thanksgiving to the Author of all good works, for his miraculous protection and goodness during a circuitous passage of nigh three months, replete with hardships unprecedented, I believe, in any voyages heretofore related, the particulars of which I must take some opportunity to furnish you with”.

Here I made a full pause; and, after thinking and re-thinking for near half an hour, whether I should subscribe my name and send it to the post, a thought struck me – “Why! I shall be in London in eight or ten days, when it will be in my power to send a narration of what has happened since I last wrote Mrs—; and if I write now, I shall only excite curiosity, and keep her in unpleasant suspense for some time; so it is best to postpone writing till I can do it fully”.

Now, in place of ten days, it was almost three weeks before we reached the metropolis; and since I arrived, my time has been wholly occupied in receiving inquisitive visitors, and answering a few pertinent, and a number of ridiculous questions.

I could make many other reasonable pleas in behalf of my silence, but trust what is already said will be amply satisfactory; shall therefore forbear making any further apologies, and proceed with an account of myself since I last wrote to you.