My being an utter stranger to you compels me to apologize for the liberty I take in sending you this. Mr. Carghill's recommendation is the occasion of my doing so, and he has assured me of your {viii}kind disposition to oblige me in those articles that are the subject of the following lines; I must therefore inform you that I am engaged in the study of Natural History, but as the extensiveness of it in all its several parts is very great, I confine myself entirely to one single branch, and that is Insects. A branch I find fully sufficient to engage my attention without entering into any of the others, and in consequence of this I am endeavouring to obtain as large a collection of foreign ones as I possibly can; to this end I am under a necessity of getting various recommendations from my friends to gentlemen settled in foreign parts, who I must consider as the only persons that can effectually assist me in this scheme. Permit me therefore, Sir, to beg your concurrence herein, and if the highest ideas of gratitude can prompt a man to make an adequate return for any favour of this kind, be assured I shall take the earliest opportunity of manifesting mine for any thing you shall think proper to oblige me with. The great distance the continent of Africa is situated from London, the ignorance we labour under of its produce in the insect world, and the great difficulty I have found in procuring any insects from those parts, are circumstances that rather increase than blunt my desire for them; but as in the course of fourteen years I have not been able to procure any great number, I can only attribute this disappointment to my having never been able to apply to any gentleman settled there, for the persons that I have hitherto commissioned to this purpose were those that returned with the ships they went in, and I imagine their time was too short to be able to procure such things for me; but as Mr. Carghill has informed me your residence in Africa will afford you many leisure hours, permit me to indulge the hope of your complying with this request. It is necessary for me to inform you that there is no occasion for your bestowing any time of your own in this pursuit, as I imagine it might be done by people to be hired in Africa to that purpose for a very trifle; and as it is necessary I should inform you where and in what manner insects in general are to be taken, give me leave therefore to explain the use of the things I have sent for that purpose: you will observe the bows of the forceps being covered with gauze, and folding so close together as to prevent any small insect's getting out when once enclosed, constitutes a contrivance the best adapted of any thing I ever saw for that purpose, it is small enough to be carried in the pocket, and if you have curiosity enough to employ an hour in this amusement, permit me to say you will have a scene of wonders