London, Dec. 13th, 1766.

 Sir,

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 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 opened to you in the insect world, you will have such a number of objects of speculation present themselves, that will amaze you. When an insect is inclosed in these nets it is to be stuck through the body with a pin (I have sent some for this purpose), and in that manner placed in the box, whose top and bottom are lined with cork. Suffer me to beg of you (if you will be so obliging to procure me some of those things) to get a larger box made in Africa of soft wood, in which a pin will easily enter, and replace the insects out of the oval box now sent into that, and when filled I will entreat you to commit it to the care of a friend to be conveyed to England, giving him at the same time a charge to keep it from being tumbled about by the rolling of the ship, which will certainly damage the contents, and favouring me with a letter of advice; it is necessary to beg you to paste a slip of fine linen or paper all round the crevice and opening of the box, to prevent the cockroaches, ants, &c. getting in, who will infallibly damage and destroy the insects in it; I forgot to mention that they should not be removed out of the oval box into the great one till they are dead, because they will scratch and tear one another to pieces, therefore when the person comes home from collecting, they may be taken out singly and stuck on a piece of board or stick, and held close to the fire (not so as to burn or scorch them), and this in less than a minute will effectually kill them, afterwards they may be stuck very close together in the large box, and in that manner sent to England. I will just mention what kinds will be most acceptable, and where they are to be found, viz. beetles or insects with hard cased wings, insects with transparent wings, such as wasps, bees, waterflies, also locusts or grasshoppers, ants, fireflies, or in short any kind except cockroaches, centipedes, or scorpions, which in general are so very common they cease to be valuable—of all the other kinds there is an infinite variety, differing in size, shape, and colour, any of which will be very acceptable, either large or small; and of which, give me leave to observe, the most ugly disagreeable insects (as they appear to be) are the most desirable. They are found in various places, some on flowers, some in horse-dung or cow-dung, some under stones and logs of wood, some under the bark of trees where it separates or divides itself from the body, which by tearing up will expose many kinds to view; but no