At the Galleries of the Louvre March 5. [1772]
I ask, Monsieur, all the English that I see for
news of you. I recently saw M. Inglehausen [Ingenhousz] who gave me
great pleasure in telling me that you were in good health, as well
as M. le Chevalier Pringle, and I assure you that we discussed you
two with great joy. But tell me, my dear Doctor, has a year gone by
without a single Englishman whom you know coming here, through whom
you would have done me the honor of writing me the littlest note?
When you recommended Englishmen to me, I had the double pleasure to
learn news of you from them, and then to be able to oblige those
who came on your behalf. Really you owe me a little note to explain
the reason for your silence. However that may be, trusting still in
the esteem that you have expressed for me, and that I well merit
for the sincere sentiments that attach me to you, I recommend to
you the young M. De Bassue who will remit this letter to you. He
has been brought up very well, and his character corresponds to his
education. He is, as we Say or rather as You Say in English, a
gentleman born. He will be very flattered to have the honor of
making your acquaintance, and if you or Mons. le Chevalier Pringle
could be useful to him, I would be infinitely obliged. I have the
honor of being, Monsieur, with the most distinguished Sentiments of
esteem and attachment, Your very humble and obedient Servant
When you will do me the honor of replying to me, I pray you please
tell me who M. West is, whether he is the President of the Royal
Society, and what is his reputation in the Sciences. While
Messieurs Banks and Solander will be sailing the Seas of the
Antarctic pole, we are preparing to send a Vessel or rather 2
Vessels to the Arctic Pole, precisely to the Pole, to make all the
observations of Astronomy, Physics, and Natural History that can be
done in those regions. If by chance among the swarm of such great
and ingenious ideas which pass through your head, you have a few to
propose to our new Argonauts who will be daring those hyperborean
climates, send them to me, and I promise that if the thing is
possible, they will do what you ask. The voyage is almost decided
upon, and the vessels should leave around the fifteenth of May.
Speaking of Messieurs Banks and Solander, I have so much
consideration for those who, like them, encounter hazards and
dangers and risk their lives to enlighten the world, while there
are so many fools who take chances so absurdly, that if you see
these Messieurs whom you surely know, I ask you, though I do not
have the honor of being known to them, to tell them how much I
esteem them, and how I value their courage. I beg you to also tell
M. Banks that the Academy received the letter that he sent them by
way of M. De Lauragais. You understand our language too well for me
to make excuses for my French scrawling.