"SIR,
"As President of the Board of Controul for India, I have addressed this letter to you: if I ought to have addressed it to the India House, I request you will have the goodness to send it to the Chairman of the Company; and, that you will excuse the trouble I have given you. I have thought it right to send an officer, Lieutenant Duval, who very handsomely offered his services, by Alexandretta, Aleppo, and Bussorah, to Bombay, to give all the accounts I know of the movements of the French army, and their future intentions. Herewith, I send a copy of my letter; and of the orders I have given him, to draw for money on the East India Company, &c. If I have done wrong, I hope the bills will be paid, and I will repay the company; for, as an Englishman, I shall be proud that it has been in my power to be the means of putting our settlements on their guard. Mr. Baldwin not having been for some months at Alexandria, has been a great misfortune. I have the honour to be, Sir, with the greatest respect, your most obedient servant,
"Horatio Nelson."
With a hundred dollars, in cash, and letters of credit to his Britannic majesty's consuls, vice-consuls, and even British merchants, on his prescribed route, Lieutenant Duval was this day dispatched by Admiral Nelson, as bearer of the following letter to his Excellency the Governor of Bombay.
"Vanguard, off the Mouth of the Nile, 9th August 1798.