London.
‘Sir,
No. 9, A.
The Secretary
R. Geog. Society,
Whitehall Place,
London.
With reference to the packet addressed, as per margin, which was sent to you viâ Southampton from the Separate Department, by the Overland Mail of the 14th instant, I have the honour to subjoin for your information copy of a note on the subject from the Hon. W. E. Frere, dated the 5th idem.
‘When searching the strong box belonging to the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society yesterday I found the accompanying parcel, directed to the Secretary Royal Geographical Society, with a pencil note upon it, requesting that it might be sent to the Secretary of State, Foreign Office. From the signature in the corner, R. F. B., I conclude that it must be the manuscript he sent to Colonel Rigby at Zanzibar, and which, from some statements of Mr Burton (to which I cannot at present refer, but of which I have a clear recollection), never reached its destination.[[1]]
‘I have not been able to discover when or how the parcel was received, nor how the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society was to send it to the Foreign Office, except through Government. I therefore send it to you, and perhaps you would send it to the Under Secretary at the India House, with the above explanation, and request that it be sent to its direction.