Fill me half a dozen sheets, and send them when thou canst.

Think only, my dearest girl upon the gratification which the perusal and reperusal fifty times repeated will afford me, and thou wilt write me something or other every day.

Adieu, my dearest, best love.
Heaven bless thee with health and comfort, and preserve thy full affection towards thy very own, Matthew Flinders." To return from these personal relations to the voyage: Some days before the Investigator reached Madeira, a Swedish brig was met, and had to receive a lesson in nautical manners during war-time.

The incident is reported by seaman Samuel Smith with a pretty mixture of pronouns, genders and tenses: "At night we was piped all hands in the middle watch to quarters.

A brig was bearing down upon our starboard bow.