VI 
Translation of a letter to Mons. Carnot , President of the National 
Institute , at Paris. 
“ Sir, 
In consequence of a letter which I have just received 
from a member of the Royal Society in England, I take the 
liberty of enclosing a copy of one sent to him by our worthy 
President, Sir Joseph Banks; in which he mentions his intention 
of writing, to entreat your interest, with a view of obtaining an 
order for my return to England. 
44 Such an introduction from our President has induced me to 
trouble you with this address, to inform you of a few particulars 
respecting my situation; a representation which, I trust, will have 
some weight with the members of an Institution so justly cele- 
brated for the encouragement of science. 
“ In the public offices at Paris and Verdun, my name and 
situation are thus inserted, 4 Mr. James Forbes, (Gentilhomme) 
Fellow of the Royal and Antiquarian Societies in London, and 
of the Arcadian Society at Rome/ 
44 I left England before Iliad attained rny sixteenth year; with 
a little knowledge of drawing, and an ardent desire to explore 
foreign countries, I travelled and resided upwards of nineteen years 
in different parts of Asia, Africa, and America; endeavouring to 
investigate the manners and customs of the inhabitants, to study 
the natural history, and to delineate the principal places and pic- 
turesque scenery in the various regions which I visited: to these I 
added the costume of the natives, and coloured drawings of the 
beasts, birds, fishes, insects, fruits, flowers, and vegetables, pro- 
