Ɛpsilon

From George Grey1   10 May 1846

Govt. House. Auckland. New Zealand.

May 10th. 1846.

My dear Sir.

The enclosed note which I believe bears your signature, having been mysteriously sent to me (by whom & for what purpose remains unexplained) I have thought it proper to mention the circumstance to you and at the same time to return the note.2

I ought perhaps to apologize for having read it, but it was so folded that my own name first caught my eye—and I concluded therefore that it had been sent to me with the intention that I should peruse it—3

Believe me my dear Sir. | faithfully yours. | G. Grey. Charles Darwin Esq. | &c. &c. &c.

1
Grey was Robert FitzRoy’s successor as governor of New Zealand.
3
John Lort Stokes and CD decided that the note had become mixed in with the proof-sheets of Stokes 1846 and sent to the printers by mistake, from whence it was forwarded to Grey by someone unknown, see CD’s letter to J. L. Stokes, [c. 26 November 1846]. See also letters to George Grey, 10 November 1846, and to Robert FitzRoy, 23 November [1846]. CD refers to the incident again in Correspondence vol. 4, letter to George Grey, 13 November 1847.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-979,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-979