WCP2444

[1]

Rebleen House, Tenby

My dear Sir,

I have been away from home, but your letter has safely reached me here, after a journey or two.

With regard to the proposal it contains, I may say at once that I should much enjoy the work, and although I have been a traveller for the last 15 years or so in many different lands, there is no part of the world I would rather take.

There are one or two points, however, to be considered. Firstly [2] with regard to time. At the present moment I am fixed here in consequence of my wife's ill-health and I do not return to Cambridge until Michaelmas, when I have to undergo the annoyance of changing my house. It may then be quite towards the end of the year before I am able to get to work on the volume.

Secondly, as regards the honorarium. I do not know anything whatever about the sale of a work of that class, but I conclude that it w[oul]^d take some years to sell an edition of 1000, which at the 5% rate of royalty would bring the large sum of £25 or so. I [3] see that it is proposed to lengthen the work by 150 pages. If this be done properly, it will, necessitate a considerable amount of work. Of course if one scamped it I have no doubt it might be finished in six weeks, but personally I have no doubt it w[oul]d take me 4 or 5 months. I do not set a high value upon my labours, but I think they are worth some what more than £6 per mensem. However I may be greatly underestimating the sale of the volumes. This is a point upon which perhaps you would inform me.

Thank you for your kindly words of the "Marchesa"¹. Whatever there is in the volumes, as a matter [4] of fact, is entirely due to your influence — however uncounscious it may have been. From the moment I first read the "Malay Archipelago" I made up my mind firmly to visit that region. When, nearly a quarter of a century later, I wandered through it with your book in my hand, I felt my thanks were due to you for having given me what was, without a shadow of doubt, the most enjoyable period of my life. How greatly I enjoyed your book it is not easy for me to say. I hope I may have the pleasure one day of telling you in person.

Believe me | very faithfully yours | F. Henry H. Guillemard² [signature]

May 3rd, 1891