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Autograph letter signed by Edmund Fanning. 4 pp., on 1st and 3rd page of a stampless cover, address (to the post office in Boston) on 4th page, with faint rubberstamp cancellation.

Letter from noted explorer and sea captain Edmund Fanning (1769-1841), who made a fortune in the China trade, killing seals in the South Pacific and exchanging their skins in China for silks, spices, and tea; which he in turn sold in New York City. As master of the Betsey in 1797-1798, he discovered three South Pacific Islands — Fanning, Washington, and Palmyra — which are collectively known as the Fanning Islands. In the present letter he writes to Amos Holbrook, conveying information about his son Samuel Holbrook, whom he had met while both were ship masters in the China Trade. In part: "...saild in company with him from Canton to the straits of Sunda where we anchored and lay a day or two at the Ile of Cracatoa to wood and water and on the 27th of November got under way together & parted company with the Brig Lavina Capt. Holbrook the following night but previous to our weighing anchor Capt. Holbrough (sic) requested the favour of a Phician [i.e. [physician] from our ship to accompany him on his passage home which I readily granted as Capt. H. was then in a poor state of health... I saw no more of the Lavina after parting co., till she was seen at the mast head of the Cape of good hope where she spoke the Ship Harriot of Boston... Capt. Holbrook had got pretty hearty again night came and he saw no more of the Lavina after that..." He goes on to discuss matters of the Lavina's possible cargo which could lead one to believe that the Lavina, and Captain Holbrook, mysteriously disappeared. Such are the trials of life at sea. Some of the passages are underlined in pencil.