He writes of the visit to London by Ashworth, the Quaker cotton spinner, on their behalf, to discover whether they could become independent of American cotton and his investigation with his brother-in-law Christie into papers at the India Office, which led them to declare that nothing could be done about cotton in India until the existing system of land revenue had been abolished. Ashworth had reported this back to the Manchester Chamber of Commerce and Christie had joined the committee of the India Society. From this, Forster concludes that the cotton trade wished to be free of the slavery of American cotton and was prepared to encourage the growth of cotton elsewhere. This was a good omen for their own plans, which he suggests should be communicated to them in order to get Chambers of Commerce to pass resolutions about the cotton-growing capabilities of Africa. Once this was done, Buxton could pressure the government to buy Fernando Po (Bioko), and their company, once launched, would have vast capital resources behind it. He explains that the philanthropic party was influential among the cotton men and vouches for the characters of Ashworth and Christie. A postscript addressed to Buxton states that, since Forster had completed almost all his business in Darlington, he was at Buxton's disposal. (Copy.)