He names those suited for the task as Captain H.D. Trotter for Chief Commissioner, and Commander William Allen, Commander Bird Allen, Captain Cook, and Charles Grant, providing their qualifications for these posts. Also needed were a chaplain, a Secretary to the expedition, a surgeon, and two assistants for the large vessel and one for each of the smaller ships. He stipulates the number and kind of vessels required, the need for them to sail under Admiralty orders and leave no later than 1 Nov, the need to select the proper channel for entering the Niger, and the course to be followed on the main river. He sketches the negotiations to be opened with the Chief of the Nufi, the Sultan of the Fulani, and the Sheik of Bornu (Borno), and stresses the importance of acquiring sovereignty of the land obtained from the African chiefs to ensure the security and personal freedom of the settlers and the administration of just laws, proposing that land near Addamadda and Beaufort Island should be so acquired and other tracts selected by Grant for later disposal to the African Agricultural Society. He suggests that the government could send out a survey team with the expedition. He approves of the general tone of the instructions by Bandinel though, he had already suggested certain amendments be made. He insists that the chiefs ought to be compensated for their losses resulting from the abolition of the slave trade. He also recommends that treaties should be made by the Governors in the Gambia, Sierra Leone, and the Gold Coast (Ghana), with all the chiefs within their reach on the same principles. He advocates that the expedition should approach everyone with the same desire for peace and spirit of fair dealing as they would expect to receive from others approaching their own shores, and that a persevering anxiety to benefit the indigenous peoples should be the guiding principles of the whole undertaking. He urges that the expedition was so important it should not be put in hazard for the sake of economy, since the gains by way of markets for the purchase of raw materials and the sale of manufactured goods were so great and the alternative to this move to 'civilize' Africa so fearful that it was vital that this first expedition be accomplished with no undue loss of life. A note by Sarah Buxton records that this letter was dictated to Priscilla between 3 a.m. and 6 a.m. on 24 Aug, after Buxton had travelled to London from Clifton and that, before he left London again for Northrepps, he had taken the letter to Normanby himself. (Copy.)