To Terence Featherstone
The Most Honorable and Esteemed Terence Featherstone
Continental Occident Company
Wickham House
Grace Park
Dear Sir,
I thank you again for this most wondrous and generous opportunity to advance the science of botany and the acclaim of crown and Company. I trust that you have been receiving my regular reports of our voyage as we have crossed the paths of several Company couriers, but in case of mishap, I shall recap quickly my travels to this point. The oversea portion of the voyage proceeded marvelously except for the one extraordinary storm we encountered during the spring thaw, and both icebergs and sudden squalls had to be dodged, and I give full commendation to the captain and crew of HMS Zenobia in delivering both my person and the airship safely to landfall.
The airship Queen of the Horizon is now fully assembled and ready for our inland journey, and I am pleased to report that we have managed to secure a territorial map that should aid us in navigating clear of the rebel-held areas. Along with the map we have secured a translator of some repute who can both read and write our language, and who can guide our communications with the remote chieftains as necessary. Our intention is to set sail clandestinely from our moorings tomorrow night under moonless skies. I expect we shall be able to arrive in good time for summer flowers to be in full bloom.
Incredibly, some of our own colleagues in port have disparaged the existence of the Tsang Valley as a myth! I can only assume that men of such good standing approach with skepticism anything they have not seen with their own eyes, and given the impassable nature of the mountains, the obscurity of the tongue which is spoken in the countryside, and the dangers of the travail on foot or even on river—from both pirates and governmental agents attempting to bar the way of any foreigner into forbidden territory—they have understandably steered clear. This is all to the good of the Company, for if the reports of your agents are true, the specimens you have sent me to retrieve shall indeed be prized beyond all imagining, or at least beyond the imagining of such petty-minded men whose dreams do not venture much beyond their next meal nor the walls of their own gardens.
I wish to reiterate at this time, honorable Sir, that I shall do my utmost to carry out the instructions I have been given. Though these instructions at times leave themselves open to multiple interpretations and certain ambiguities, I trust that I have grasped the subtleties of the task at hand, and that so long as I present a reasonable case for having adhered to the instructions, that all shall be well and that the Directors shall be pleased with my work.
I look forward to the day I return from the land of perpetual summer when I may present you with your very own “forbidden” blossom,
Ever your servant,
Rbt. Meriweather