This letter is also preserved by Mr Nichols in his Literary Anecdotes of the 18th Century, vol. ii. page 206, where the Narrative is explicitly ascribed to Mr Robins, but not on, any particular evidence.  The statement indeed that is there given seems founded on Dr Wilson’s account of Mr Robins, without any other source of information having been consulted.  The Encyclopaedia Britannica is somewhat more candid, stating merely what was generally thought as to the Narrative being the work of Mr Robins, and at the same time pointing, though indirectly, to the existence of information opposed to that opinion.  “In 1748,” says the article Robins, 3d edition, “appeared Lord Anson’s Voyage round the World, which, though Mr Walter’s name is in the title, has been generally thought to be the work of Mr Robins.”—­“The 5th edition, printed at London, in 1749, was revised and corrected by Mr Robins himself.  It appears, however, from the corrigenda and addenda to the 1st volume of the Biographia Britannica, printed in the beginning of the 4th volume of that work, that Mr Robins was only consulted with respect to the disposition of the drawings, and that he had left England before the book was printed.  Whether this be the fact, as it is asserted to be by the widow of Mr Walter, it is not for us to determine.”  The remark now made seems somewhat ambiguous, and may refer to either the 5th edition only, or to the work in general.  In referring, however, to the Biog.  Brit. as above, the ambiguity is removed, and a testimony is discovered in opposition to the statement of Dr Wilson, which the reader cannot fail to consider of very high import, and as bearing strongly against the claims of Mr Robins.  The writers of the Biog. had spoken, in their account of Lord Anson, of the history of his voyage having been written by Mr Robins.  This they did on common though uncontradicted report, arising in all probability from the positive assertions of Dr Wilson, to which, it is certainly very singular, neither Mr Walter nor any of his friends chose to object.  With the most praise-worthy liberality and candour, however, these gentlemen, in the corrigenda; &c. referred to, insert the following notice:—­“Thus has the matter hitherto stood.  But so late as the present year (1789) and a few days previously to the writing of this note, a letter upon the subject has been put into our hands by Mr John.  Walter, bookseller at Charing Cross.  It is addressed to that gentleman by Mrs Walter, the widow of the publisher of that Voyage, and is as follows: 

“SIR,

“I am informed that the Biographia Britannica insinuates that Mr Robins, and not Mr Walter, was the writer of Lord Anson’s Voyage round the World.  I shall therefore take it as a favour, if you will put me in the way of correcting so great a mistake.  During the time of Mr Walter’s writing that Voyage, he visited me almost daily previous to our marriage, and I have frequently heard him say how closely be had been engaged in writing for some