J. G. Pike, Derby to [Joseph Angus, Baptist Mission House, London,] 28 September 1842.

Derby Sep 28, 1842

My dear Sir

      Once when I called on Mr Dyer & we were talking about the price of rupees I learned from him that you had some friend at the India house whose information had been a guide as to the time of buying bills—I forgot whether Mr D stated that thus guided he had bought before a rise in the state of exchange or had waited for a fall—Have you any friend from whom you could get information whether there is likely soon to be a fall?  The rate is now high. When I bought for our spring remittance the rupee was 1s/11d it is now 2s/1d—Now if there be a likelihood of a speedy alteration I would delay our remittance to next month, otherwise of course we must send at the present terms—Can you learn this, without much trouble, and if so soon?  If you can I should be obliged to you—I expect my brother will call on you tomorrow for an answer to this, if you go out would you have the kindness to leave a single line for him stating the result of my inquiry, addressed, Revd G. T. Pike

                                          Believe me dear Sir

                                                            Yours paternally

                                                                              J. G. Pike

PS  You may tell Mr Belcher to whom I wrote last week that my fears were realized & I was a prisoner at home all last Sabbath.

Text: Timothy Whelan, Baptist Autographs in the John Rylands University Library of Manchester, 1741-1845 (Macon: Mercer University Press, 2009), pp. 252-53 (annotated version); alsoMAW, Box 39 (BMS 1467), John Rylands University Library of Manchester. John Deodatus Gregory Pike (1784-1854) ministered to the General Baptist church in Derby, 1810-54, and also served as secretary of the General Baptist Missionary Society, 1816-54. Joseph Belcher (1794-1859) was a Particulare Baptist minister, author, and secretary to the Baptist Union, 1832-40. He had just recently resigned from his church in Greenwich. See Baptist Magazine 34 (1842), 194.