Dear Beloved Brother,
i received your
kind and welcom letter on the 24th of August last which gave me great plesour
(pleasure) to hear of your welfair. I am verry much satisfied with the
letter you have sent me only the excuse for your not writing,dear brother,
Ithink that if you had had a mind to writ to me before you could have found
time enouf (enough) for that shurly (surely). But never mind that dear
brother. Apologies is not requeset for your not writing. I received a letter
from my mother the same day that I received yours and at the same time
which I have wrote an answer to . Just before I comenced (commenced) with
this and another I intend to write to my brother William and then I shall
post the three together. Dear brother this leaves me in a good state of
helth (health) and yours found me in the same, thank god for it and all
his loving kindness unto me. Dear brother the new of this place is verry
little only accidents that hath occurred.
On the
third and forth of May last we had in three differant parts of the woods
a very great fire. The woods was an fire for miles round about, and dreadfull
to hear of some houses that was in the woods was burnt to ashes, but no
lives was lost (thank god) How they got en fire is not properly known
but it is suposed when the people
is cleansing the ground and setting the brush wood an fire and the woods
being so dry that it run beyond the boundaries of the samll wood and got
into the thickets of the wood and then a glorious aful (awful) sight it
burnt tremendiously for the space of four ar five days and on the forteeth
of June last a dridful (dreadful) fire in the woods again broke out. This
day about eleven o'clock p.m. it was due west of Fort Townsend barracks
(that is the barracks that I stop in ) about three miles and came wihtin
two miles of the barracks and then took along the thickets of woods to
the northward and great destruction it maid amongst the pesents (peasant's
?) houses. There are several people that fell victim to the devouring element
of fire that time will never bring to light. The space that it went over
was about thirty miles from west sourth west to east north east and an
the 4th fell 1829
A dreadful accurance came to the
eyes of the epublic this day in a place of the known by merchan house there
lived two women that eat the bread of prostitutionfor maney years and this
last six months there was a man stopped in the house along with them .
One of the two was a missing by the surounding neghbours and they into
the house and asked the other whore .where she was. They received no satisfaction
but that of bad words and abusive language and some of them went into the
bedroom and there dead lying in the bed in a state of putrification and
all on the one side of the body eat in great holes with rats and this other
two wretches the man and the woman every night in the same bed along with
her. A corener's inquest was held over the body and a averdict was
pased, died by the visitation of God and before the vital spark was expired
half eat by the rats. But it was genery (generally) suspected that she
was murdered by these two wretches but there was proff of it . The man
was a Roman Catholic and was excommunicated from the church.
Another
fattle (fatal) and melancoly occurance took place on the 25th of January
1829. a carpenter beloging to the Governor's yatch (yacht) was on shore
and got a boat to leave himself on board again. Now it being in the night
time about nine o'clock and the wind blowing out of the harbour and drifting
to that degree that you could not open your eyes let alone see where you
were going. He was drifted out of the harbour and was never more heard
tell of and God only knows what became of him. No more at present dear
brother, fairwell
Francis Scott