2-189 (Raw)

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I every day defer writing, but the day must come when it must be done, but oh! no pen can express with truth the pain and agony of the heart that dictates. We sailed from Plymouth with a fair wind on Tuesday, 13th November. My throat after applying leeches was better, and so I thought our dear children were, but hopes were vain; in a day or so they gradually began to decline, and on Wednesday, 21st, at ten minutes past seven in the morning, our dear boy breathed his last on my lap. Oh, how can I proceed! My heart is almost ready to burst. Soon after four o'clock his body was consigned to the deep about 90 miles from Oporto. Our dear girl still was left us; for her we prayed that she might be saved. But no, God in his good time thought fit to take her also to Himself. About half-past twelve her dear spirit flew to that mansion from which no traveller returns, so you see in less than 24 hours our darlings were both in the bosom of their God. [60] Poor Mrs. Richman's third child is going to be buried this afternoon, but they still have three left. Eight children have died since we left London. Mrs. Richman's first suffered the same as our dear boy, the other two from sore throats, with which almost everyone has been attacked, and had it not been for the leeches I should have gone also. My tongue began to swell, and I could scarcely speak or breathe, but now both George and myself are well, with the exception of weakness.
The warm weather here brings out swarms of small flies, cockroaches and bugs, the last mentioned on comparison are trifling inconveniences [...]
There is another child dead to-day, making in all 17, and I believe all could have been saved with care and proper medical attention.
We have had three children born on board. One was dead and the others with their mothers are doing well. The ship is like a little town, so much scandal and ill-nature, and prying into each other's affairs, you would hardly believe. We have found the preserved meat the last eleven weeks so bad that we cannot eat it, and that is served to us three times a week. What a treat a little fresh meat will be to us, but this voyage will reconcile us to many things on shore we should have thought very hardly of had we gone from England to Australia without it.
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