Transcription
Madrid Saturday June 3d 1843
It was amazingly agreable my Dear G. to have such / cheering accounts of your operations as those which were contained / in your last letter of April 28h _ I wish most earnestly that your / cause was in as flattering a condition, and then it seems to me our / position would be very agreable. I like the name of “Mutual / Safety” which I hope augers well of her and her Captain / Fitch _ Don’t fail to keep you [^ me] informed of your operation during the / summer.
I would have grieved over the breaking up of the little / family in Laight Street, if it would have done any good; and if / moreover, what I knew of the feeling of the menkind had not led / me to doubt whether the pleasure which Fanny + Rebecca received / from being together would not have been counterbalanced in that / way :
Yesterday (June 2d) made the complete + entire year since / I shook your hand on board the good ship St Nicholas : the parting / scene came back upon me most vividly and among the rest the last / glimpse of the pretty little Dream vanishing in the direction / of the Narrows _ I shall be happy indeed when I see all/ these again, and find you all in a flourishing state.
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Did I ever tell you of Miss Flandins friend, (I’ve forgotten her name) / to whom I was presented, and who I imagine, from the hurry and agitation / of the moment, squeezed my hand affectionately at parting, as she said / “you’ll be kind to my friend _ I know you will?” tho’ a little taken aback / I returned the pressure as I promised my best efforts _ and wasn’t I true / to my word when I patrolled the Deck two or three hours every Evening by / the light o’ the moon “with the young lady; until the gossip of the ladies / cabin was fully occupied with the same?
I have been leading the most tranquil life, as my / letters can testify, reading the greater part of the day, and confined to the / house for about a month _ I am just recovering my natural brown / hue after having been considerably bleached, and reduced to any [a??y] / by illness + starvation, caused chiefly by my “habdominals” _ the last / have returned to duty, and I am devouring the fruits of the earth, and / no longer stinted by my sizings _ The weather is a puzzle to the spaniards / instead of a burning sun as usual, we have cool clouded days and / even rainy ones, and the crops in consequence are luxuriant beyond / comparison _ I rejoice in this as it shorten what would otherwise be a / long summer, which I expect to spend in town.
I have seen letters to Mr. I. from Charles Augustus, and Mr. / Ticknor _ I am delighted to hear the favorable anticipations of Prescotts. Conquest / of Mexico “and the capital bargain he has made with the Harper’s. In these / times it is something to refuse $15,000 for a copyright _ By a letter from / Mr. Everett it appears Webster left the Cabinet May 1st and Lejaré succeeded / him ad interim : the stories of the Godlike man’s visit to England + France / for commercial treaties seem very current _ What in such a case /
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Will he do with his Tariff + manufacturing friends?
Here they are at their old work of revolution, which they / call “pronomcements” _ the hews of the morning is that the revolt is spreading / in Andalusia, and Grenada, Malaga, Alonezia, and some other places / which I visited last autumn, have proclaimed independence of the Gov’t of / Espartero _ National gaurds and troops had joined in the movement, and other / forces are marching thro’ the Sierra Morena against them : The Andalusians / however are not considered angerous : tho excitable they are soft as their / climate, and apt to yield without any obstinate resistance : the Catalans / and Aragonese are the people to be feared, and the Gov’t have already sent / their most active + determined officers into their Country : should they rise, / on receiving the news from the South, the Country would be in a dangerous / and critical position _ Saragossa + Gerona in the French War, and the / late insurrection at Barcelona prove that they will fight like devils / from behind stone walls _ The robberies in consequence of these troubles / are rather more numerous than usual, as also the “cuchilladas” _ one of / these happened yesterday in our street a short distance from the house : there / was a quarrel, in the course of which a man whipt out his knife, and / stabbed a woman in the head + neck : she was carried into the house of / the “Alculde de Barrio” opposite our office windows, covered with blood / lickily the Magistrate, as appeared by one of Mambrino’s helmets shining / at the door was also a barber and surgeon _ the poor woman was badly / wounded _ these scenes are of almost daily occurrence, and noticed by two or / three lines in the papers : What can be expected from an ignorant popu: / lation, of wiolnet passions, always carrying a formidable knife, and hardeded / by their frequent Bull fights to scenes of blood + suffering!
Your friend Mary Mat, writes to Mr. Irving that she /
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Is waiting until the Country becomes more quiet to make a journey / into Spain _ on these conditions she’ll still wait, like the peasant at the river side / for ever; certainly for many years _ the future has plenty of difficulties / in store _
Do let me know something of my friend Sir Robert or rather / his wife : I have been waiting to hear of his being a happy father to / congratulate him thereupon, but with all the chances of these events, I / have been afraid to write until I hear the result : It seems to me it / should have occurred some time since.
There or four days will bring us the Hibernia’s news / to May 15h _ I am anxious to know if the flood which had commenced / in business and trade will continue _ it is surely high time some change / for the better should take place. _ The French Transatlantic steamers / are beginning to make their appearance : one of them the Labrador has / been tried in the Mediterranean and gave great satisfaction _ they have been announced to start this month :
I suppose E. beings to think of the cottage, and green / fields, and in a week or so will be moving up her little family _ It is pleasant / to think of you all collected in the Country, for at a distance a Country / home appeals much more powerfully to one’s feelings than a brick / front of 25 feet, even in the best of city situations _ you can’t imagine / how dear to me is our youthful forest at Nevis : I am anticipating / such a growth in my absences that I shall be certain to be disappoint - / ed on my return :
Remember me to our friends of the Club: Charles / Livingston, Glover + the rest _ I will send my warith to the 3d story / during this month to challenge Robert to a game of billiards.
Yours ever, A. H.
G.L.S. E _Transcriber
Kathryn AlexanderLanguage
English
