H.M.S. Psyche, June 8th.
My dearest Wife,
I take the opportunity of the pilot's return to send you a hurried and last farewell. Oh, my dearest, what but duty could reconcile me to leaving you? What but the certainty that we are both protected by our Heavenly Father could support me through the weary days and nights which I am destined to spend far from you? Ah! the waves that are now washing the sides of our vessel will soon cease to beat upon that shore where my wife, where my friends are all thinking of me.
Farewell my dearest wife; be assured I am in good health and tolerable spirits.
Comfort yourself, my dearest! we shall all meet soon and happily again. I have not time to write to my mother, but pray tell her she is always in my thoughts. God bless you, dearest!—my heart is full of you.
Ever your devoted husband,
H. P.
From a Husband absent on Business to his Wife.
The Fens, Lincolnshire, June 1st, 187-