“This is the second great collection I have made for you; and I shall not, dear lady, forward any more until I hear of the safe arrival of the last, it is so very disheartening to find all my labour and love thrown away. Oh! how I wish that I could be permitted to bring a cargo home for you! I would part with everything I have most gladly for such a purpose, but I fear it will never be; and sometimes my poor heart feels broken, as I sit alone, pondering over all my hope and fears.
“My dear landlady, Mrs. Palmer, has given me such a nice drawing of my cottage and the surrounding country for you! I shall send it; and I hope you will not think me presumptuous if I ask for one of the dear, dear Cliff, as I know, my dear lady, that you can so easily do one for me. If one of the young ladies would be so kind as to copy it, then I could give Mrs. Palmer one by way of return. Yours shall hang over my chimney-place; and when I look at it I shall think of those happy days which I spent there with you for my friend and mistress.
“Ah! dear lady, when I was learning so many good lessons under your eye, little did I think that I should reap the profit thereof in a foreign land. Your word of approbation was a sort of foretaste of that which, I hope and trust, we shall both rejoice to hear, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant!’
“Dear lady, I am very contented, and am getting on well, but we have all had severe misfortune in this district: first, by the floods; secondly, by fire; and thirdly, by such a hurricane as levelled whole acres of timber-trees of enormous size. We were afraid to remain indoors lest our houses should fall on our heads; and out of doors we could hardly stand at all. Great trees swept by us as if they had been straws.
“The flood in the month of May distressed us very much; but that on the 31st of July and the 1st of August, the days after the high wind, was dreadful. It was the greatest ever experienced by any of the settlers, though the natives speak of one which covered all the plain from the mountains, and was deeper than our church is high. The one I have so lately witnessed went over the tops of the houses on the plain; and many poor creatures were on their chimneys crying out for mercy, and for boats to go to them. It was shocking to hear their cries, and it made me feel so wretched at not being able to relieve them. It was very dangerous to approach them, for sometimes the eddies were so strong round their houses that boats were swept away, or swamped in the attempt. I saw one boat completely sunk by a tree falling upon it, just as it was passing; and had not another boat been near to take the sufferers off the boughs upon which they had climbed, they must all have perished.
“One man, of the name of Thomas Lacey, and his wife and family, were carried away in a barn. They got upon the mow, and broke a hole through the thatch. I saw them, dear creatures, holding up their hands to heaven as they passed us on the sweeping flood, and imploring our help. It made my spirit rise within me; and I thought how God had made me instrumental in saving life in former days, and I could not resist the impulse of that which at first the people called my madness. I called to some men who were standing near a boat moored to the bank, and urged them to go with me to the rescue, but they would none of them stir. I took two long linen-lines, and tied them together, and requested the people on the bank to assist me, for I was determined to go alone if they would not go with me.
“I jumped into the boat, and then the men were ashamed, and took their oars, and said they would go without me; but no, that I was determined they should not do; so the man slackened the rope, as we were carried by the stream towards the barn, which had fortunately grounded upon the stump of some large tree which had collected a quantity of earth so as to form a bank near it. We had hard work to get up towards the smooth-water side of the barn; but the men kept the boat close to the side by pushing against the trunk of the tree; and I stood up at the head of the boat, and received the dear children into my arms. They were all taken from the thatch, and we launched again into the eddies.
“Had it not been for the line, we should have been sent down the stream like an arrow from a bow. All our fear was lest the line should break, and if it had we could never have rowed up the stream. Thanks be to the providential mercy of God, we were all hauled safe to land.
“Oh! how the dear children did cling to me! They told me that they saw great alligators come up and look at them; but, poor things! their terrible situation would make them magnify a floating tree into an alligator. Horses, cows, sheep, and all kinds of animals, were hurried along the waters to the sea. I wonder whence all this body of fresh water can come from! We had no previous rains, and yet thousands and thousands of acres were covered ten, fifteen, and twenty feet deep with these floods.
“I brought Mr. Lacey’s family to my own house. You know, my dear lady, how fond I am of children. I take care of them, and they assist me, until their father shall have got another habitation to take them to. Some poor creatures expired just as help reached them. They got on to houses, barns, stacks, and trees, and were often swept off all these resting-places. Many persons were drowned; many lost all their property. We were all fearful at one time that we should be swallowed up. Part of the hill on which my cottage stands began to cave away, and has left a cliff several feet high for a long distance. I was very near losing my own life; for I was standing on the verge of the hill when a part of my own field close by my feet caved in, and was swept away by the flood. It seemed to melt away like sugar in a cup; but, God be praised! I just escaped falling with it. You may believe that it terrified me.