Letter from William Henry Seward to Frances Miller Seward, August 10, 1857
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Letter from William Henry Seward to Frances Miller Seward, August 10, 1857
transcriber
Transcriber:spp:jaa
student editorTranscriber:spp:tap
Distributor:Seward Family Digital Archive
Institution:University of Rochester
Repository:Rare Books and Special Collections
Date:1857-08-10
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Letter from William Henry Seward to Frances Miller Seward, August 10, 1857
action: sent
sender: William Seward
Birth: 1801-05-16
Death: 1872-10-10
location: Unknown
receiver: Frances Seward
Birth: 1805-09-24
Death: 1865-06-21
location: Auburn, NY
transcription: jaa
revision: jxw 2022-02-05
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Page 1
e
Editorial Note
The 10th day of August and the 10th also of our voyage. We expected to reach
our destination in half the time, and yet it is not even in sight now.
Nevertheless we are content and thankful. We have encountered no accident
no one of us has been seriously sick or even long ill of the sickness of the
sea which like the tooth ache wins no pity. We have seen and
are seeing a clime (strange and to us unnatural – Beneath us is
the mighty fathomless and boundless, the dark, the mysterious the
frigid the relentless ocean. The doves do not strut and swell around
our home at Auburn more freely or more plentifully than the great whales
are at this moment sporting and carolling all around me at this
moment, in their their own proper societies. Then this coast of Labrador
that fills up the horizen on our left, rocky, with ridges of hills decending
to the beach ascending from the beach by teires until they shut out
the great waters of the North by mountain barriers. Only one vessel is
in sight and that is a majestic ship with all sail set beating up
in the gulf against the gentle wind that is moving us forward
in our frail little bark toward the island of Anticosti. We
hope soon to come within sight of Mignan the end of our voyage and
to anchor there to night. Soon thereafter to set our faces homeward.