cams_JaredCBrown_b010_f006_002_001

Panama New grenada [Grenada] Sep 21, 1850

Dear father sir

it is with pleasure that
I find a few minutes Leasure [leisure] time to write
to you when I Last wrote to you I was
at Rio De Janeiro we Left there on
the 9^th of July and when we arived [arrived] off the
river Laplate [La Plata River] we had a gale it was awfull [awful] to
Behold but our ship rode it out and we kept on
some days Longer till we got to the mouth of the
straits when it began to blow it blowed [blew] us out
to sea we kept up steam But we ware [were] Blown 40
miles to Leward [Leeward ] it was night and we did not
know where we should fetch up when the day dawned we
were among the Breakers within a ships Length
of the Rocks But by skillful management we
away again and got into the straits the straits
are 500 Miles through we ware [were] 5 days a getting
through we got out of coal and had to go ashore
and cut wood having sailed one day a gale Brough [brought]
us up again. we could not get steam with our
wood and we run to leward of an island and
cast anchor the wind blew so that we draged [dragged] our
anchor some ways and got our cables redy [ready] to let go
our anchor and run to sea but the wind went down
and we took an inland passage through called
Smith Channel and stoped [stopped] to cut wood every few
days we stoped [stopped] at one place and the officers went
on shore and shot a cow beloning [belonging] to the natives
we expected to be attacked that Night so we
put to sea again and we could not get
another place to anchor under 90 Miles
and before we got there we got out of
wood and had to burn everything