Letters of Rev. John W. Alvord

Ship Esther May in the Cattegat May 18, 1851

My Dear Myrtilla & Dear Children

As we are drawing near Elsinore I have determined to have a few lines ready for you although you will hardly expect to hear from me from thence & I know not that I can with certainty get my letter ashore so that it will go. We have had a quick passage, 27 days out to day, and we expect to be on the [illegible] tomorrow at least. It was very rough for the first two or three weeks & I was very sea sick most of the time -- but since there the weather has been very pleasant & the winds light. I will not here give any description of things as they have occurred from day to day. I have kept a memorandum of events in a Note Book which I intend to send to you in my trunk from St. Petersburg. My health is now quite good & appetite has returned although digestion is not very perfect. It seems like getting well from a severe fit of sickness & I can hardly tell you how much I suffered; with no [illegible] friend like yourself near to comfort me, Ezra being much in the same condition & the Captain constantly occupied with working the Ship. My head has sympathized in the suffering of the stomach, & dizziness with return of the old pain when there was much motion, added greatly to my trouble. It quite discouraged me for a while in regard to traveling & indeed in regard to any very speedy recovery, if ever. My spirits sunk lower xxx though not entirely for I endeavoured to to feel that all was right & if turn aside from my work in the Gospel of Ch. I must & could submit some precious seasons of what seemed to his Divine Communion I certainly have had. How often I thought of you & the dear baby & of what