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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 pleas-
ant & the winds light. I will not here give any de-
scription 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 your-
self 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 sea-
sons of what seemed to his Divine Communion I certainly
have had. How often I thought of you & the dear baby & of what