Nantucket November 30th 1834

Beloved Parents,

The eclipse has passed off, the children have had their smoked glass- but I am too fast-my log book which I shall commence, from at least yesterday (as regards our domestic concerns) must be deferred a day or two- Probity is so inherent in me, that I may be, I think excused- It is some time since a letter was received from Father by Captain George Myrick- The first notice I had of it was from David Allen (a man of few words Father knows) who beckoned me, near the lower office and says "what a letter your Father has written to George Myrick." I said yes, though I did not know that such a one had been received! I stepped into our "commercial Reading Room" and again heard from the members present that Capt Myrick had had "such a letter from your Father"! I professed myself very happy that Capt Myrick should be thus gratified, presuming that I should soon hear from him. I left the reading room, hear he was inquiring for me and sought him in his store.

With his usual emphasis he spun out again of prefatory remarks which cost us all a late dinner- There were a number of auditors including Capt Peter C. Myrick. I could have listened much longer-with the letter in one hand, and spectacles in the other, which added interesting and very material weight to the subject. He commenced, and though prolonged in describing his and others jointure, his remarks were as interesting, that I could have dispensed with the reading of the letter for a much longer time -

Sentence by sentence, did he comment upon, and only on one instance did he find fault! It was when Father speaks of, and enumerated the school books –Father enumerates along among three, Dilworthy's spelling book. Capt Myrick says, "it is true enough so far as it goes, but he ought to have added, and that half torn out." He has carried it with him ever since he received it and when he meets a congenial soul, or one acquainted with by gone days, out comes the letter from "Andran"-Such a display of Father's letter by such a man has been truly gratifying to us - old times is the subject upon whom he delights to dwell, and he never fails to emblazon with his very best eloquence this one part of a favorite theme via politics -

He boasts that "from the time we kitched packvs until 1810-11 and 12 when we were chock to the antipodes in politics, there wasn't a wry word, but you might have snapped your thumb at, and I told Peter Chase 'to thee day, and I told 'em so in the office and says I, let any two mother's sons, from the long embargo to the peace say what Andar Pinkham and George Myrick can”. Some days after, we received Father's letter dated previous to Capt, Myrick, and had been a month and two days upon the road! We did not make ourselves uneasy upon the supposition that all was well, but thought it unlucky, that up to that period, 20 Oct, Thomas had received no reply to his, when I did reply immediately. But it is all strait enough now, and one of the

most delightful of my enjoyments, I mean ours of course, is to hear frequently from home. ! am well aware that the scene changes but slowly to persons daily conversant with the shifting of them, but years bring changes, which when portrayed to minds whose workings have been confined to far distant scenes requires much expiation (sic) to make them comprehend - Lydia and myself ask each other a thousand suspicious questions with regard to changes about home - Cincinnati and its environs - we can't realize it - the turnpike road out through Columbia, the bridge across the Miami, the canals, both Dayton and the other one, Bantam Post Office, and a mail stage in the lane — whew! I say to Lydia, or, as Capt. R ne would say" I told my wife and Liza," that we must continue to get to Ohio and spend a week very soon or we shall be downright gumps -There will be no Charley’s or good old Ball's to ride if we don't hurry [reference to family horses], if we don't hurry, for it will soon come to pass at this rate .that when she leaves in the canal boat to spend the day at W. Shannon’s, I, for want of better amusement, will have to take the rail road car, stopping at the depot upon the summit level of "stone Lick" for a few hours ramble among the delightful scenery of the township!! Both of us of course to be at home in "good season" -Dec is- but joking aside, it is wonderful and we pretend to keep tolerable pace, in knowing and remembering what is going on in Ohio at least. Statistical publications of the whole union are common and cheap as saw dust, and yet I am asked sometimes questions by men of wealth and reputed wisdom, which sends the blood tingling to my very toe nails - men, who in their mind's eye can see the distance from Nantucket to the Cape de Verdes, to the Falklands, to Talcahuano, to Lima, to the Galapagos, &G.&C.. will for want of a few hours of industry, take Duchess, Orange, and Cayuga Counties of New York and after mixing them with the town of Auburn in the same state, finish the amalgamation by stirring into the cauldron of ignorance, the City of Cincinnati, Hamilton, Clermont and Butler County, including both stupendous canals, and plastering it on the map of a few thousand acres, it becomes at once satisfactory and to them living pictures of the WESTERN COUNTRY! — But if Lydia should look over my shoulder, she would say, why Father, "what do you trouble your head for, about other people's ignorance? If David Baxter asks you if wheat grows in Ohio, (fact) why, he is rich enough to dispense with any other knowledge of business.—

Well knowing that such would be at least her sentiments, I would confine myself now at home. Let me remark at once that we are blessed with good health.—Our children are for the present all that we could wish them, and we are determined to live in hope, nor confer up disagreeable anticipations. Since I have been at home, I have always been engaged at something, and if my employments have yielded

but little for the "mitten", I have at least guarded against extravagance. As for future courses I wait for the Government to mark them out so far as I am concerned with the Navy.—I had while in South America numerous offers, when if I would neglect the service, I would be sure of my thousand in years!—But I have been ever careful of lifting that sheet anchor. Now is the time I can save a few dollars from my pay, but, as I think I explained in a former letter, I cannot do it if I am one of the officers who have to entertain half of the inhabitants of "Cape Town", the King, Chiefs, queen Regent to queen Dowager and suite at the Sandwich Islands, the queen Pomaru of Otaheiti and suite, the various entertainments necessary to be given to keep up the national dignity abroad given and accepted in foreign ports! repeat that our pay is not adequate to meet such extraordinary taxations. But I will dispense with a Jerimiad at this time, and only admit to such topics my way of assuring my dear Parents that I hold myself as much responsible to them for the acts of my life now. Aye, more than I did when I was the obstreperous age of fifteen--!

Father asks about the location of our house. The street has undergone astonishing improvements and real estate had risen in proportion, but has stood still since the "Panic". ln the two years thirteen houses have been built to the S. of us, some of them far exceeding Uncle Reuben's in convenience and finish -The road from the New Town gate has been clayed, and a mixture of clay and the sand has made a road, that would make Mr. McAdam's mouth water —

It is to be presumed by the Inquirer that if the town is to find oil if we found lamps. Upon this occasion, I for the first and only time took an active part, as far as to be one of the number at the Town Hall —the Hall was crowded and the vote was almost unanimous. The aristocracy that once rules the town has become extinct—Jared Coffin, R.R. Bunker, Paul West and few others disapprove of the measure, and give as reasons that men of their stamp pay a large proportion of the taxes. lf they pay the greatest sum, yet it is certain that the "middling interest are the heaviest taxed" Besides, though these people may pay their hundreds, and growl and grumble, yet not one of them, has ever called upon the assessors for a reduction of tax, and under oath give in a list of their possessions! Some of them say, we have done without lights for so long &c &c—

to listen to, or combat such arguments is certainly a foolish waste of time. I am one of the committee for this street, and in my particular department, stand ready at our next meeting to make a favorable report. We shall have fifteen posts in this street -so much tor lights - This upper part of the town has not improved much of later years, in fact "Chicken Hill" looks drearier than it used to -I mean more particularly with respect to the life and bustle incident to a business population. So tor the scenery, monotonous as it may seem to the stranger, devoid of the "deep glen", the "majestic oak" nymphs, naiads, and alligators. This western district of the town, in fact the west of the Island has charms for me (in as much as they bring to my mind some of the happiest days of my youth) which appear equally fresh no matter how often visited.

If I have never been in England, I have at least seen some of the scenery afforded by our globe. I have pitched quoits from the banks of the Melise, a little country, on the side of a house where it was said Homer was born, have sat on the marble chair at Scio, occupying a place in a large amphitheatre from whence he taught; from a small promontory of rocks at Mytelene, I have plunged into the sea, and tried to find delight in the reflection , that it was probably the very spot where Sappho sprang to drown herself. I have been mired among the marshy grounds and tumbled over the half swallowed , and broken columns of the temple of Diana at Ephesus, threaded the mazes of the grotto of Antiparas, sounded in the muddy waters of the Nile, contemplated the snow capped Aetna, 95 miles dist., viewed the Table Mountain for the Lion's Rump, and a "heap" more of these things, and felt the pleasure of being far beneath my anticipations generated before seeing them.—

Really, I feel more delight in a ramble over Chicken hills than had I been in rambling over those hills in those islands [the Aegean], or other past "gems of the ocean". In other words the classic islands of the Grecian archipelago, among some of the ancient ruins of Milo, I found one of the black and several of the white marble balls (size of a musket ball) used by the ancients in voting— One day last summer while catching from Maxcy's Pond I brought on shore a pond turtle, the very thing for Charley, and I remembered that I was a very few feet from where, if not upon the identical spot where Father caught one of the same size while fishing of a half school day with Tom and myself— True it is, that the latter circumstance afforded me more gratification than any of the former! After her, the turtle had been tied to a hogshead or to a stake in the yard for a month and became an old story and after I. had delivered a lecture upon "cruelty to animals", I returned him to the pond. I said that I had been engaged at something since I came home, yet must confess it has yielded no profit yet.

Parents know all about the journal I kept and how it was handed to Reynolds when I went whaling. The work is forth coming and will be I have no doubt highly interesting - Not my part, but as Reynolds is a good prose writer, he will enlist the attention of his readers by giving more color tot eh Antarctic seas, and minutely describing forming icebergs, Shetland labyrinths, &c &c —all derived from a couple of months