| Title: | Alexander Robb, New Westminster to his father, [Co. Down?]. |
|---|---|
| ID | 2291 |
| Collection | Irish Emigration Database |
| File | Robb, Alexander/3 |
| Year | 1863 |
| Sender | Robb, Alexander |
| Sender Gender | male |
| Sender Occupation | unknown |
| Sender Religion | unknown |
| Origin | New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada |
| Destination | N.Ireland |
| Recipient | unknown |
| Recipient Gender | male |
| Relationship | son-father |
| Source | T 1454/5/6: Copied by Permission of Dr. J. C. Robb Esq., MBE, MD, MCH, Cambourne Park, Belfast. |
| Archive | The Public Record Office, Northern Ireland. |
| Doc. No. | 9006036 |
| Date | 15/02/1863 |
| Partial Date | |
| Doc. Type | EMG |
| Log | Document added by JM 25:10:1993. |
| Word Count | 909 |
| Genre | |
| Note | |
| Transcript | New Westminster Feby [February?] 15th 1863 Dear Father, At last I have received your long looked for and very welcome letters. You can have no idea how anxiously I have been looking for them and how sick at heart I have been when mail after mail has come in without bringing me any word from home. I mentioned in my last letter that I had written to Mr Kyle to have them forwarded to me here. My [letter?] to him must have been detained as it was two months after I wrote until I got an answer. At last however they did come and I believe they were all the more welcome from being so long coming. I was very sorry to hear that you had such an awful summer as you describe. I can just imagine what an amount of trouble you must have had. In this respect if in no other I had the advantage of you. British Columbia (or at least the part of it that I was in) enjoys perhaps one of the finest if not the VERY finest Climates in the world. It is warm without being oppressively hot, and from the first of May until the middle December only a few light showers fell. The sky too is blue all the time and the atmosphere is so clear that mountains that only look two or three miles from you are probably twenty or thirty miles distant. This does not refer to the district of [Carbou?] in which blessed region rain, thunder and lightning [lightening?] seems to have established their hedd quarters [headquarters?]. As regards the rest of the Country I believe a better, healthier climate cannot be found. However, as there is no rose without it's thorn so even this Country is not without it's drawbacks. I do not refer to the wild animals although bears, wolves, and [?] are pretty plenty nor to the reptiles though rattlesnakes are plent[?] than five dollar pieces these you can avoid or kill but there is another thing that you cannot avoid and where you kill one, one thousand arises to avenge his death I mean the musquitoe [mosquito?]. This is decidedly THE pest of British Columbia. I cannot describe to you the horrible torments they inflict upon one. They creep up one's arms, they crawl round your neck, they settle in hundreds upon your face, and in fact wherever #PAGE 2 there is a bare spot of flesh upon you these pests make it their business to leave a blister. About the middle of August the nights commence to get a little chilly and then the mosquitoe [mosquito?] begins to lose part of his fierceness, and shortly after dies away all together [altogether?]. He leaves as his successor a little black gnat that though not so large is quite as bad as the other. Each has its own peculiarities. Mr Mosquitoe [mosquito?] is a spanish gentleman of rather dissipated habits. He loves to get up early in the morning (about two or three O'clock) and as he no doubt, thinks this is a virtue that ought to be shared by all creation he takes particular pains that you should not sleep either. When the sun gets warm he gets drowsy and goes to sleep until about four O'clock in the afternoon when out he rushes with renewed energy and continues his orgies until about twelve O'clock at night, when too drunk even to fly he rests under a blade of grass and no doubt dreams of his NIP in the morning. The gnat on the contary is rather a lazy kind of fellow. HE won't get up until the sun is high in the heavens and goes to bed exactly at sunset. To do him justice however he improves his time most wisely and judiciously while awake. Unlike the musquitoe [mosquito?] who is not particular where he lets your blood flow Mr Gnat is a dainty fellow and his most dainty morsel is extracted from the corner of your eye. There they settle in clusters and there they will stay do your best. This is no overdrawn picture for there are places in this Colony where strong horses have been killed dead in one night by the musquitoes [mosquito?]. I have seen men from the Canadian [swamps?], from the Mississippi plains, from Australia and in fact from every part of the world, and all agree that British Columbia beats them all hollow. It is said that they are not so bad on one after the first year amd I am sure I hope so for nothing but a young Irishman strong and healthly COULD have gone through such a course of surgery as I have suffered this year. I have been rather [brosy?] on this subject as I have little to write about and when I did commence about these things my feelings got the better of me. Dear Father I have but little news to tell you. I am in my usual good health. #PAGE 3 Tell Eleanor that I am sorry I cannot send her my likeness as there is no artist in this town. I believe however that I am stronger, stouter and I flatter myself looks better that ever I did in my life before. I have got all the money I wrought [wrote?] for and am able with some little work I do to pass the winter very comfortably. There is no cold here and in fact this is just |
