| Title: | Alexander Robb, Nicola Lake, Canada, to Sister [Dundonald?] |
|---|---|
| ID | 2293 |
| Collection | Irish Emigration Database |
| File | Robb, Alexander/10 |
| Year | 1868 |
| Sender | Robb, Alexander |
| Sender Gender | male |
| Sender Occupation | farmer |
| Sender Religion | unknown |
| Origin | Nicola Lake, British Columbia, Canada |
| Destination | Dundonald, Co. Down, N.Ireland |
| Recipient | Susanna? |
| Recipient Gender | female |
| Relationship | siblings |
| Source | T 1454/6/3 or T1454/5/9: Copied by Permission of Dr. J.C. Robb Esq., M.B.E., M.D., M.C.H., Cambourne Park, Belfast. #TYPE EMG Alexander Robb, Nicola Lake, [British Columbia, Canada?], to His Sister [Sukie?] in Ireland [Dundonald, Co Down?] 10 May, 1868. |
| Archive | Public Record Office, Northern Ireland. |
| Doc. No. | 9006022 |
| Date | 10/05/1868 |
| Partial Date | |
| Doc. Type | EMG |
| Log | 12:06:1990 GMcE#CREATE created 24:10:1991 PKS inpu |
| Word Count | 1161 |
| Genre | |
| Note | |
| Transcript | To: His Sister [Sukie?], [Ireland?] From: Alexander Robb, Niclola [Nicola?] Lake May 10th 1868 My Dear Sister For a long time my conscience has been telling me that it was time for me to write home and when I got your dear kind letter its voice got too strong to be any longer disregarded. You cannot tell how much your letter interested me containing as it did so much news of things and people whom I am still very much interested in. You are perfectly right in your conjecture that I never received the letter containing poor Lizzie's likeness. I am going to send down to New Westminster for it. In future if you would simply direct your letters to "Lytton British Columbia" I would be sure to receive them .. by directing them to "New Westminster Lytton they are just as likely to stop at one place as come to the other and the two places are about 150 miles apart Would you believe it, the first intimation I had that John & Martha had a little daugther was by the mere accident of her being sick and you mentioning it. I never before heard that that there was such a being in existence as Jennie Robb. I am very sorry that I connot comply with your request about the likeness. I think though that when you hear my reasons you will be satisfied that is not my fault if I don't send it to you. In the first place then I dont think there is a single Photographic artist in this colony or at least there is none nearer than Victoria and that is nearly three hundred miles from here, and in the second how far do you think I would have to go by the most direct road to visit my nearest white neighbour You would never guess so I will just tell you I would have to travel as nearly as I can judge (for the trail has never been measured) between 45 and 50 miles I have heard indeed that two men have settled about eight or ten miles from here but I have never seen them. And now I think I hear you say "What on earth can you be doing in such a place? Well I am just starting a ranch or farm for a friend of mine who wishes to commence farming and stock raising here and I will most likely stop here a year at least if not longer I have never seen a place in my life so admirably adapted for both pursuits as this is. There is a valley here about seven miles long and from one to two wide mostly of the very best kind of prairie land. It requires neither draining clearing nor any other improvement to grow the best kind of wheat, barley, oats, or vegetables of all kinds for years to come. What would they think at home of land that would grow wheat or oats ten or twelve years in succession and the last crop be as good as the first, and yet I have seen within this last month thousands of acres of such land. According to the land laws of this country any British subject may take up to 160 acres of land in any place in the country by merely paying the registration fees which is only ten shillings and settling on it. After he has done a certain quantity of work on it you get what is called a "certificate of improvement which is in fact neither more nor less than a government title to the land, this you may sell or otherwise dispose of as if it were your own land In fact it is so only that when the land comes to be surveyed "which may not be for years) you or your successor have to pay government one dollar per acre for it. There is a wonderful difference between this and paying twenty pounds or so per acre for leave to farm a patch of hungry land, from which one may be turned out by the mere caprice of the landlord But this is not the only advantage connected with this valley. On each side of it for I don't know how many miles rise a succession of gently rising hills. These though unfit for agriculture afford in summer the best run for stock I ever saw They are covered with a kind of grass which I think is peculiar to this part of the world. It is called "bunch grass, from its growing in tufts or bunches, these tufts are sometimes two or three feet apart, while in places they grow quite close to one another, the spaces between the bunches being quite bare. It grows from about fours inches to two feet in height and I never saw anything in the world that appears to agree with animals so well as it does In one month after it commences to grow in the sping [spring?] cattle or horses which can scarcely walk will be rolling fat- As a general thing animals do very well in the winter by what they can pick up over the hills but it is safer to [make?] a little provision for them in case a very deep snow should come and last a long time. It is true there is no market nerarer [nearer?] this than 50 miles but in a very few years all this valley will be settled up and a good road made to it - Until that time most of a farmers dependences will be in his [stock?] which he can drive any place, but there is a sure fortune to be made out of them by any one who has capital enough to buy enough of them to get a start with. I forgot to mention that there is a young man along with me, here as partner of the person for whom I am making the farm However uninteresting these things may be to you My dear Sister I mention them because in the first place I have no news to tell you and in the next I want to show you that I am not half so much to be pitied as from the way you and Eleanor writes you appear to think I should be. No person is to be pitied in a new country who has got good health, and knows how to work. The only thing that I regret about leaving home is the leaving those that I loved behind me. And could I only see them once more (which I hope yet to do) I would be perfectly satisfied to end my days in this country Give me best love to Father tell him I will write to him in a short time. To Andrew, Mary and all the rest And believe me dear [Sukie?] Your loving brother Alexander Robb P.S. When you are writing to Eleanor tell her I received her letter and will answer it shortly Sandy |
