| Title: | [Frank?] Robb San Francisco, to the Robb Family Belfast. |
|---|---|
| ID | 2316 |
| Collection | Irish Emigration Database |
| File | Robb, [Frank]/29 |
| Year | 1805 |
| Sender | Robb, [Frank?] |
| Sender Gender | male |
| Sender Occupation | gold miner? |
| Sender Religion | unknown |
| Origin | San Francisco, California, USA |
| Destination | Belfast, N.Ireland |
| Recipient | unknown |
| Recipient Gender | unknown |
| Relationship | writes to his family |
| Source | T 1454/3/1-12: Copied By Permission of Dr J.C.Robb Esq, M.B.E. M.D. M.C.H., 21Cambourne Pk., Belfast. #TYPE EMG Frank Robb, Australia, Also Alexander Robb, Nicola Lake, British Columbia, to the Robb Family, Dundonald and Ballysallagh, 3rd November 1805 to |
| Archive | The Public Record Office, N. Ireland |
| Doc. No. | 8816084 |
| Date | 03/11/1805 |
| Partial Date | |
| Doc. Type | EMG |
| Log | 12:10:1989 LT created 07:06:1990 IH input 07:06:19 |
| Word Count | 661 |
| Genre | |
| Note | |
| Transcript | The most of our party slept all the way on the dark until the last four nights when it got too cold for us to lie there Our food during that time was simply indian meal porridge and molasses with the variety of salt j[u?]nk and biscuit About three fourths of the passengers are Canadians and about one half of the whole of us are going to the Gold mines. Immediately after I came here I commenced hunting As the parties to whom I had letters of introduction [?] [?] [?] [?] I found Mr Wallace and Mr Johnston by both of whom I was most kindly welcomed The next morning Mr Kyle came down to the Hotel where we [stop?] and I must say If I had been a brother instead of a stranger to him he could not have shown more kindness. He took me all through the town yesterday and infact has devoted almost all his time and attention to me since I came here He has not been very well these last few months but he is now pretty strong again His business is draying, that is carting through the Town [He?] at present has [five?] beautiful horses and drays and I understand somet[imes?] has as many mares his business is looking after the business and collecting bills while his partner looks after the men and horses. I am writing this letter in his stable as it is much cooleer than in the Hotel. The stable (a splendid one) is built on his own ground and he has a a nice frame house immedately [immediately?] beside it nearly finished The remainder of the plot of ground owned by him sure would sell for as much as the Tenant right of the best farm in our parish in size it is a little larger than our low garden I have not seen either Mrs Wallace or Mrs Johnston yet but before I [leave?] I am to call on them I had nearly forgotten to state that Mr Kyle says he has written to his sister twice but owing to the floods he thinks the mails must have been lost or detained He will write again some day soon. He sends his best respects to Mr Grainger his wife and to all his old friends - We start for Victoria on next Thursday we dont exactly know what is the passage but for so far this has been a very tedious and expensive [?] Dear Sister as soon as you get this sit down B(THERE APPEARS TO BE A PAGE MISSING AT THIS POINT.) a wilderness you could not conceive anything so lovely so rich as the vegetation there It is one perfect mass of tropical plants and flowers growing so thick and so high that it rare you can see more than a few yards into them. Some of the leaves of the wild bananas measure I should say 5, 6 and 7 feet long and two or three broad But I not attempt to describe it it must be seen to give one the slightest idea of what it is like It would set Uncle Crickard crazey before he would ride three miles through it. We found when we went to Panama that we would have to wait seven days before we could get a vessel to Sanfrancisco We put in the time as well as we could still that week appeared at least three It was so warm in the daytime that one could not go out and then about half an hour after the sun sets it is quite dark so we were [?] all the time in the hotel. We were charged five shillings per day for board and lodgings, At last the steamboat arrived bringing the passengers from New York and we got away. You may imagine the comfort we had for the next 17 days where there were 750 of us cooped up in a small, miserable, old tub of a steamboat |
