Columbia Bks. Fort Vancouver O. T.
December 19th 1852
MY DEAR WIFE;
The Mail Steamer very unexpectedly arrived this morning before I had half my correspondence completed. It brings no Mail however to this point but leaves it at Astoria to be brought up by the river steamer. 1 As the Mail Steamer starts back before we will get the last Mail I cannot tell you whether I will recieve any letters or not; but I am very sure that there are letters for me.
I am, and have been, perfectly well in body since our arrival at Vancouver, but for the last few weeks I have suffered terribly from cramp in my feet and legs, and in one hand. You know I have always been subject to this affliction. I would recover from it entirely in a very short time if I could keep in the house and remain dry. My duties however have kept me out of doors a great deel, and as this is the rainy season I must necessarily suffer from wet and cold. I am now intending to spend one or two weeks indoors, on toast and tea, only going out once per day to see if the supply of wood is kept complete.
This is said by the old inhabitants of Origon to be a most terrible winter; the snow is now some ten inches in depth, and still snowing more, with a strong probability of much more falling. The Thermometer has been from Eigteen to twenty two degrees for several days. Ice has formed in the river to such an extent that it is extremly doubtful whether the Mail Steamer can get back here to take off the Mail by which I have been hoping to send this. You must know the Steamer comes here first, and then goes down the Columbia about four miles, to the mouth of the Willamett river, and up that some fifteen miles to Portland, the largest town in the Territory, though an insignificant little place of but a few hundred inhabitants. I do not know enough of this country to give you the account of it I would like to, having
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Questia, a part of Gale, Cengage Learning. www.questia.com
Publication information:
Book title: The Papers of Ulysses S. Grant: 1837-1861.
Volume: 1.
Contributors: John Y. Simon - Editor.
Publisher: Southern Illinois University Press.
Place of publication: Carbondale, IL.
Publication year: 1967.
Page number: 277.
This material is protected by copyright and, with the exception of fair use, may not be further copied, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means.
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