Cholera. 139 



row Avhat I have to .say on tliis distressing subject. 



^ 5p ^ -r^ 5J< 



Thursday, September loth. — The Cholera has, 

 indeed, made its appearance among us ; there are 

 mitigating circumstances about it ; yet, being a new 

 disease, and destructive of the life of certain descrip- 

 tions of persons, it has cast a deep gloom over our 

 city. The disease is confined principally to our do- 

 mestics, and the irregular among the whites. My 

 own servants have nearly all been down in succes- 

 sion. My daughter Eliza was slightly attacked, but 

 now she looks as blooming as ever. As regards my 

 own health I mend but slowly from rheumatism. 

 If I were not so much engaged and exposed, pro- 

 fessionally, I should recover faster. I am weak in 

 my limbs, and, like an old man, I use a cane. 



I shall write you again by this boat. All unite 

 in love to you, and to John. 



Your friend, J. B. 



Charleston, Sept. 17th, ISof). 



To THE SAME I 



I commenced writing to you on tlie day of the 

 steamboat's arrival, and added something' to my 

 letter every day ; when finished, the girls blotted 

 the superscription in clapping on their new fangled 

 wafer ; and then sister Maria laughed at us all. As 

 the steamboat does not go for an hour, and many 

 tlioughts are crowding into my mind, I write to you 

 again. 



The reports of Cholera are daily more favorable — 

 strange that in a city like ours — far South, and 

 crowded with subjects, it should not have carried 

 ruin and misery along with it. But it has proved 

 far otherwise ; as yet, not a respectable, temperate 

 white, that I know of, has died ; and even among 

 our domestics, the most careless and irregular onlv. 



