
          Ansd. [Answered] June 1st
(fr. B. Queen)

Glasgow, March 19, 1840.

My dear friend 
I would have answered your long-expected 
& most welcome letter of Decr. [December] 14th before 
this time, but it was not long after its arrival 
that we were thrown into great affliction 
by the sad & sudden intelligence that our 
poor William was dead. It is true, as you 
know that he left this country in delicate health, 
& sought a restoration in the climate of Jamaica. 
There he arrived after a 7 weeks passage & had already 
experienced benefit by the change of climate, & 
an improvement was daily [?]. He 
was every where recieved [received] in the kindest manner 
& domesticated with Dr. Macfadyen, who offered 
him a share of his business & treated him 
like a brother. But in less than 3 weeks he 
took yellow fever in its worst form, accompanied 
by black vomit. Still so good was his constitution 
that he struggled against it for the almost unheard 
of period of 11 days. He was quite aware of 
his state & of his danger. The clergyman & the family 
constantly [crossed out: constantly] prayed with him & to 
him & the last words that escaped from his lips were 
in prayer. This [added: is] our consolation, & that we shall [added: see]
one day much the dear fellow again, when there
will be no more separation & no more sorrow. 
On inspection his & every part of him were 
found perfectly sound. God saw fit to recieve him 
& Death met him in another form. His wife was too 
far advanced in pregnancy to have accompanied him 
to the West Indies. She was to have gone out in May,

        