Feb^{y} 7^{th} Since the a[bove][11] _to the astonishment of us all_ Cap^{t} Nickerson has so far reco[vere]d[11] that we have taken him on board the ship,--Esq^{r} C[lar]k[11] is very sick, the Boy _young Kimbal_ is dead. Feb^{y} 14^{th} He is gone--. Nickerson does not gain any Strength wishes to go to sea & try a change of air, he is sildom himself we have as yet kept the Esq^{rs} death from him,--such senes of distress & death, is severely trying to me, May God preserve me--We all continue well except Cap^{t} Mayo, he has had a slight fever, but is apperrently doing well; I have had a smart attact of the Nervous head ake, but have got over it, A schooner will sail for Boston in a day or two, will write more fully Your as ever Elijah Cobb [Sidenote: The Fever] _Elijah Cobb to his Wife_ Princes Island 18^{th} Feb^{y} 1819 My Dear freind I wrote you 4 days ago by the Schooner Hope which I sent away under the care of John Dillingham 3^{d} he being the only one willing to undertake, … you may _posibly_ git this letter first, it is therefore necessary to repeat that Esq. Clark has paid the dept of nature, it was my task to close his Eyes the 11^{th} Ins^{t} after a sickness of 8 days--Young Kimbal died 4 days before, Cap^{t} Nickerson was very sick _on board this ship_, but his fever having turned, it was the advice of Every One to send him to sea, that a change of air would have a good effect; I accordingly did, but fear he never will reach America; we must _however_ commit him & ourselves to a mercifull just God, who always acts for the good of his Creaturs & happy would it be for us; if we could always bow with humble submission to his righteous dispensations. Cap^{t} Mayo has been _very_ sick; his fever turned two days since, & the people here _who are no doupt better judges than strangers_ say he is out of danger, he _also_ has great currage, but he is very weak. & it will be a long time before he gits [his][12] strength, he is on shore, I am something unwell, & [takin]g[12] Medicine that I cannot see him to day-- Feb^{y} 20^{th} _Alas Alas_, Cap^{t} Mayo is gone; an unfavourable turn in his disorder was his passport to (I trust) realms of blessedness--I have ordered the ship amediately to sea; shall work up to the windward of these islands & pass away 3 or 4 weeks, untill the sickly season passes of.--I must then return & git pay for 3 or 4000 Dollars of goods trusted out to A. B. C. &c &c, in orders for coffee--and had I have foreseen the consequence; I would not have put it out of my power to have left altogether at pleasure altho we should have bro^{t} home half our cargo, but circomstancd as I am, we must take all reasonable precaution, and trust our lives & healths, to an alwise, aljust, & mercifull God, _who cannot err_.