Sickness did not interrupt Whitefield's labors, if he could move or preach at all. "I am determined," he says to Gilbert Tennent, "to die fighting, though it be on my _stumps_." He was soon after at New York, Newport, Portsmouth, and Boston. At New York he writes, "I am as willing to hunt for souls as ever. I am not weary of my work." On the next day he writes, "I have preached to a very large auditory, and do not find myself much worse for it." He did so again with success. He then says, "I shall go to Boston like an arrow out of a bow, if Jesus strengthen me. I am resolved to preach and work for Him until I can preach and work no more. I have been upon the water three or four days, and now eat like a sailor." He went on to Boston, where he heard of the sudden but joyful death of his venerable and excellent friend Dr. Colman. He adds, "My reception at Boston and elsewhere was like unto the first. Arrows of conviction fled and stuck fast. Congregations were larger than ever, and opposers' mouths were stopped." After again making short visits to Philadelphia and Bohemia, Whitefield, according to previous arrangements, went to spend the winter in North Carolina. Before he left Bohemia, however, he wrote to his friends at New York, who were intensely anxious about his health, but he could only say it was yet fluctuating. Even so was it when he arrived in North Carolina, yet he writes, "I am here, hunting in the woods, these _ungospelized_ wilds, for sinners. It is pleasant work, though my body is weak and crazy. But after a short _fermentation_ in the grave, it will be fashioned like unto Christ's glorious body. The thought of this rejoices my soul, and makes me long to _leap_ my seventy years. I sometimes think all will go to heaven before me. Pray for me as a dying man; but Oh, pray that I may not go off as a _snuff_. I would fain die _blazing_--not with human glory, but with the love of Jesus." Such was his weakness, that his journey to Bathtown, in North Carolina, was long and slow. Even a short ride was fatiguing and painful. Still, he preached with considerable power; cheered on from stage to stage by the hope that the conversion of "North Carolina sinners would be glad news in heaven." His letters indicated lively hopes of an extensive revival, but his expectations were not fully realized. His health was still exceedingly feeble, and his physicians ordered him to try a change of climate. He accordingly embarked for the Bermudas, where he landed, March 15, 1748.