August 7.--Drifting along, I know not how, up the St. Lawrence. The
weather calm, and two or three sailors able to manage the ship. Captain
and mate both dead. Ten cabin passengers dead. Three more sailors dead.
Only thirty-two steerage passengers dead since last report, but nearly
all are sick. Hardly any one to attend to them.
August 10.--Mrs. Brandon and Edith both sick. Frank prostrate again. God
in heaven, have mercy!
August 15.--Mrs. Brandon and Edith very low. Frank better.
August 16.--Quarantine Station, Gosse Island. I feel the fever in my
veins. If I die, farewell, sweetest sister.
December 28, Halifax, Nova Scotia.--More than four months have elapsed
since my last entry, and during the interval marvelous things have
occurred. These I will now try to recall as I best can.
My last entry was made on the day of the arrival of the _Tecumseh_ at
the Quarantine Station, Gosse Island, Quebec. We were delayed there
for two days. Every thing was in confusion. A large number of ships had
arrived, and all were filled with sick. The authorities were taken by
surprise; and as no arrangements had ever been made for such a state of
things the suffering was extreme. The arrival of the _Tecumseh_ with
her frightful record of deaths, and with several hundred sick still
on board, completed the confusion. At last the passengers were removed
somehow, I know not how or when, for I myself on the evening of our
arrival was struck down by the fever. I suppose that Frank Brandon may
have nursed me at first; but of that I am not sure. There was fearful
disorder. There were few nurses and fewer doctors; and as fast as the
sick died they were hurried hastily into shallow graves in the sand. I
was sick for two or three weeks, and knew nothing of what was going on.
The first thing that I saw on coming to my senses was Edith Brandon.
She was fearfully changed. Unutterable grief dwelt upon her sweet young
face, which also was pale and wan from the sickness through which she
had passed. An awful feeling shot through me. My first question was, “Is
your mother on shore?”
She looked at me for a moment in solemn silence, and, slowly raising her
hand, pointed upward.
“Your brother?” I gasped.
She turned her head away. I was silent. They were dead, then. O God!
and this child--what had she not been suffering? My mind at once, in its
agony of sympathy with her, burst through the clouds which sickness had
thrown around it. “Poor child!” I said. “And why are you here?”
“Where else can I go?” she answered, mournfully.
“At least, you should not wear yourself out by my bedside.”
“You are the only one left whom I know. I owe you far more than the
small attendance which I have given you.”
“But will you not take some rest?”
“Hush! Wait till you are stronger. You are too weak now to think of
these things.”