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Orkney
| Read original Return to Homesickness |
Transcript
Letter from Alexander Kennedy to his brother and sister, 18 August 1821.
A of M, MG1/D1 #4 Kennedy, Alexander, pp. 3-5
Norway House 18th August 1821
Dear Brother & Sister,
I take up my pen with a great deal of pleasure to acquaint you I am well & to express a hope that you and all the family are in the enjoyment of the like felicity.
I have passed a very comfortable and successful winter at this place and am now on the eve of departing for my old winter quarters at Cumberland to which place I am again appointed and where I should like to remain so long as I am in this service as it is a part of the country I am much attached to and a land which in scriptural phrase may be said to be flowing with milk & honey.
For these several years past we have been paving the way for a great Revolution which has at last been brought about in consequence of the junction of the two great Rival Companies that have been opposing each other for years in this part of the world. There is now no longer a North West Company, the whole being joined together under the firm of the Hudson’s Bay Company, and the principal officers on both sides (setting the black sheep aside) have become partners of the concern, and participate in a part of the profits or loss that may be made on the whole trade and I as one come in for a share and feel determined to make a spoon or spoil the horn.
If the thing turns out as well as we anticipate I hope soon to acquire a competence to retire with, and in the worst event I can always get a livelihood by taking to the plains and following the Buffalo whose flesh will afford me good food and whose hide will afford me good substantial clothing. I know that Mary will not like this last scheme of mine, and as I made a promise to come soon back and see you again I shall take this opportunity to assure you and her, that please god I shall fulfil that promise before I take to the plains, when if she can persuade me to abandon the scheme I shall give up the idea altogether.
I must confess I feel a desire to return again to civilized life after tasting it the winter before last and as a proof of this I can assure you that I felt the last winter very dull and solitary, and tho I had all the comforts that a man could enjoy in solitude, I could not help often reflecting on the pleasant part of the time I spent at home and regretting it was so short. I still look back on it with pleasure and fondly cherish the hope of soon renewing it. Being obliged to leave you at such a critical time when Jack was so ill and my sister but poorly in her health gave me great concern, even more than I could express at the time and caused me many uneasy moments on board ship. It was only by reflecting that they were in the hands of a Divine Being whose will must be submitted to and whose power no human being could control that I was enabled to bear up under the oppression of spirits I felt for some time after I left you…
I remain ---
My Dearest [Brother]
& Sister
very affect[tionately]
Yours
Alex K[ennedy]
