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Sable Island, Feby 18th 1848

Gentlemen [at center of page a large letter "H"]

I have received your letters of the 2nd, & 4th of the present month and will first notice the contents of the former, and state, that the report made by the master of the Brigantine Huntress is so far correct that he saw the wreck of the ship Levant on the NE bar, but saw no other the day he passed here, as we saw him distinctly;
you say that you have paid Mr Duchette our agent all the amout due me, and the servants of the establishment up to the 31st of December 1847, with my portion of salvage for 1846 and 1847 - for which I sincerely thank you, this promptness in settling claims will have a good effect, but you say nothing about any portion of salvage for 1843, which is £2-13-4--
You say you have considered yourselves imperatively called upon to delay the payment of the wages claimed by Thomas Fitzgerald for several reasons, to the best of my recollection, I have forwarded for your information all that was necessary for the two years 1846 & 1847 - regarding this person, without any intention of concealing any fact, and on looking over the articles I find that I have made several proper remarks, that I think you must have a copy of, T. Fitzgerald, is my son, about the age that you mention, or perhaps a little less, who with William Williams a stout boy something older, their united ages will be about 28 or 29 years, with three young women, my daughters, and their mother, with sometimes a hired woman, forms the establishment of Cook & Steward. I consider the establishment a great gainer by this arrangement, and the work that they all perform, is fully equal, if not more than any two mens work on the Island, and all better done then it had ever been by, Moser Zwickers wife, Lyle, Bellows, & in the same station, my family in this way did bake bread in the commencement of 1847 to the amount of 90 [ho?] per day with other work incalculable and they always have to bake for 15 or 16 persons, and sometimes for the whole establishment, and we never could get it well done until I got my son James, and after him his brother, Thomas Fitzgerald, in which it has been faithfully done, but if you cannot after this explanation (which I did not think was necessary, but which I am