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61 [within a circle]
Sable Island, Sept 25th 1848
To the Honbl
The Provincial Secretary
Sir
In my letter dated the 23rd of September in reply to yours of the 14th which was too brief on my part for so grave a subject, as the weather would not permit me to detain the depot to have written more, but in that I requested the favour of His Excellency to allow me to remain until the Spring, as from the state of the weather it would be very difficult to remove my family this fall. But Sir I have to beg that you will consider seriously the great inconvenience it will be to me to leave my employment unprovided for with my family at this point of my life, now nearly sixty years of age, and the last forty years of which has been spent principally in the service of this establishment, and I here humbly beg leave to reiterate the solemn truth, that I have never to my knowledge injured this establishment in any way to the value of a cash of bread, the only bread and flour that ever went off this Island from me, was to Captains Loring & Bremner, by the wish of the commissioner to do any thing that I could for fishermen, fishing in British bottoms and which I reported immediately. I had the bread and flour returned into the store on the Island, at my own expense, and besides that, it was charged to me in my account current at the end of the year; and I never furnished any other depot with provisions of any kind, except in some cases of passengers leaving the Island, I have given them sufficient provisions to carry them to Halifax. And I have never defrauded any of the people of their liquor; as has been stated by some of them. I have never struck or abused any man on the Island on any accouny whatever, but have been forced very reluctantly to do many things to preserve the peace of the establishment very unpleasant to me, with regard to the treatment of Etter, I had for the first few years that he was here to treat him a little rough, and he has become from being a most distant, bad, useless man, to be an impressive, obedient & useful man, and I have for many years past endeavoured to make up to him in kindness.