Halifax Mar: 9th 1752 Dear Cousin Robt:,

I recd. some days ago your Lett: dated in Boston Decr. 29th 1751. I am very glad that you have had the Small Pox & that you had it so favourable. I commend the methord of innoculation and assoon as it comes here I shall use the Same Methord. You informed me that you entended for N: Carolina soon, and in short for the Seafaring business. To which I may Say That Times are such now that unless a Mann pushes himself forward in the Seafaring business, he has little or no prospect of Obtaining a Fortune, or Providing for Sickness or the infirmitys of Age, which will doubtless fall to our Share ere Death Sepperates our better part from this painfull House of Clay.

Next you very movingly Express a desire to see Halifax & more especialy me with whom you had a most undesembled Friendship—and urge an accot. of my Mercantile proceeding here &c. Dear Cousin, Your Sencere Freindship I do not in the least distrust having had proffs of it154often. I have now a Secret hope or wish that ere long I shall be loos'd from this place which my Intrest (that I did not foresee) has chain'd me, & if it should ever be permitted by the Powers above with pleasure I co'd spend Part of the Remnant of my days on the Seas with You. But this is Future still.

The Following difficulties have been my happy or unhappy Lott, God knows which, in this place, vizt. Building—which was very much Debtermental to me, for by that means all my Intrest lay most dead and now wont fetch me near what it Cost me—also I had & still have a great many Debts due to me for goods brought & sould here, for which my Charecter Suffers as you inform—also it has been my misfortune to have Sundry persons Sick & lame in my House, which at the least computation has cost me more than Ten pounds Ster: and being in the hands of Poverty must be lost, which is no small check to a beginner on a Stage attended with so many difficultys as the present is. But what is worse than all that is, I have (Since the day I left Boston for this to me unhappy Place—which may justly be called the Dunghill of the Universe—the Refuse of the Creations—the Clippings of the Elements—A Receptable of Vagobonds—a Sanctuary of Bankrupts—and I need say no more) lost by Debts more than £35 which has urged me to imbrace Methords I would not, for life's sake. These Missfortunes, if I may so call Them, have befell me, the methords I mean is hard labour—which has now brought me into a worse State of Health than I ever have knew, & unless I get Speedy releaf, I entend to settle my affairs as well as I can & what must be left unsettled leave in the hand of the best Friend I have in this Collony and I will go to Sea in the best manner I can.

I could give you a further particular accot. of many branches of my Proseedings here and what has occasioned that defect in me in not making returnes to Boston for goods I brot. here, but as it cant be of any Servis to neither you nor me, it is not worth my while to take time for that purpose. For as yet if I Die tomorrow no person will loose their due from me if my Debts can be got in—and that all Shippers & Factors must Subject themselves too. However Experence has Tought me wisdom, and if I sho'd have a Date of some years, my Health, with the blessings of heaven, I shall sell & settle all my Intrest, except a Pasture, and leave for awhile this most unhappy place.

With no small Satisfaction I reflect, that I am not yet Chan'd to The Ruin of our Sex, vizt. a wooman & so by Consequence honestly no children, To be a hinderence in my proceedings, or an addition to my Trou-155bles in what ever undertakings I may see fitt to prosecute for my Future advance in life.

To add no more for I am sure the Reading this long and Tedious relation will not meat with the Satisfaction you Intimated to me in your last, so will Close with a Petition for us something like that of Marcias for Her Father Cato:

O ye immortal Powers that guard the Just, Watch over our ways & soften our repose; Banish our Sorrows, Influence us in all our ways To Remember and acknowledge thee, and firmly Believe That goodness is Thy care;1

Than Tho: our Friendship be not suffer'd to increase in this state of Change, & Sorrow. The Powers above will suffer us to meat in a better State, (where Sorrow nor Change have any admittance) and be increasing to all Eternity; which God grant for Christ sake to you, all our Friends and to the Soul of him whose body is known by the Name of

JAMES FREEMAN

RC ; addressed: "To Mr: Robt: Treat Paine In Boston"; endorsed.

1.

This is a paraphrase of Marcia's closing speech in Joseph Addison, Cato. A Tragedy (London, 1713), Act 5, Scene 3.