Augt. 3d. 1763

With most Sincere pleasure I heard your1welfare & the Safe return of the little Boy. Most gratefully I acknowledge received yr. wishes hopes of my Welfare the sincerity of which I doubt not, & with pleasure can tell you that I am well, regarding the Wayward flow of fortune but is from all Scratches in the flesh which affect not the essential part. I was born in a Storm & have spent the chief of my days in a Tempest & it behooves me like an experienced Mariner to Steer carefully between the Rocks & the Shoals & trim my Sails judiciously to the Gale of Life. And if ever I reach my Port Shall inform my Owner how kindly you assisted me in distress of Weather. With pleasure I see you Sailing 263in an Ocean as placid as your Mind & wafted by Gales Breezes as regular as your Sentiments. May you have the most agreable Convoy without the uneasiness of desiring it & keep Sight of each other to the desired Haven. I have been to Commencement2 that little resemblance of the great World, that Fare where all Sorts of Goods are expos'd to Sale, that Theater of all Conquering Goddess Fancy, that Peep hole into all Nature where I saw as in the Ocean I saw everything floating from the Kings Ship down to the Bubble & all Fish swimming from the Leviathan to the Shrimp. I return'd with full determination to have wrote you an account of ample discription of Commencement but Pegasus wanted Shoeing & would not go here? first had so many Errand to perform I thought him unfit the Service. When you see those three Goddesses that so lately blessed descended on the Sumitt of Mount Ida tell 'em I Should have sung their Graces Beauty of that Scene but my Pegasus was unequal to the task, my Respects to with whom I heartily rejoice in the sharing of Views. I wish you & the agreable Miss Watson3 were now at Taunton to Banquet in the Luxury of Nature such a Scene as Plymouth with all its natural social felecitys knows nothing off. But if wishing would succed I would not Stop there—theres no End to writing matter when I discourse with you & I must break Short off. Yr. Most Obsequious hble. servt.

Dft ; endorsed: "To M. AO."

1.

Abigail Otis (d. 1766), youngest daughter of Hon. James Otis, Sr., of Barnstable. The only two references to her in RTP's diary are: May 14, 1765, "Rode to Barnstable with Nabby Otis"; and March 22, 1766, "Heard of the death of Nabby Otis."

2.

"Commencement Cambridge, went to Cambridge, English Exercices first performed in public to great Acceptance, fine pleasant day" (RTP, Diary, 20 July 1763).

3.

Elizabeth Watson (1745–1771) was the daughter of the late John Watson of Plymouth and a step-sister of Ellen Hobart. RTP noted in his diary: May 9, 1763, "Eveg. I began courtship with Betsy Watson"; and May 27, 1764: "Betsy Watson and brother fr. Plymouth." She married Edward Clarke, a Boston merchant, in 1768. Clarke died in 1770, and the young widow died at Plymouth, Sept. 27, 1771, aged 26 (Sibley's Harvard Graduates, 9:590; Mayflower Descendant 26[1924]: 140; Boston News-Letter, Oct. 3, 1771).