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In the course of the winter I will remit the whole sum
I owe or the interest of it which ever is most convenient
to you unless some extraordinary advantageous opportunity
of employing money should between this & then present itself.
A trafic of hay & corn and the transport of goods
by my regiment horses are my sources of profit.
Unluckily I have no forage prepared for my horses
as I could not have foreseen my having a regiment
this winter much less that it would be quartered here.
The Admiralty owe me about 1,600 rubles on account
of the tools I sent them, but they wont pay me yet
on account of their present poverty. Could you
let me know without a great deal of trouble the
price of a set of blocks for a Ship of 74 guns
as they are made for the Navy in Taylor's manufactory.
The Admiralty here wanted me to charge
myself with the procuring these blocks from England
for 2 ships of 74 guns; but not imagining my credit
to be very good I did not see how I could execute
this commission. If I could have done it I should
have had Jewish profits. You will tell me they
have no money to pay for what I sent them before; but
that is because I could not make out the account till
a week ago, and they always find money to pay for
what they want for present use though they cannot always
pay their old debts. I doubt however its being worth my
while to furnish them with blocks for my profit that I would
like to oblige them with information of the price at
which they might be procured. If therefore you were
to write to Taylor he would let you know at what
price he would deliver for exportation blocks of the
different sizes & parts used in the Navy.
The best way of writing to me is I believe
through Shairp desiring him to forward letters
by post but not a word must be written that you
would not all the world should know.
I am not without hopes that you will find me
a Surgeon for my regiment. A young Scotchman
who has attended hospitals but though he may have
the frugality more general in his country if he is very
interested we can never agree. From Petersburgh
I should of course pay his expenses: but if he
chooses to be at the expenses of coming by land through
Warsaw he need not wait for the Spring, and he would
find his advantage as well as I mine in his coming in the winter.
It is a long time since I have heard even of the existence
of our Cousin Mulford. Send him this letter for I am
sure he will be glad to hear that God gives me
good luck though he is hitherto very sparing
in grace. I have had no news from any
body since a letter from my father dated
April or May, I forget which and the key is lost
of the chest I put it in with other papers. I heard
by that letter that Usury was defended and have become
a Jew in consequence: but from J.B. I have had
no letter yet.
You would like I suppose for curiosity
sake to know what kind of life I am to finish by.
The army and to be of all things my greatest aversion
and what I at the same time thought myself the least
fit for yet the fates will have it that I am to be distinguished
as a Soldier.
I am certainly well of and
in all probability shall always be well off in this
country, yet I have a terrible longing to come home.
If we are lucky enough to take Ochakoff soon and we
become quiet for the winter I am in hopes of taking a trip
to Petersburgh for a few days only. It is now almost 5 years
since I was there.
Give me further directions
about your effects which I received from the
Crimea what of them there are which
you would have sent to you. If I don't
go myself I will find some opportunity
of sending them to Petersburgh though Moscow
I ought to have still at Petersburgh 22 cases
of minerals & other things which I brought with me
from Siberia. Mr Fitzherbert had charge of them
but he has not let me know what he did with them
at parting, not indeed have I written yet to any
body to inquire.
I received a few days ago a
letter from Hynam by a Mr Fox lieutenant in the
English navy who is in service here. The letter
was of a date 3 months old and spoke of very high
obligations to you respecting his son.
If our wars or any other circumstance should
set you to war with the French remaining still
neuter with respect to this country, would it be necessary
or proper that I should return as Subject
not in the military service in England?
Let me hear as soon as possible how you all do.
They have been bombarding Ochakoff again by land
and water but with little success. A Bomb vessel
which was under my command & just such a one as that
I was onboard of is blown up and not a man saved.
The frosts begin and my old companions on the flotilla
are in pityable situation. The vines will not be frozen this month,
and till that time the fate of Ochakoff not decided. Adieu
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Identifier: | JB/541/105/001 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 541.
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1789-??-?? |
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541 |
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105 |
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001 |
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Correspondence |
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Samuel Bentham |
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