Cross Bar Fraser River Feb 8/59

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Dear Sister T

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You wrong me much by entertaining for one moment the idea that it is from want of common brotherly affection that I have not often written directly to you. I know that I have written you quite a number of letters since I’ve been out here but do not deny that I might and perhaps ought to have written a good number more but you must know that it is something of a task for me at all times to write a sensible letter, not at all times having the convenience about me in the roaming unsettled life I have ever led which you have living in houses and towns surrounded with all the appurtenances inseparable from a community of Christian people in an old settled State, whereas I can say without exageration that near half the time that I have spent on this coast I’ve deemed myself happy when I’ve had a dry plot of ground which has answered the three fold purpose of a bed, a table, and a seat, and a canvas roof has served me for a protection from the snow and frost and winds of winter as well as from the rain and scorching midday sun of summer. I have led quite the reverse of an effeminate life here I’ll assure you. Oftentimes many months have passed during which I have not even written one letter to my friends at the east and oftentimes I have forced myself to write under the greatest of inconvenience merely that you might not be anxious lest some evil had befallen me. I do not blame myself much, though others may think they have cause so to do, for want of punctuality in my correspondence. The greatest wonder is that I have so regularly keep you informed of my proceedings. Even now I know not how to direct a letter to your identical self personally and no on else, as I know not where you are this present time and such is often the case when I have leisure and opportunity to write. Therefore you ought not to censure me when under such circumstances I address letters to other members of the family which I might address to you providing I knew how to make it reach you. I received your last letter many months ago, seven or eight I think, and it has remained beside me along with any other letters unanswered and for many reasons either one of which was almost unsurmountable.

You have probably learned before this that since July I have been gold hunting, a precarious pursuit and one in which people more frequently meet with disappointment than in any other occupation, but a pursuit which has very many enticements, is exceedingly exciting and which very many people love even with its hardships when successful.

So far I’ve not been successful but I cannot say at the present time whether I am the loser by the experiment or not. Hope has buoyed me up many times under circumstances far more gloomy than the present and I now hope to make something even in the mines when the sun returning from his pilgrimage to the south shall visit us with his benign beams dissipating the snow and loosening the bonds of frost which now encase the earth like walls of adamant.

The winter thus far has not been what we would call severe in New York but far more than people here had anticipated and consequently there has been much suffering in the mines from cold and from want of proper food, bringing on the scurvy and other diseases and some I believe have even suffered with hunger while some here have been frozen to death. I’m now near a Hundred and fifty miles from the mouth of Frasers River where it bursts through the Cascade range of Mountains and the rough hills rise almost perpendicular from either bank in rocky barren points effectually hiding from our view all but a very small portion of the heavens and the sun in winter shows himself but an hour or two at midday far to the south over the river’s bed between the hills.

You ask me when I shall return to the Atlantic coast upon which I can give you no further information than this. If I’m so successful as I wish to be and hope to be but far more so than I expect to be I shall endeavour to visit home soon which I wish very much to do. With regard to the matrimonial affair which you say certain match makers of Polo have busied themselves about and speculated upon, probably those same match makers can give you more information than I. I do not deny but I have written a number of letters to a young lady in those parts whom I have every reason to esteem and that I have also received some letters in return which I highly prize as a token of friendship. The letters she has, I doubt not but she would willingly show you if she thought she was conferring a favor in so doing. Anything further than this you must learn from those disinterested or interested persons, I cannot say which, not having the honor of their acquaintance who must be wiser and better informed in the case than the parties more immediately concerned.

You can continue to direct your letters to Port Townsend and I shall receive them. Here I have no fixed residence, travelling up and down the trading or mine or both as I find most profitable, stopping for a short time here and for a short time there as chance decides or inclination dictates.

In a few days I expect to ascend the river some hundred and fifty miles farther to see the country, sell my goods, and prospect for a claim. May some good genius direct me to where lies the golden treasure.

Whit. Chase

addressed to:

Miss T. Chase

Will Ade Please place this in an envelope and send it to the Post with the proper directions and thus do a favor to Whit. Chase