Cape Disappointment W. T.

February 10^th 1866

 

My dear Mother

                        I received your last letter a day or two since, just about the time that I was preparing to answer your first. I intended to answer your first soon after its reception and to keep always one letter ahead but for some reason it was delayed from day to day until your last was received. I was highly gratified indeed at the reception of your first letter it had seemed ages almost since I had last heard from home, and traveling so much by sea with all its accompanying dangers, novelties and inconveniences and with such mingled feelings of awe, pleasure & concern, that I soon concluded that the object best calculated to gratify the feelings of a person under similar circumstances & impressions was a letter from home particularly when that letter, like yours, contains plenty of news & all of which is agreeable. I heartily congratulate Lizzie and Sue on the valuable contributions which they have recently made toward the propagation of the human species. I am afraid I will be obliged to stay out here quite a number of years and on my return will have to go through a round of introductions to nephews nieces &c. I believe I described my situation to you in my last as well as there is any / necessity for. Every thing remains nearly the same. The two companies "L" 2^d Arty. & "B" 14^th Inf. are still here There are two officers with "L" Co.—Capt Rodgers & myself—and one with "B" Co—Capt Porter—Capt Rodgers commands the Post as well as his company. I do subaltern duty with the company and am besides Quartermaster Commissary and Post Adjutant. There is also an asst. surgeon here which completes the family as regards males There are two females. Mrs Porter, wife of Capt Porter and Mrs Whitehead, wife of the Doctor. Both are very pleasant ladies, and we all, strange to say get along remarkably well together. Every thing considered we enjoy ourselves as much as could be expected, for the field for enjoyment is by no means extensive but somewhat the reverse. The almost incessant rain and deluge of mud very greatly obstruct out door enjoyment, as our webs have not yet completed their growth, so we are obliged to depend almost entirely on each other for amusement. Capt Porter and the Doctor each have a single house for their families, and Capt Rodgers and myself occupy the third.

 

            I have not hunted any yet except for ducks of which there are a good many around here. The weather has been so bad is one reason why I have not been out after large game And another equally if not more important is that I have not had time. I have been erecting some buildings, employing Carpenters, Painters, Plasterers, &c. and have to attend to every thing myself. It requires a great deal of office work, and in consequence of a / very deficient Clerk I am almost constantly employed

 

            The enlisted men of the companies go out sometimes and bring back deer, beaver, eagles &c. There is a considerable quantity of game of almost all kinds around here, but it requires considerable exertion to get at it on account of the bad roads, marshes and dense underbrush. You can scarcely imagine what an immense wild & uninhabited wilderness it is. The soil is extremely fertile and the forest trees grow to an immense size and almost everywhere is a rank and almost impenetrable thicket of weeds and underbrush.

 

            I have only been away from the Post two or three times since I came here. Once I went up to Portland Or. and Vancouver Depot. Portland is a new town and consequently not very large or elegant. Yet it is a very wealthy place and improving very fast. Vancouver is the Hd. Qrs. of the Dept. and the Depot for Supplies for this section of the country It doesn't amount to much except as a military Post, although it is a very beautiful section of country.

 

            I suppose you want to hear something about what we have to eat, and I will tell you that we live in very plain style and on very plain fare, although very frequently we have ducks, elk, deer & oysters nice & fresh. Nearly every thing is very costly except apples & potatoes. Butter is fifty to sixty five cts per pound & eggs the same per doz and like every thing else in this country, at coin rates.

 

            I thought I would save plenty of money when I came here but I must say that I was considerably deceived, and find this howling wilderness as expensive a place to live as almost any / first class Hotel

 

            As it is getting somewhat late and I am tired of writing I will reserve some for Taff's letter which I have just received. Remember me to Father and all the rest of the family and tell Sue that I intend to write to her soon and that she must not feel slighted because I do not write personally to her more often. Although my letters are addressed to one for the sake of convenience yet they are equally intended for all

 

Very affectionately

Your son R G Howell

SOURCES