Fowle's New Hampshire Gazette And General Advertiser

Extract of a letter from Shelburne, July 10.

Our deplorable situation surpasses description—and many a cheek is watered with the briny tear on the thought of our approaching calamity, which threatens us with the horrors of starvation. I assure you we are miserable in the extreme, notwithstanding some obdurate wretches laugh at the mischief they have been instrumental in bringing upon us, and expect to aggrandize themselves on the annihilation of many a worthy family; but men of contrary principles, susceptible of the sentiments which religion inspire, must deplore the cause which precipitated their own species into the abyss of misery.—Figure to yourself, my dear friend, the poignancy of the reflection to a family who lived in opulence, not to say luxury, reduced to the dire necessity of resisting that impulse of a craving appetite. This sad state of woe will, I know, extort the heaving sigh from your breast, and fill your bosom with commiseration for an old friend; but we must content ourselves, it is our lot, and we cannot expect an exemption from the misfortunes incident to humanity.

Sure our sufferings have been tantamount to our crimes, if it may be called a crime to act from the purest principles, the dictates of nature. You should remember, that though we are victims to adversity, no one is exempt from the painful vicissitudes of life; and that the happy to day, may to-morrow experience a sad reverse; and want, penury and pain, constitute the pillow.