Letter from W.S. Hall to his sister Sarah Bracher, 1864

Transcription
IMPORTANT. Establishing the first station in the Roebourne area. Bracher Collection.

W. Shakespeare Hall to his sister, Sarah Bracher.

"Tien Tsin" Harbour

North West Australia

[Cossack] no date

circa June or July 1833

My dear sister,

You have heard ere this that I am in another corner of Australia & rather an out of the way one too—I have engaged with Mr J. Wellard for 12 months as manager of a new station he has started here, my pay is not very high, with provisions it amounts to about [pounds]120 per annum, but I suppose it is quite as much as I could get in your part of the world, especially at diggings. I should also tell you that if my employer & I suit one another so that I continue with him, he will help me to start a ② station for myself, should I be so inclide of course that is a consideration, particularly as Mr Wellard has much property, bears a very high character, & is a first person, either as a man, or a man of business; every one speaks well of him, & respect him.——

We came down together in the "Tien Tsin" which he loaded with stock, stores, & servents[sic], he treated me as a brother and as I did my very best for his stock, & interest generally, he told me he was very glad to leave me in charge, & to do for him as I would for myself, & that he was perfectly satisfied with the way in which I had managed affairs coming down; this from one of the smartest & greatest ③ business men in our colony made me feel more reconcile[d] to what I may term the life of an exile, which it is & will be till we have a few of the fair sex among us. I hope and trust Mr W[ellard] & self may continue as we have commenced & that God will propser the affairs over which I am placed.

I have seven men under me, & shall have more as we require them, we have sheep, cattle, & horse with hogs, dogs & fowels, & twelve months very superior provisions, which I am now moving up the country about 20 miles, where I intend to farm the head station on Gregory's camp 49, Harding River——

I hope it may turn out as well as I expect, if it does not it will ④ place me in an awkward predicament as Mr Wellard per letter of instructions, directed me to take up his 100,000 acres in another place adjacent but finding it badly watered, liable to heavy floods