Eliza Barker letter to Charity Rotch, New York, 3 mo 29, 1804

              B-235-1
  
       My Dear Aunt                 New York 3rd mo 29th  1804
                        It has not been for want of affection that 
       thy acceptable letters have remained unanswered, but whenever
       I  have made the attempt something has occurred to prevent;
       and since the loss of our dear little Martha my mind has
       been so depressed as to feel almost incapable of every thing, it
       is indeed but a renewal of all I have so recently suffered
       and the peculiar attachment between us has rendered it
       doubly severe, I have often recalled our last parting; when
       I was about returning, it seemed quite too much for her, she
       wept the whole day, and went almost sick to bed, and
       for several weeks after; whenever mother mentions my name
       she would burst into tears, and beg her brot to talk of
       sister Eliza; her grief has seemed almost prophetic but
       little did I think it would be the last time I should
       ever see her; and it would be hardly possible to bear up
       under the afflicting dispensation, was it not for the belief
       that she has exchanged a world of misery for eternal rest
       and peace, and that she never could have gone in a more
       acceptable time, and had her life been prolonged we know
       not what might have been her lot to have passed through. 
       I have felt more on my beloved Mother's account than I