Maria letter to Mary Rodman, Newport the 23d of the 5 mo 1778

              My dear Cousin Rodman,     Newport the 23rd of the 5 mo 1778
                  Thine of the eighteenth of the first month never came to hand untill the 21st of last, it is unnecessary to pretend to describe the satisfaction of such agreeable intelligence from our dear TR: as thou art better capable of judging than I of expressing [illegible]reading it the langauge of my heart is, oh that [illegible] preservation may attend him to the end of time; doubt of his affection & readiness to contribute to thy comfort if it was in his power, but in the present situation of affairs the only way he can do it, is by taking the best care of himself. This will be an effectual one. My mind has often been with him and thee during my close attendance on my dear uncle Jacobs in his last sickness, which was fourteen weeks & three days, he was confined to his bed in three or four days after he was taken ill, thou knew in his health how remarkable he was for a courteous, obliging, complaining manner of treating his friends and all about him. This with every excellence of his mind continued to the last, in him the christian and the gentleman were most agreably blended, and of him it may in truth be said that the end crowned all. 
   And now my dear I have for more than two weeks past spent the greatest part of my time at Cousin W's assisting as far as I am capable thy dear sister Howland