(Livingston Manor, October 19, 1720)

My Dear Husband,

I have received your letter of October 12th. I am grieved that you are in such great pain when you are strolling, and hope you may get better. I want you to come home again, for it is very sad for me to be so lonely, and [I] have nobody to talk to. For the rest [I am having] nothing but trouble and difficulty. God, I hope, will reduce your pain and grant that you will be here with the yachts now before winter sets in, for you cannot bear the cold weather.

As for the Governor’s friendship, [I] hope it will continue. If you can assist [the] children in what your son Robbert1) is requesting, help him, so that he can get it. And Flip2) requests – if forts are now being constructed – that he have the assignment to furnish [them]. If the Governor allows you that, you can see whether he is favourable to you. To Pieter Meese and Halenbeek – to the natives3) – I have paid 30 lb., so that I do no longer have our gunpowder, duffles, stroudwaters [and] flints, [nor] swan-shot and lead and other shot – a hundred lb. of each -, a piece of white Flemish [cloth] and Faeroese stockings, and the other goods that you were to send up.

Bettie Gherner is leaving now to live with our daughter Naetye4). I believe she will be a good maid. She wants to live at her place for 6 lb. She can do quite a lot. I hope she will take her. If Alida Veets5) is minded to come here, let her take Alyda Livingston along. As you see, our Flip has passed Abraham Teuwesse’s debt to our credit. Abraham Vosb6) has sent horses to Philadelphia in order to pay us. Japick is going to New England. I send you thirty-four kegs of butter – [they] weigh 1624 lb. of butter -, a hundred aprons, [and] 9 tons and 13 casks of wheat; and cornel you will see by the weight6). I hope you will make haste to come up with the last yachts.

Tell Naetye that I cannot write anymore because I am very tired; and kiss her from me and tell [her] that I long to see her. I would have loved to see the children and my sister, if only I had been able to go out. We will drive up 60 odd fat beasts. Herewith [I] will break off and commend you and [the] children in the protection of the Most High.
Your Beloved Wife
Alida Livinghston
October 19, 1720

In the left margin:
A small piece of blue check, 2 small pieces of multi-coloured cotton, and rum. Send the 3 paintings that are hanging in Naetye’s hoy7) – deliver one of them to Robbert, please -, a box for the water-pump [and] one for the beer-pump, [and] 2 covered cords.

Notes:
1) More commonly spelled: “Robert”.
2) More commonly spelled: “Philip”.
3) Alida writes: “wilde” = “savages”. The words between the horizontal dashes – a literal translation of Alida’s “ande wilde” – are scribbled between the lines in the original manuscript; I think she means that she gave the 30 lb. to some natives in Meese’s and Halenbeek’s service who took it to their bosses. A better translation, therefore, might be: “via the natives”.
4) Spelled “Natie” in Robert’s letters.
5) = possibly: “Abraham Vosburgh”;
6) I am not sure what Alida means. Perhaps the cornel – unlike the butter and wheat – had not been weighed and packed at the manor before it was loaded into the yacht. In that case Alida possibly means: “and how much cornel I have shipped you will know by weighing it.”
7) Alida writes: “...die in Naetyes heuy hanghe”; “heuy” = “hoy”: a small vessel, usually rigged as a sloop and employed in carrying passengers and goods, particularly in short distances.