My time with R.H. Commission..
The letters which form the substance of this paper are in no wise noteworthy as letters merely, for they are carelessly written, mostly by girls to their girl friends, with no thought of meeting other eyes, and the wonder is that they have been so long preserved. With other manuscripts they had long lain hidden under the eaves of an old garret, and become so yellowed by time and covered with stains from the raindrops which, in the course of long years and innumerable storms, had found their way through shingles warped by winter snows and blazing summer suns, that in many places they are quite illegible. Mice have nibbled their corners, and bits fall out from the creases worn in the foldings, refoldings, and cross-foldings after the fashion of the day, when one part shaped within another was fastened with wax or wafer, in the leisurely manner of the time before the hurried and inelegant, if more practical, days of the lip-moistened gumfastened envelope.
They are interesting only because they date so far back into the past, and cover periods so momentous in the history of our country, when even the smallest allusion to passing events, to social customs, dress, books, topics of the day, has a value as time goes on, in helping to preserve the colour of the time, and in a way giving a fresh side light upon History. Some of the writers were residents of New York at the time of the Revolution, and when matters became so threatening as to make a longer stay there unsafe, they retreated to more secure abodes along the Hudson, at Newburgh, and other places, leaving the abler members of the family to remain and engage in their country's defense.
Many of the letters therefore give graphic accounts of sloop voyages up and down the river, which in those days was the principal highway of travel Northward, and since over two hundred years of civilization have given us nothing better than our present country roads, we can easily imagine what rugged ways our ancestors jolted over in their journeyings, nor wonder at their dependence upon this broad river as a means of transit. When winter set in and ice blocked the river, communication was much more difficult between the city and the river towns. The arrival of the sloops, which in summer plied up and down two or three times weekly, was watched with the greatest eagerness; for by them came friends, parcels, and letters. The mail being so slow, it was rarely availed of while the river remained open.
I worked with this one company I believe to be named "R.H. Commission." I was told we dealt with capturing "unusual cargo," to this day I still don't know what the term means however I have many. One big mystery during my time there was "what happened to the leaders of R.H. Commission?" When I was near retirement all my fellow companions were talking about some "mystery," of how the leaders of the commission disappeared some day. Our ship’s Master explained to us that the leaders were captured by Bartholomew Roberts’ Fleet, however most of my fellow cremates denied this saying there's no way Bartholomew would sail from Asia just to capture our leaders. At the end of the day I have grown old and sick, my bones are weak and I hope whatever happened to R.H Commission is all well.
I have learned a lot from sailing but I still feel as if I have learned nothing, I was too scared to ask, to use, to see. The rumors and lies told in my time at the R.H. Commission had heavily affected me and the company. I felt as if I didn't know what I was doing, like how they didn't tell us what "unusual" meant or what happened to the "fish in the water." It didn't make sense, I had no purpose besides to follow orders. If you see this since well the postal services have been getting stuck int he snow recently, I wish you the best.
Signed,
John, Moore.