Letter To Edward

• Claudia Eibl, Grade 3
• Short Story
• 2013

To dearest Edward,
You must remember our horrendous past. When I left Cranham I was so heartbroken, because you could not come but now I am relieved because it was absolutely horrible, on the Lady Penrhyn. As you know, now I am safe with a lovely girl called Emily. I am writing to
tell you about my dreadful trip from Cranham to Sydney Cove.
Everybody carried diseases luckily I didn’t catch any of the dreadful diseases. I was very sea sick because the boat kept swaying viciously against the splashing waves. The waves deteriorated as I and the other starving convicts were swayed around the ship. When the winter times came our time on the ship became ten times worse! There were hail storms, lightning and pouring rain. The waves were also horrifying. When Summer came along my body felt like it was some bread
being cooked up on a fire. I was BOILING! Not only that the diseases got worse by the minute, luckily I didn’t get any
of the horrible diseases, while other convicts were vomiting over
other convicts heads, it smelt horribly of dead rats. So you see Edward Sumer and Winter were horrendous seasons on the Lady Penrhyn but Spring was not much better, even though we didn’t get a full season of Spring it was still a horrible season.
The waves were monstrous! The waves were so frightful, I don’t
know how to describe it! Also something else had to trouble me, because my only friends had had diseases for such a long time, they
had to die soon and they died today (4/11/1787). I was lonely
‘till the eighth month when we arrived at this strange country with black skinned people with paint on their faces. Secretly I really wanted to get to know them. There were also beautiful animals but just to make it feel more like home the British (white skin) sent out some
the beautiful animals and I was truly disgusted. I am sure you to would have been disgusted. When we arrived at Sydney Cove I met master Dodd (Henry Dodd) and because mama had taught me
to sew, he saw my own skills and he told me to come with him to a place
called Rose Hill . I was glad! This Sydney Cove place was horrible.
So I ended up as a servant at Rose Hill and I made friends with a
Girl called Sarah. As time went on a person called Winston came to give something to master Dodd, it was a diary, so I traded an onion
for it, so I could write to you. Food was so precious because it was so hard to grow crops, people often would steal from each other. I could just stay awake to write this and I hope you get this soon because I really am looking forward to your replies.
Love Elizabeth