Hobartown,
Feb 15th 1867
My dear Mother,

I received your welcome letter this day and answer them tonight as I will be going away tomorrow. I am not done altogether with the sea but am in a vessel that goes only a short distance so that I am never long absent. I thank you all for your good wishes and am very comfortable and content in my little home which is the picture of neatness. I have got the "Jesus of the sea" in a prominent place on the wall which my dear sisters sent to Sydney and what furniture I bought is good. I hope you will approve of me sending for the rest of the money as I am thinking of going into a little business and it is always best to begin in ones own capital although I could do otherwise, and I have been often told that I could do with if I did and I should then be able to live on shore. I must say that Chris does everything to make me comfortable and happy and am confident that I could not have made a better choice. Her mother is well and one of Christina’s sisters is married a little before me to a land holder a short distance from here and another has been married some time and the youngest is at home. The first is named Margaret, second Mary Ann and youngest Abigail and one brother Luke. Mr Coates was nearly related to a lady by the name of Blake in the west of Ireland who is out here now. I am sorry that George is given up the idea of entering the church but I would not like to advise. Altho I think Willy did right not to follow the sea. I did think that George would have taken the place for which the first born was intended, but was unworthy of, but God direct him. I have sent you some of our wedding cake by a young man going home in the Ranger. She left last month. Also I sent you a view of Hobartown and a likeness of myself but I have not come across any worth sending yet as curiosities. Chris will answer your letter herself and thank you for the poetry and hope to be able repeat it from the heart and make it my own. We had not many at the wedding only the immediate friends and relations, Mr and Mrs Sculthorpe officiated and we had our déjeuner at Christina’s mother and a carriage conveyed the party to and from the church. I hope that some of my dear sisters will soon be comfortably settled in life. Recd the Times that you sent and the Christmas card, which is very nice. Give my most affect love to all and believe you me your affect son

James C. Parkinson