of confidence now. May God grant that they may not be disapointed. Those wretches that tried to injure your reputation I am thankful to say look small now. That old wife Lambert will not say again who is McLean, what has he to do with me & as for Whitmore he is beneath my notice, and as for his Lordship the double distilled designer I hope cannot do much more harm. I can tell you it was a glorious feeling for me when they got their des[s]erts. Now about things in general. One of the sheepheards on Ormond's run, 3½ miles from my house, got some stuff very much resembling gold which I saw. The store keeper at Hamden took it to Napier yesterday and I hear today that Brewer the watch maker says it is gold. It certainly looked like it but a fear the news is two good to be true. Still I always had an idaia that gold was out that way. Off course I will keep a sharp look out. I do not let much pass that can be put to any a/c. When I was coming home from Napier when there last I called at the boiling down and found that Chambers had sent a number of sheep to be cured and smocked there for the Auckland market where he expects to get a return of 15/ clear I hear. Well then I got into conversation with the manager and he shewed me the process and I took two hams with me as a sample for which he charged at the boiling down six pence the pound, and he said it would bring nine pence in Auckland. Well I have killed two sheep up here and they are now curing and