To Jane Lampton Clemens and Family
21 and 29 June; 1, 3, and 5 July 1867 • Island of Fayal,
Azores; Gibraltar; Tangier, Morocco; SS Quaker City en route
from Gibraltar to Marseilles; and Marseilles, France
(MS: NPV, UCCL 00139)

Fayal, (Azores,) June 20.

Dear Folks—

We are having a lively time here, after a stormy trip. We meant to go to [Sau ]Miguel, but were driven in here by stress of weather. Beautiful climate.1

Yrs aff

Sam.

Gibraltar, June [ 2 ]30.

Dear Folks—

Arrived here this morning, & am clear worn out with riding & climbing in & over & around & about this monstrous rock & its fortifications. Summer climate & very pleasant.2

Yrs Sam.

Tangier, Morocco, (Africa,)
July 1, 1867.

Dear Folks—

Half a dozen of us came here yesterday from Gibraltar, & some of the company ‸took the other direction‸ went up through Spain to Paris by rail. We decided that Gibraltar & San Roque were all of Spain that we wanted to see at present & are glad we came here among the Africans, Moors, Arabs & Bedouins of the desert. I would not give this experience for the all the balance of the trip combined. This is the infernalest hive of infernally costumed barbarians I have ever come across yet.3

Yrs Sam.

[in top margin, in pencil: I inclose Moorish coins of Tangier dated 1216 & 1268 of the Hegira.] 4

At Sea, July 2.

Dr Folks—

We are far up the intensely blue & ravishingly beautiful Mediterranean. And now we are just passing the island of Minorca. The climate is perfectly lovely, & it is hard to drive anybody to bed day or night. We run the whole night through, occasionally, & by this means enjoy the rare sensation of seeing the sun rise. But the [sunsets ]are soft, rich, warm, superb!

We had a ball last night under the awnings of the quarter deck, & the share of it of 3 of it ‸us‸ was masquerade. We had full, flowing, picturesque Moorish costumes which we purchased in the bazaars of Tangier.5

Yrs Sam.

Marseilles, France, July 5.

We are here. Start for Paris [to-morrow].6 All well. [insertion in pencil:] ‸Had a gorgeous 4th of July jollification yesterday at sea.‸ 7

Yrs Sam.

[enclosure:]

Cape Spartel

below Tangier

African coast.

June 30/677

[photograph stamped on back:] mrs. p. a. moffett.

Explanatory Notes | Textual Commentary

Editorial Signs

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1 The excursion program specified a stop of a “day or two” at St. Michael (São Miguel), the largest of the Azores, which was somewhat farther east than Fayal (Charles C. Duncan 1867 [bib10640]). But, as Clemens explained in his first letter to the New York Tribune,

We had to change our notions about San Miguel, for a storm came up, toward noon, that so pitched and tossed the vessel that common sense dictated a run for shelter. Therefore we steered for the nearest island of the group—Fayal (the people there pronounce it Fyall, and put the accent on the first syllable.) We anchored in the open roadstead of Horta, half a mile from the shore. (SLC 1867 [MT00548])

They reached Horta early on 21 (not 20) June. Like most of the other passengers, Clemens spent a busy day on shore and probably began this letter when he returned to the ship that evening. Continued rough seas delayed departure for Gibraltar until noon of 23 June.

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2 The ship anchored in Gibraltar Bay on the morning of 29 (not 30) June, and most of the passengers spent the planned “day” at Gibraltar as the excursion prospectus suggested, “looking over the wonderful subterraneous fortifications.” Clemens, Slote, and Jackson, together with one other unidentified passenger, “rode on asses and mules up the steep, narrow streets and entered the subterranean galleries the English have blasted out in the rock,” according to Clemens. They then went shopping in the town of Gibraltar, and concluded the day by listening to military bands playing operatic selections in the public park. Departure for Marseilles was rescheduled for the afternoon of 1 July in order to provide enough time to clean the Quaker City’s boilers and to resupply the ship with coal (Charles C. Duncan 1867 [bib10640]; Abraham Reeves Jackson 1867 [bib10723]; SLC 1867 [MT00557]; Duncan and Severance).

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3 The travelers who “went up through Spain” were Moses and Emma Beach, Thomas S. Beckwith, the Reverend Henry Bullard, Charles Langdon, and Solomon N. Sanford. On the evening of 29 June they took a steamer to Cádiz, then went overland to Madrid and, after a thirty-six-hour train ride, arrived in Paris on 11 July. They returned to the ship at Leghorn in late July (Charles Jervis Langdon, entry for 28 July). Clemens contemplated going with them: “D—d glad when I knew it was too late & we couldn’t go” he noted to himself. “Now as to Tangiers there shall be no pulling & hauling—we will go. I shall answer no questions, & not listen to any d—d fears, surmises, or anything else” ( N&J1, 351). On 30 June Clemens boarded a small steamer that crossed the strait to the port of Tangier in about four hours. With him were six other passengers: Slote, Jackson, Major James G. Barry, Frederick H. Greer, Colonel James Heron Foster, and Colonel Denny. They were accompanied by an English merchant named Redman, who spoke Arabic. They spent the night at the Royal Victoria Hotel and returned to the Quaker City at Gibraltar by 6:00 p.m. on 1 July, when the ship got under way for Marseilles (Charles Jervis Langdon, entry for 11 July; Charles C. Duncan 1867 [bib10641], entries for 30 June–1 July; Denny, entries for 30 June–1 July).

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4 Clemens wrote the Alta California on 1 July, “They don’t coin much money nowadays, I think. I saw none but what was dated four or five hundred years back, and was badly worn and battered” (SLC 1867 [MT00558]). Clemens was mistaken, however, about the age of the coins he enclosed (which have not been found): because the Hegira—or Muhammadan era—began with Muhammad’s flight from Mecca to Medina in a.d. 622, and because the Muslim calendar uses a lunar year (354 or 355 days), year 1216 of the Hegira began in May of a.d. 1801, and year 1268 began in October of a.d. 1851.

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5 Clemens informed the New York Herald in November that “on three separate evenings” dances were held on board the Quaker City before the diversion (which he termed a “melancholy orgie”) was “voted to be sinful and dancing was discontinued” (SLC 1867 [MT00587]). The first two dances occurred on 17 and 24 June; the third—at which Jackson and Slote joined Clemens as masqueraders—took place on the evening of 2 (not 1) July. Evidence that Clemens wrote this part of his letter on 3 (not 2) July is provided by Mrs. Severance, who on 3 July noted that “last evening,” following a meeting “to appoint committees for making arrangements to celebrate July 4,” the “lanterns were lighted, and there was a very funny dance. The party returning from Africa came out in Moorish costumes which they had purchased.” Another passenger, Dr. Nesbit, recorded passing Majorca (and presumably Minorca) on 3 July (Charles C. Duncan 1867 [bib10641], entries for 17 and 24 June; Cutter, 27–28; Severance, 51–52; Nesbit, entries for 2–3 July).

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6 When the Quaker City arrived in Marseilles on the evening of 4 July, Clemens, Jackson, and Slote left the ship, taking rooms at the Grand Hôtel du Louvre et de la Paix, the largest hotel in the city, on Rue Noailles. Jackson quipped that it had “a very long and magnificent name for a very moderately good hotel.” They left Marseilles on the evening of 5 July (not “tomorrow,” 6 July), arriving in Paris the following evening (Baedeker 1886, 393, 396; Abraham Reeves Jackson 1867 [bib10724]).

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7 Captain Duncan recorded the celebration as follows:

Weather delightfull 13 guns fired at daylight, Bell rung, Steam whistle blown and a general row kicked up

At 1030 Passengers & officers and part of the crew assembled on the quarterdeck. Col Kinney the Prest called the meeting to order Prayer by Rev Dr Hutchinson Reading Declaration of Independence by Mr Church of Cincinnatti Oration by Mr Crocker of Cleveland Ohio—“Music by the Band” Prayer & Benediction by Rev Mr Quereau Dinner at 2 after which champagne & toasts, 13 regular ones & replied to in order by Mr Leary, Dr Crane, Col Kinney Capt Hoel, Dr Crane, Dr Payne, Mr Nelson, Mark Twain Col Haldeman Col Foster the Captain & two others, names forgotten. (Charles C. Duncan 1867 [bib10641], entry for 4 July)

In chapter 10 of The Innocents Abroad Mark Twain said that Captain Duncan made the only “good speech”: “Ladies and Gentlemen:—May we all live to a green old age, and be prosperous and happy. Steward, bring up another basket of champagne” (SLC 1869, 93).

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7 Clemens may have misdated the photograph, since he mistook the date of the Quaker City’s arrival in Gibraltar (see note 2). It is not known whether he purchased the picture, which shows Cape Spartel as it appears to someone looking west through the strait, in Gibraltar or in Tangier. And it is not entirely certain that he enclosed it with this letter.

Description of Texts and Provenance

Source text(s):

MS, Jean Webster McKinney Family Papers, Vassar College Library (NPV).

Previous publication: L2, 67–71; MTL, 1:129–31, with omissions.

Provenance:See McKinney Family Papers, pp. 512–14.

Emendations and textual notes:

Sau • [possibly ‘San’]

2 • [partly formed]

sunsets • sun-|sets

to-morrow • to-|morrow