To Jane Lampton Clemens and Family
13, 15, and 17 October 1867 • SS Quaker City at Cagliari, Sardinia; Algiers, Algeria; Málaga, Spain; and Gibraltar
(MS: NPV, UCCL 00151)

‸P.S. I wrote you from Jerusalem & Egypt.—notes to say all well.‸

Cagliari, Sardinia, Oct. 12.

Dear Folks—

We have just dropped anchor before this handsome city and

Algiers, Africa, Oct. 15.

They would not land let us land at Cagliari, on account of cholera. Nothing to write.1

Malaga, Spain, Oct. 17.

The Captain & I are ashore here under guard, waiting to know whether they will let the ship anchor or not. Quarantine regulations are very strict, here, on all vessels coming from Egypt. I am a little anxious, because I want to go inland to Granada & see the Alhambra. I can go on down, by Seville & Cordova & be picked up at Cadiz. Later—We cannot anchor—must go on. We shall be at Gibraltar before midnight, & I think I will go horseback (2 long days) & thence by rail & diligence to Cadiz. I will not mail this till I see the Gibraltar lights—I begin to think they won’t let us in anywhere.2

11.30 PM—Gibraltar.

At anchor & all right, but they won’t let us land till morning—it is a waste of valuable time. We shall reach New York middle November.

Yrs

Sam

Explanatory Notes

Editorial Signs

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1 The Quaker City dropped anchor in the Gulf of Cagliari, some two miles from the town, at 9:00 p.m. on 13 (not 12) October. Captain Duncan wrote, “An official informed us that cholera existed at Cagliara and that foul bills of health were issued to every vessel leaving— We had heard enough and hastily leaving returned to the ship” (Charles C. Duncan 1867, entry for 13 Oct). The excursionists were eager to maintain the ship’s clean bill of health, having already suffered great inconvenience and disappointment as a result of quarantine restrictions.

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2 The Spanish port officials at Málaga required a seven-day quarantine for any ship—regardless of its bill of health—arriving from another Mediterranean port (Charles C. Duncan 1867, entry for 17 Oct). Julia Newell, in a letter to the Janesville (Wis.) Gazette, remarked on “the absurdity of quarantining a ship with a perfectly ‘clean bill of health,’ and on board of which for five months there had been no disease more serious than seasickness,” adding that since Gibraltar was “regulated in its affairs by English good sense,” the passengers were allowed to land there (Newell 1867). Since Málaga was the only Spanish port from which Granada could be easily reached, passengers who were intent on seeing the Alhambra, but unwilling or unable to pursue the alternative Clemens mentioned here, were thereby prevented from seeing it at all.

Description of Texts and Provenance

Source text(s):

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

Previous publication: L2, 97–98; MTL, 1:137, without the postscript at the top of the letter (97.1).

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