1 The eight were Clemens, Slote, Van Nostrand, Moulton, Davis, Birch, Church, and Denny. Clemens must have written this letter on 10 (not 11) September, for he implies that the contract had not yet been settled, and Denny’s journal shows that negotiations for the trip were completed on 10 September, when a “committee” of three (Church, Birch, and Denny himself), acting for the party, paid the dragoman “in the presence of our Consul one half the cost.” The total cost of the expedition was “one pound sterling each per. day for twenty days,” or $800, the remaining half of which was due on arrival in Jaffa. On 11 September Clemens wrote in his notebook:

The United States consul general in Beirut was J. A. Johnson (N&J1, 416–17; Denny, entry for 10 Sept; Interior Department, 8).

2Clemens’s notebook records, and Denny’s journal confirms, that the party left Beirut on 11 September at 3:00 p.m. Denny noted that they mounted and set out from in front of “the Hotel Belview in Beyrout a meray happy company eight in number” (N&J1, 416; Denny, entry for 11 Sept).