Twains Letters vol 2 1867-1875 | Page 8

Messina, the land of Sicily, Scylla and
Charybdis etc. 1 about the Grecian Archipelago. 1 about a midnight
visit to Athens, the Piraeus and the ruins of the Acropolis. 1 about the
Hellespont, the site of ancient Troy, the Sea of Marmara, etc. 2 about
Constantinople, the Golden Horn and the beauties of the Bosphorus. 1
from Odessa and Sebastopol in Russia, the Black Sea, etc. 2 from Yalta,
Russia, concerning a visit to the Czar. And yesterday I wrote another
letter from Constantinople and 1 today about its neighbor in Asia,
Scatter. I am not done with Turkey yet. Shall write 2 or 3 more.
I have written to the New York Herald 2 letters from Naples, (no name
signed,) and 1 from Constantinople.
To the New York Tribune I have written 1 from Fayal. 1 from Civita
Vecchia in the Roman States. 2 from Yalta, Russia. And 1 from
Constantinople.
I have never seen any of these letters in print except the one to the
Tribune from Fayal and that was not worth printing.
We sail hence tomorrow, perhaps, and my next letters will be mailed at
Smyrna, in Syria. I hope to write from the Sea of Tiberius, Damascus,
Jerusalem, Joppa, and possibly other points in the Holy Land. The
letters from Egypt, the Nile and Algiers I will look out for, myself. I
will bring them in my pocket.

They take the finest photographs in the world here. I have ordered some.
They will be sent to Alexandria, Egypt.
You cannot conceive of anything so beautiful as Constantinople,
viewed from the Golden Horn or the Bosphorus. I think it must be the
handsomest city in the world. I will go on deck and look at it for you,
directly. I am staying in the ship, tonight. I generally stay on shore
when we are in port. But yesterday I just ran myself down. Dan Slote,
my room-mate, is on shore. He remained here while we went up the
Black Sea, but it seems he has not got enough of it yet. I thought Dan
had got the state- room pretty full of rubbish at last, but a while ago his
dragoman arrived with a bran new, ghastly tomb-stone of the Oriental
pattern, with his name handsomely carved and gilded on it, in Turkish
characters. That fellow will buy a Circassian slave, next.
I am tired. We are going on a trip, tomorrow. I must to bed. Love to all.
Yrs SAM.
U. S. CONSUL'S OFFICE, BEIRUT, SYRIA, Sept. 11. (1867) DEAR
FOLKS,--We are here, eight of us, making a contract with a dragoman
to take us to Baalbek, then to Damascus, Nazareth, &c. then to Lake
Genassareth (Sea of Tiberias,) then South through all the celebrated
Scriptural localities to Jerusalem--then to the Dead Sea, the Cave of
Macpelah and up to Joppa where the ship will be. We shall be in the
saddle three weeks--we have horses, tents, provisions, arms, a
dragoman and two other servants, and we pay five dollars a day apiece,
in gold. Love to all, yrs. SAM.
We leave tonight, at two o'clock in the morning.
There appear to be no further home letters written from Syria--and none
from Egypt. Perhaps with the desert and the delta the heat at last
became too fearful for anything beyond the actual requirements of the
day. When he began his next it was October, and the fiercer travel was
behind him.
To Mrs. Jane Clemens and family, in St. Louis:
CAGHARI, SARDINIA, Oct, 12, 1867. DEAR FOLKS,--We have just
dropped anchor before this handsome city and--
ALGIERS, AFRICA, Oct. 15. They would not let us land at Caghari on
account of cholera. Nothing to write.
MALAGA, SPAIN, Oct. 17. The Captain and 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 and
see the Alhambra. I can go on down by Seville and Cordova, and be
picked up at Cadiz.
Later: We cannot anchor--must go on. We shall be at Gibraltar before
midnight and I think I will go horseback (a long days) and thence by
rail and 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.
11.30 P. M.--Gibraltar. At anchor and all right, but they won't let us
land till morning--it is a waste of valuable time. We shall reach New
York middle of November. Yours, SAM.
CADIZ, Oct 24, 1867. DEAR FOLKS,--We left Gibraltar at noon and
rode to Algeciras, (4 hours) thus dodging the quarantine, took dinner
and then rode horseback all night in a