Sam took a cruise of "The West Indies" aboard Henry Rogers' yacht, the Kanawha. The party consisted of Laurence Hutton, H.H. Rogers, Clemens, Clarence C. Rice, Colonel Augustus G. Paine, Thomas B. Reed, and Wallace Turner Foote, Jr.. Sam kept a log of the cruise to points south, the MS of which is at the Mark Twain Project, called “Winter-end Excursion to the Sutherd.”
“Thursday, March 13. Moved down by rail. Remembered with fruit from Mrs. Broughton, & violets from Mrs. Harry Rogers, jr.”
The group passed through Richmond, Va. at about 11 p.m. [DBD]
March 14 Friday – Sam’s ship log: “Nighted at the Ponce de Leon”
The men left the Kanawha at Charleston, and took the Florida Special train, where Sam wrote to Livy,
“Below Savannah, Ga., Somewhere”:
Livy darling, it is hours & hours of flat country, with thin forests standing knee-deep & melancholy in swamps; but little cultivation; at wide intervals shackly & miserable cabins; an occasional negro—ragged, & generally idle; seldom a cow or horse visible; rivers now & then, sluggish & yellow—deep yellow; a dreary & unpeopled & poverty-stricken piece of the earth. We passed thro’ Richmond about 11 last night, & passed by Charleston about breakfast time this morning. I was in bed by 10.30 & slept well until 5—a surprise to me. Came of over-feeding, maybe; for I ate a lunch & also a vast dinner.
We have suddenly come into a fruit region, now, & the white & pink blossoms greatly improve the aspects.
We shall reach St. Augustine about 4 p.m., & change to a train to Miami; we shall be in that train 12 hours & get to Miami after 8 to-morrow morning.
Good-bye, dear sweetheart, & don’t be lonesome [MTP].
Sam’s party reached St. Augustine, Fla. and decided to spend the night there before pressing on to Miami [Mar. 14 to Livy].
March 15 Saturday – At the Hotel Ponce de Leon in St. Augustine, Fla. Sam wrote to Livy.
Dearheart, we came to the hotel to dine & wait for the evening train; but concluded to stay all night, for which I was glad, as I was very tired. ...
Sam’s notebook: “Left 10.30. Arrived at 7 at the hotel Royal Poinciana, Palm Beach. To bed early” [NB 45 TS 6]. Sam’s ship log: “Left at 10.30 a.m.; arrived, at 7 p.m., at the Ponciana [sic], Palm Beach, Fla. Gambled. Several lost” [MTP].
March 16 Sunday – At the Royal Poinciana in Palm Beach, Fla. Sam wrote to Livy.
...
Yesterday was a most trying day; from 9.30 a.m. until 6 p.m. through midsummer weather of an exhausting sort. We got the trunks right away; & as every room has a batch we were soon scoured-up and refreshed; dressed for dinner & went down in a body, we 7, & sat at one round table. There were 150 similar round tables in our part of the dining room, & more than 200 glimpsable in the other part of it. When the dining room is full there are 2,500 persons present. The hotel corridors afford fine perspectives—in fact about three times that of St. Peters at Rome, where the people furthest away look like children. One of these corridors, they say, is 1700 feet long. Of course this is the largest hotel in the world.
...
We are just back, (1.30 p.m.), from a two-hour excursion in wheel-chairs of willow, driven by negro-power—the negro is behind you, & the thing is a 3-wheeled, rubber-tyred bicycle. It makes great speed. We visited the crocodile pools & the ostrich farm—& saw an ostrich sit down & lay an egg. Few tourists have seen that. One ostrich is named for Mr. Cleveland, & another one for me. It was Mrs. Cleveland that laid the egg.
We saw no country around the world whose aspects & vegetation are more tropical than this.
...
Sam’s notebook: “Went with Joe Jefferson in a launch & visited Mr. Cragin in afternoon” [NB 45 TS 6].
Sam’s ship log: Roll called at 2 p.m. All present—to wit:
Rogers, Commodore. T.B. Reed, Czar. C.C. Rice, Surgeon to the Expedition Col. Paine, (partially) Reformed Pirate. W. Foote, Unreformed Congressman Laurence Hutton, Professor at Princeton. S.L. Clemens, Chaplain
In the afternoon the company went with Joe Jefferson in a steam-launch & visited the summer seat of his friend Mr. Cragin & did not over-stimulate themselves. It is the unexpected that happens [MTP].
March 17th:
Sam’s notebook: “Left about 5 p.m.—two hours to Miami & slept aboard yacht” [NB 45 TS 6].
Sam’s ship log: “Left, per train, about 5 p.m. Two hours to Miami. Joined the yacht, & slept aboard” [MTP].
Sam and the others took Henry Flagler’s railroad to Miami, then a town of about a thousand, and spent the night [Reckford 3].
March 18 Tuesday – Sam’s notebook: “All morning at Miami. Visited Mrs. Whitehead (Lucy Page) / Anchored outside about 4” [NB 45 TS 6]. Sam’s ship log: “All the morning at Miami. Anchored outside about 4” [MTP].
March 19: Sam’s ship log: “Sailed in the afternoon, after 3. Beautiful green sea—then blue” [MTP].
March 20 Thursday – On Mar. 21 Sam wrote from the Hotel Colonial, Nassau, Bahamas to Livy about the events of this day:
We were intending to sail for Havana yesterday evening, sweetheart, but have been delayed by slow coaling-processes. We expect to get away this evening.
...
Mr. Archbold took us a-sailing to Hog Island, & there the proprietor & his negroes pared oranges, chattucks, & other fruits, under the trees & our crowd ate them—just a fruit debauch. Our half dozen men must have eaten several barrels of fruit.
That was after the bath. The bath was beyond imagination. The sand was white & velvety to the feet, no undertow, a gradual slope out to sea; the color of the water was the palest & most limpid & flashing green; & when the great waves rose & curled to break, you seemed to see through them; when (swimming,) you looked along the surface, the soft colors, of many shades, chased each other & gave the effect of the flitting soft fires that hunt each other through an opal. Archbold & I swam far out into the enchanted solitudes & rode the rich seas for half an hour. There was no sense of cold or stiffness or cramp or fatigue. We didn’t spend the day out there, only because we hadn’t the time.
We sailed up among the islands & in one of the channels we visited the Sea Garden. The water was not more than 10 or 12 feet deep—absolutely clear, & transparent, like air—& through the glass bottom of the boat we saw the corals of every form & color standing up out of the white bottom, a natural miniature park, the avenues traversed by fishes of splendid color, out picknicking, the coral shadows falling over the sunny paths & mottling them prettily [MTP]. Note: John Dustin Archbold, with Standard Oil Co.
...
Sam’s ship log:
Arrived at Nassau, 7 a.m. Anchored in a long narrow harbor like a lake. White coral bottom, & crystal clear water: in 5 fathoms the ship seemed to float on air.
Watch-word of the place: “Let a penny go! …..Do, Boss!”
In all the narrow back-lanes a pest of small niggers swarms continually after the carriages wailing this abject refrain & making touring uncheerful & irksome. The population is black, with a mere sprinkle of whites; the only prosperous industry is the begetting of more niggers; the only other industry, the sponge-fishery. Of the new crop of niggers Commodore was offered two for fifteen dollars by their dam. This does not pay for seed.
Archbold was there, & young & cheerful & hospitable & enterprising as ever. For recreation, not profit, he runs a nigger-show in the suburbs, & very much overpays the artists. The chief features are a pair of pathetic antediluvians out of the Ark who play monotones on a gridiron & drone a weak & wavery sing-song of the date of the Post-Pliocene or Early Quarternary, while a woman of that period smiles with her gums & dances a lewd dance which suggests unchastity but does not provoke it.
Out in Archbold’s Addition every shack is a shop, with a 3-foot counter in it, & ten cents’ worth of fruit for sale. The commercializing spirit of the age has laid its clammy hand upon that place.
Archbold fed the gang at the hotel.
Then, by invitation of his Excellency Sir Gilbert Carter, the Governor, they called at Government House. From the front door one has an enchanting view of the many-colored splendors of the harbor-water—as wonderful a water picture as I have seen any where, I think. The colors are pale & deep purple, several shades of green, & all shades of blue—with sometimes a silken film of pale bronze on the shady side of the waves when the sunlight falls aslant upon them. Possibly the Mediterranean blue is not there, but all the other blues are. The water is mediterraneanly brilliant & transparent.
Mr. Gladstone, the private secretary, was present. He does not find Nassau exciting. He ought to rent a box at Archbold’s prehistoric nigger-show.
HYACINTH JACKSON.
This is a colored young man who plies for hire in the harbor, & has a boat with a window in the bottom of it. He speaks West Indian English, which is London Cockney as regards the H, but is individualized & localized by special devilishnesses of its own, & is not very easy to understand. He is fluent & oily & pious, & is a diligent & shameless flatterer. But his tongue is for social commerce only; he does not employ it in business, where by accident or indiscretion it could compromise him, but uses his eye & his smile instead. These leave no record. With his eye & his smile he vividly agreed to take us to & from the Sea Garden for 8 shillings; but when we got back he raised the limit to twenty—& collected it. It was plain villany; all knew it, but none could prove it. The future tourist will find it an advantage to lay low & let this person draw his contract with his eye & his smile, then jump on him & make him sign it with his tongue.
The Sea Garden is in a side-channel 3 miles up the harbor. It is a miniature forest of many kinds of coral, growing out of a white bottom in a crystal-clear water 6 or 8 feet deep, with speckled lobsters, & fishes of radiant color loafing & lazying in the splashes of sunlight & mottlings of shadow that add a land-like charm & beauty to the subterranean park.
Hog Island . Returning, the party stopped there, & had a fruit debauch at cost of Mr. Higgs, the proprietor. The host & an assistant peeled oranges & impaled them on pine skewers, & the guests ate several dozen a piece, corn-on-cob-fashion.
Then went with Archbold—sub-proprietor of Nassau & the encircling seas—& had a bath in a rolling ocean of opaline water daintily beautiful to look upon & very refreshing to body & spirit.
THE SILK COTTON TREE.
This imposingly buttressed wonder stands in the middle of Nassau town, & may fairly challenge the great banyank of Calcutta as a “sight,” I think [MTP].
...
Sam’s ship log:
Friday, March 21. The sea-bath & fruit-orgy again.
Flock of visiting ladies aboard at 3.30 p.m.
Sea (in the harbor) a gaudy display of mingling & dissolving shades of four colors again: green, blue, purple, & a faint veneer of bronze. An Indiana woman bottled a sample of each to carry home & exhibit. This can be trusted—it came from Archbold.
Mr. Gladstone came at noon, on the part of the Governor.
At 2.30 we returned the visit in full force.
Sailed about 3 p.m. [MTP].
March 22: Sam’s ship log: “Arrived at Key West. Niggers, mulattoes, whites, Spaniards, Cubans, & other human wreckage. Nothing of interest there, except for God. Apparently He is interested in anything that comes along” [MTP].
March 23 Sunday – Sam’s notebook: “Sailed 1 a.m. (90 m Reached Havana 7 a m Palm Sunday. Could not coal. Saw only 3 priests. Visited a church. At 3 or 4 drove in the Prado. Picturesque & interesting. Demi-monde street. ” [NB 45 TS 7].
Sam’s ship log:
Sailed at 1 a.m.
Reached Havana at 7 a.m.; 90 miles.
Palm Sunday. Could not coal. Went ashore. Weather extremely hot, the streets shadeless & burning. Apparently the Church is not on top, these days, as in the old times. No big religious functions, no Palm Sunday processions—just an ordinary, unimportant & unimposing Sabbath, & hardly worth breaking. Only 3 priests visible in the streets.
Visited a church where Columbus’s itinerant bones reposed for the first time on their travels.
Went ashore again at 3 or 4 & drove around & around in the Prado, with half the population doing the same & the other half sitting on the side-walks & in balconies looking on & showing their clothes. This was the only interesting feature of this cheap-built, ill-paved, & ratty old town. The American flag was waving its sarcasms to the breeze everywhere.
Plenty of cats; & all tame, satisfied, & in good condition. This is astonishing; also, unaccountable. A man’s treatment of a dog is no indication of the man’s nature, but his treatment of a cat is. It is the crucial test. None but the humane treat a cat well. In the Holy Office, in the bull-fight, & in the black history of Spain’s work in the Antilles, in Mexico & in the Philippines the Spaniard has made his record. What is the explanation of this cat-puzzle? [MTP].
March 24: Sam’s notebook: “Cuban police in gray. Quite plenty. Town fairly clean & orderly. Garbage boats. Col. Waring. Ought to have monument. To cigar factory…tongue the cigar-ends. Hands smoke $200 worth a day.
The Morro. Death Ditch. Florida girl. Capt. Post. Sailed 6 p.m.” [NB 45 TS 7].
Sam’s ship log:
Visited one of the great & famous cigar factories & saw a multitude of black & yellow men & women & boys & girls making a celebrated brand of costly cigars that have no value but a commercial value. Only the rich & insane smoke them. Among these are included the princes, nobilities & kings. When the end of a cigar-wrapper does not fasten properly, the nigger licks it. Some day there will be a new disease among the wealthy the nobel, & the doctors will not know whence it came. That dingy herd of cigar makers are expensive, over & above their wages: they smoke the best brands of cigars all day. The ignorant among our party bought large stocks of superdamnable cigars at $26 a hundred, although I warned them that if they would only wait they could get better ones in Jamaica at two dollars a barrel. But some people would rather suffer in body & mind & estate than lose a chance to beat the custom-house.
Visited the Moro Castle & foregathered with the American officers & their wives. It was a strong place in the time of the old guns.
THE MAINE.
Visited the wreck of the Maine, in the midst of the harbor—a gnarled & twisted & squirming tangle of iron-work sticking about the water, & suggestive of a giant spider shriveling on a stove-lid. “Who done it” was still unsettled. We did not settle it.
Sailed. Six p.m. [MTP].
The Kanawha and passengers sailed from Havana around the western tip of Cuba.
March 25 Tuesday – The Kanawha was en route around the western tip of Cuba, then south and east to Kingston, Jamaica. Sam’s notebook gives their progress: “Turned western end of Cuba 8 a.m. Balmy weather. Deep-blue sea. Flying fishes. It is 756 knots from Havana to Kingston. We have permits from H.B.M. Consul” [NB 45 TS 7]. Note: Sam’s ship log gives nearly verbatim the same report.
March 26 Wednesday – The Kanawha was en route to Kingston, Jamaica, arriving there at 5 p.m, as indicated by Sam’s notebook: “Cold salt water baths. / At breakfast in 18° N. Pointed for Jamaica. Rased the island 5 p.m.Too Late. Concluded to sail all around it” [NB 45 TS 7]. Note: Sam’s ship log gives nearly verbatim the same report.
March 27 Thursday – The Kanawha made its way to Kingston, Jamaica.
Sam’s notebook: “7 a.m. took pilot. Black, with 3 young blacks. Quite indifferent to their peril. Had to take their boat aboard—it would never have towed—sea too rough. Island densely wooded—can’t insert a knife between the trees. 9—noon. Ashore & drove. Captain of the Galena—$1” [NB 45 TS 7].
Sam’s ship log:
Took a pilot, far at sea, at 7 a.m. Black, with 3 young blacks for crew; their boat rather a canoe than anything else. They had been cruising in rough seas, (out of sight of land, part of the time,) two or three days. It may have been dangerous, but they did not seem to have suspected it. The young fellows get $5 a month apiece; also board (cocoanuts) & lodging (in the canals.) They had a dozen cocoanuts with them, & not a thing else.
Picked up this pilot 40 miles from Kingston, & sailed along the island, at a distance. Densely wooded— can’t insert a knife between the trees.
KINGSTON.
Ashore, & drove. The town has 60,000 population, 50,000 of them black. In the rest of the island there are 5,000 whites.
Visited the botanical garden. Returned to the ship.
Pedlers, with cheap cigars, guava jelly, etc. When all had made a harvest & gone, a gray-headed Negro who had sold nothing, recognized Mr. Rogers, with a joyful shout—
“Members you, suh, puffeckly!—seed you a hund’d times when you uz captain o’ de battleship Galena!” Ths gross & bald-headed flattery pulled a Spanish dollar out of the late Captain of the Galena [MTP].
March 28: Sam’s notebook: “Capt. of the Galena—cost $1. [see Mar. 27 entry] / Good Friday. Sailed 5 a.m. at 8 barometer went up & we took refuge in a lovely little bay. ‘Where’er thy holy islands life their fronded palms in air.’ Pilot $22 to bring us in & out: 3 boys $5 a month & fruits & cocoanut water They go 50 mi from home 40 out to sea—are out a week. 8,000 acres of dense cocoa-palms planted 8 years ago. Golden Grove RR trip—hot spring—Bath garden—jungle. Brutal drivesr. / LEAN DOGS / NO CATS [NB 45 TS 7-8;]. Gribben writes that Sam was trying to recall lines from John Greenleaf Whittier’s poem, “The Eternal Goodness” [766].
Sam’s ship log:
BOWDEN’S.
Good-Friday, March 28. Sailed at 5 a.m. At 8, barometer went flying up, the sea grew wild & tumbly, & we took refuge in a deep & smooth little blue-water bay whose hilly shores were densely clothed in cocoa-palms. These were all planted 8 years ago, & are the property of the great fruit company that has its headquarters in Boston. It owns miles of cocoanut groves & banana plantations, & has fleet of 78 ships. It is shipping a million bunches of bananas a month.
Visited the Company’s hotel on the hill-top. Some Bostonians there, for health, not excitement.
As guests of the Company, made a railway trip to Golden Grove, 8 miles—all the way through the Company’s plantations.
Sugar mill in ruins at Golden Grove. The sugar business is dead in Jamaica.
We took to carriages & were driven up into the mountains, over admirable roads, & through a marvelous tropical vegetation, prodigal beyond imagination in variety & richness. Apparently every nut & fruit & fibre & timber produced in tropical lands & known to commerce is in the island’s list of outputs.
On the return, visited the remains of the fine botanical garden at the village of Bath. Lunched.
Resumed the drive. Reached the dock well after dark, dog-tired [MTP].
March 29: Sam’s notebook: “Went to sea at 8—outside 2/3 of the Atlantic came aboard & we came back & gave it up. Trip per RR to Golden Grove market. 74 tons coal. 75 pounds in a basket. ¼ of a cent per basket. 25 to 30 cents earned in 5 hours. / Capt. Baker, night. / 2 Indian (Hindu) babies” [NB 45 TS 8].
Sam’s ship log:
Went to sea at 8. Outside, 2/3 of the Atlantic came aboard, & we gave it up & returned.
R.R. trip to Golden Grove market.
What it was like is best shown by W. Foote’s photograph. Returned, to the yacht at the dock. Took aboard 74 tons of coal—in baskets carried on the head by East-Indian coolie men & women—75 pounds in a basket; wage, 1/4 of a cent per basket. The coolies earned 25 to 30 cents apiece in four or five hours, & transported 3 or 4 tons each. They came from miles in the country to get the job, & were glad to have it.
THE COOLIE TOTS.
Boy & girl, brown & plump, with grave & gentle faces. They sat on the floor of the dock, by a stanchion, hour after hour, in the midst of the passing turmoil, without food, or water, or playthings, or petting, or notice; but made no complaint:—little allegories of India, the land that has suffered all human ills, through ten thousand centuries, and learned to endure them all, & wait for death their only friend, in patience & submission. The children were there to take care of themselves while their parents worked; the parents could not visit them without urgent need, for time was costly. The mothers did come once—with a mother’s extravagance—a flying visit, a hug, a pat, & she was gone again, but even that bite for her hungry heart lost her all of two baskets of coal & cost her half a cent.
It was a dear little girl, with such dainty little brown hands, & innocent deep eyes, & such a sweet & patient face. She will remain in our memories; she is a fixture there—& very welcome, too.
Jamaica seems to be a hell for cats & dogs; they are beyond description lean & weak & despondent. There is nothing to feed them on; they can’t eat fruits, & the negroes have nothing else [MTP].
March 30 Sunday – The Kanawha made the port of Santiago in southern Cuba, where the men “visited the points of historical interest near Santiago” [NY Times Apr. 1, 1902, p.9 “The Kanawha at Santiago”].
Sam’s notebook: “Easter / Sailed early for Santiago. Rough. Arr. 3 p.m. at the Morro Castle. Prado. Queen’s …. [Square] Well kept cats & dogs. No smoking” [NB 45 TS 8].
Sam’s ship log: “Easter Sunday, March 30. Sailed for Santiago de Cuba. Reasonably rough, but not rougher, perhaps, than the seas which had driven us to refuge.
Arrived, 3 p.m., at the Moro, the fortress which overhangs the mouth of the narrow gut up which Hobson groped his way & tried to obstruct it by sinking his coal-ship across it. It takes a military eduction to know why our navy didn’t go ashore with a basket of doughnuts & batter that old shack down.
Meandered (it is the right word, for it is a crooked gut) up and anchored before Santiago.
Went ashore & had a hot walk with members of the gang through the slum-end of the town. Uninviting & uninteresting. The people seemed poor, but they were well fed. Dogs & cats ditto.
Then to the prosperous quarters & examined the outside of a church where Columbus rested his bones for a while—a one night stand, I think.
The Queen’s Garden. Pretty, & full of well dressed women & children.
Finally to the imitation-Prado by the beach, & saw fashion do its possible. Mostly blacks, & modifications of that color.
NO SMOKING.
There was no such sign up, but 6 cigars would cover the output visible.
Returned to the yacht. Cool & pleasant there.
San Juan Hill in view. Rice & the Colonel [Paine] visited it.
The surrounding hills seem bare, all the visible country aspects melancholy & unseductive [MTP].
March 31 Monday – The Kanawha sailed from Santiago, Cuba, to Nassau, Bahamas.
Sam’s notebook: “Sailed at 8 a.m. on a 2-day stretch due north” [NB 45 TS 8]. Note: Sam’s ship log essentially the same notation.
April 1:
In his Apr. 2 to Livy he mentioned a stop along the way:
We went out of our road yesterday [Apr. 1] & lost a day to call on a West Indian native woman [Lucretia] who served in Mr. Roger’s family 22 years ago. It was a lonesome little out-of-the-way island called Rum Cay, with a population of 3 whites & 500 blacks—all very poor; a wretched & unattractive little solitude in the sea, & seldom visited. Our coming was a vast event, & the English magistrate (the sole official & he has nothing to do) said it would be the talk of the place for months. The negro clergyman was so glad to see me as if I had been his long-lost son—said he “couldn’t believe he was actually looking at me & seeing me in the flesh—was talking about me this very morning [Apr. 2]—why it’s just as if you are God-sent, sir!” [LLMT 336-7]. Note: Rum Cay, Bahamas was originally named Santa Maria de la Conception by Christopher Columbus, and got its present name during the rum running of the 1800s. Only 29 square miles, Rum Cay is one of the smaller islands in the group, and just south of San Salvador. The current population is about 100.
Sam’s notebook:
Saw the eloquent Lucretia. [Rogers’ ex-servant]
Still northward bound. The night was refreshingly cool—a needed change. Halted off Rum Cay. Blue Grotto water, the finest yet. Luminous pale blue bottom clearly visible in 66 feet of water. Sailed for Nassau. Japanese at noon. Cat Island. / Rev. Cooper [NB 45 TS 8].
Sam’s ship log: RUM CAY.
Tuesday, April 1. The night was refreshingly cool—a welcome change. Sought & found Rum Cay, — lonely island, flat & sandy, & apparently unpeopled. Anchored in 11 fathoms—brilliantly luminous pale blue bottom sharply visible—as if through plate glass. Further away, Blue-Grotto water, the finest color yet.
Went ashore in the launch & routed out the population—one white man, from New Jersey, & a hundred blacks. No agriculture, no fruit culture, no manufactures—no trade for these things. They raise salt, in ponds; also children—in ponds or anywhere else. A hurricane lately damanged one of these crops but did not affect the other. When the magistrate returns from Nassau with his bride there will be 3 whites in the island—& a prospect.
We were come to hunt up Lucretia, who served in Mr. Rogers’s family many years ago. She lived in California afterward—she told us these things—& married a West Indian, who died childless by & by, & left her some advice, his only marketable asset, & she followed it. He advised her to go to Rum Cay, which was his native hold. She did it, (she said it in a tone of unshed regret) & has been stranded there ever since—6 years. A stately & good looking brown dame, she is, intelligent, & speaks real English, not West Indian.
Mrs. Broughton had charged her father [HH Rogers] to hunt up Rum Cay & give Lucretia a remembrance—token of money & books, & these orders Mr. Rogers carried out. He selected the books himself from the Yacht’s library, & they are the sort that do not wear out. They came very handy—as company for an orphan dictionary, the only other book in Lucretia’s quarters.
The Jerseyman has a store—the only store in the island—& it occupies the ground floor of a small cabin.
It is the modest mercantile establishment outside of Archbold’s Addition.
Rum Cay is strikingly like heaven in one respect—they neither marry there nor are given in marriage. In heaven there is nothing disreputable about this, but when you come to work this principle in a place like Rum Cay the results are just scandalous.
Lucretia keeps house for the Jerseyman. This would cause no comment in Heaven; and it causes none in Rum Cay. It is painful to think of, & shows the deteriorating effect of an ill example.
Sailed [MTP].
April 2 Wednesday – Sam’s notebook: “10 a.m. Entering Nassau. The blues, greens & bronzes of this water at Nassau surpass all the splendors of any water we have seen. Visit of Mr. Gladstone. / Flying fish 30 ft long” [NB 45 TS 8]. Note: Sam’s ship log essentially the same report.
April 3 Thursday – Sam’s notebook: “2.30 p.m. called on Sir Gilbert & Miss Carter. / Sailed for Jacksonville at 3./ Appointed Rice to distribute the tips: six of us, $50 apiece, $300” [NB 45 TS 8].
Sam’s ship log: “A flying-fish 30 feet long. It was Rice that saw it. / At 2.30 called on the Government & Miss Carter. Sailed at 3. for Jacksonville” [MTP].
In his Apr. 4 to Livy Sam relates the repose in Nassau (Apr. 2 and 3):
We did nothing at Nassau, except to pay a brief & formal visit to the Governor [Carter] & his daughter just before sailing. All the rest of the time we sat on the after-deck & gazed at the water. It may be that Lake Annecy is its equal, but it is doubtful. The colors are not earthly, they belong only in heaven. The little harbor is like a small lake; & & upon its surface are spread all the enchantments that can be gotten out of a sliding scale of dissolving shades of greens, blues, purples & bronzes, burning with interior fires, & changing to new miracles of variety & splendor with every change of wind & slant of sun—it is enough to make a person drunk with joy & enthusiasm. The effects are all helped by the perfect limpidity of the water & the white coral bottom; the bottom is quite plainly visible in 40 feet of water, & the boat seems floating in the air. I am sure Annecy hadn’t a white bottom—& that makes all the difference in the world. The final show was the best, & we had to leave in the midst of it. We were anchored in a green field of exceedingly pale blue water, whose interior brilliancy suggested dissolved diamonds; the wind broke the surface into waves; one side of each wave was pallid blue, & the shaded side was a deep (but transparent) blue, & this was faintly filmed over with a most delicate bronze—the general effect resulting, was a tossed & restless mottling or splotching of broken blues & pale blues, spiritualized by that divine faint wash of bronze [MTP].
April 4: Sam’s ship log : “Off coast of Florida—morning. Paine & Reed played poker, & Reed won 23 pots in succession. This without prayer or other unfair advantage. Paine won not a single pot during the conflict— Reed got the first & the last, & all between; then Paine jumped the game & went below to replenish his vocabulary. …” [MTP]. Note: last hand same as in above NB entry.
The Kanawha reached Charleston, S.C. and the men visited the World’s Fair, spending about six hours ashore. “It resembled a funeral; nobody there; it is a dead failure.” Dr. Clarence C. Rice left for home on the train; “he was sea-sick every other day during the trip, yet I couldn’t get him to go on a plasmon diet & be comfortable” [Apr. 5 to Livy]. Note: President Theodore Roosevelt would attend the fair on Apr. 9.
April 5: Sam’s notebook: “Charleston. At noon met at Hotel & went to the Exposition. Funereal. Pasteboard ‘palaces.’ About 200 people / Moultrie & Sumter / Rice left 5.20 / We sailed at 5. / Publish my Battle Hymn?” [NB 45 TS 9]. Note: though Sam put the Charleston excursion under Apr. 5 in his NB, he wrote Livy on this day that they went to the fair on the previous day, Apr. 4.
Sam’s ship log: “At Charleston. At noon gathered at the hotel & went out to the Exposition; 200 people wandering about the vast vacancies. Engaged some wheel-chairs. I was last, & had to wait a while. The boss said, ‘The gentleman is away that pushes your chair—be back soon.’ It is a good Exposition, but not well attended. / Rice went north by rail at 5 p.m. / Sailed, about 6” [MTP].
April 6 Sunday – Sam’s notebook: “Smooth sea, sunny & pleasant. No cards. Reed played solitaire. ‘ignorant of music’ = Reed / Reached Norfolk midnight” [NB 45 TS 9]. Note: Sam’s ship log gave part of this report.
April 7: Sam’s notebook: “Saw Reed off to Washington. Chamberlain Hotel. Maj. Gen McCook, wife, daughter, & wife’s sister. Old Point Comfort—18 hours by excellent vessel from New York. Delightful hotel Fortress Monroe. Jeff Davis. Hampton School, 20 minutes left for it, 2 or 3 p.m.” [NB 45 TS 9].
Sam’s ship log: “Saw Reed off to Washington by rail. Guard-mount at Fortress Monroe. Military Club in the embrasures of the fortress—guests of Maj. Gen. McCook. Jeff Davis resided here (by request) for a while. / Hampton School 20 minutes away. / Sailed at 3 p.m.” [MTP]. Note: Edward M. McCook (1833-1909), famous Civil War General and a member of the famous Ohio family of “Fighting McCooks”; Governor of Colorado Territory 1869-75; thereafter a wealthy investor in real estate, mining, and European telephone companies.
April 8 Tuesday – Sam’s notebook: “Before midnight, storm came on. Much rolling. Violent squalls of wind, with downpour of rain, lightning—one boom of thunder, rather mellow. Took shelter in Delaware breakwater before dawn. Several other vessels—coal tugs outside with women & children in the barges. Myriad of ducks / On Knees for Matches. Fine piece of navigating” [NB 45 TS 9].
Sam’s ship log offers a somewhat less cryptic account:
Before midnight a storm came on. Much & competent rolling. Violent squalls of wind, with heavy downpour of rain, some flashes of lightning—one solitary thunder-boom, rather mellow. I put on a dressing-gown & an over-coat & went up to the poker-chapel at 2 a.m. to smoke. Found everything on the floor in a mess, & the matches underneath—but on my knees I secured them in time to explain to the Commodore, who put his head up for a moment. Then Hutton came up, & said, his bed was wet—which compelled comment.
The deluge of rain blotted out the coast-lights, & we had to find the Delaware Breakwater with the lead, after running many miles beyond it. Secured shelter there before dawn—a handsome navigation exploit. A big ship followed our lights & saved herself from destruction thereby.
Tarried all day. Other vessels in refuge with us—among them a great liner. Very stormy outside.
Myriads of ducks [MTP].
April 9 Wednesday – The Kanawha sailed at 9 a.m.from Old Point Comfort, Va. to N.Y.C. Sam’s notebook: It arrived at 5 p.m. “a brisk run of 165 miles. Caught 5.45 train for home. Telegram sent at 8 yesterday took all day. / Mrs. Bunce at home” [NB 45 TS 9].
Sam’s ship log: “Sailed at 9 a.m. for New York. The yacht was believed to be a good & staunch sea-boat before—she is known to be one now.
Arrived off East 23d at 5 pm—a brisk run of 165 miles.
Caught 5.45 train for Riverdale.
A most delightful month, & everybody in the gang physically & mentally the better for it. Morally— / Mark Twain / Official Logger” [MTP].