January 12 Saturday – About 8 AM, the San Francisco steamed into the icy harbor of New York. Sam took a room at the Metropolitan Hotel, a favorite stop for Californians and Washoe miners at the corner of Broadway and Prince Street [Sanborn 311; MTL 2: 2]. The voyage from hell was over and cholera had not claimed Mark Twain. Sam sent a telegram to the Alta California giving details of the cholera outbreak aboard the steamer San Francisco [MTNJ 1: 296]. Sam planned to publish a book on the Sandwich Islands based on his letters to the Sacramento Union. He also wanted to schedule a lecture tour in New York and perhaps other eastern cities. Lastly, he had a vague plan to embark on a world tour for the Alta. Sam was not without contacts in New York journalism and literary circles. His work had appeared in several New York papers as well as Harper’s. Sam telegraphed the Alta California concerning the cholera in Nicaragua [Camfield bibliog.].