• Innocents in the Azores

    Submitted by scott on
    At three o’clock on the morning of the twenty-first of June, we were awakened and notified that the Azores islands were in sight. I said I did not take any interest in islands at three o’clock in the morning. But another persecutor came, and then another and another, and finally believing that the general enthusiasm would permit no one to slumber in peace, I got up and went sleepily on deck. It was five and a half o’clock now, and a raw, blustering morning. The passengers were huddled about the smoke-stacks and fortified behind ventilators, and all were wrapped in wintry costumes and looking sleepy and unhappy in the pitiless gale and the drenching spray. I think the Azores must be very little known in America. Out of our whole ship’s company there was not a solitary individual who knew anything whatever about them. Some of the party, well read concerning most other lands, had no other information about the Azores than that they were a group of nine or ten small islands far out in the Atlantic, something more than halfway between New York and Gibraltar. That was all.
  • June 20, 1867

    Submitted by scott on

    June 20 Thursday – A violent storm drove the QC to Fayal (see June 21 entry.) Sam’s notebook:
    “Questions for debate.
    Which is the most powerful motive—Duty or Ambition?
    Is or is not Capt. Duncan responsible for the head winds?” [MTNJ 1: 340].

  • June 21, 1867

    Submitted by scott on

    June 21 Friday – The Quaker City (subsequently noted here as QC) arrived at Horta, island of Fayal,
    in the Azores at daylight.
    At three o’clock on the morning of the 21 of June we were awakened and notified that the Azores
    islands were in sight. I said I did not take any interest in islands at three o’clock in the morning. But
    another persecutor came, and then another and another, and finally believing that the general
    enthusiasm would permit no one to slumber in peace, I got up and went sleepily on deck [Innocents
    Abroad, Ch 5].

  • June 22, 1867

    Submitted by scott on

    June 22 Saturday – From Sam’s notebook:
    The party started at 10 A.M. Dan was on his ass the last time I saw him. At this time Mr. Foster was
    following, & Mr. Haldeman came next after Foster—Mr. Foster being close to Dan’s ass, & his own
    ass being very near to Mr. Haldeman’s ass. After this Capt. Bursley joined the party with his ass, & all
    went well till on turning a corner of the road a most frightful & unexpected noise issued from Capt
    Bursley’s ass, which for a moment threw the party into confusion, & at the same time a portughee boy

  • June 23, 1867

    Submitted by scott on

    June 23 Sunday – QC departed Horta at 11 AM
    “The group on the pier was a rusty one—men and women, boys and girls, all ragged and barefoot,
    uncombed and unclean, and by instinct, education, an profession, beggars. …and never more, while
    we tarried in Fayal, did we get rid of them” [Innocents Abroad, Ch. 5].
    Alta California printed Sam’s article “THE NUISANCE OF ADVICE,” which Sam had dated May 18
    [Schmidt]. Camfield lists this as “Letter from Mark Twain” No. 18 [bibliog.].