CHAPTER V
A Grim Voyage- to Nciu York

MARK TWAIN found himself more* at sea in
San Francisco than during those ocean days of
drifting calm. He was uncertain which way to
turn. His literary ventures were neither satis-
factory nor profitable. A lecture on the islands
which his friends urged him to deliver was much
more successful and he toured the coast with it
that winter. With considerable ready money in
hand, he decided now to return home—after an
absence of five and a half years. In the back of
his head was a plan for a trip around the world,
including a visit to Anson Burlingame, who had
invited him to Peking, He would begin his travels
by sailing for New York, via the Isthmus of
Nicaragua. He bought a new notebook which he
labeled:

From San Francisco to New York by way of
San Juan and Grey Town-Isthmus,

Sailed from San Francisco in Opposition steamer
America, Capt Wakcman, at noon ijth Dec. 1866.

Pleasant sunny day, hills brightly clad with green grass
and shrubbery.

Runaway match—boarded by irate father and bogus
policeman—Repulsed by passengers—Love victorious.

First night a tempest—the greatest seen on this coast
for many years—though occupying an outside berth on
upper deck it yet did not seem so rough to us as it did

32