Letter from Henry to Sarah, November 24, 1874

Letter from Henry to Sarah, November 24, 1874

Ocean travel; Motion sickness; Travel with donkeys; Great Wall of China (China); Roads; Camels; Missionaries

Henry writes to Sarah having returned to Canton. His voyage back was mostly peaceful but there were some storms and seasickness. He found Peking unsanitary but admired its temples. He rode a donkey to the Great Wall and passed through mountains on a worn-down stone road on which he saw Mongolian caravans of donkeys and camels. Henry has nearly reached his ten years as a missionary required for a leave of absence and will go to the United States soon.

Noyes, Henry Varnum

The College of Wooster, Special Collections, Noyes Collection, Box #3

Unpublished

1874-11-24

Council on Library and Information Resources Hidden Special Collections Grant

PDF

eng (English)

Text

notes_c_cor_697

Canton Nov 24th 1874
My dear sister Sarah
You will see by the
dating of my letter that I
am back again after my
long wanderings. I reached
Canton Nov 10th having been absent
since July 23d and travelled
some 4000 miles. I was for-
tunate enough to have a smooth
sea for most of the ocean
travelling. I suppose the Formosa
channel and the China coast
generally is about as likely to
be rough as any place in the
world. On the way from Shang-
hai to Chefoo we had head
winds and sea and nearly
all the passengers were sick. I
was scarcely sick at all -
am getting to be quite a sailor.

I spent ten days at peking
the dirtiest dustiest old city
I ever was in or ever want to
be. There are however finer temples
+ grounds, and more that looks
like architecture + some tast in
the buildings here than any-
where else, where I have been
in China. In travelling outside
the city we rode donkeys + I
got to be quite a rider on the
little brutes. I went to a sec-
tion of the great wall about
50 miles from Peking north west.
The last 15 miles was through
a pass that cuts through a
range of mountains. This
pass once had evidently [--once--]
a well made road of stone
all the way through, but that
must have been 2 or 3 hundred
years ago as these stones are
now all topsy-turvy and the

road through the pass is simply
a pile of big boulders from
one end to the other. We had
compassion on our donkeys and
left there when we had got a
third of the way through +
walked. Perhaps I may have
written home already about this
pass through which all the
traffic from Mongolia comes We
met going up through it trains
of camels and pack mules +
donkeys picking their slow way
among the stones. Even some
carts with the loads taken
out managed to get through
drawn by two mules.
When I got back to
Chefoo I took a long country
trip. I met there also Dr +
Mrs Ellinwood and came
down with them to Shanghai
saw considerable of them there
and they have just this morning

left Canton after a two
week visit. I got real well
acquainted with them and like
them ever so much. Dr E is
not at all strong but he seems
better now that he did a month
ago. They go from here to India
thence to Syria + expect to
reach home again by the first
of April. I asked him about
going home. He said it was the
rule of the board that any of their
missionaries might come home
after they had been out ten years
whether sick or well, so that [--I--]
I am entitled to leave of absence
shortly after the beginning of 1876
and shall probably if alive + well
make my appearance in the
U S sometime during the year.
The time will get away very soon.
I have just got a blot on the paper
but you need not try to read that
[u]You mus'nt work too hard.[/u] We don't
want to find you all broken down when
we come home. Remember me to my cousins +
[Note: Letter continues sideways]
to Aunt Fay Your Aff Bro -Henry--



广州 1874 年 11 月 24 日
我亲爱的姐姐莎拉
你会看到
我的信约会
我又回来了
漫长的流浪。我到了
广州 11 月 10 日缺席
自 7 月 23 日起旅行
大约4000英里。我有幸顺利过
大部分海洋的海洋
旅行。我想福尔摩沙
海峡和中国海岸
一般情况下
像任何地方一样粗糙
世界。在从上海到芝富的路上，我们有头
风和海和几乎
所有乘客都生病了。我
几乎没有生病——
我要成为一名水手了。

我在北京呆了十天
最脏最尘土飞扬的老城
我曾经参加过或曾经想参加过
是。但是有更好的寺庙
还有理由，还有更多看起来
像建筑和一些任务
这里的建筑比我去过的任何地方都多
在中国。在外出旅游
我们和我骑驴的城市
必须是一个骑手
小畜生。我去了一段长城大约
距北京西北50英里。
最后 15 英里已完成
穿过的通行证
山脉的范围。这个
显然曾经过
一条精心打造的石板路
一路走来，但那
一定是两三百
几年前，就像这些石头一样
现在一切都颠倒了

通关的路很简单
一堆大石头从
一端到另一端。我们有
同情我们的驴子和
当我们得到一个
第三次通过和
走了。也许我可能有
已经写回家了
通过它所有的
来自蒙古的流量来自我们
遇到了通过它的火车
骆驼和骡子和
驴子选择他们缓慢的方式
石头之间。甚至有些
装载货物的手推车
设法通过
由两只骡子拉着。
当我回到
Chefoo 我带了一个漫长的国家
旅行。我在那里也遇到了医生和
艾林伍德太太来了
和他们一起去上海
在那里看到了相当多的人
他们就在今天早上

两后离开广州
周访问。我真的很好
熟悉他们并喜欢
他们从来没有这么多。 E医生是
一点也不强壮，但他似乎
现在他做了一个月好多了
前。他们从这里到印度
从那里到叙利亚并期望
先到家
四月。我问他关于
回家。他说这是
董事会的规则是，他们的任何
传教士可能会回家
他们出道十年后
无论生病或健康，因此
我有权请假
1876年初不久
如果还活着，可能会
让我出现在
美国一年中的某个时候。
时间很快就会过去。
我刚刚在纸上弄了个污点
但你不必尝试阅读
你不能太辛苦。我们不
想找到你都崩溃的时候
我们回家。记住我给我的表兄弟和
[注：字母继续横向]
给费伊阿姨你的兄弟——亨利——

Letter