Letter from Hattie to Mattie, January 17, 1876

Letter from Hattie to Mattie, January 17, 1876

Travel; Ships; Motion sickness

In this letter to her sister Martha, Harriet tells her she is writing from the S.S. Madagascar. The ship has been shaky and she has had a hard time eating. There are not many people on board the ship who speak English. They have used the looking glass Mattie gifted them to spot people they knew on a boat from Canton.

Noyes, Harriet Newell

The College of Wooster, Special Collections, Noyes Collection, Box #2

Unpublished

1876-01-17

Council on Library and Information Resources Hidden Special Collections Grant

PDF

eng (English)

Text

noyes_c_cor_164

S.S. Madagascar
Jany 17th 1876
My dear Mattie
I am going to
write you my first letter from
the Madagascar and I will
tell you to commence with
that it will be rather a
[u]shaky[/u] one for the ship is
still rolling about very lively.
WE have had a very rough
time thus far but it is a
little more quiet to-day than
it has been. To-day {Friday}
is the first that I have been
able to Eat anything except
[?Apong's?] oranges. You must
tell him that I have felt
very grateful indeed to him
for them - although I ate
so heavily at Mrs Rogers' table
that I do not think I should

have been any the worse for
a little fasting - WEdnesday
I stay in my berth all day
and thought of you and
Lucy on your way back
to Canton - and then in
the evening, meeting in
prayer-meeting. We
watched you and Lucy
until your were close to the
shore and thought that it
seemed very nice to have
the two remaining members
of our household to "sung"
us off from Hongkong.
Doubtless you know that
as we steamed out of the
harbor we met the Canton
steamer coming in and
saw Mr Williams very distinctly
There was some one with
him who waved us good-bye
that we look to be Mr
Jeremiahson. I looked in

vain for Mrs Williams - no
doubt she was busy with the
children indoors I have
not much to write yet as
nothing has happened and
I have not seen anything
scarcely outside of my state
room and you know what
that looks like . Our Chinese
steward was rather disturbed
because "Mississy no Eat" he
thought "More better he eat
something." HE used to be
on board the P.M. S.S.
"Oregonian". HE told Henry
confidentially the other evening
that "American ship have
got good [?chouchou?], number one
English ship not good. german
ship no good" Captain [?Timm?]
is very kind none of the officers
speak English very readily The
rest of the men are Malays
and Chinese. Since

leaving port all hands have
been hard at work "cleaning
home" and repainting so the
ship is now nice and clean.
We have been sailing to-day
in sight of land the
coast of Cochin China .
It is mountainous and
barren like the rest of the
Asiatic coast that I have
seen . We thought this
morning the shore looked
about a mile away but the
Capt said it was fully [u]Eight[/u]
miles away. He says in the
night time distance seems still
shorter and that once in nearing
St Helena he "hove to" thinking
he was close in shore and
next morning found to his
surprise that he was sixteen
miles out to sea, We use
your glass on every occasion I
think it is a very nice one

[Note: Letter concludes sideways on first page]
[u]indeed[/u] and I think of you every time we take it
out. We used it first to find Mr Williams on
the steamer
We may
have an
opportunity
of sending
back as soon
as we reach
Bangkok
Which I hope
will be the case
Capt [?Timm?]
says there are
several
steamers
running down
to [?Singapore?] from
Bangkok which
is fortunate for
us. I will close
for this time with
much love for
you + Lucy
Yours affly
Hattie.

Letter