Letter from Henry to Mattie, July 29, 1874

Letter from Henry to Mattie, July 29, 1874

Steamboats; Mail steamers; Motion sickness; Travel; Death

Henry writes to Martha that he has just arrived in Shanghai that afternoon from Hong Kong. He did not see many of the ladies on board because most of them were seasick. Mrs. Douglass, the wife of the past keeper of the Hong Kong jail, died recently. Henry was able to read on the voyage because he had not gotten seasick. Henry plans to continue on to Peking.

Noyes, Henry Varnum

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

Unpublished

1874-07-29

Council on Library and Information Resources Hidden Special Collections Grant

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eng (English)

Text

noyes_c_cor_696

Shanghai July 29th 1874
My dear Sister Mattie
You will be glad
to know that I arrived in
Shanghai safe and sound
this afternoon at 1-o-clock.
We left Hongkong at the time
I anticipated when I wrote from
Hongkong, or at least a few hours
after that time. We left at just
1/2 past 3 so that I had no
chance of seeing the noble
PMSS Japan steam out of
[--Ho--] harbor. Hattie will remember
of our seeing, I think it was
the same steamer, with Capt Framan at
the bow steam out when we were
lying anchored at the same
place in the "Eastern Isles." We
left just half an hour after and

so followed up the mail steamer
for some time. Could see her
distinctly until dark on Saturday
night, and on Sunday the captain
said that he saw her I did not
but on Monday morning when I
waked up before sunrise and
looked out of my window the
long dark cloud of black smoke
was in plain sight on the
bright eastern sky although we
could not see the steamer[--s--]. I
did not see very much of the
ladies as one of them was sea-
sick all the way and the other
about half the way. They seemed
pleasant what I saw of them.
I believe I told you one was
Mrs Douglass the wife of [--then--]
the Keeper of the Hong Kong jail for
so long who lately died. I did

not get time to call on Mr
Davis in Hongkong but Mr Lamont
speaks very highly of [u] Mr Petrie [/u] &
tells me he is one of the elders
in their Union Church. I did a
tolerable good job reading as I came
up as I had no company and was
not one bit more sea-sick than
if I had been in my house at
home or in Canton perhaps I ought to
say instead of home and our in-
stead of my. Of course I have
thought of those left behind a
great many time. I used to
read on board until after dinner
which was very sensibly just
before dark, and then I generally
went up on that high deck
and sat until 9 or 10-o-clock
at night looking at the water
and the moon and stars.

It was nice as it was and would
have been doubly nice if we had
some more of us been there.
My cough has not troubled
me much since leaving Hongkong
and will I doubt not be en-
tirely well before a great while.
Mr Lyon I find intends to go
on to Peking and one or two
of the others from here and
so I presume that I shall go
with them. I do not know that
I mentioned that we had a very
smooth passage up, only had
the racks on the table one meal
just after we came out from
Hongkong. Tell Mrs Kerr that I gave
her message to the 3d Engineer and
he said he would try to go down
and see her next trip, says that he
cannot always get away from the ship. I
asked him also to call at our house
and he said he thought he would. I had two or
three pleasant talks with him. He says he
[Written vertically on the fourth page]
thinks he will go home in about six months and give up sea life
Much love [u] to all [/u] Your aff Bro Henry



上海 1874 年 7 月 29 日
我亲爱的玛蒂修女
你会很高兴
知道我到了
上海平安无事
今天下午1点。
我们当时离开香港
当我从
香港，或至少几个小时
在那之后。我们刚离开
1/2 过去 3 所以我没有
见到贵族的机会
PMSS 日本蒸出
港口。海蒂会记得
我们看到的，我认为是
同一艘汽船，弗拉曼船长在
当我们还在的时候，船头会冒出蒸汽
躺在同一处
位于“东方群岛”。我们
半小时后离开

所以跟进了邮件蒸笼
一段时间。可以看到她
显然直到周六天黑
晚上，周日船长
说他看见了她我没有
但在星期一早上，当我
在日出前醒来
从我的窗外望去
黑烟长长的乌云
就在眼前
明亮的东方天空虽然我们
看不到蒸笼。我
没看到太多的
女士们，因为其中一位是海员——
一路生病，其他
大约一半。他们似乎
我对他们的看法很愉快。
我相信我告诉过你一个是
道格拉斯夫人的妻子
香港监狱看守
这么久谁最近死了。我做了

没有时间拜访先生
戴维斯在香港，但拉蒙先生
高度评价 Petrie 先生 &
告诉我他是长老之一
在他们的联合教堂。我做了一个
我来的时候读得还不错
因为我没有公司，而且是
不会比晕船多一点
如果我在我家
也许我应该在家里或广州
说代替家和我们的代替我的。我当然有
想到那些留下的
很多时候。我曾经
在船上阅读直到晚餐后
这是非常明智的
天黑前，然后我一般
登上了那个高甲板
一直坐到九点或十点
晚上看水
还有月亮和星星。

它本来就很好，而且会
如果我们有的话，那就太好了
我们当中还有一些人去过那里。
我的咳嗽没有困扰
离开香港后的我
我怀疑在很长一段时间内不会完全好起来。
我发现里昂先生打算去
到北京和一两个
其他人从这里和
所以我想我会去
跟他们。我不知道那个
我提到我们有一个非常
顺利通过，只有
餐桌上的架子一顿饭
我们刚从
香港。告诉克尔太太我给了
她给第三位工程师的信息和
他说他会尝试下去
下次去见她，说他
不能总是离开这艘船。我
让他也来我们家拜访
他说他认为他会的。我有两个或
三个愉快的谈话与他。他说他
[垂直写在第四页]
认为他将在大约六个月后回家并放弃海上生活
非常爱你的亨利兄弟

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