Nov 26.86.                             

Monte Video.             

"Juniata".

 

Dear Cordelia,

                                    Arrived here yesterday p.m. but too late to send to market for Thanksgiving dinner, but we fortunately got steward off to market in time to get a good breakfast this a.m. I was about famished. We have just rec^d your two letters sent to Cape de Verde, & your letters of Oct 1 and 8^th sent to Rio. I am not sure of how long we lie here. I have just sent letters off to P.O. as a mail leaves in the morning for New York direct. Also a stmr for England, but Paymaster took them & said he would enquire at P.O. One of the officers just gone ashore to send telegram to his Mother in Washington, & she was to send one to each of those who agreed to the scheme, so you will or should get a despatch some time early tomorrow. Let me know what time you got it, what to pay & what it said, when you write. I will begin with your Porto Grande letters—Am glad Alice explained matters to Walker about Woodbridge, hope Fanny Wilde's visit would not re-vamp the whole thing. I think I wrote you to save me another picture of Frank in case this gets spoiled on board, & to send one to Lizzie & Mary. Lizzies address I thought you had—Newhold Grange, Hatton near Warwick, Warwickshire, and Marys, Mary Willcox, Wallington Heath, Bloxwich, Staffordshire, Eng^d.

 

I don't know whether to pity Geo Walker or not. I think he ought to stop on that farm in Vt & work some of his life, or fleah off, he would be better for it.

I don't see what Mrs Gooch can stand in her own light so for, & let Mrs. Howson run things so for. Am sorry Mrs Turner & Mrs Sullivan could not be induced to go there & Mrs G to take them instead the Howsons. Glad Frank had a good time at Wellesley. I hope Alice's acquaintance with the Armstrongs wont be interrupted by the same Allston crowd that have broken in on her before. Am glad her sickness did not trouble her long. I suppose Stetson owe'd Maude one or two for her flippant remarks to him during her visit before, so did not know of any other way to get even with her except by acting rude to her & Alice. I should drop him entirely. Tell Frank not to forget to help Geo in his decimals. try & explain the rules to him, so he can then get along himself. The trouble with the teachers is they don't teach the rules.

 

            If I was sure a letter could reach Geo Walker in Worcester I would write him. I may write & send to c/o J H Walker. They wont be able to sell their house yet awhile. Such an oddly built house. Sorry to hear the news of Canning, he always seemed to attend to his business, but if he drank that explains it. I never saw him act that way.

 

            There is a large fleet of vessels here, a dozen steamers & at least 30 sailing vessels, & room for 3000. a bay here 10 miles wide & 100 miles long, to Buenos Aires. It is all the more disagreeable tho' going off & returning in our boats. I don't think I shall go ashore before Sunday, too busy getting things started. will enclose a few lines to Geo. W. I will send a track chart for Geo showing where we have been. He can take it to school if he chooses, it may amuse or interest the scholars. I sent him & Frank some mud from 1100 & 2200 fathoms deep.

 

I will write Alice before we leave. The Tallapoosa & Lancaster are both here came direct from Rio, while we went humbugging making soundings. Vandalia left recently for Valparaiso, came direct from New York to this port 66 days. The city looks from here like most of the cities South America on either side, or West Coast of Mexico, temp is only about 66-68. Their summer is commencing. I was intending to go to Buenos Aires but on first sign of cholera or small pox they would quarantine everybody from there, so none of the officers are going. I hear Ex Presdt Arthur is dead, I guess the White House living shortened his life 10 years. Remember me to the Frosts, I shall imagine the "Lily" airing herself after the first few days, telling of the lovely time they had down at Holmes Hole. /

 

Nov 30—This is a great place. I never have been to a place where the winds blow so fierce & come up so quickly. it is like a mill pond one moment, you go & get ready to go ashore & before you can say Jack Robinson it is blowing a gale & the waves are breaking over the side of the ship so that not a boat can come alongside. Same when you want to come from shore, you start, but often the boat has to turn round and for shore & you have to hunt for a hotel for 1 perhaps 2 days.

 

Last evening about 5 oclock there was a great time in the harbor, President Santos left for England, tugs & gunboats went out with music, & guns firing, to accompany the steamer out of the harbor. he has decamped with about 15000000 dollars. last Friday he went to the fort Treasury & took out what money there was there some 200 000 $, 8 years ago he was a boatman in the harbor here, then was employed by government officials to assassinate offensive partisans, so much per head, he killed one prominent man, his friends got Santos in prison, then they liberated him & put him in the Army. He then got to fighting his seniors & killing them one after another until eventually he got the Generals place, comdg all the troops, almost 30 000, then he made himself President secured 15 millions & the 200000 turned the fort over to the General comdg & has left ostensibly on a mission to Eng^d but probably he will not return. The troops in the street yesterday were a sight to behold. Nearly all darkies, some of his body guard 6 ft 2 to 6 ft 4, the most villainous looking set of men imaginable. A regiment of infantry & a regiment of lancers, the latter on white horses, all wiggers, with blue coats, red pants, & the most gorgeous trimmings. Santos himself was a hideous sight from a portion of his lower jaw having been shot away by some other would be assassin.

 

            The city itself is a fair sort of a place, citizens all appear well to do, lots of money here, a good business here apparently, but life is cheap, government unsettled, & men like Santos always on hand, for anything. The days are long enough here, daylight at 4 a.m. or 3:30 & light up to nearly 8 p.m. No communication just now with Buenos Aires, on acct of cholera. Italian, French, Spanish, Uruguay, & American Naval vessels here, several hotels here, very fair, & well patronized. A good many lines of steamers stop here, for wool cattle dressed meat &c. More anon. /

 

Dec 1^st  Just as I had finished the preceding page during which the gale, (or as they call them here, Pamperos, from the way the winds blow from the Pampas, or table lands back in the interior), had been increasing so that we had to let another anchor go, 3 in all, & get up steam to steam ahead, they were hoisting in their boats and managed to let one end of a boat get loose & fall into the water pitching one of the apprentice boys overboard. they threw two life buoys after him & he had the good luck, being a good swimmer, to get hold of one, & held on, but drifted away from the ship & they lowered a boat to go after him, which by good luck managed to pick him up just in time for he appeared to be exhausted. this boat & the steam launch had to go for the shore, not being able to get back to the ship owing to the force of the wind & sea. Another boat which was lowered managed to get loose & drifted a mile away on the rocks, also the catamaran, a boat used for dirty work around the hull. no boats have been off yet from the shore so dont know how it has fared with the boy or men from the ship last night. we had to keep steam up all last night, we rolled & pitched around as tho we were at sea, only for the market & good grub I had rather be at sea than here. About a mile from us to the city, & along the water front are huge buildings built on the rocks, apparently very substantial, about 3 stories high. We could see the waves breaking over them 10 to 20 ft. & several times the waves broke over our bow throwing spray over our fore yard. I never saw such a place, or such seas in any harbor.

 

By way of variety we had a hail storm yesterday, stones as big as Georges largest marble, and so many that our decks were covered, in places the depth of your shoes. temp of the air fell from 67 to 52 in a few minutes. One could imagine that the Juniata was nearing the South Pole. Their summer begins today, what their winters are I don't know. Hope our telegram of arrival reached you Sunday last. 

 

Dec 4—Your letter of Oct 21—written on receipt of Cape de Verde mail just came, glad to hear from you.                                                                                                           

I am surprised to hear of GW selling his house & coming to Brighton, tho' I wish he would remain there, as it would be so much pleasanter. Hope he wont have left for Frisco before this reaches you, he had better wait until the Juniata gets there. Now he has waited so long, better wait a little longer. The photo's are too large to send from here, too much postage. GW & Anna's board is cheap enough I should think at Mrs Gooch's. I think we will be here Xmas but cant tell. Capt hardly knows his own mind two hours. He is an old stick. Burwell has a bad influence over him, & exerts it whenever he can. Since the outbreak in the mess when he & Wood were so rude & indulged in such abuse of some of us on Port side especially Lawrence & left I have had nothing to say to him or Wood either except when obliged to officially. this has riled them exceedingly and annoys B—, & I think the Capt. / they both have been aching to catch me in some way officially, they have not done it yet. It makes B— very sad too that I rank him, & am not required to go to him for permission to go ashore, & he can't give me orders. he has tried it on several times, I pay no attention to him. Occasionally he tries to be chatty & seems to be aching to play the agreeable, I let it pass, & go on my way as tho' he did not exist. Then he gets mad again. Usher & one or two of them choose to send me to Coventry because I did not treat B— with proper respect, as they put it. I paid no attention to them, & so the thing jogged along for several weeks, the last week here they all appeared to be inclined to talk but still in all things officially B— was trying to "sit on me" as they say. I euchred him at every turn & neither he nor the Capt could do anything tho they resorted to every little contemptible trick they could think of. Even the D^r & Paymaster noticed their attempts. Yesterday before I got up B— sent an imperative order to me to send one of my men on deck to work on one of his jobs. The Capt un / derstood perfectly well when we came in that I had a good deal of work & that I was to have all my men below, even excused from all drills, &c, while here, & still B— would persist in interrupting & annoying me continually by petty interferences. I sent word back that this man was working in the boiler & would be for three weeks. he reported me to the Capt. Capt sent for me, stated what M^r Burwell had said, in opening the ball. I told him B's statement was not true. he rang the bell for B— who came in looking dignified & severe. Capt said I denied, &c, &c. B— squirmed & prevaricated, he made another statement to the Capt about the ice machine saying that his men had been doing all the work on the machine ever since leaving New York & were still doing it. I says, "Capt Davis, I have nothing to do with the ice machine so M^r B— makes a mistake when he charges that he is doing my work." Capt said the thing belonged to me. "No sir", I replied, how is that he asked, simply because M^r B— took it out of my hands B— tried to tell the Capt I was mistaken / I asked him if he did not tell me in N.Y. that I need not bother about the thing, he had plenty of men on deck & would take entire charge of it. he hung his head down & had to admit it. I turned to the Capt & said, if you doubt my word send for M^r Wood he was present—(Capt has a number of times acted & spoken as tho' he had doubts as to my word) Capt made no reply. I proved B— in a lie before the Capt 3 Sundays ago in the engine room, and yet he (Capt) talked to me about my not being accommodating with B— and of the bad feeling between us, hoping it would cease &c. I told him it was not my fault tho' he might be led to think so, only hearing one side of these reports, &c. He stated further (B) that the reason he had sent to me asking for this man of mine to do a job for him, was that he was the only cooper in the ship. After I left the cabin I discovered that he had a cooper amongst his own men on deck. I returned to the cabin & told the Capt. He was mad then. I sent to Burwell to let my alone & take his own. B— since has been as obsequious as possible. Came to my room to ask me which of my men I wanted to go on liberty Saty & Sunday next. I told him. I got the best of him & the Capt did not hurt me at all. on the contrary gave me all I asked, tho' he does not like me any better for that. Then p.m. Usher & the rest of them are inclined to be chatty. I will meet any of them half way. I think they will understand me better by & by, understand me well enough to let me alone. They are a queer lot. With the exception of the D^r & Lawrence & Herbert I don't care if never see any of them after I leave the ship. As I am able to fight the Capt Exec & all of their deck hands, and eat three unusually heavy meals a day you may free your mind of all anxiety as to my health. Tho' my stomach is not yet down to its usual bearings I have an enormous appetite and enjoy everything the market affords. The meat is good and so is all else. I don't know what upset my stomach, but it has not been right since soon after leaving New York & especially soon as we struck the Equator, whether it was the salt water baths during the gale, the heat crossing the Equator or the stinking food we had to eat all the way to Rio, thanks to Baker & his pals. Our table is simply superb now & clean & decent by comparison & does not cost any more.

 

            I dont think we stop anywhere between & Valparaiso, except a coaling station half way through Straits of Magellan, called Sandy Point. Tis about 3000 miles all told.

 

            There is nothing to buy here, no specialty. And when one has been ashore once & seen the place you could go away at once without regrets. There is a very nice English club, where we can go in to rest, get something to eat & drink, see all the NY & English papers & meet a few pleasant English people. George's chart I will send another time a mail leaves unexpectedly, so I send this at once, [torn]

 

is going ashore to mail his, so close [torn]

at once. Love to all Alice's letter [torn]

next time, Much love, George.

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