Letter from William Henry Seward to Frances Adeline Seward, September 9, 1859

  • Posted on: 10 November 2021
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Letter from William Henry Seward to Frances Adeline Seward, September 9, 1859
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transcriber

Transcriber:spp:mmr

student editor

Transcriber:spp:amr

Distributor:Seward Family Digital Archive

Institution:University of Rochester

Repository:Rare Books and Special Collections

Date:1859-09-09

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Letter from William Henry Seward to Frances Adeline Seward, September 9, 1859

action: sent

sender: William Seward
Birth: 1801-05-16  Death: 1872-10-10

location:
Unknown

receiver: Frances Seward
Birth: 1844-12-09  Death: 1866-10-29

location: Auburn, NY

transcription: mmr 

revision: jxw 2021-02-08

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Editorial Note

William Henry Seward’s series of travel letters in 1859 are organized and listed by the date of each entry.
9
Steamer Hydarsse Friday
2 O.Clock Sept. 9.
My dear Fanny. All day yesterday we saw no land or solitary
sail, and not one living thing. The female passengers are sea sick
and the men languid and dull. The voyage began to
seem monotonous. But this morning at 6 I discovered land
far off to the Southward, by degrees it loomed up more
distinctly, and the Captain
Unknown
and passengers all answered
to my inquiries that it was ^is^ Barbary. But what part of Barbary
It was is certainly not Morocco nor Algiers nor yet
Tunis
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, we have left all these far to the Eastward
After two or three hours we discerned a high range
of sterile mountains the Bengauzi. Then gradually
approached the very sea. This then L is Lybia.
I ha For five hours we have sailed so near the
Coast that a town a house or even a man might
be seen on it, if there were any. But no such object
has appeared. All was a high rocky shore with
stunted vegetation in the ravines. At last just at
this moment on turning a promontory a head in the
mountains is seen through which a river possibly flows
the coast presents a wide plain – verdure is seen
and white houses loom up above it. This is Derné
or Derna, an Arab settlement of 20,000 people who
raise cotton and the olive. It marks the beginning of
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cultivation on the coast, after the long space which
between it and Tunis. I recognize a road from it
moving Eastward along the coast toward Alexandria
which I calculated is about 420 miles Eastward
and which we hope to reach on Sunday morning. It is
a cheerless voyage. Candia and Greece are far
Northward and escape our sight. Occasionally a bird
unknown to us but always with a more gay plumage
that the water fowl of my acquaintance ducks down
into the water and cools his wing then flies off before
us. White fleecy clouds float above us especially at
night, but they drop no rain. Indeed I think that it
never rains on this coast. The desert of Lybia comes
up on the South to the very base of the mountains. The
coast we have passed this morning and which I found
so desolate is said to be sparsely inhabited but the
people are savages and live in holes in the earth.
Our latitude is about 31°. The sun is intolerable in the
middle of the day, but we live under an awning and
are never without a generous breeze.