164 ELIZABETH GARY AGASSIZ 



TO MISS MARY FELTON 



San Francisco (on board the Hassler), August 31 

 I WALK up and down the deck and say to myself, "Is 

 it true? You are here, the voyage so dreaded is over; 

 that day, when you waved your handkerchief from 

 the port to the tug in Boston Harbor is ever so far 

 away in the distance, and you are anchored before the 

 wharves of the San Francisco Company." I really 

 cannot believe it. It seems impossible. The voyage 

 was so long when we looked forward, and then all the 

 doubts as to the results ! I have not been on shore yet. 

 I feel too excited and happy, and it is enough to know 

 that we are here. I want to pause and take it all in. 

 We will stay on board tomorrow and rest and get our 

 traps ready. Ah, how strange it has seemed to me to 

 take down Mrs. Sargent's "Bon Voyage" and dear 

 Sallie Whitman's picture, "His blessing like a line of 

 light Is on the water day and night" (how often I 

 have taken comfort from it), and the picture of the 

 Nahant house hanging beneath it, and the shoe bags 

 and the comb cases. Many of the things I hope to put 

 up in my room at home, for it will be a pleasure to 

 recall my cosy little chamber here. I thought I could 

 never become attached to the Hassler, but your 

 prophecy was a true one, I feel as I sit writing to 

 you in the little cabin that, though I would not sail 

 another mile in her for a fortune, I shall leave her 

 with a kind of affectionate feeling. 



