164 ELIZABETH CARY 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. 
