Samuel F. B. Morse, His Letters and Journals: In Two Volumes, Volume IIMorse, Samuel Finley Breese
History
Samuel F. B. Morse, His Letters and Journals: In Two Volumes, Volume II
Morse, Samuel Finley Breese
Morse, Samuel Finley Breese, 1791-1872; Telegraph
We find that, on July 24, 1858, Morse sailed with his family, including
his three young boys, his mother-in-law and other relatives, a party of
fifteen all told, for Havre on the steamer Fulton; that he was tendered a
banquet by his fellow-countrymen in Paris, and that he was received with
honor wherever he went. Travelling with a large family was a different
proposition from the independence which he had enjoyed on his previous
visits to Europe, when he was either alone or accompanied only by his
wife and niece, and he pathetically remarks to his brother Sidney, in a
letter of September 3, written from Interlaken: "It was a great mistake I
committed in bringing my family. I have scarcely had one moment's
pleasure, and am almost worn out with anxieties and cares. If I get back
safe with them to Paris I hope, after arranging my affairs there, to go
as direct as possible to Southampton, and settle them there till I sail
in November. I am tired of travelling and long for the repose of Locust
Grove, if it shall please our Heavenly Father to permit us to meet there
again."
[Illustration: MORSE AND HIS YOUNGEST SON]
Before returning to the quiet of his home on the Hudson, however, he paid
a visit which he had long had in contemplation. On November 17, 1858, he
and his wife and their two younger sons sailed from Southampton for Porto
Rico, where his elder daughter, Mrs. Edward land, had for many years
lived, and where his younger daughter had been visiting while he was in
Europe. He describes his first impressions of a tropical country in a
letter to his mother-in-law, Mrs. Griswold, who had decided to spend the
winter in Geneva to superintend the education of his son Arthur, a lad of
nine:--
"In St. Thomas we received every possible attention. The Governor called
on us and invited Edward and myself to breakfast (at 10.30 o'clock) the
day we left. He lives in a fine mansion on one of the lesser hills that
enclose the harbor, having directly beneath him on the slope, and only
separated by a wall, the residence of Santa Anna. He was invited to be
present, but he was ill (so he said) and excused himself. I presume his
illness was occasioned by the thought of meeting an American from the
States, for he holds the citizens of the States in perfect hatred, so
much so as to refuse to receive United States money in change from his
servants on their return from market.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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