[No envelope. Transcription of the family letters was complicated by the widespread tendency to fill every inch of notepaper with writing. We can’t resist attaching a scan of one of the more “scrunched” sheets as page 3 of this transcription.]
Gulf
of Guayaquil,
Ecuador
“Gossip” [??!!]
[Saturday,]
Oct. 7, 1899
8:30 P. M.
Dear Sisters, Parents, and Grandma:
If I remember correctly this is the evening for Ada’s recital, and I’m sure I’m there in thought if not in reality. A great large Frenchman played the piano in our parlor, and a pretty young corpulent French lady sang some very charming French songs. Some of the English crew are also quite good amateur musicians, so we had quite a concert, too. but I would rather be at the pupil’s recital. Among the passengers are Spaniards, a German, a Swiss, French people, Englishmen, and Americans. Quite a variety, you see. At present we are at the end of the second out of three days of quarantine. Not because anybody is sick but because we came from an infected port, “Panama.” Then these South American states are not on the best of terms with each other, either.
We have been here quiet in the Gulf for 2 days and will remain here till Monday morning; then we will move up the river [Río Guayas] about 40 miles, and it will take at least three days there to load and unload the freight and mail, so you see we are not going very rapidly toward our destination. These days we eat, sleep, and sometimes play games with the nice Englishmen (throwing rings over pegs etc.) and read, and I have my “doyly” (can’t spell) nearly finished. I’m sorry to tell you that enough of my red floss to make two carnations blew into the ocean. If I had been a good swimmer I might have jumped in after it, but as it is I had to let it go. We boarded the “Columbia” last Sun. at noon but did not get through loading freight till Mon. at 3 o’clock P.M. Though very many men were busy night and day. You have no idea how much they carry in one of these boats. We have fresh meat every day. The oxen, sheep, chickens, turkeys, ducks etc. are all carried alive and killed as needed.
The old turkey gobbler spreads his tail and gobbles every morning. It does me good to watch him because he looks just like the old gobbler at home. The cooking on this ship is very good, and we have quite a variety to eat. I could not give you a bill-of-fare because so many things have Spanish names, but for my dessert tonight I ate almonds, raisins, lemon pudding, and two bananas. Just think of that, besides a number of previous courses. Charlie says he is ashamed of my appetite, but I’m only making up [for] some of my “contributions to the Atlantic” and really was almost starved during my three day’s stay at Panama. Such a lot of dirty pigs and messes I never saw in one place. It is a surprise to me that they don’t all die of yellow fever or something else. I suppose it is safe to tell you that I was reduced to 116 lbs. just before I left Panama. but I’m making it up now. I feel very well and am enjoying the peaceful waters of the Pacific very much. I do not get seasick now anymore. Yesterday I saw a few whales besides some very large fish, and today I saw a giant turtle. By the way, I have eaten turtle soup several times since I left home but don’t like it very well.
The meals here are coffee 7 to 8, breakfast from 9:30 to 11, lunch from 1 to 2 P.M., dinner from 6 to 7 P.M., and tea from 8:30 to 9 P.M.; or, in short, meals at almost all hours. However, I eat only three meals a day, then make it pay. Last Sun. P.M. some of the crew caught a large shark, pulled him up on deck, cut out his enormous jaws set with six rows of very sharp teeth, then threw him overboard again.
Tonight we had a splendid sunset, which made the gorgeous mountain peaks of Ecuador look magnificent; and immediately after sunset, the new moon shone over us in all her glory. I wondered whether she looked so pretty at home. Nature seemed to prepare for a quiet Sabbath rest because we are cut off from the land world at present. If I had a flying machine I might go to S[unday] S[chool] somewhere. I’m sorry I don’t know where the S.S. lessons are found. You know my journal is run out. I do not think that we’ll reach Concepción for at least three weeks more.
You will get our letters before we’ll get yours because the ships do not make so many stops going north. I hope by next Sat. night you will get our Panama letter. The “Athos”, I think, will reach N. Y. next Weds. Oct. 11.
I have worn my denim skirt and blue striped shirtwaist for nearly two weeks, and both are getting dirty, and the red skirt is hardly fit to wear, so I spose [sic] I’ll have to wear my traveling suit. I’m sorry to tell you that it bleaches. It was bleached some in N.Y., but if I must wear it much here it will bleach more, though it loses its original color so evenly that it does not look bad. I had quite a long talk with one of the French nuns this afternoon. She seems really nice, and she told me much about their work in France. It is very much like the deaconesses’ work in our cities at home. She says the French Gov’t. is very bad, and they teach in their schools that there is no God. She also says Dreyfus was a very bad man and ought not to have been freed. This morning a vessel passed us and told us that the Shamrock had won the first race of The America’s Cup.
at N.Y. The English are also sending a large army to Transvaal to try to whip the Boers.
Charlie is sound asleep, so I’ll bid you goodnight too.
Mon. morning, Oct. 9, ’99
This morning we are in the harbor of Guayaquil. The quarantine was taken off by a little black-looking doctor yesterday noon. The city is the most respectable looking that we have seen since we left our native shores, and it bears no comparison to ours.
This is the “Fourth of July(?)” in Ecuador. [The anniversary of their independence as a republic.] They had the city all decorated last eve with gaslights strung up in various ways. It really looked pretty. The guns were fired, skyrockets were thrown, and the band was playing until everything was in a state of excitement and uproar. I can’t put any more in Charlie’s letter. Please send this letter to father [sic] Wertenberger as soon as you can, and if he wants to put it in print alright [sic]. Let him send it to Orlows’.
Many barges of oranges and bananas are being put on our ship now
Every success to you in your school, Ada.
Dillie
Transcribed 2015 by SMK
Posted Dec 29, 2018 at 14:29.
Revised Nov 15, 2022 at 18:38. EDT.
Retrieved Jun 1, 2026 at 20:36.
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