The European Tour

The Wabash was being

overhauled at the Navy-Yard at Boston, and was not ready to sail

till November, when she came to New-York, where we all embarked

Saturday, November 11th.

I have very full notes of the whole trip, and here need only state

that we went out to the Island of Madeira, and thence to Cadiz and

Gibraltar. Here my party landed, and the Wabash went on to Villa

Franca. From Gibraltar we made the general tour of Spain to

Bordeaux, through the south of France to Marseilles, Toulon, etc.,

to Nice, from which place we rejoined the Wabash and brought ashore

our baggage.

From Nice we went to Genoa, Turin, the Mont Cenis Tunnel, Milan,

Venice, etc., to Rome. Thence to Naples, Messina, and Syracuse,

where we took a steamer to Malta. From Malta to Egypt and

Constantinople, to Sebastopol, Poti, and Tiflis. At Constantinople

and Sebastopol my party was increased by Governor Curtin, his son,

and Mr. McGahan.

It was my purpose to have reached the Caspian, and taken boats to

the Volga, and up that river as far as navigation would permit, but

we were dissuaded by the Grand-Duke Michael, Governor-General of

the Caucasas, and took carriages six hundred miles to Taganrog, on

the Sea of Azof, to which point the railroad system of Russia was

completed. From Taganrog we took cars to Moscow and St.

Petersburg. Here Mr. Curtin and party remained, he being our

Minister at that court; also Fred Grant left us to visit his aunt

at Copenhagen. Colonel Audenried and I then completed the tour of

interior Europe, taking in Warsaw, Berlin, Vienna, Switzerland,

France, England, Scotland, and Ireland, embarking for home in the

good steamer Baltic, Saturday, September 7, 1872, reaching

Washington, D. C., September 22d. I refrain from dwelling on this

trip, because it would swell this chapter

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