Publisher's Synopsis
For months the great pleasure excursion to Europe and the Holy Land was chatted aboutin the newspapers everywhere in America and discussed at countless firesides. It was anovelty in the way of excursions-its like had not been thought of before, and it compelledthat interest which attractive novelties always command. It was to be a picnic on a giganticscale. The participants in it, instead of freighting an ungainly steam ferry-boat with youthand beauty and pies and doughnuts, and paddling up some obscure creek to disembarkupon a grassy lawn and wear themselves out with a long summer day's laborious frolickingunder the impression that it was fun, were to sail away in a great steamship with flagsflying and cannon pealing, and take a royal holiday beyond the broad ocean in many astrange clime and in many a land renowned in history! They were to sail for months overthe breezy Atlantic and the sunny Mediterranean; they were to scamper about the decks byday, filling the ship with shouts and laughter-or read novels and poetry in the shade of thesmokestacks, or watch for the jelly-fish and the nautilus over the side, and the shark, thewhale, and other strange monsters of the deep; and at night they were to dance in the openair, on the upper deck, in the midst of a ballroom that stretched from horizon to horizon, and was domed by the bending heavens and lighted by no meaner lamps than the stars andthe magnificent moon-dance, and promenade, and smoke, and sing, and make love, andsearch the skies for constellations that never associate with the "Big Dipper" they were sotired of; and they were to see the ships of twenty navies-the customs and costumes oftwenty curious peoples-the great cities of half a world-they were to hob-nob withnobility and hold friendly converse with kings and princes, grand moguls, and the anointedlords of mighty empires! It was a brave conception; it was the offspring of a most ingeniousbrain. It was well advertised, but it hardly needed it: the bold originality, the extraordinarycharacter, the seductive nature, and the vastness of the enterprise provoked commenteverywhere and advertised it in every household in the land. Who could read the programof the excursion without longing to make one of the party? I will insert it here. It is almostas good as a map. As a text for this book, nothing could be better: EXCURSION TO THE HOLY LAND, EGYPT, THE CRIMEA, GREECE, AND INTERMEDIATE POINTS OF INTEREST.BROOKLYN, February 1st, 1867The undersigned will make an excursion as above during the coming season, and begs tosubmit to you the following programme: A first-class steamer, to be under his own command, and capable of accommodating at leastone hundred and fifty cabin passengers, will be selected, in which will be taken a select company, numbering not more than three-fourths of the ship's capacity. There is good reasonto believe that this company can be easily made up in this immediate vicinity, of mutualfriends and acquaintances.The steamer will be provided with every necessary comfort, including library and musicalinstruments.An experienced physician will be on board.Leaving New York about June 1st, a middle and pleasant route will be taken across theAtlantic, and passing through the group of Azores, St. Michael will be reached in about tendays. A day or two will be spent here, enjoying the fruit and wild scenery of these islands, andthe voyage continued, and Gibraltar reached in three or four d