Major Sites

During the beginning nine chapters, Twain addresses the ship’s departure from America, the lengthy trek across the Atlantic, landing at the Azores Islands, arriving at Gibraltar, where the ship’s inhabitants split into groups, and then finally Twain’s group that go to Tangier.

• The first portion of the text, roughly chapters one through four, concern Twain meeting his fellow passengers as they depart from New York on their way to the first planned location of the Azores Islands. As they all set out to sea, it seems that everyone is highly anticipant of the trip, and that excitement is almost palpable. However, as the days tick by, they all become weary, and in some cases seasick, from the long stretches of open sea. By the middle of chapter five, they finally see something to rise their spirits: land. It had been almost two weeks since they last saw this, so despite the earliness of the hour in which they see the Azores – about 3 A.M. – everyone still feels somewhat elated. This could be related to the touristic need of comfort. The land represents familiarity to them, even if this particular land is unknown. This familiarity and comfort is crucial for tourists because it helps to make traveling seem easier and more appealing. 

• Following the first glimpse of these islands, the ship finally reaches the Azores Islands. These islands were even described in the program for the trip in chapter one by saying “... passing through the Azores...” (20). This indicates that these islands were not necessarily a prime location for this trip. To hammer this theory home, Twain says, “Some of the party, well-read concerning most other lands, had no other information about the Azores than that they were a group of nine or ten small islands far out in the Atlantic, something more than half way between New York and Gibraltar. That was all” (55). This fully indicates that they all viewed this location as a stopping point on the way to more well-known places with far more historical or touristic intrigue. Twain then says that he felt obligated to insert facts about these islands, so as to educate his readers, and that is a very important element to travel narratives. If any of the readers have never traveled to said locations, they will want to know as much about them as possible, so travel writers needed to include such seemingly insignificant information to educate the readers.

• The next major site that Twain and the passengers reach is Gibraltar. They leave the Azores by chapter seven, and travel once more by sea for roughly five to six days before they reach Gibraltar. Once again, that feeling of home is mentioned, as the whole ship rushes on deck simply to catch a glimpse of land. Within this chapter the passengers split into varying groups, agreeing to meet up on the ship following individual excursions on their way back to the ship. Twain groups with a few other men of roughly the same age. He describes their split, discussing the joy he and his friends are feeling. “Nothing could be more absolutely certain than that we are enjoying ourselves. One cannot do otherwise who speeds over these sparkling waters, and breathes the soft atmosphere of this sunny land” (72). This description could have been so the readers would be able to picture just how lovely it was there, all through his incredibly descriptive narrative. From here, they board a steamer and travel to Tangier, Africa.

• By chapter eight, Twain and his party have reached Tangier. Here is where the reader finally gets a true, real sense of the elation that Twain feels in reaching such an incredibly foreign, un-American destination. In a rather lengthy bit of description, Twain says, “Tangier is the spot we have been longing for all the time. Elsewhere we have found foreign-looking things and foreign-looking people, but always with things and people intermixed that we were familiar with before, and so the novelty of the situation lost a deal of its force. We wanted something thoroughly and uncompromisingly foreign – foreign inside and outside and all around – nothing anywhere about it to dilute its foreignness – nothing to remind us of any other people or any other land under the sun. And lo! in Tangier we have found it” (76). This desire to find something so foreign and completely unfamiliar to them certainly ties in with the most basic tourist desire. One travels to explore and discover unknown places and people; even if it is only unknown to the traveler in question. Tangier then seems to not only have met Twain’s expectations, but far exceeded them because of his lack of prior knowledge on the place.