To prove the convenient access of this land, called "British Colony"
from London, I may say that on November 22nd, 1890, I left Liverpool in
the Cunard steamer "Etruria," which reached New York on the following
Saturday evening, just too late for the Custom-house officers to examine
the luggage, so that we could not go on shore till the next morning. I
stayed over the Sunday (26 hours) in New York, leaving on Monday by the
first overland train, and after calling at innumerable stations, and
staying 14 hours at Chicago and Council Bluffs, to "make connections"
(_i.e._, catch other trains), and staying 52 hours at San Francisco, I
arrived at Merced at 10.23 on Monday night, December 8th, _i.e._, say 16
days 6 hours after leaving Liverpool. Had I have left Liverpool by the
Wednesday instead of the Saturday steamer, I should not have needed to
have stayed over Sunday in New York, and, of course, there would be no
necessity for a settler to stay at San Francisco (I had to meet my
clients there); therefore, deducting these two stoppages of 78 hours, or
3-1/4 days, it would give 13 days to Merced in the _winter_ season. In
fine weather the journey could be made in less time; some steamers, in
the summer and autumn months, have crossed from Liverpool to New York in
about six days, so that the journey _could_ be made, in favourable
circumstances, in say 12 to 13 days, but we may safely put it at 14
days.
I went by the Northern Prairies and Rocky Mountains, and returned by the
longer route of Southern California, the Desert of Arizona, the Plains
of Texas, through the sugar and cotton districts of the Southern States,
and thence, viâ New Orleans and Washington, back to New York.
Thus, after remaining eight days at Merced, where I was fully engaged
each day in inspecting the lands for sale and the country around for
many miles, and after allowing for stoppages on the return journey over
Sundays, and waiting three days at New York for the Cunard steamer
"Servia," I reached Liverpool on January 4th, and was back again in my
office on Monday, January 5th, being six weeks, one day and 22 hours
from the time I rose from my chair in my office to the time I was
sitting in it again.
=Across America.=