I have written a longer letter to Mr. Hunter to mail along with this. He may let you see it, although it is mostly about business matters connected with the University-work. Will write you again from Victoria and also from Rio de Janeiro. L. Bruner.

Pernambuco, Brazil
May, 14th 1897
Dear Marcia:-
Well we have finally reached our first port out of New York after a tedious voyage of 15 days and 10 hours. Nothing very eventful occurred en route beyond about 14 days of sea sickness, and 13 days without seeing even so much as another vessel of any description. The ship rolled considerably most all the way, but not what we would call very rough. While I was not real sick I could not go to the table more than three or four times.

The country here looks beautiful from the ship as it lies in harbor, but how it will be on land I cannot tell as we have not yet landed. Hope to do so today. Will be here for 3 or 4 days then go on to Victoria and later to Rio Janeiro.

I will not write you a long letter now

but will write quite fully to Psyche before leaving here. Think she will enjoy such a letter more than you would. Will be right in line with her geography.

I am feeling in excellent health, only that I am nearly played out loafing — nothing to do at all. Was the only passenger on the boat thus far, and am liable to be so until we reach Rio Janeiro. The captain just told me that he expects to load a lot of coffee at Victoria, hence it may take three or four days longer before we reach Rio Janeiro and I reach the destination. So you see the time goes and I am still quite a distance from my work.

Was out on shore this morning and such dirt and filth among which human beings dwell! I do not wonder that disease sometimes breaks out among the people and takes them off.

Well I think that I will quit this letter for the present and begin one to Psyche and Helen.

Wish that I could see all of you this evening, but cannot. You will probably here from me by cable before you receive this letter.

Good bye.
Lawrence Bruner

Pernambuco, Brazil, S. Amer.
May, 14th 1897.
My Dear Psyche:
Since Mamma does not like long letters I guess that I will write the long ones to you and Helen; and I am going to write long ones too. Of course you will look on the map to see where I am now while writing this letter. You will notice that it is at the eastern part of the continent of South America even below the mouth of the river Amazon. It is 8 degrees south of the equator; and the equator divides the earth into two equal parts. When it is winter north of this line it is summer south, and when the summer is north it is winter south. It is now fall down here and spring up north. This place is too close to the equator to get cold. It is in the torrid zone or hot belt on the earth.

Well, I want to begin my letter with sailing from New York, and telling you something of the journey from there here and what I saw. Then I want you to put the letters away and save them for a kind of book about my South American trip. I will not take any other notes than these.

The ship let loose from the dock or pier in Brooklyn at 6:30 on the morning of April 27th and after being towed out into the river by a tugboat started her engines slowly and steamed out into the bay past various forts and a number of interesting sights that you can read about in the little book that I mailed to Aunt Seba from New York. In about 30 minutes, or at about 7 o'clock a government boat came alongside & gave us the mail. After this our pilot left & the ship's crew took charge and we put out into the great Atlantic Ocean. The waves began to run quite high and the ship to roll about. By 10 o'clock we were out of sight of land and did not see it again till May 12th at a little after 4 o'clock in the afternoon, or 15 days and a half.

During the first day we saw a few sailing vessels of different sizes, and on the second day passed a large steamer bound for New York and two schooners. After this not another vessel was sighted until the morning of the same day land was again seen.

Was I sea sick, and did I feel bad while I

was sick? Well yes, I was rather sick beginning on the evening of the 28th of April and keeping it up until May 13th when we entered the harbor of Pernambuco. I vomited some, even throwing up greenish, bitter gall. But I was not nearly so sick as I thought I would be. My stomach was so weak and upset by the motion that I could not eat except while lying down, and then ate only toast and drank a little tea. I also ate an occasional sea biscuit or kind of cracker made on purpose for sailors to eat. Sea biscuit or ship's biscuit are made of wheat and bean flour mixed and then are baked very hard. They have no salt in them.

On the 29th we had quite a storm and the waves dashed all over the decks and the ship rolled very much. Only once I looked out and the waves seemed as high as our house. It looked awful scarey [sic]; but I was too sick at the time to care how it was or what happened. We were then about midway between the Bermuda Islands and Cape Hatteras. By the next day the sea had quieted down some and I felt better, but could not go to table for

meals. I read some and tried to study Spanish but couldn't.

May 1st was a fine morning on the ocean and I went out on deck about sun rise. While seated there I saw a dolphin fishing. You can read about the dolphin in your natural history. There were also some few gulls flying about, as had been the case each day before. One little bird was seen every day during the voyage. It is the kind that is known to sailors by the name of Mother Carey's Chicken. Quite a number of this little bird were seen. During the 15 days at least 10 different kinds of gulls were seen. One day when we were at least 1000 miles from the nearest land hundreds of one kind were seen migrating northward.

On the second of May we saw quite a lot of flying-fishes. These would dart out of the water and go through the air quite a ways by spreading out their long fins like the wings of a bird. Some of them flew as far as from over our house to Mitchells. More of these flying fishes were seen on the 3rd and even up to the last day

before entering this harbor.

On the 4th of May we passed the Tropic of Cancer and were their within the tropics or in the torrid zone. That is we were almost as far south of the City of Mexico or Cuba. By the 6th of May at 10 o'clock in the morning we passed the sun 15 degrees north of the equator and since that time the sun has been to the north of us. Now when we look for the sun at noon it is up North about 25 degrees and our shadows point to the south. The sun moves ""against the hands of a clock and not the same way."" Just figure it out for yourself. Take mamma's watch in your hand and look at the sun so that your left hand points to the east and your right hand to the west the sun will move the same way as the hands of the watch. Now turn around and look north and hold the watch before you. Your right hand will point to the east and your left to the west, and the sun rising where it does will move against the hands of the watch to reach the west. This seems queer but it is true just the same.

On the 9th quite a squall or rain storm came up suddenly and the wind blew very hard. From a comparatively smooth sea it was a foaming, roaring ocean in a few minutes and it rained so fast that one could not see half the length of the boat. It was terrible to look at, and to hear the wind howling in the rigging of the ship was a sight long to be remembered. The storm did not last long but the water was disturbed until next day.

At about 2 o'clock on the afternoon of the 10th we crossed the equator. On the 11th I saw two or three whales about 30 or 40 feet long. They looked very large and ugly. Wouldn't like to have been near them in a little boat. A little later we ran among a school of porpoises and it was interesting to see them jumping about sometimes clear out of the water and then dropping back. They remind one of a drove of fat hogs since they are about the same size and are also black

The way one longs for the sight of land

is wonderful when he has been away from it for two weeks and over. So on the afternoon of the 12th we began to look off to the southwest for a first glimpse of the coast of Brazil although we knew that it could not be seen before about 4 o'clock. It finally came and late in the afternoon we came to anchor in the ocean just outside of the harbor. From here the lights from the light houses and shore seemed very attractive considering that the rain was pouring down all night. Next morning a pilot from shore came aboard and by noon we started into the harbor which is behind a coral reef. It was a holiday, so we did not begin to unload cargoe [sic] until today. The people here are nearly all negroes and they speak Portugese [sic] and Spanish.

Today the ship's doctor and I went ashore and walked out into the country about 6 miles to see the sights and catch a few insects. The people are odd, their customs queer, and everything in the land quite different from what you are used to seeing.

I cannot describe all to you now, but if you will ask me to after I come home I will be glad to do so.

There are hundreds of cocoanut palm trees growing about the low lands just back of the beach, which look very queer with their smooth tall trunk and bushy tops [doodle of palm tree]. The cocoanuts hang in bunches just at the base of the leaves.

There are dozens of parrots for sale on shore and some of them are fine birds. Think that you girls would like one when I come home. They can be bought for about $2.50 to $3.00. I guess there are many other curiosities of different kinds that I will perhaps see tomorrow if I go ashore again and it does not rain. You see it is the rainy season now. Instead of snowing it rains here in winter. It does not get cold.

I will write another letter to you girls from Victoria next week.

Good bye, from your papa,
Lawrence Bruner

Rio de Janeiro, S. America
May, 26th 1897.
Dear Marcia:–
Well I did not write you from Victoria because there was no opportunity to mail a letter from there, although we remained there for five days discharging cargoe [sic]. While there I went ashore quite a good bit and collected specimens. The place is exceedingly tropical in appearance and the vegetation is all more or less thorny or nettle-like.

I am afraid that I would never be a sailor. In coming from Pernambuco to Victoria and also from Victoria to here I was sea sick. Otherwise I am in excellent health and am enjoying myself very much. Delight in studying the vegetation, birds, insects, reptiles, and other forms of life including the inhabitants — the latter a very queer combination with peculiar ways. The women not at all attractive to me at least.

Upon arriving in Rio de Janeiro yesterday I received a letter from a Mr. Oliver P. James

of Buenos Ayres inclosing a number of clippings from the newspapers in that city relative to my appointment by the Commission for the extermination of the "Langostos." [langostas] Some of these clippings are favorable, while others are opposed to having a stranger selected for the work. Will mail you some of them after I arrive in Buenos Ayres and can secure other copies of the papers from they were taken.

As near as I can tell at present I will leave here for Buenos Ayres on Friday by a Pacific Mail steamer and will arrive there in 3 or 4 days, or about June 1st. In the meanwhile I will probably go ashore another time and try to do a little more insect collecting.

I would like to see you all tonight, but it can't be so I try to reconcile myself to the fact. Only 10 months more.

Will write more shortly and continue my letter to Psyche from where I left off.

Good bye,
Yours
Lawrence Bruner