am almost worn out with anxieties and cares. If I get back
safe with them to Paris I hope, after arranging my affairs there, to go
as direct as possible to Southampton, and settle them there till I sail
in November. I am tired of travelling and long for the repose of Locust
Grove, if it shall please our Heavenly Father to permit us to meet there
again."

[Illustration: MORSE AND HIS YOUNGEST SON]

Before returning to the quiet of his home on the Hudson, however, he paid
a visit which he had long had in contemplation. On November 17, 1858, he
and his wife and their two younger sons sailed from Southampton for Porto
Rico, where his elder daughter, Mrs. Edward land, had for many years
lived, and where his younger daughter had been visiting while he was in
Europe. He describes his first impressions of a tropical country in a
letter to his mother-in-law, Mrs. Griswold, who had decided to spend the
winter in Geneva to superintend the education of his son Arthur, a lad of
nine:--

"In St. Thomas we received every possible attention. The Governor called
on us and invited Edward and myself to breakfast (at 10.30 o'clock) the
day we left. He lives in a fine mansion on one of the lesser hills that
enclose the harbor, having directly beneath him on the slope, and only
separated by a wall, the residence of Santa Anna. He was invited to be
present, but he was ill (so he said) and excused himself. I presume his
illness was occasioned by the thought of meeting an American from the
States, for he holds the citizens of the States in perfect hatred, so
much so as to refuse to receive United States money in change from his
servants on their return from market.

"A few days in change of latitude make wonderful changes in feelings and
clothing. When we left England the air was wintry, and thick woolen
clothing and fires were necessary. The first night at sea blankets were
in great demand. With two extra and my great-coat over all I was
comfortably warm. In twenty-four hours the great-coat was dispensed with,
then one blanket, then another, until a sheet alone began to be enough,
and the last two or three nights on board this slight covering was too
much. When we got into the harbor of St. Thomas the temperature was
oppressive; our slightest summer clothing was in demand. Surrounded by
pomegranate trees, magnificent oleanders, cocoa-nut trees with their
large fruit some thirty feet from the ground, the aloe and innumerable,
and to me str