Yedo (not Yeddo)
Aug 29 ’71
My Darling
I wrote you on the America and closed it on the 21 with the statement that it would go by the China which we would meet on the way from Yokohama to SF. We didn’t meet her and you will rec. this and that at the same time. I wrote you of the beautiful weather too and we felt sure it would last but, alas, on the night of the 22nd when we approached the coast of Japan the barometer began to fall rapidly, the sea got up mountain high and our enormous vessel tossed about like a bubble. In fact we were getting into the margin of one of those awful storms they call typhoons. I am going to write hereafter my journal in duplicate with tracing paper so as to send one copy to you and keep the other for reference, and will begin today. This will save me much work, and as the typhoon was worth description I think it well to begin with that. I send by this mail two crape scarfs one to you and one to Lillie, yours being much the best. I send these because they are very light and can be sent at little expense. I have no idea what yours would cost in America but thought the scarf cheap at $1.00 here. I also send some curious dissected Japanese pictures for Webb representing houses, temples etc. They all open out so as to stand up like the real objects. I think them capital objects. One is a theatre.
(at this point, SE goes straight on to his Journal, starting with the words "... but to return to the typhoon business". This, presumably, was the point at which he slipped the carbon paper under the letter he was writing)