CHAPTER XV
MY SECOND RETURN TO CHINA
The machinery was not finished till the early
spring of 1865. It was shipped direct from New
York to Shanghai, China; while it was doubling
the Cape of Good Hope on its way to the East,
I took passage in another direction, back to
China. I wanted to encircle the globe once in my
life, and this was my opportunity. I could say
after that, that I had circumnavigated the globe.
So I planned to go back by way of San
Francisco. In order to do that, I had to take into
consideration the fact that the Union Pacific
from Chicago to San Francisco via Omaha was
not completed, nor was any steamship line
subsidized by the United States government to
cross the Pacific from San Francisco to any
seaport, either in Japan or China at the time. On
that account I was obliged to take a circuitous
route, by taking a coast steamer from New York
to Panama, cross the Isthmus, and from there
take passage in another coast steamer up the
Mexican coast to San Francisco, Cal.
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