This chapter contains a particularly interesting paragraph on how the Ottoman Empire repressed the native Syrians with a particularly odious system of taxation.

The Pilgrims are "busted" for vandalism, the pilfering of souvenirs from Ephesus. They are quite indignant about it when they think the order to empty their pockets originated with the Ottomans. They become contrite when it is discovered that the British Empire is only protecting an English company holding the excavation rights. I assume this is the same company John Turtle Wood is associated with.

I've been rather curious about the oyster beds described by Mark Twain, or rather the veins of shells mixed with broken crockery. My attempts at Google searching this rarely get me past New Smyrna Beach, Florida. What I have found out, though, is this region once supported a rather flourishing neolithic population that utilized shellfish and other marine resources. I did find one paper available on-line as a PDF, Neolithic Shellfish Gathering at Yeşilova: An Ethnoarchaeological View by Zafer Derin.

The crew of the Quaker City has some fun at the expense of the pilgrims, conducting parodies of the meeting with Alexander II. They sail from Constantinople to Smyrna, modern day Izmir. This is where journalist, writer, and adventurer Ian Strathcarron picks up the scent. He has written a book, Innocence and War Mark Twain's Holy Land Revisited, After an extended prologue on the making of Mark Twain and how he found himself on the Quaker City Excursion Strathcarron joins the route, moored in the harbor of Izmir.

Be sure to read the section in the newspaper clipping on "Cheerful Bathing". This portion was omitted from the book, and is thus not part of the recording. But it is of interest.

Far-Away Moses is rather an interesting individual. I did a search on him and found this:

from Making a Place in the World: Jews and the Holy Land at World's Fairs by Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett

This chapter may be considered rather politically incorrect. He rails at what he sees as a lack of morals amongst the Moors, citing the slave-girl situation and the sultans harem. He even provides what would be a market report for this trade if it occurred in the United States. The chapter also notes the lose of two of his preconceived notions of the Orient, the dogs of Constantinople and the luxury of a Turkish bath.