From Tangier to Tetouan

Our caravan en route May 1891

There are two sources for the details of the Watson's camping trip in Morocco.  The first, contemporaneous source, contains two letters from Emily Sibley Watson, one to her sister-in-law, Maggie Sibley, dated 5/21/1891, just before the trip; and the second a letter to Emily's mother, begun 5/25/1891 in Tetouan and finished 5/28/1891 in Ceuta, Spain.

The second source is the 1910 Camping in Morocco manuscript for a paper Emily Sibley Watson for the the Wednesday Club in Rochester, described in the manuscript as being based on Emily's journals (unfound).  Some of the language in this manuscript is similar, if not identical to that of the letters; however, the dates in the manuscript do not coincide with the dates given in the letters.

We have chosen to base the chronology of the camping trip on the starting date and dates of arrival in Tetouan and Ceuta as given in the letters, and to interpolate the intervening dates based upon the passage of time as described in the manuscript.