Mark Twain arrived in Honolulu on Sunday, March 18, 1866, to write a series of travel letters to be published in the Sacramento Union. His letters about "the loveliest fleet of islands that lies anchored in any ocean" show Twain's keen ability to detail and portray what life was really like in Hawaii in the nineteenth century. McAvoy Layne's dramatic reading beautifully conveys the strength and spirit of both Twain and early Hawaii, an unspoiled paradise to which Twain always longed to return.