This letter to his mother Jane from the linen merchant John McCaldin Loewenthal describes his time in New York before embarking on the Inman Line steamer S.S. Philadelphia to South America. It was sent from Curaçao when JMcC arrived in the Netherlands Antilles on 4th February 1891. A transcript is available at https://loewenthal.pressbooks.com/chapter/curacao_4-february1891/