MDDM Ch. 4 "Poohpooh! Adieu!"

[jbor]

I think the close detail of M & D's Transit of Venus expedition in this
first section, including the false start, is designed to show the reader
just how close to *not* happening the whole Mason-Dixon Line thing was.
Obviously, the hapless duo (and their erstwhile biographer) should have
ended up at the bottom of the ocean after that first attack. If this were
so, the narrative seems to ask or taunt, constantly so, in what ways might
subsequent history/ies have been altered?

best