Wash and Tanna find Peter Haas in Amsterdam

Washington Black and Tanna’s meeting with Peter Haas in Amsterdam advances their search for Titch without resolving it: they discover that Titch had been there, learn where he was last reported, and leave with an instrument intended for him. The encounter replaces the hope of an immediate reunion with a more difficult picture of Titch’s altered state and uncertain whereabouts.

The search reaches Amsterdam

Before this meeting, Washington and Tanna had arranged to travel separately and meet later at the port, with Washington tasked with finding Peter Haas and bringing back a preserved specimen if it existed. Their search for Peter unfolded alongside an expedition to see a two-headed cetacean preserved by Kees Visser. The specimen was two harbour porpoises joined in the womb, and the pair arranged for it to be kept safely at their hotel. This scientific errand gives their journey a practical objective, but Washington’s attention is also fixed on the possibility that Peter may know what became of Titch.

The approach to Peter’s address is marked by uncertainty. On a rainy afternoon, Washington and Tanna follow the canals and cobbled streets, anxious because Washington has never received a reply from Peter and fears he may be dead. The house stands out as tall and blue, with a small garden, a steep staircase, and a dark, old door. Its imposing threshold delays the answer they have come for: a servant first scrutinizes Washington’s scars and seems ready to close the door, making the search itself another encounter in which Washington’s altered face shapes how strangers receive him.

Peter Haas and the family home

The first man to identify himself as Peter Haas is a younger man, dressed elegantly and speaking with a deep, resonant voice. He explains that his father bears the same name. Although Washington and Tanna have arrived seeking the former resident, the son invites them to join the household’s lunch rather than dismissing them. The room’s leaded windows cast greenish light over small oil portraits; the most striking shows an older woman laid out in white silk in a coffin. The younger Peter then returns with his father, whom Washington recognizes from the northern plains by his grey eyes, veined hands, and distinctive moles.

The elder Peter’s weak embrace and Washington’s recognition of his face connect Amsterdam to the earlier northern expedition. Yet the family’s history does not immediately produce the reunion Washington wants. The younger Peter says that letters never reached them, and that Titch had visited roughly a year and a half earlier, stayed for some weeks, and then gone. The news confirms that Titch survived the period after the northern events and eventually reached Amsterdam, but it also establishes that he is no longer there. Washington’s question about where Titch went becomes the scene’s central unresolved concern.

What Peter reveals about Titch

Peter describes Titch as changed when he arrived: he was, in Peter’s account, a new self whom an old acquaintance would scarcely recognize. Washington notes that Titch’s mother’s steward and Robert Solander, his friend at the Abolitionist Society in London, had likewise reported a change without explaining it. Peter’s testimony therefore joins separate reports but does not settle what caused the transformation. He also mentions that Titch’s brother Erasmus had died, a loss that complicated matters for him; Peter distinguishes this from Titch’s apparent tolerance of his father.

When Washington asks what happened in the snow and whether Titch explained how he survived, Peter says Titch had told him that he was there. The account stops short of clarifying the circumstances or meaning of that statement. Rather than filling the gap, the conversation preserves the uncertainty surrounding Titch’s disappearance and return. Peter can confirm contact and offer fragments of what Titch said, but cannot provide a full explanation of his changed character or the northern events.

The Morocco lead and the instrument

Peter recalls Titch’s intense interest in capturing images on paper through sunlight. Titch called the process shadow grams and hoped to use it to capture astral features. Peter found the ideas difficult to follow and thought Titch seemed exhausted. This account links Titch’s scientific imagination to image-making while presenting his speech as increasingly difficult for others to interpret.

Peter’s last letter from Titch placed him in Morocco, on the outskirts of Marrakesh, and included an address. He cautions that Titch may not be in a state of mind to respond, but considers writing worth trying. Washington is astonished by the destination; the information is not a confirmed present location, but a concrete lead that redirects the search beyond Amsterdam.

Peter also brings out a large wooden case and asks Washington to give it to Titch if they find him, explaining that it might be useful. Washington initially objects that he and Tanna are not going to Morocco and suggests Peter keep it. Peter instead tells Washington to keep it himself, judging the instrument wasted in his own care and of little use to his son, who is not a man of science. The case turns the conversation into a practical charge: even without agreeing to pursue the lead at once, Washington leaves with an object meant for Titch and a reason to consider carrying the search onward.

Significance of the encounter

The meeting changes the search from a hope of finding Titch in Amsterdam into a pursuit based on incomplete testimony. Peter establishes that Titch returned from the north and stayed with him, but that he was markedly changed, spoke in difficult-to-follow terms about image-making, and later wrote from near Marrakesh. These details offer direction without certainty: the address may be outdated, Titch may not answer, and the meaning of his northern survival remains unstated.

The scene also brings Washington’s artistic interests into proximity with Titch’s experiments in light and image. Peter’s account of shadow grams and the instrument in the wooden case suggest a continuing connection between Titch’s scientific pursuits and the work Washington might help carry forward. Yet the encounter does not resolve the personal rupture at the heart of the search. Peter can pass on a location and a device, but not restore the companion Washington came looking for.