January 5 Sunday – The Clemens party was at sea on the Oceana en route to Colombo, Ceylon.

January 5. At 9 this morning we passed Cape Leeuwin (lioness) and ceased our long due-west course along the southern shore of Australia. Turning this extreme south-western corner, we now take a long straight slant nearly N.W., without a break, for Ceylon. As we speed northward it will grow hotter very fast — but it isn’t chilly, now [FE ch XXXVII 335].

Sam’s notebook, on comparing Australasia with India: “see previous quotation from Buckle” [Gribben 109; NB 36 TS 18]. Note: See Jan 4 entry and Ch. XXXIX FE.

Sam copied the first eight lines from Reginald Heber’s poem, “Missionary Hymn,” more popularly known as “From Greenland’s Icy Mountains,” into his notebook 36, though he disagreed with the sentiment [Gribben 304].

The Boston Daily Globe, p.25 “Youth of Mark Twain” of this day was a long article about Sam’s youth and the many pranks played. It began, however, with two paragraphs about the present world tour and his efforts to get out of debt, echoing sentiments that would increase his popularity:

The news from Australia that Mark Twain, now has such a firm hold on American hearts, is meeting with success on his debt-paying lecture tour, makes his host of friends rejoice, while interest in the author of “Innocents Abroad” and “Tom Sawyer” is stimulated anew.

Since he said “The law recognizes no mortgage on a man’s brain — and honor is a harder master than the law — it cannot compromise for less than a hundred cents on the dollar and its debts never outlaw,” and straightway set about paying up his debts, the good people of the little town of Florida, Mo, where he was born, have been prouder of him than ever.