April 9 Thursday – The Clemens family was at sea on the S.S. Wardha, bound for Port Louis, Mauritius. Sam wrote:

April 9. Tea-planting is the great business in Ceylon, now. A passenger says it often pays 40 per cent. on the investment. Says there is a boom [ch LXII 611].

Livy wrote to Harriet E. Whitmore: “I have just rec’d word at Columboof the terrible grief that has come to you. How I wish I could put my arms about you….” [MTP].

During Apr. 8 and 9 at sea, Sam was reading Thomas Macaulay’s History of England from the Accession of James II. His notebook contains notes about Titus Oates, executions, and the Tower of London — details based on incidents described in chapters 4 and 5 of the first volume [Gribben 6; NB 37 TS 32-3].