May 26 Tuesday – In Pretoria, Transvaal, Sam met with President Paul Kruger. Tenney suggests, “it is possible that friends saw the interview [Press of May 25] and urged him to set matters right. Twain said little of the meeting in his notebook:”

Visited President Kruger. He was in ordinary every-day clothes, & sat in arm-chair, smoking Boer tobacco (the common black kind) his head and body bent forward. He had a bad cold & a very husky voice. He said he felt friendship toward America & that he was disposed to be lenient with the American captives [NB 38 cited by Tenney, “Mark Twain and the Reformers” MTJ 40:1 (Spring 2002) p.50]. Note: See entire article for details of Sam’s involvement in S. African politics and the aftermath.

The New York Times ran a squib on p. 5, datelined May 25: “Mark Twain Visits the Prisoners” — and that he “found them in good spirits.”

Sam also wrote to H.H. Rogers.

It is intensely interesting here — the political pot is boiling vigorously. I have seen the prisoners, and made them a nonsensical speech …I am sending you the newspapers…

We have been having in South Africa a repetition of the charming times we had in India and the other places. In truth I am sorry to remember that the lecture trip is drawing to a close. I would like to bum around these interesting countries another year and talk. I suppose that within 2 months I shall retire from the platform at the Cape and be ready to go to England and sit down and write my book. My London address will be Brown Shipley & Co, bankers. ….

I haven’t heard from you for a couple of months, but you are in my mind all the same, and I send love to you and all the house [MTHHR 215]. Note: evidently the mails had not found him, for Rogers had sent several letters over the past two months.

Sam gave his “At Home” lecture again at Caledonian Hall; it was less crowded than previous appearances; Reviewed May 28 by the Transvaal Advertiser [Philippon 17].