May 29 Friday – In Johannesburg Sam wrote to his beloved:

Dear, dear, Livy dear, it was a busy day yesterday & day before & on one or the other I failed to write you — the first failure, I believe.

I saw Mr. Davis last night, & he gave me good news of you & Clara — that you were well & enjoying life; Poultney Bigelow has arrived, & is mighty likeable….He leaves for Natal soon & I hope he will find you still in Durban. He sails thence for Zanzibar. I love you most dearly, sweetheart. / Saml [MTP].

Sam met Sir Henry Layard (See Mar. 12 1893). He also had supper at the home of Robert Chapin. According to Sam’s May 30 to Adele Chapin, she made a speech he admired. According to Parsons, Sam learned that Mrs. Hammond was “very ill; threatened with premature childbirth” [“Traveler in S.A.” 21]. Sam may also have given informal remarks or a speech of sorts, after which he and Carlyle Smythe left Johannesburg at 11 p.m. for Bloemfontein, capital of the Orange Free State, some 257 miles southwest on the Cape Colony Railway [Philippon 18].