January 6 Monday – The Clemens party was at sea on the Oceana en route to Colombo, Ceylon. Sam was still suffering from carbuncles, and a lingering cold. Lorch writes, “Twain spent most of his time reading, finding particular fascination in Sir John Lubbock’s books on ant life” [192]. A check of Sam’s NB 37 TS 38-44, however [supplied by Gribben, 428] reveals this reading to be on his Apr. 11-23 voyage, and, though Lorch may have found documentation of an earlier use, he does not offer it.

January 7 Tuesday – The Clemens party was at sea on the Oceana en route to Colombo, Ceylon.

January 8 Wednesday – The Clemens party was at sea on the Oceana en route to Colombo, Ceylon. Sam’s notebook carries comment on books he’d recently read at sea. First up, Henry Kingsley’s The Recollections of Geoffry Hamlyn, n.d.

January 9 Thursday – The Clemens party was at sea on the Oceana en route to Colombo, Ceylon.

January 10 Friday – The Clemens party was at sea on the Oceana en route to Colombo, Ceylon.

January 11 Saturday – The Clemens party was at sea on the Oceana en route to Colombo, Ceylon.

January 12 Sunday – The Clemens party was at sea on the Oceana en route to Colombo, Ceylon. Shut up in his “cabin with another allfired cold,” Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers.

I shall have to read in Colombo if there is time; and we are trying to doctor-up my voice. But I don’t care if it never gets audible again. I have been persecuted with carbuncles and colds until I am tired and disgusted and angry.

January 13 Monday – From FE ch XXXVII, p.336:

January 14 Tuesday – From FE ch XXXVII, p.336-44, a day of sight-seeing in Colombo:

January 15 Wednesday – On the S.S. Rosetta the Clemens party was en route on a three-day passage through the Arabian Sea to Bombay, India.

January 16 Thursday – On the S.S. Rosetta the Clemens party was en route on a three-day passage through the Arabian Sea to Bombay, India.

January 17 Friday – On the S.S. Rosetta the Clemens party was en route on a three-day passage through the Arabian Sea to Bombay, India. Livy began a letter to Sue Crane that she finished in Bombay on Jan. 24. Due to the heat Livy and Clara put their mattresses on deck for the night, but Sam was still confined to his cabin with a bad cold [Livy to Crane Jan. 18].

January 18 Saturday – From FE ch XXXVIII p. 345:

We have been running up the Arabian Sea, latterly. Closing up on Bombay now, and due to arrive this evening.

January 19 Sunday – In Bombay, Sam wrote of the first night from midnight on:

Then came peace — stillness deep and solemn — and lasted till five.

January 20 Monday – In Bombay, Sam’s notebook [NB 36 TS 20]:

Been shut up all the time with this infernal cough. It does not improve. I wish I was in hell.

Parsons writes,

January 21 Tuesday – Sam was still laid up at Watson’s Hotel in Bombay. He would not be able to venture out until his lecture on Friday, Jan. 24. In his notebook he jotted, “Private Life of an Eastern King. — Chelsea Library. Get it,” referring to William Knighton’s book by that title (1855). Sam would check it out from the London Library on Oct. 22.

January 22 Wednesday – In Bombay, Sam’s notebook:

Wed., Jan 22, ’96. Read Edwin Lord Weeks’s article on Bombay in Nov. Harper [NB 36 TS 22].

January 23 Thursday – Having declined an invitation with Lord William Sandhurst to lunch at Malabar Point, Sam was recovering in time for his lecture the following day, Jan. 24.

January 24 Friday – In Bombay, Sam took the stage for his first “At Home” lecture in India at the Novelty Theater, 5:30 p.m. to an enthusiastic and “crowded house,” with “a party of ladies and gentlemen from Government House,” mostly an audience of Europeans, but “with a large number of Parsees present — to say nothing of a good sprinkling of Mahomedans and Hindus” [Ahluwalia 9: Bombay Gazette, Jan. 25].

January 25 Saturday – In Bombay, Sam’s notebook:

It was Mr. Ghandi (delegate to Chicago World’s Fair Congress of Religions) who explained everything to us yesterday at the Jain temple.

From there went to the house of a wealthy Parsee to assist at a gathering in honor of knighthood being bestowed upon H H The Prince of Politana….

Afterward Parsee palace. Owner had heard me in London 22 years ago [NB 36 TS 24-5].

January 26 Sunday – In Bombay, Sam’s notebook:

Sunday, we lunched at Government House with their excellencies, the Governor and Lady Sandhurst; & at 4 p.m. visited the Towers of Silence with three Parsi gentlemen.

Lovely drive around the sea at sunset, Malabar Point and Scandal Point [NB 36 TS 25-6].

January 27 Monday – The Hindoo Patriot of Feb. 4, 1896 reported on Sam’s whereabouts,

Mark Twain, accompanied by Miss Clemens, visited Monday, in company with Mr. A.S. Panday [sic], the rooms of the Bombay Natural History Society, where Mr Phipson accorded the distinguished visitor a cordial reception. Mr. Clemens expressed himself much pleased with the museum in the rooms of the society [Ahluwalia 10].

January 28 Tuesday – In Bombay, the wedding festivities of the prior night lasted till the wee hours. Sam wrote of it in FE:

January 29 Wednesday – Sam and Carlyle G. Smythe made a “flying trip” to Poona, returning to Bombay the following morning. Sam’s notebook:

Jan. 29. Left for Poona — (southeast).

At the mountain station of Lonauli — 12.30 am, was given that remarkable circus bill.

Been passing through ghats since 10 or 11 (now 12.30) [NB 36 TS 28].

January 30 Thursday – Sam and Carlyle G. Smythe returned to Bombay at 11 a.m. Sam spent “Two interesting hours with this prince” Kumar Shri Samatsinghji of Politana State, “& his young daughter — along with Merewether. The others saw the Rani his Wife” [NB 36 TS 29].

Sam and Smythe left at 10 p.m. for Baroda, some 245 miles north. Sam wrote of leaving: