April 29 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Captain John E. Mouland, sending Samuel Chalmers Thompson with the letter.

“The bearer is my friend and London helpmeet…He would like to sail with us, May 17 in the ‘Batavia’ & I would exceedingly like it myself. I hope that the ship is not so full but that a shelf can be found for him to dispose himself upon.”

Thompson had been a reporter for the Tribune for a short time in 1872 and then taught a version of shorthand at Vernor Episcopal Institute outside of Hartford with Azel Stevens Roe, Jr., whom Sam had known from California days. Thompson recalled meeting Sam in mid-March, 1873 [MTL 5: 359].