October 30 Thursday – Sam wrote on board the Batavia to Dr. John Brown. Everyone in Sam’s party save himself had been seasick for the first three days, but now it had been:

“…smoothe, & balmy, & sunny & altogether lovely for a day or two now, & at night there is a broad luminous highway stretching over the sea to the moon, over which the spirits of the sea are traveling up & down all through the secret night & having a genuine good time, I make no doubt.”

Sam also told of an infant dying and being buried at sea [MTL 5: 459].

Sam also wrote to Arthur E. Bancroft of Cambridge, England:

Dear Sir:

I beg you will pardon this delay in acknowledging your courtesy—I was so hurried that I had to stop answering letters of all kinds. I thank you very much indeed, & when I return to England next month I may possibly come to Cambridge, in the course of events—in which case I would be glad to enjoy the hospitality you have so kindly tendered.

Ys Truly

Samℓ. L. Clemens

Mark Twain [MTPO].

In Hartford, a load of hay was delivered to the Clemens home by Paul Thompson for a delivery fee of 5 cents [MTP].