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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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].