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 7 Tuesday – The Clemens party was at sea on the Oceana en route to Colombo, Ceylon.
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 5 Sunday – The Clemens party was at sea on the Oceana en route to Colombo, Ceylon.
January 5. At 9 this morning we passed Cape Leeuwin (lioness) and ceased our long due-west course along the southern shore of Australia. Turning this extreme south-western corner, we now take a long straight slant nearly N.W., without a break, for Ceylon. As we speed northward it will grow hotter very fast — but it isn’t chilly, now [FE ch XXXVII 335].
January 4 Saturday – The Clemens party was at sea on the Oceana en route to Colombo, Ceylon. Sam’s notebook reveals anchoring off Albany, Western Australia for mail pickup and delivery, and newspapers. [Shillingsburg, “Down Under” 34; NB 36 TS 14]. Tied up in the “perfectly landlocked roadstead — the most desolate-looking rocks & scarred hills.” Many ships were arriving, “full of people rushing to the mines,” hoping to get rich [At Home 196].
January 3 Friday – The Clemens party was at sea on the Oceana along the southern shore of Australia, en route to Colombo, Ceylon.
January 2 Thursday – The Clemens party was at sea on the Oceana en route to Colombo, Ceylon.
January 1 Wednesday – At noon, Sam, Livy and Clara Clemens with Carlyle G. Smythe sailed from Adelaide for Ceylon on the P&O’s liner, Oceana [Shillingsburg, “Down Under” 34]. Once underway, Sam wrote a short letter to H.H. Rogers:
January – Sometime during the month at sea Sam looked over the Oceana’s library and wrote in his notebook:
I must read that devilish Vicar of Wakefield again. Also Jane Austin [sic] [Gribben 32; NB 37 TS 3].
Also:
The Ahkoond of Swat [NB 36 TS 21]. Note: listed among a catalogue of “sounding titles” he enjoyed hearing in Bombay [Gribben 397].
May 18 Friday – Sam spent two days in London. Mary Anderson’s agent offered him £2,000 to lecture ten nights in London, but he declined because the season was over in three weeks and there’d be no time to advertise. He promised to consider a fall or winter engagement including a few two-night stands in other cities. He tried to locate Rogers’ daughters at the Brown Hotel, Mrs. Cara Rogers Duff and May Rogers, in order to deliver a letter sent them by Mrs.