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:

January 31 Friday – At Baroda Station, some 245 miles north of Bombay, Sam was treated to a “ride on a lurching elephant, without a mahout at the controls” [Parsons “MT India” 80]. Clara recalled this as in Colombo, but her later recollections of time and place were often faulty, and the Clemens party had less than 24 hours in Colombo with Sam mostly in bed. 

February 1 Saturday – Sam and Carlyle G. Smythe arrived back in Bombay at 7 a.m. That evening the entire Clemens party left Bombay for Allahabad by a night train. It would be a two-day, two-night trip. It was customary, Sam writes at the beginning of ch. XLVIII in FE, “to avoid day travel when it can be conveniently done.” There was no system to reserve sleeping berths so the beae door) & an American woman stole Clara’s [NB 3rers had to remain in possession of them until the ticket owners boarded.

February 2 Sunday – The Clemens party was on their long train ride all day.

February 3 Monday – The Clemens party arrived in Allahabad:

We arrived in the forenoon, and short-handed; for Satan [their servant] got left behind somewhere that morning, and did not overtake us until after nightfall. It seemed very peaceful without him. The world seemed asleep and dreaming.

February 4 Tuesday – In Allahabad, India, Sam was up at dawn. When Livy and Clara were ready, they took a drive.

In the early brightness we made a long drive out to the Fort [built by Akbar, the Mogul emperor in the 16th C.]. Part of the way was beautiful. It led under stately trees and through groups of native houses and by the usual village well, where the picturesque gangs are always flocking to and fro and laughing and chattering….

February 5 Wednesday – In Benares The Clemens family was up at 6 a.m. and spent the whole day sightseeing [Feb. 8 to Rogers]. It was likely, then, that this was the day they hired a “commodious hand-propelled ark” and took several trips up and down the Ganges. Parsons writes,