Good morning.
Palm Sunday in Whitewater will be rainy with a high of fifty-three. Rainfall will amount to between three-quarters and one inch.
On this day in 1796, an elephant arrives to the United States:
The America set sail from Calcutta for New York on December 3, 1795. Nothing of interest appears in Nathaniel Hathorne’s Logbook until Wednesday, February 17, 1796, at St. Helena. “This day begins with moderate breezes . . . latter part employed in landing 23 sacks of coffee . . . took on board several pumpkins and cabbages, some fresh fish for ship’s use, and greens for the elephant.” Below is written in large letters “ELEPHANT ON BOARD.” On February 24, the America stopped at the island of Ascension, where the men got several turtles and saw a large sea lion. The last page in the Log records the sighting of Long Island at 7:00 p.m. on April 11. From the times and distances, it can be estimated that the elephant must have been landed in New York on April 13, 1796.
(The logbook’s author, Nathaniel Hathorne, was the father of Nathaniel Hawthorne, the author, who added a w to the family name.)
The elephant brought in 1796 was probably, but not certainly, Old Bet, an elephant that was part of a menagerie. Sadly, Old Bet was killed in July 1816 when a farmer shot her, on the theory that it was wrong to ask poor people to pay to see animals (but not, strangely, as wrong to kill animals and destroy others’ property).