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^[[-69-

our animals transferred. This handling of wild & nervous birds is a trial, but the Malays are very gentle & careful - not like stevedors in other parts of the world.
The Op Ten Noort is a fine ship, the largest K.P.M. in this service.

[[underlined]] May 14. [[/underlined]]

Bill has malaria, & we did not go ashore in Remarang. I offered to help Coenraad feed the stock, but he prefers to do things himself. We took on 2000 coolies, going to Sumatra to work on the plantations]]

and they are all over the place, men, women and children packed in between decks. They have straw mats to lie on, and fresh air is pumped in to them through ventilators, but the atmosphere is dark and thick. They form a procession to go to the kitchen to get their food in conical baskets, and have to pass by our animals en route, so if it is mealtime below decks we can't get near our stock. The coolies don't annoy the animals, but they are living so close to them, hanging their laundry over bird cages, lifting the cloth curtains that we put in front of the timid birds, etc., that it is worrisome. However, we were lucky to get on this boat at all. The agent in Macassar was supposed to cable about our coming, which he did not do, and when we arrived in Soerabaia yesterday there was theoretically no space for our Zoo. Passage had been reserved for eighteen ponies, and Coenraad persuaded the agent to leave the ponies there for another eight days, and take us instead.

May 15 - Batavia

Bill is feeling better, and we went ashore in the morning. We were met by Niemans, Ter Tiethoff, and others of the Bureau of Economic Affairs, and they inspected our menagerie with much interest and praise. Several of our lories were new to them, not being represented in either the Batavia Zoo or the Buitenzorg Museum. We went up town and to the bank, then to the Zoo, where Niemans kindly presented us with a pair of Loetong monkeys, a pair of big binturongs, ten Borneo gavials, two Tantillus storks, and two Brahminy kites. These were to be crated and sent down to the boat.

We had lunch at the Hotel des Indes, and I could not resist having reistafel again. I am learning now to pick and choose, 

Transcription Notes:
Used Transcription Centre notation of ^[[text]] to indicate handwritten text in typed pages. -@siobhanleachman