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talked animals excitedly all through lunch.

In the evening we had dinner with Mr. Chasen of the Raffles Museum. Dr. Schultz was also there, and it was a happy evening.

August 6 -

While Bill ran around from agent to ship to government vet to Colonial Secretary, I used the morning to do a bit of shopping, and got some lovely things from Tang, the Chinese dealer. A mandarin coat for Malcolm Davis' wife that is a beauty, and some nightgowns for me in exquisite hand-embroidery. I lunched at the hotel with Williams, Schultz, and Audrey Sellers, and then we went down to the Silverash and joined Bill there. All our animals were put aboard this morning, and we were supposed to sail at four o'clock. However, there was some difficulty about an oil tank, and it was eleven before we finally left. The ship is really veru comfortable. We have our own deck, a big bedroom, and a sitting room. Dinner was simple, but well cooked. I think I shall like the Silverash.

August 7 - 

We were up early, and fed some of our stock before breakfast. Poor little Stengah has a cold now, but inasmuch as the other two gibbons who were so sick seem to be getting better I hope she will pull through too. She is such a friendly baby, and loves to hang on anybody's neck. Williams has nicknamed her "sticking plaster."

After breakfast we started to write some letters, when a sailor came with the news that one of our lizards was  out. We have several small lizards from Siam in one big cage, and Bill started off with a butterfly net to capture the stray. When he came back, an hour or so later, he said it was one of the Komodo dragons that had broken out of its box, and he had been unable to capture it. It is unfortunately down in the hold, and the only other animals there are the other Komodo dragon and a small collection of birds from the Batavia Zoo. Bill moved the birds up on deck, and left the lizard loose, preferring to wait until he has expert help, which will be tomorrow. It gives one a queer feeling to know that one of those monsters is walking about below decks, even if he is well shut in.

A sudden squall shortly before noon sent everybody running with tarpaulin to cover the animals. Rain blew in from all directions at once. It is hard to take care of animals on board properly, and the first few days are always a mess. We ordered a lot of food in Singapore, but it is at the moment inacessible in the storage room, and we ourselves forego our morning fruit in order to give it to the gibbons. Cleaning cages without proper instruments, and trying to give the animals water out of a bucket is also difficult. It will be good to have the boys aboard to-morrow and have all our own Zoo equipment.

We stopped at Port Swettenham late in the afternoon, and Bill asked the agent to get us some bananas, chickens, and pigeons, which he did. The birds are food for our big cats. The two big panthers from the Tungku. the clouded leopard from Basapa, and our little Siamese wild cat all need meat.