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-124- Bill is happy because after pleading for two weeks for protection for his animals on deck, he finally has them all ranged on top of Number 5 hatch, and a canvas awning spread over them. Captain Rowe is happy because he has at last heard that he will be relieved at the end of the trip, and allowed to return to England to see his wife, and the eighteen-months old son whom he has never seen. We had lunch today with the Macys (American Consul). Their other guest was Rosalie Slaughter Morton, author of the best-seller, "Autobiography of a Woman Surgeon". She is a plump and cheerful lady of some fifty-odd years, spending income from her book on a trip to the Vale of Kashmir. August 25 - We ordered most of the supplies we need for the voyage from the ship's chandler, but made the rounds of the market and picked up more cire leaves, some Kabul melons in the hope that the big orang would eat them. We had to buy 400 dozen more bananas 12 dozen more eggs, greens, apples, tomatoes, peas and beans, pears chickens and pigeons. Our menagerie has a husky appetite, taken as a whole, although some of the individuals are picky, to say the least. We were supposed to sail at noon, but loading was delayed by the Captain's discovery that five wet bales of cotton had been stowed in Number 2. It took four hours to unload and put cotton back again properly. We did not sail until evening. Dr. Morton is down with dysentery, and although she wanted to go on to Kashmir, the Macys persuaded her to stay with them for a day or two, telling her that Kashmir was full of cholera and dysentery, and no place for an invalid. She complained bitterly that for forty years she had been dreaming of going to the Vale of Kashmir; now that she is on the edge of it, she is delayed by illness, and besides is told that it is a horrible and dangerous place, and not even a Valley, but some thousands of feet high. She actually felt so sorry for herself that she wept, and was terribly embarassed about doing so. Karachi is the first place where we have been that the women as well as the men wore sun helmets. The glare from the desert sun is really terrific, and topi and sun glasses are essential for comfort. Evenings are marvelous, however, with a breeze that is almost cold. August 26 - Now we are really heading into the long-dreaded Monsoon, but it is not as bad as we had been led to believe. There is a stiff wind blowing from straight ahead of us, and quite a pitch to the ship. It is enough to lay Gaddi low again, but none of the rest of us [[strikethrough]] se [[/strikethrough]] mind it, and it is not too much motion down in Number 6. We have a canvas sidewall as well as an awning, to keep the breeze off our deck stock. The gibbons are a trial. One day they all like milk with viosterol, and the next day they won't touch it. I give them milk with honey, and that goes fine for a day. Then they refuse
