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MARCH 8-
We anchored for serveral hours last night so that we would not reach Freetown before daylight.  We were in the harbor, and anchored about half a mile off shore when I woke up, but by the time all the officials had visited us, and we had permission to go ashore the morning was half gone, and we decided to wait until after lunch.

Mr. Philip (?) Carroll came on board looking for Bill. He is an animal collector who has worked for Trefflich and Ruhe, and wanted to sell us some stuff.  We went ashore with him after lunch, and he took us in his car out to his place, about seven miles, where he had 22 chimpanzees, and a number of mona monkeys, grey-cheeked mangabeys, military monkeys, green monkeys, one bush pig, crowned cranes, a turacou, and a couple of pythons.  The chimps were grand, all of them young except one big female with a baby, and most of them tame.

Upon coming back to town we did a bit of shopping, at P.Z.'s, and a bit of drinking at the City Hotel and the Grand Hotel. The harbour has a number of warships in, and both hotels were full of naval officers, very trim in white helmets, singlets and shorts.

[[strikethrough]] Vialla [[/strikethrough]] Carrol sent for a native who had a small harnessed antelope.  He brought it up on the verandah of the City Hotel, with a collar and rope, and Bill bought it for ten shillings.  It is a sweet little thing, big-eared, big-eyed, with the tiniest little black feet.  I hope it lives, but it seems so tiny and fragile, and it will have to do so much traveling before we get it home.  Norris brought it on board in his arms, and it soon made a place for itself under his bunk.

While we were in the City Hotel a strange looking young man with a black beard came up and spoke to Carroll, introducing himself as Dr. Selden.  He came from an Anglican Mission away in the interior of Liberia, and had come into Freetown to visit the dentist.  He joined us for the evening, and he and Carroll regaled us until small hours of the morning with tales of the West African Coast.  We brought them out to the ship for dinner, and they stayed all night.

We had our first experience with a black-out.  All lights had to out at 7.30, leaving only the little bed lights which made a gloomy light in the cabin.  In the dining room, where we sat for most of the evening, only one light was turned on and the curtains were pulled across the portholes.  When we have had so much illumination all during the journey, it seemed very strange to have to feel one's way along the deck in pitch blackness.

March 9 -

Spent the morning in port, in fact did not sail until 2.30, but none of us went ashore.

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