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It won't take long.' I have often suffered from the necessity of 

 paying tribute to officialdom, but this was probably the hardest 

 I have ever endured. It was agony and torture, and I raged in- 

 wardly, my mind a searing flame. Blast these formalities ! I had 

 not endured all I had been through or come so far to exchange 

 polite words with a Governor at that critical moment. I wanted 

 only one thing, and that was to see that fish, to know if I was a 

 fool or a prophet. But civilisation won, the flames in my mind 

 subsided, and I became homo sapiens again. We passed houses and 

 trees and a curved drive, pulled up below a tall, two-storied wooden 

 residence, walked up steep sun-drenched steps, through the front 

 verandah, and into the relative gloom of a large shady room, where 

 dim human figures were waiting. I was formally introduced to the 

 Governor and his lady, and through one of his suite who spoke 

 English I presented our crew. My French is satisfactory for 

 scientific use, but I have little conversation. Most Portuguese 

 speak French, so I wondered if the Governor might perhaps 

 know Portuguese, not very good reasoning I know, but I tried it 

 on him and he did not understand. I thought it better not to try 

 German; so we used Hunt and the official. 



They drew our attention to a big table along one end of the 

 room that I now saw was laden with bottles and dainties of all 

 kinds. We were directed towards this, but I could endure no 

 more, and said politely but firmly that while we were more than 

 grateful to His Excellency for all his courtesy and hospitality, I 

 had endured much and come far and wished first to inspect the 

 fish. Would he kindly permit us to return so that we could all the 

 better enjoy his bounteous hospitality a little later, we should not 

 be long ? There was a flutter, but my face showed that I was going, 

 so all of us went, the Governor as well, but not Madame. It was 

 only a moment in the car and there below the concrete wall was 

 Hunt's schooner. The place was jammed with idling natives, who 

 delayed our passage down the steps. (See Frontispiece.) Hunt 

 pointed to a large coffin-like box near the mast, and I knew it 

 must be in there. They picked up the box and put it on the hatch- 

 cover, just in front of me, a foot above the deck, and Hunt pulled 

 away the lid. I saw a sea of cotton-wool, the fish was covered by 

 it. My whole Hfe welled up in a terrible flood of fear and agony, 

 and I could not speak or move. They all stood staring at me, but 



