__IN THE EAST INDIES. _168 
Paquebot, la Touraine. 
Off Cochin China, April 23, 1907. 
My dear Family : 
Our last week or so in Java was more or less 
uneventful, packing collections and shipping them 
off involving my going every day for some days from 
Buitenzorg to either Batavia or Tandjong Priok, to 
see the consul, steamboat people, ete. This was hard 
and trying work, but soon over. Then we moved 
down. I previously gave our parrot and splendid 
cockatoo to our friend, Major Ouwens, who had done 
a very great deal to make our stay in Java so pleas- 
ant. We had hoped to bring the birds back but it 
was obviously too much trouble. Then we moved to 
Batavia, hot and steamy, where the daughter of the 
Governor-General came to our hotel with a carriage 
and took us for a very pleasant drive. The Gover- 
nor-General gets $100,000 a year, besides living ex- 
penses, ete., and so ean afford to show a little style 
in a country where living costs about — well, a 
small fraction of what it does in America. The few 
days in Batavia passed quickly with errands, ete., and 
then we went to Tandjong Priok and boarded La 
Seyne, thirty-eight years old and as filthy a little tub 
as France ever produced. The weather was calm and 
all went well until evening when mosquitoes came 
out of every nook and cranny in countless thousands 
and although we slept on deck in as much breeze as 
we could find we spent two very miserable nights. My 
last recollection of the old tub was the boatswain 
standing on the bridge and wrangling with the Cap- 
tain as if two coal heavers were disputing together. 
This ship is very large indeea (for these parts) and 
