SHIPPING WILD ANIMALS 113 



in the treasury, I asked why he did not pay his 

 debts. 



He thought for a time and then replied: "Well, 

 I'll tell you. If I pay those people, they will forget 

 about the Sultan of Trengganu. If I don't pay them, 

 they'll never forget me." 



The conversation turned to the subject of pris- 

 oners. On my way to the palace I 'had passed the 

 cages where the prisoners were kept. Many of 

 them were starving to death, for, unless their 

 friends or family cared for them, they got no food. 



"Why don't you feed them?" I asked. 



"Why should I?" he replied. "If I feed them, 

 my whole country will want to go to jail." 



Finally, after he had satisfied his craving for 

 sociability, he gave me my official permit to go into 

 the interior and to force labor. I started out for 

 the upper end of his state, bordering on Lower 

 Siam. At the mouth of the River Stu, I found 

 my agent ; we gathered a crew of ten men and went 

 up the river as far as we could. When the weeds 

 became so thick that we could not force the boats 

 through, we took to the jungle and began cutting 

 our way to the mud-puddle where the rhinoceroses 

 came to wallow. 



We took great precautions in approaching the 

 puddle, for once a rhinoceros gets the scent of a 

 hunter, he is off through the jungle as fast as he 

 can go. The hunter, who spots his animal and 

 shoots, has an easy time of it ; but the collector, who 



