2 INTRODUCTION 



anchored, is covered with awnings from stem to stern. Under the 

 hatch are a large saloon, two cabins, pantry, etc. 



The crew — five ordinary seamen, a serang (boatswain), and 

 sailing-master — are Malays ; for natives are far more satisfactory in 

 nearly every way on a small boat in the tropics than vv^hite men, 

 even if the latter could be obtained. They can put up with more 

 restricted quarters, are less inclined to grumble under the peculiar 

 circumstances, or be disobedient, are more at home in every way 

 in the surroundings and with the people one meets, are little 

 trouble to cater for, and, most important of all, keep in good 

 health and can stand the sun. A Chinese "boy" and cook are 

 also carried. 



Forward on deck there is a small iron galley for the pre- 

 paration of meals, and aft repose two boats — an i8-feet double- 

 ender for four oars, and a beamy lO-feet dinghy that best carries a 

 crew of three. The schooner steers with a wheel. 



The Terrapin left Singapore in October 1900 and, subsequent 

 to calling at Penang, cruised off the coast of Tenasserim and 

 among the islands of the Mergui Archipelago until I joined her 

 late in December. A few days were then spent in the peninsula, 

 where several deer and wild pig were obtained ; then visiting High 

 Island — where an unsuccessful search was made for Sellung* 

 skeletons, and a number of birds and small mammals added to the 

 collection — she left for the Andamans. 



On the return voyage from the Nicobars we called at Olehleh, 

 the port for Kota Rajah, Dutch capital of Acheen. Even a 

 dissociation from them of only three months made the pink- 

 white skins of the Europeans — sun-avoiding Dutch — seem 

 strange and unhealthy. 



Having spent a day or two at this place, where we first heard of 

 the accession of King Edward VH., we skirted the north coast of 

 Sumatra, with its park-like stretches of grass and forest, drifting 



* The Sellungs are a primitive and timid tribe, who wander in canoes among 

 the Mergui Islands during the fine weather, and make temporary settlements on 

 lee-shores in the south-west monsoon. They number between two and three 

 thousand. 



