JUNGLE STRATAGEMS 55 
enter the country. For my part, though I had no 
idea how to win the Sultan to my way of thinking, 
I decided that it would be at least as easy as getting 
a permit to go into Lower Siam. That would have 
required interviewing H. H. Prince Damerong, 
brother of the King of Siam and Minister of the 
Interior, which was no easy matter for so obscure 
a person as I. 
Meanwhile the rumor reached us that an im- 
mense herd of elephants was crossing from the 
State of Pahang into Trengganu, and I made up my 
mind to act instantly. A roaming herd of elephants 
is so serious a menace to rice-crops that I thought 
the Sultan might not object to having the assistance 
of a foreigner in capturing them. In any event, the 
chance was worth taking. 
With the German captain of a small coast- 
steamer that called at Trengganu evigmthree weeks, 
I made arrangements to drop me there. Heprotested 
that it was a senseless undertaking; that I wouldn’t 
be allowed to land; that, if I was allowed to land, 
the Sultan would refuse to see me; that, if the Sultan 
granted me an interview, he would surely refuse 
to let me go inland; and that, if he allowed me to go 
inland, I would be killed by the natives. All the 
way up the coast, I listened to his arguments, and, 
when he asked me if I had changed my mind, I 
answered, “You just put me down on the beach, 
blow your whistle and go along.” 
