36 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
of fourteen and entered the secretary’s office of the Hast India 
Company, rapidly rose in preferment, sailed for the East, and 
became enrolled as one of Britain’s great administrators. With 
this part of his career ‘The Zoologist’ is necessarily out of 
touch, but we cannot forbear to mention that in governmental 
duties he took as his motto Lord Minto’s observation: ‘‘ While 
we are here, let us do all the good we can.” 
During his sojourn in the East it is only by side lights that 
we are able to observe the naturalist and forget the Proconsul. 
He met Horsfield on his first visit to Suracarta, and ‘“‘ from that 
time forward, both in Java and Sumatra, Dr. Horsfield served 
with Raffles in a scientific capacity, and, after the death of his 
chief, the doctor bore testimony to “the zeal, ardour, and 
liberality, with which Sir Stamford both pursued and patronized 
science.” He received little encouragement in the formation of 
zoological collections. When, in 1820, he forwarded home the 
first half of a collection illustrating the natural history of 
Sumatra, ‘“‘he received in reply a coldly worded despatch, 
remonstrating with him on his extravagance, and forbidding him 
to expend any of the Company’s funds in such directions.” But 
fortune was still to deal a heavier blow. On his final return, in 
1824, with the remainder of his collections—both manuscripts 
and specimens—the ship that bore him was destroyed by fire and 
the whole of this precious cargo was consumed. The loss may 
be estimated in his own words. Besides the literary treasures, 
“all my collections of natural history; all my splendid collec- 
tions of drawings, upwards of two thousand in number, with all 
the valuable papers and notes of my friends Arnold and Jack; 
and, to conclude, I will merely notice that there was scarce an 
unknown animal, bird, beast, or fish, or an interesting plant, 
which we had not on board; a living Tapir, a new species 
of Tiger, splendid Pheasants, &c., domesticated for the voyage ; 
we were, in short, in this respect, a perfect Noah’s Ark.” 
During his stay in London, in 1817, he had discussed with 
Sir Joseph Banks a plan “for establishing in London a zoological 
collection and museum, which should interest and instruct the 
public.” This may be taken as the inception of an idea matured 
in 1825, when the prospectus of the new Zoological Society was 
drawn up and issued on the 20th of May. Sir Stamford Raffles 
