115- 
t allied animals excitedly all through lunch. 
In the evening we had dinner with Mr. Chasen of the Raffles 
Museum* Dr. Schultz was also there, end it was a happy evening. 
August 6 - 
While Bill ran around from agent to ship to government vet 
to Colonial Secretary, I used the morning to do a bit of shopping, 
and got some lovely things from Tang, the Chinese dealer. A 
mandarin coat for Malcolm Davis 1 wife that is a beauty, and some 
nightgowns for me in exouisite hand-embroidery. I lunched at the 
hotel with Williams, Schultz, and Audrey Sellers, and then we 
went down to the Rilverash and joined Bill there. All our animals 
were put aboard this morning, and we were supposed to sail at 
four o * clock. However, there was some difficulty about an oil 
tank, and it was eleven before we finally left. The ship is 
really veru comfortable. We have our own deck, a big bedroom, 
and a sitting room. Dinner was simple, but well cooked. I 
think I shall like the Silvers. sh. 
August 7 - 
We were up early, and fed some of our stock before breakfast. 
Poor little Stengah has a cold now, but inasmuch as the other two 
gibbons who were so sick seem to be getting better I hope &e will 
pull through too. She is such a friendly baby, and loves to hang 
on anybody 1 s neck. Williams has nicknamed her ?f sticking plaster. Tf 
After breakfast we started to write some letters, when a 
sailor came with the news that one of our lizards was out. We 
have several small lizards from Si am in one big cage, and Bill 
started off with a butterfly net to capture the stray. When he 
came back, an hour or so later, he said it was one of the Komodo 
dragons that had broken out of its box, and he had been unable to 
catpure it. It is fortunately down in the hold, and the only 
other animals there are the other Komodo dragon and a small 
collection of birds from the Batavia Zoo. Bill moved the birds 
up on deck, and left the lizard loose, preferring to wait until 
he has expert help, which will be tomorrow. It gives one a queer 
feeling to know that one of those monsters is walking about 
below decks, even if he is well shut in. 
A sudden squall shortly before noon sent everybody 
running with tarpaulin to cover the animals. Rain blew in from 
all directions at once. It is hard to take care of animals on 
board properly, and the first few days are always a mess. We 
ordered a lot of food in Singapore, but it is at the moment inacessi- 
ble in the storage room, and we ourselves forego our morning 
fruit in order to give it to the gibbons. Cleaning cages without 
proper instruments, and trying to give the animals water out of a 
bucket is also difficult. It will be good to have the boys aboard 
to-morrow and have all our own Zoo equipment. 
We stopped at Port Swettenham late in the afternoon, and 
Bill asked the agent to get us some bananas, chickens and pigeons, 
which he did. The birds are food for our big cats. The two big 
panthers from the Tungku. the clouded leopard from Basapa, and our 
little Siamese wild cat all need meat. 
