Evening star., 1921-06-05

backed the elephants overheard. They
hit the water with a great splash and
| roar and came up blowing like whales
They were swimming. Of course. for ele-
I animals 1 have ever seen. The at
| tendants approached them in rowboats.
and, jumping on their backs. rode them
| to shore BY the time they reached land
they had completely recovered from the
excitement of falling overheard.
The captain returned to Singapore. en-
thusia site over this new way of handling
elephants,' and Il =. fAd the pleasure of
shipping my lase ceQMgnment to Madras
on his ship. He advised me never to
| take an agents WORD for what the cap
! tain of a ship will or will not do. and.
after that experience, 1 always saw the
captain first and the agent second.
By the time had disposed of the last
of my elephants I was SO sick with the
fever that 1 could not leave my bed. l
was dangerously i'll and began to rea-
| lie that should be lucky if l escaped
with my life.
Mr. Lambert, who had been my friend
ever since landed at Singapore to enter
the animal business, engaged passage
for me on a steamer bound for Europe
and took charge OF the affairs OF my ami
NAL house in Orchard road. When 1t
was time to go to the steamer my Chi
nese coolie boy carried me. He is the
only Chinese l have ever seen cry; the
tears rolled down his cheeks as he car
ried me up the gangpiank and to my
| cabin. for he thought that he should
never see me again. l rather thought
so myself. but l figured that If they
didn't drop me into the Red sea. which
| is the last resting place of so many peo-
pie who have stayed too long in the
+, tropics, l should recover and live to re-
turn.
Ali and the coolie waited faithfully
for me during the next year, while
Travelled in Europe and America, re-
| cuperating and gathering new COM
! missions for animals. And, when 1
came back. they were on the dock to
welcome me.
THOUGH my health was much i'm
= proved by the voyage, I did not
feel able to resume the active busi-
ness of collecting. and SO I concen-
trated my efforts upon my animal
house and made 1t the largest place
of it's kind. I had monopoly of the
business. Mahommed Ariff, who had
a large number of native collectors
working for him. did much of his
dealing through me. and 1 had no
mails brought in from the jungles by
our various agents. My largest mar
ket was Australia, where / could sell
the animals t. o. b. Singapore without
any of the risk Of transportation.
of Germany and Cross of Liverpool.
Because Of the high import duty. I
sent comparatively few of my ami
mails to the United States.
John Anderson. who was European
adviser to the King of Siam and who
had been created a Siamese nobleman,
sent for me and offered me a commits
sion that kept me busy for the next
five years. The King of Siam was in
the habit of making presents Of wild
animals to foreign rulers, and 1t be-
came my work to select the animals
and supervise all details of shipment.
l was sent to interview the minister
of the interior, H. H. Prince Dame
rong. who gave me a.permit to travel
wherever 1 pleased in Siam and to
force labor. In Siam, directed many
hunts, especially for tuskers to be
used in the teak forests. The driving
was done entirely during the daytime.
and on elephants, instead Of on foot,
me in bad condition, and so I did not
take an active part in the work.
On my trips between Bangkok and
Singapore. 1 stopped off many times
ance with the sultan and to talk with
the native hunters, who were sending
steady stream of animals to me at
Singapore. was known to the ma
tives throughout the peninsula. as
Tuan Gajah-Sir Elephant-and II
was amused to find that the story of
the big elephant hunt had grown to
incredible proportions. The herd of
sixty elephants became larger each
time the story was told.
After one exciting incident in the
work of shipping animals for the
King of Siam, was allowed full au-
thority. We were sending pair of
beautifully matched leopards to the
reacneG sinranore in two ao1 large .ne poor aao
ly constructed cages. Mr.. Anderson
was there. and we disagreed on the
advisability of recaging them. Il
thought that the cages looked weak
and wished to have my Chinese car
penter-build two that would be small
er and stronger. Mr.. Anderson, how
ever, was impatient to start the leop-
ards on their voyage. and, since he
was boss, we loaded the cages on bull
lock carts and headed for the docks
In unloading one of the bullock-carts,
the natives allowed the case to slide