epaid the
trouble and time involved in the detour made to visit them. The sun
set and the young moon arose over as lovely a tropical scene as you
can possibly imagine.

[Illustration: The pet Manis.]

_Tuesday, March 20th_.--At 5.30, when we were called, the Doctor came
and announced that he had something very important to communicate to
us. This proved to be that one of our men was suffering from
small-pox, and not from rheumatic fever, as had been supposed. My
first thought was that Muriel had been with the Doctor to see him
yesterday evening; my next, that many men had been sleeping in the
same part of the vessel with him; my third, that for his greater
comfort he had been each day in our part of the ship; and my fourth,
what was to be done now? After a short consultation, Tom decided to
alter our course for Malacca, where we arrived at half-past nine; the
Doctor at once went on shore in a native prahu to make the best
arrangements he could under the circumstances. He was fortunate enough
to find Dr. Simon, nephew of the celebrated surgeon of the same name,
installed as head physician at the civil hospital here. He came off at
once with the hospital boat, and, having visited the invalid, declared
his illness to be a very mild case of small-pox. He had brought off
some lymph with him, and recommended us all to be re-vaccinated. He
had also brought sundry disinfectants, and gave instructions about
fumigating and disinfecting the yacht. All the men were called upon
the quarter-deck, and addressed by Tom, and we were surprised to find
what a large proportion of them objected to the operation of
vaccination. At last, however, the prejudices of all of them, except
two, were overcome. One of the latter had promised his grandfather
that he never would be vaccinated under any circumstances, while
another would consent to be inoculated, but would not be vaccinated.
We had consulted our own medical man before leaving England, and knew
that for ourselves the operation was not necessary, but we
nevertheless underwent it _pour encourager les autres_. While the
Doctor was on shore we had been surrounded by boats bringing monkeys,
birds, ratan and Malacca canes, fruit, rice, &c., to sell, and as I
did not care to go ashore, thinking there might be some bother about
quarantine, we made bargains over the side of the yacht with the
traders, the result being that seven monkeys, about fifty birds of
sorts, and innumerable bundles of c