this fellow and to sink his piratical
craft. At any rate, we may make up our minds to be here for some time."

On the following day a message was received from the rajah, saying that
if any of the officers wished to go on excursions for sport, guides
would be placed at their disposal, and that all who wished to do so
could at any time travel through the country without the slightest fear
of molestation. For some time affairs remained in the same condition.
The doctor went daily on shore with butterfly and beetle nets, tin
boxes, and other paraphernalia. He was generally accompanied by a couple
of bluejackets, and always took a native guide to prevent the risk of
being lost in the jungle, and also because the man was able to take him
to places where villages had stood, and it was in these clearings that
insect life, especially among the lepidoptera, was most abundant. The
Malay he first engaged was a young fellow who proved so intelligent and
willing that he was permanently retained for the service as long as the
Serpent remained on the station.

The officers obtained no sport with big game; for although at night
the forest was full of sounds, showing the number of wild animals that
abounded, these never were met with during the daytime, and it would
have been hopeless endeavoring to penetrate the thick jungle in search
of them. There was, however, an abundance of birds, for the most part
of brilliant plumage, and the doctor was delighted with the spoils they
brought in, while the messes were kept well supplied with jungle fowl
and other edible birds. The natives, learning from the guide of the
doctor's passion for insects, brought in large numbers for sale, and he
was able to purchase a great many specimens altogether new to science.

The two midshipmen made excursions with their guns whenever they could
get leave. Davis and two other sailors always accompanied them, as the
captain's orders were strict that no officer or man should go outside
the limits of the campong unless accompanied by two armed seamen.

Sometimes they took a native canoe and went up the river fishing; but as
an abundance of fish could be caught by lines from the ship's side, they
only did this as a change, and often in the cool of the evening they lay
lazily in the canoe, while the fishermen were employed rowing them up
one or other of the numerous streams which flowed into the river.
The doctor's prognostications as to the health of the crew wer