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36 of fourteen and entered the secretary's office of the East 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 collections 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