The usual life on board has returned.  A journey of sixteen days to Sydney is in store for us. We start to fill the long leisure time in devoting our attention to the packaging and storage of the objects collected on the land expedition and completing the neglected diary entries.  Hunters and servants are busy in repairing all the damage the constant rain has caused to our rifles and hunting equipment.

The rainy season that this year lasts for an abnormally long time in these latitudes is highly sensible. Often the bright sky becomes cloudy within minutes and stormy winds with tropical rains brush across the ship.

At 2 o’clock in the night we passed the Boompjes islands; at noon we had the Karimon Djawa islands on backboard and on starbord the very hilly coast of Java with Cap Mandelika.

During the day we saw some Dutch sailing ships that were probably going towards Tandjong Priok and very small fishing boats that venture out far into the sea as the sea is very calm. During the night they make navigation difficult as they set no lights. Therefore one risks running over one of these boats that one becomes aware of only in the last instant.

The young boar caught during the boar hunt in Garut marks its presence by loud cries and a young wildcat bought on Java proves to be very ill-natured. Unfortunately, due to the humid and inconstant weather, many of the parrots are dying.  In contrast the two monkeys  „Fips“ and „Mucki“, housed on the afterdeck, are in good mood and serenely jump around. Namely during dinner, they are very cute and do much mischief.

From the bridge I observed large schools of fish at multiple times during the day — a species of mackerel that was jumping incessantly out of the water, probably because it had been in the process of spawning. Flocks of sea gulls were accompanying the flying fishes. Often I noticed flying fishes, two of which we captured when they jumped into the battery.

Links

• Location: north of Java
• ANNO – on 28.04.1893 in Austria’s newspapers. Empress Elisabeth will spend the next two weeks in Lainz, while the Emperor will visit Budapest on 2 May.
• The k.u.k. Hof-Burgtheater is playing „Kriemhilde“ for its subscribers, while the k.u.k. Hof-Operntheater is performing Beethoven’s opera “Fidelio”.

Wiener Salonblatt Nr.. 18, p. 4 reports the departure of Franz Ferdinand and Leopold Ferdinand from Java to Australia