“I didn’t want to be left behind,” said the mouse. “I wanted to see what Africa was like—I have relatives there. So I hid in the baggage and was brought on to the ship with the hard-tack. When the ship sank I was terribly frightened—because I cannot swim far. I swam as long as I could, but I soon got all exhausted and thought I was going to sink. And then, just at that moment, the old man’s hat came floating by; and I got into it because I did not want to be drowned.” So the duck took up the hat with the mouse in it and brought it to the Doctor on the shore. And they all gathered round to have a look. “That’s what you call a ‘stowaway,’” said the parrot. Presently, when they were looking for a place in the trunk where the white mouse could travel comfortably, the monkey, Chee-Chee, suddenly said, “Sh! I hear footsteps in the jungle!” They all stopped talking and listened. And soon a black man came down out of the woods and asked them what they were doing there. [Illustration: “‘I got into it because I did not want to be drowned’”] “My name is John Dolittle—M.D.,” said the Doctor. “I have been asked to come to Africa to cure the monkeys who are sick.” “You must all come before the King,” said the black man. “What king?” asked the Doctor, who didn’t want to waste any time. “The King of the Jolliginki,” the man answered. “All these lands belong to him; and all strangers must be brought before him. Follow me.” So they gathered up their baggage and went off, following the man through the jungle. _THE SIXTH CHAPTER_ POLYNESIA AND THE KING WHEN they had gone a little way through the thick forest, they came to a wide, clear space; and they saw the King’s palace which was made of mud. This was where the King lived with his Queen, Ermintrude, and their son, Prince Bumpo. The Prince was away fishing for salmon in the river. But the King and Queen were sitting under an umbrella before the palace door. And Queen Ermintrude was asleep. When the Doctor had come up to the palace the King asked him his business; and the Doctor told him why he had come to Africa. “You may not travel through my lands,” said the King. “Many years ago a white man came to these shores; and I was very kind to him. But after he had dug holes in the ground to get the gold, and killed all the elephants to get their ivory tusks, he went away secretly in his ship— without so much as saying ‘Thank you.’ Never again shall a white man travel through the lands of Jolliginki.” [Illustration: “And Queen Ermintrude was asleep”] Then the King turned to some of the black men who were standing near and said, “Take away this medicine-man—with all his animals, and lock them up in my strongest prison.” So six of the black men led the Doctor and all his pets away and shut them up in a stone dungeon. The dungeon had only one little window, high up in the wall, with bars in it; and the door was strong and thick.