ch. vii.] Opium Smoking. 159 



owing to the enormous rainfall ; and it is only the 

 abundance of cheap Chinese or native labour which 

 renders it possible in such a climate. Coolies from 

 Hong Kong may be obtained for seven to eight dol- 

 lars per month, or for less if their food is provided ; 

 and natives will work sometimes for five to seven dollars 

 per month. A good Chinaman as a labourer, is how- 

 ever worth two Malays. 



The largest rivers in the island are supposed to be 

 the Kinabatangan and the Pontianak ; the former is said 

 to be navigable over two hundred miles from its mouth, 

 and at the farthest point reached it was fifty yards wide, 

 and there was seven fathoms of water. Dutch steamers 

 have ascended a long way inland up the Pontianak which 

 lies south of Sarawak. Most of the rivers on the north- 

 west coast are very shallow, having dangerous bars at 

 their mouths ; and that at the mouth of the Brunei was 

 partly blocked by large rocks about the time of the siege 

 of that city by the English. 



Gambling and opium smoking are the bane of the 

 Chinese settlers and of many of the well-to-do Malays ; 

 and of all forms of intemperance surely this last must be 

 the most degrading and otherwise hurtful in its effects. 

 The manufactured drug as imported from Benares and 

 other opium producing districts, is in the form of balls 

 six inches in diameter, covered with the dried petals of 

 poppy flowers. This product is the inspissated juice of 

 the opium poppy (Pa/paver somnifentm), and is of a dark 

 brown or black colour. Before it is used for smoking, 

 however, it has to be still further prepared b} r boiling and 

 stirring in shallow pans over a bright fire ; and as the 

 pure product is very high in price, it is often subjected 

 to adulteration. In our eastern colonies it is usual to let 

 or farm cut the right to prepare and sell or export opium 



