ch. xiv.] Start for Kambatuan. 293 



red eruptions, caused by a minute red parasite of acaroid 

 nature, which my men told me came off the buffalo on 

 which I had ridden. As we sat smoking after dinner we 

 heard the rain falling very heavily, and it lasted most of 

 the night. The troubles of the day are ended, and we 

 have cause to be grateful for our preservation from its 

 dangers. 



August Wth. — It was at first very wet this morning, 

 but an hour after sunrise it cleared up and the sun shone 

 beautifully. Our laggards came in about eight o'clock, 

 just as we finished our breakfast of fowl and rice. There 

 are plenty of fine cocoanut trees here, and one can obtain 

 fine fruit. " Kurow " overtook us here this morning, 

 having, together with his little daughter and another girl, 

 walked from Kiau since daybreak. The} r are going on to 

 Kambatuan, he tells me, to trade, and the girls have 

 baskets of tobacco on their backs. We bought some 

 cocoanuts and paid our host " Lapayang." He particu- 

 larly wanted some powder and caps for his musket, and 

 these we gave him, together with a handkerchief or two, 

 and looking-glasses for his sisters, two fine girls, both 

 married to young men of the village. 



We started for Kambatuan after all our men had arrived, 

 and " Kurow " accompanied us. Altogether we had a 

 day's rough work, two of the crossings being shoulder 

 high and very rapid, so that only I and the buffalo could 

 cross, and the men and Smith had to follow the windings 

 of the river a much longer distance over rough ground, 

 for the most part covered with coarse grasses and jungle. 

 It rained heavily at intervals, and we did not reach the 

 foot of Kambatuan hill much before dusk ; and after half 

 an hour's climbing up a path like a drain, sometimes 

 stony, sometimes of slippery yellow clay, we reached the 

 village in a regular downpour. Nowhere else in Borneo 



