46 Borneo. 



CHAPTER IV. 



BOENBO — THE OKANG-UTAN. 



I ARRIVED at Sarawak on November 1, 1854, and left it on 

 January 25, 1856. In the interval I resided at many differ- 

 ent localities, and saw a good deal of the Dyak tribes as well 

 as of the Bornean Malays. I was hospitably entertained by 

 Sir James Brooke, and lived in his house whenever I was at 

 the town of Sarawak in the intervals of my journeys. But 

 so many books have been written about this part of Borneo 

 since I was there, that I shall avoid going into details of 

 what I saw and heard and thought of Sarawak and its ruler, 

 confining myself chiefly to my experiences as a naturalist in 

 search of shells, insects, birds, and the orang-utan, and to an 

 account of a journey through a part of the interior seldom 

 visited by Europeans. 



The first four months of my visit were spent in various 

 parts of the Sarawak River, from Santubong at its mouth up 

 to the picturesque limestone mountains and Chinese gold- 

 fields of Bow and Bede. This part of the country has been 

 so frequently described that I shall pass it over, especially 

 as, owing to its being the height of the wet season, my col- 

 lections were comparatively poor and insignificant. 



In March, 1865,1 determined to go to the coal- works which 

 were being opened near the Simunjon River, a small branch 

 of the Sadong, a river east of Sarawak, and between it and 

 the Batang-lupar. The Simunjon enters the Sadong River 

 about twenty miles up. It is very narrow and very winding, 

 and much overshadowed by the lofty forest, which sometimes 

 almost meets over it. The whole country between it and 

 the sea is a perfectly level, forest-covered swamp, out of 

 which rise a few isolated hills, at the foot of one of which the 

 works are situated. From the landing-place to the hill a 

 Dyak road had been formed, which consisted solely of tree- 

 trunks laid end to end. Along these the bare-footed natives 



