278 PAGAN TRIBES OF BORNEO chap. 



out the land and which is in due measure reflected 

 to his representatives, both white and native. The 

 Rajah has also kept himself in close touch with the 

 Residents and the affairs even of the remotest 

 districts by encouraging the Residents to write to 

 him personally and fully on all important matters, 

 and by writing with his own hand full and prompt 

 replies. 



The foregoing brief account of the system of 

 government will have accentuated its essentially 

 personal character ; and it will have made clear the 

 necessity for constant personal intercourse between 

 the officers of various grades, and for the long 

 excursions of the Residents into the interior parts 

 of their districts, one of which we propose to 

 describe as an illustration of the intimate working 

 of the administrative system. For in the larger 

 and wilder districts the Resident's station may be 

 separated from populous villages by a tract of wild 

 jungle country, the return journey over which 

 cannot be accomplished in less than a month or 

 even more. 



The journey we are about to describe, as 

 illustrative of the administrative labours of the 

 Resident of one of the wilder districts, was made 

 in the Baram in the year 1898 by one of us 

 (C. H.) in the course of his official duties and in 

 part only by the joint -author of this book. A 

 slight sketch of the political history and condition 

 of the Baram is required to render intelligible the 

 objects of the journey and the course of events. 

 The Baram was added to Sarawak territory, under 

 the circumstances described above (vol. ii. p. 261), 

 in the year 1882. At that time it enjoyed the 

 reputation of a wild and dangerous region, owing 

 to the strength of the Kayans, who, dwelling in all 

 the middle parts of the rivers, had made a number 

 of bold raids as far as the coast and even to the 



