xxvi AUTHOR'S INTRODUCTION 



established by constant intercourse, and the annual tax- 

 collecting visits are utilized as opportunities to cultivate 

 friendly relations with new-comers to a district, to renew 

 old friendships, and to inquire into grievances. It may 

 seem strange to European minds that tax-collectors are 

 welcome visitors, but the natives of Sarawak consider the 

 blessings of peace and security as cheaply purchased for 

 an annual poll-tax, whilst the coming of a white man to 

 an inland village is an excitement that affords topics of 

 conversation for weeks after his departure. 



Nearly the whole of Sarawak is smothered in dense 

 and luxuriant jungles, and as there are no roads beyond 

 the purlieus of the towns and stations, the rivers serve as 

 the highways. Unlike British North Borneo, Sarawak is 

 blessed with rivers that are navigable for miles inland, 

 and it is by the rivers that the Government officer 

 journeys into the " back blocks " of his district. The 

 lower reaches of these Bornean rivers are monotonous 

 in the extreme ; mangroves and Nipa-palms fringe their 

 sides for mile after mile, and the banks themselves at 

 low tide are uninviting stretches of black viscid mud. 

 Fortunate is that officer who has at his disposal a steam- 

 launch to convey him swiftly regardless of tide over 

 the first weary miles. Failing a launch, he must install 

 himself in a long, narrow canoe roofed with a thatch 

 of palm-leaf, and manned by a crew of twenty to thirty 

 sturdy Malays : here he must stay for hour after hour, 

 tying up to some riverside hut when the tide is against 

 him, waking the drowsy crew in the middle of the night 

 when it turns. And yet to one who has not to make the 

 voyage too often there is a charm about this method of 

 travel which is not to be found in the rapid transport 

 of the modern steam-launch. The traveller lies at his 



