236 The Gardens of the Sun. [ch. xn. 



it was a bad collecting ground generally. The only steed 

 I could obtain was a large black bull, which I hired for a 

 bundle of tobacco. He was all right when I had fairly 

 mounted, but whenever I got off to shoot at a bird, or 

 gather plants, he became exceedingly restive, and the 

 only way to mount him again was to put the rope (by 

 which I steered him, and which was fastened to a twisted 

 ring of rattan cane in his nose) round the trunk or branch 

 of a tree, and then to pull his nose up to it by sheer 

 force, holding it firmly with one hand while I sprang on 

 his back. The few country people I met appeared 

 rather surprised, but I expect the bull was well known, 

 and so that served as a passport to me. Near the houses 

 on the shore a bushy euphorbia, with candelabra-like 

 branches, and a clump of yuccas were seen, both doubt- 

 less introductions. I returned about three o'clock. After 

 dinner I and Captain Cowie visited one or two of the 

 traders' houses, which resemble those of Sulu in internal 

 arrangement, large beds or platforms occupying the prin- 

 cipal apartment, covered with fine mats and pillows, the 

 valuables in boxes being piled up behind. In the morn- 

 ing we bore away for Sandakan, which we reached ere 

 daybreak the next day. The steam-ship America was in 

 the bay, having Baron de Overbeck on board. We 

 stayed here one day for cargo of trepang, rattan, pearl- 

 shell, and birds' -nests. These edible swallows'-nests are 

 highly valued by the rich Chinese, and it is from a cave 

 on the face of the sandstone rock on Pulo Bahalatolois, 

 at the mouth of this bay, that the finest white nests are 

 obtained. These rocks rise nearly perpendicularly from 

 the sea, and to reach the entrance to the cave a man has 

 to descend a distance of a hundred or more feet with the 

 aid of a rattan rope tied to a tree on the slope above. It 

 is dangerous work, as the least slip, and the man would 



