184 LEAVE BRUNAI. [1844. 



lowing exaggerated, though certainly poetical description 

 of the Bohon Upar : 



" ' Fierce in dead silence on the blasted heath, 

 Fell Upas sits, the Hydra-Tree of death ; 

 Lo ! from one root th' envenomed soil below, 

 A thousand vegetative serpents grow ; 

 In shining rays, the scaly-monster spreads, 

 O'er ten square leagues his far-diverging heads ; 

 Or in one trunk entwists his tangled form, 

 Looks o'er the clouds, and hisses in the storm ; 

 Steep'd in fell poison, as his sharp teeth part, 

 A thousand tongues in quick vibration dart, 

 Snatch the proud Eagle towering o'er the heath, 

 Or pounce the Lion, as he stalks beneath ; 

 Or strew, as marshall'd hosts contend in vain, 

 With human skeletons the whitened plain.' " 



Having satisfactorily terminated our affairs with the 

 Sultan, and obtained from the Rajah the best information 

 relative to our communications with Ambong, which is 

 within his particular domains ; having consulted, also, with 

 Seriff Sahe, one of the Arab merchants, well versed in all the 

 affairs of the Chiefs to the eastward, relative to the possi- 

 bility of any European female being known, we quitted 

 Brunai, taking with us a pilot, and kinsman of the Rajah, 

 to assist us. Our leave-taking with the Rajah Muda 

 Hassim, and Pangeran Budruddin was, in some degree, 

 affecting : we had not, it is true, seen much of each other, 

 but when the moment for parting arrived, I was pleased 

 to find they were extremely grateful for the little we had 

 done for them. The parting between Brooke and Bud- 

 ruddin, in particular, showed that the Malay and English 

 can be warmly attached. 



Running the steamer well up the river, so as not to 



