220 BRAVERY OF THE CHIEF OF LUNDU. 



fearing the exhaustion of his stock of ammunition, 

 which alone gave him any chance with his numerous 

 foes, had weighed, and during the latter part of the 

 action was paddling towards home with all hands that 

 could be spared from his lelahs (brass swivel-guns carry- 

 ing half-pound shot), followed by his occasionally at- 

 tacking enemies, who did not leav j him, so much would 

 they have valued the head of this their oldest and most 

 formidable foe, until he had gained his own river ; at 

 which, when he arrived after a whole day's pulling, 

 his ammunition was exhausted, as well as the strength 

 and courage of his men. Though several of his people 

 were wounded, he had the satisfaction of knowing 

 that he had fought for hours against a large fleet of his 

 enemies, of whom many were slain ; but he had not 

 the only pleasure for which he then longed the op- 

 portunity of bringing away their heads in triumph. 

 Both the Sakarran and Sarebas Dyaks have frequently 

 attacked this chief in his stronghold, the beautiful vil- 

 lage of Lundu, but have always been repulsed by the 

 guns supplied to him from Sarawak, in which his 

 safety alone consists, and which enable him to defeat ten 

 times his numerical strength. He delights in avenging 

 the many ills his tribe has suffered from the people of 

 Sakarran, and is always anxious to be let loose against 

 them. Excepting on this difficult to be eradicated 

 custom of barbarism, he is the most respectable and 

 well-behaved of the Dyak chiefs tributary to Sarawak, 

 and is truly the father of the people under his charge, 



