TO SEREKEI. 367 



in, and sent, some short time since, their chief men to 

 beg Mr. Brooke to allot them a territory, and take them 

 under his protection. 



April 22nd. At 10 A.M. we went to the Patingi. 

 During this visit, the conversation was turned by the 

 chief, on European nations, their customs and manu- 

 factures. The only two people he had ever heard of, 

 were the English and Dutch; and he asked us many 

 questions relating to each. He fancied that Holland 

 was a much greater and more powerful nation than 

 Britain; he inquired more particularly about our 

 steam-ships, of which he had been told by his people 

 who had seen them. It was difficult to make him 

 understand how they could be made to go along by 

 smoke, for he knew no word for steam ; so that 

 Williamson translated it, "Asup ayer panas," the 

 smoke of hot water. He was filled with amazement, 

 when told that we considered it a trifle to go ten 

 miles an hour in a steam-ship, and that the distance 

 between Borneo and Sarawak could be travelled, in 

 our own country, in thirteen or fourteen hours by land. 

 His most anxious inquiries were reserved for our cloth 

 manufactories ; and he wanted to know how we could 

 possibly make so much cloth of different kinds, when 

 it took his women so long to make him a sarong. 

 We explained this and other things to him as well as 

 we could ; but his inquiries seemed as if they would 

 never end; so great was his anxiety for knowledge of 

 this description. He wanted to know about our wars, 

 our armies, and our navies, and wished us to tell him 



