AUTHOR'S INTRODUCTION xxv 



and ethnography of the country ; and it is a centre of 

 scientific research. In establishing and maintaining the 

 Museum at Kuching, H.H. the Rajah of Sarawak has 

 deserved well of science. Although foreign countries 

 have been quick in expressing gratitude for the services 

 he has rendered to naturalists visiting his country, 

 the debt has never been acknowledged by a single 

 English learned society. 



Sarawak, as most people know, is a large tract of 

 territory in Borneo, owned and ruled by the Rajah, 

 Sir Charles Brooke, G.C.M.G., second of his line. 

 This independent State is quietly prosperous, and, since 

 it is very much off the track of the globe-trotting tourist, 

 it is never much in the public eye. The annual revenue 

 now amounts to over 1,000,000 Straits dollars, a 

 proportion of which is derived from a poll-tax of two 

 dollars levied on every adult male. The State of Sarawak 

 is parcelled out into districts, each of which is placed 

 under the charge of one or more English officers known 

 as Residents. At headquarters is a fort where the 

 Resident lives, with a force of Malay police or of Dayak 

 soldiers under his command. When the time for collect- 

 ing the tax arrives the natives in the immediate vicinity 

 of the forts pay their dollars directly into the State coffers, 

 but visits must be paid to the outlying districts in order 

 to receive the sums due to the Government. The Rajah 

 believes and believes justly that the success of his rule 

 over the naturally turbulent and warlike tribes that make 

 up the bulk of the Sarawak population is due to the 

 personal influence exerted by himself and his officers. 

 The force majeure is rarely called into activity, because 

 the relations between rulers and ruled are for the most 

 part friendly and even cordial. Such results can only be 



