DEPARTURE FOR BANDJERMASIN 95 



They are engaged for one year and some of them renew 

 their contracts. 



As we sailed southward from the Kayan River we were 

 told of a French count who with his wife lived on an island 

 three or four kilometres long, near the coast. At first he 

 had fisheries and sold dried fish, which, with rice, forms 

 the staple food of the natives of Borneo and other coun- 

 tries of the East. He was enabled to change his business 

 into cocoanut plantations, which to-day cover the island. 

 According to report they dressed for dinner every day, to 

 the end that they might not relinquish their hold upon the 

 habits of civilised society. Later I learned that when the 

 war broke out the count immediately went to France to 

 offer his services. 



Lieutenant C. J. La Riviere came aboard in Samarinda, 

 en route to Holland for a rest, after being in charge of the 

 garrison at distant Long Nawang in Apo Kayan. There 

 are 40 soldiers, 2 oflicers, and i doctor at that place, which 

 is 600 metres above sea, in a mountainous country with 

 much rain, and therefore quite cool. In a single month 

 they had had one and a half metres of rain. Officers 

 have been known to spend three months in going from 

 Long Iram to Apo Kayan, travelling by prahu almost the 

 whole distance. Usually the trip may be made in a 

 couple of months or less. The river at last becomes only 

 four metres broad, with very steep sides, and in one night, 

 when it rains copiously, the water may rise five to six 

 metres. Mail usually arrives three times a year, but 

 when the lieutenant boarded the steamer he had not seen 

 a newspaper for five months. 



