SARAWAK, PAST AND PRESENT. 335 



Notliing could be more arduous and full of risk to life and limb 

 than overland travel in the interior of Borneo, where the traveller 

 is confronted by dense, dark forests and rugged mountains from 

 the beginning to the end of his journey. The interior is practi- 

 cally an uninhabited wilderness, destitute of nearly everything fit 

 for human food, and he who would explore it must carry on his 

 back, through forests and rivers, and over mountains, sufficient 

 food, clothing, and medicines, to last to the end of the journey. 

 The heart of Africa is not nearly so inaccessible as the heart of Bor- 

 neo. The difficulties of overland travel in the interior are almost 

 beyond belief. 



Even in the extreme northeast, accessible from the coast on 

 three sides, there is said to be a great lake and a mountain-peak 

 higher than Kina Balu, never yet visited by a white man, which 

 beckon to the explorer with whispered promises of undiscovered 

 w^onders. From the remote interior of the island come wonderful 

 stories of a race of men with tails, with descriptions of their form 

 and habits, stories implicitly believed by many intelligent natives, 

 but which even the most skeptical white men are powerless to dis- 

 prove. 



The dense ignorance which prevails in Singapore regarding 

 Borneo is quite jDhenomenal. Although so near and in regular 

 steam communication with the island, I found it utterly impossible 

 to obtain there any definite information regarding the distribution 

 or abundance of the orang-utan. At last, when on the point of buy- 

 ing a steamer ticket for the Dutch settlement at Poutianak, I was 

 introduced, quite by chance, to the late A. R. Haugliton, Esq. — His 

 Highness' resident of the Eejang District, Sarawak — which piece 

 of good fortune led to an immediate and important change in my 

 plans. From this most agreeable and obliging official, who, from 

 his eighteen years of service in the Sarawak Government, was pre- 

 pared to answer any question regarding Northern Borneo, I leai-ned 

 that the orang-utan had not yet been exterminated in the rajah's 

 teiTitory, and that the valleys of the Sadong and Batang Lupar 

 Eivers abounded in animal life. I forthwith purchased a ticket for 

 Sarawak, and prepared to accompany my new friend, who was re- 

 turning from leave of absence to England to regain his shattered 

 health. 



I often think how differently I might have fared in my visit to 

 Borneo had I not met Mr. Haughton at the critical moment. 

 Thanks to his courtesy and friendly interest, my introduction to 



