CHAPTER V. 



BORNEO — JOURNEY IN THE INTERIOR. 



(NOVEMBER 1855 TO JANUARY 1856.) 



\ S the wet season was approaching I determined to 



return to Sarawak, sending all my collections with 



Charles Allen round by sea, while 1 myself proposed to go 



up to the sources of the Sadong River, and descend by the 



Sarawak valley. As the route was somewhat difficult, I 



took the smallest quantity of baggage, and only one servant, 



a Malay lad named Bujon, who knew the language of the 



Sadong Dytiks, with whom he had traded. We left the 



mines on the 27th of November, and the next day reached 



the Malay village of Gudong, where I stayed a short time 



to buy fruit and eggs, and called upon the Datu Bandar, or 



Malay governor of the place. He lived in a large and 



well-built house, very dirty outside and in, and was very 



inquisitive about my business, and particularly about the 



coal mines. These puzzle the natives exceedingly, as they 



cannot understand the extensive and costly preparations for 



working coal, and cannot believe it is to be used only as 



