204 EAMBLES OF A NATUEALIST. [Ch. XIII. 



Sarawak consists of a long line of Malay huts, btdlt on 

 piles on the left bank of the river, broken midway by some 

 rising gromid, upon which the houses of the Eajah and 

 residents, with their compounds, are situated, and occu- 

 pying a bend of the river. On the right side are the Chinese 

 town and bazaar, Kling quarters, barracks, the fort with a 

 six-gun battery. Government offices, a sago manufactory, 

 the Borneo Company's establishment, and some few Euro- 

 pean residences on the hUly ground behind. In the Chinese 

 bazaar may be purchased many European articles, such as 

 Eimmel's scent, eau de Cologne, doUs, &c., as well as many 

 common articles of crockery,* and ornamental ware, similar 

 to those which may be found in cottages in England. It is 

 a busy, lively quarter on the river side, where numerous 

 boats are constantly passing and repassing, and passengers 

 landing and embarking ; while a miscellaneous throng of 

 Chinese, Madrasees, Malays, may generally be seen, to 

 which is added sometimes a small party of Dyaks. Behind 

 the tdwn at some miles distance rise several lofty peaks, 

 which form a picturesque background, of which the chief 

 are Matang, Siaghi, and Peninjau. 



A visitor to this town of Sarawak, or, as it is called by 

 the Malays, Kuching (a cat), who may have chanced to know 

 anything of its state a quarter of a century back, may well 

 be struck with its flourishing condition, and with the aspect 

 of peace, plenty, and security, which now pervades a place 

 so short a time back a prey to lawlessness, rapine, and 

 bloodshed. No portion of the globe could have been more 



* It is not a little curious that I saw here some plates on which the time- 

 honoured willow-pattern was Anglicised. There were the bridge, the men, the 

 birds and the trees, but all stripped of their Chinese features and rendered in 

 English. Where they were made I do not know, but I never saw them in 

 England. 



