t14 BRITISH BORNEO. 
services as one of the first officers stationed in the country, 
before the British North Borneo Company was formed, have 
already been referred to, and I have drawn on his able report 
for a short account of the slave system which formerly pre- 
vailed. He had served in the Austrian Navy and was a very 
energetic, courageous and accomplished man. Besides minor 
journeys, he had traversed the country from West to East 
and from North to South, and it was on his last journey from 
Pappar, on the West Coast, inland to the headwaters of the 
Kinabatangan and Sambakong Rivers, that he was murdered 
by a tribe, whose language none of his party understood, but 
whose confidence he had endeavoured to win by reposing 
confidence in them, to the extent even of letting them carry 
his carbine. He and his men had slept in the village one 
night, and on the following day some of the tribe joined the 
party as guides, but led them into the ambuscade, where the 
gallant WiTTI and many of his men were killed by sumpz-_ 
tans.* So far as we have been able to ascertain the sole rea- 
son for the attack was the fact that WiTTI had come to the 
district from a tribe with whom these people were at war, and 
he was, therefore, according to native custom, deemed also 
to be an enemy. FRANK HATTON joined the Company’s 
service with the object of investigating the mineral resources 
of the country and in the course of his work travelled over a 
great portion of the Territory, prosecuting his journeys from 
boththe West and the East coasts, and undergoing the hardships 
incidental to travel in a roadless, tropical country with such 
ability, pluck and success as surprised me in one so young and 
slight and previously untrained and inexperienced in rough 
pioneering work. 
He more than once found himself in critical positions with 
inland tribes, who had never seen or heard of a white man, 
but his calmness and intrepidity carried him safely through 
* The sumpitan, or native blow-pipe, has been frequently described by 
writers on Borneo. It isa tube 63 feet long, carefully perforated lengthwise 
and through which is fired a poisoned. dart, which has an extreme range of 
about 80 to 90 yards, but is effective at about 20 to 30 yards. It takes the 
place in Borneo of the bow and arrow of savage tribes, and is used only by 
the aborigines and not by the Muhammadan natives. 
