SARAWAK TO Ment. 175 
fathoms, C--— and myself amused ourselves walking on the 
sandy coast. We returned on board after dark in a boat from 
the Meri village bearing a deputation headed by the chief trader 
Awane Babar. 
After dinner, a long conversation was carried on. which lasted 
till well into the night. the chief topic being trade. The Awang 
stated that the Sultan’s Officers bearing his chop had already been 
down the coast giving notice that no oppression would be allowed, 
and that only the fair and lawful taxes would be allowed to be 
collected. This is the first-fruit of the treaty between Brunei and 
Sarawak, and shows that the Sultan’s territory is not in such a 
state of anarchy as is generally supposed. Oyow Asrr, the Kayan 
Chief who was at Bintulu, was spoken of as a bad character. 
The Awang stated that two Chinese had proceeded up the Ba- 
ram river, leaving two others in their prahu at Meri. Everything 
reported quiet up the Baram. The Awang undertook to look for 
cinnabar, saying he was sure it was to be found in the interior of 
the Baram. He seemed afraid of compromising himself with the 
Sultan, but C told him there was nothing to be afraid of. 
The Awang finally stated he would proceed to Kuching in the 
Bertha, if we would give him a passage; he seems a perfectly civi- 
lised Malay. and told us he had been twenty-seven times to Singa- 
pore, but only once to Sarawak, 7. e., Kuching. 
The Malays who accompanied the Awang told us almost any- 
thing might be found in the Baram, and mentioned cinnabar, earth 
oil, birds’ nests, gutta, gold, diamonds. in fact everything that is to 
be met within Sarawak. The rice crop in the Baram had failed. 
and rice is now selling at high prices; there is every chance of a 
famine breaking out. 
We were told that the point we had walked out to in the 
evening was Tanjong Baih, the rock facing which we found to 
rise about fifty or sixty feet from the water’s edge. and composed 
of what seemed to me to be sandstone. 
6th May.—At 8 a.m. tried to enter the Meri river ; we experi- 
enced much difficulty in finding the channel. owing to the numerous 
sand-banks, and we found only 53 feet of water to get in on. The 
southern bank of the river slopes back to a low range of hills, the 
lower portion of which seems admirably suited for gardens. On the 
