342 



MY LIFE 



[Chap. 



that I obtained numerous skins and skeletons of the orang- 

 utan, as fully described in my " Malay Archipelago." 



In my first letter, dated May, 1855, 1 gave a sketch of the 

 country and people : — 



" As far inland as I have yet seen this country may be 

 described as a dead level, and a lofty and swampy forest. It 

 would, therefore, be very uninviting were it not for a few 

 small hills which here and there rise abruptly — oases in the 

 swampy wilderness. It is at one of these that we are located, 

 a hill covering an area of, perhaps, three or four square miles, 

 and less than a thousand feet high. In this hill there are 

 several coal seams ; one of these three feet and a half thick, 

 of very good coal for steamers, crops out round three-fourths 

 of the hill, dipping down at a moderate angle. We have here 

 near a hundred men, mostly Chinese ; ground has been cleared, 

 and houses built, and a road is being made through the jungle, 

 a distance of two miles, to the Sadong river, where the coal 

 will be shipped. 



" The jungle here is exceedingly gloomy and monotonous ; 

 palms are scarce, and flowers almost wanting, except some 

 species of dwarf gingerworts. It is only high overhead that 

 flowers can be seen. There are many fine orchids of the 

 genus cselogyne, with great drooping spikes of white or 

 yellow flowers, and occasionally bunches of the scarlet flowers 

 of a magnificent creeper, a species of seschynanthus. Oak 

 trees are rather common, and I have already noticed three 

 species having large acorns of a red, brown, and black colour 

 respectively. 



" Our mode of life here is very simple, and we have a con- 

 tinual struggle to get enough to eat, as all fowls and vegetables 

 grown by the Dyaks go to Sarawak, and I have been obliged 

 to send there to buy some. 



" The old men here relate with pride how many ' heads ' 

 they took in their youth ; and though they all acknowledge 

 the goodness of the present rajah, yet they think that if they 

 were allowed to take a few heads, as of old, they would have 

 better crops. The more I see of uncivilized people, the better 

 I think of human nature on the whole, and the essential 



