794 
THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. [June r, 1895. 
"A DECADE IN BORNEO." 
REVIEW. 
This interesting book, written by BIrs. Pryer, 
ought to be in the hands of every one who wishes 
to know something about the " New Ceylon," its 
people, and its capabilities. Mr. Joseph Hatton in 
his interesting introduction tells us who Mrs. Pryer 
is. The lady's husband is Mr. W. B. Pryer " the 
first white Besident in the territories of the British 
North Borneo Company, and one of its most en- 
thusiastic officers. Mr. Pryer, in taking up an inde- 
pendent position in the country as he has now 
done, should be able the better to advance its 
interests. His faith in the future has long been 
established by making North Borneo his home, and 
his wife is not less earnest than himself 
in the work of realising their unbounded faith 
in one of the most patriotic of modern enterprises." 
In 1877 Mr. Pryer formed one of a party of four 
to interview the Raja or Sultan of Brunei. The 
four were Baron Overbeck, Mr. Prettyman. Mr. 
Pryer, and Mr. Torry the U.S. Consul at Bankok. 
The expedition was fitted out by Mr. Alfred Dent 
(now Sir Alfred Dent, k.c.m.g.) In November of 
that year the party left Singapore in the steamer 
" America," specially chartered and fitted up for 
the expedition. They formed a treaty with the 
Sultan of Brunei in December and were then joined 
by Mr. Cowie now one of the Directors of the 
Chartered Company. They landed at Saudakan, and 
Mr. Pryer was duly installed by Baron Overbeck, 
who commanded the expedition, as Commissioner of 
the N.B. Coast. The capital of British North Borneo 
was " then formed of three small villages hidden 
away in one of the side arms of the Bay." Sanda- 
kan is now a town of 6,000 inhabitants of whom about 
130 are Europeans. 
"Starting the Colony" is the heading of the 2nd 
chapter of this interesting book. 
In September 1878 the Spaniards gave trouble and 
sent a man-of-war to Sandakan to take possession. 
However, Mr. Pryer with the assistance of Mr. 
Cowie the Captain of the " Far East " pluckily showed 
a brave front, with the result that the Spanish ship 
of war left, so that her Captain might consult the 
Captain-General of the Philippines. 
Chapter IV. gives an account of a second attempt 
on the part of the Spaniards to get hold of Sandakan. 
Chapter V. gives an excellent occount of Bird- 
nesting; and a Hunt in North Borneo. 
Chapters VI. and VII. give most interesting de- 
scriptions of a trip up the river Kina-Batangan, 
and the following interesting account of the "ordeal by- 
hot water," which some of our Ceylon lawyers might 
prefer to have among us, rather than the present 
system of perjury which now prevails in our Courts 
of Bequests : — " Whilst taking our coffee one morning, 
we heard a great shouting and calling in the forest, 
W. sent to inquire the cause, and found that the 
ordeal by hot water was being undergone by a man, 
who refused to acknowledge a debt. The test was 
perfectly voluntary. It appears that this method of 
settling disputes is often resorted to by natives. 
"When these men came out of the forest, my husband 
called for them, wishing to personally inspect the 
hands that had been in the boiling water ; they did 
not seem any the worse for it, and we do not know how 
the matter was managed ; but at any rate the debtor 
was quite satisfied, and told W so. When the man' s 
hand is in the hot water, he relieves his feelings by 
loudly calling on Heaven to help him and bear wit- 
ness to the truth of his statements." 
It does seem absurd in countries where an oath or 
simple affidavit have apparently no meaning to those 
who make them so glibly, that our law-makers can- 
not devise some such ordeal, so as to elicit truth 
out of the common class of witnesses in our Ceylon 
^°Mrs Pryer gives us a rather ghastly account of 
the way some of the inhabitants of North Borneo 
trv to keep in touch with the spirit world. 
" Summongupping " is thus described :—" At one 
place a small Chief came forward to make a request. 
The weather bad been unusually dry, and as a 
mean% of inducing rain— for need of \vhich ftfy Wofi 
were suffering much — this wicked old wretch asked, 
that he might be allowed to ' sninmongup ' one of hie 
slaves. ' Summongupping ' is a most revolting and 
barbarous custom, which the natives of the interior 
would like to carry into effect, if permitted to do 
so. It is needless to say that this request was 
promptly refused, and the man was cautioned not to 
pursue such practices in future. The ceremony of 
"summongupping" is as follows: having obtained a 
slave for the purpose, the unfortunate being is bound 
with ropes, and tied to a post : thereupon all the 
villagers approach armed with spears, which they 
thrust a short distance into the sluvc's body, at the 
same time requesting him to convey messages to 
their deceased relatives in Kina Balu. (I may here 
explain that Kiua Balu the largest mountain in the 
Company"s territory represents the Heaven of these 
people. The good people who die ascend to the rocky 
height, and live in joy on its summit ; while the bad 
ones ceaselessly and ineffectivelv try to scrambleup 
its cold and ragged sides to the abode of bliss above.) 
I hope this extract may not induce any of the 
planters in Kornegalle next hot season to " sum- 
mongup " any pf F. M. A Co.'s crimps they may 
catch in their lines ! 
I might fill your columns. Mr. Editor, with inter- 
esting extracts from Mrs. \V. B. Pryer's interesting 
book, but it is not an expensive one. The London 
Publishers are Hutchinson A Co.; Kelly A Walsh, 
Limited, China. Japan, and Singapore, are the Tro- 
pical Agents. Mrs. Pryer gives a very clear account 
of the way Liberian coffee is planted in Borneo in 
Chapter XIV. — Cor. 
TEA AND SCANDAL. 
" My wife sold Coffee and Tea, Souchong, 
When me and the boys went dodginc along, 
When I was a Peeler, 
A pretty character I have got, 
My Tea and Coffee is cone to pot, 
Boiling away." 
So sings a "Bobby" (in the British Museum) in 
a highly elevating song entitled " Go it, my kiddies, 
and fake away !" ; and so might I sing, for my Tea 
and (Coffee) Scandal have "gone to pot " the last 
three weeks, much, no doubt, to the grief of jour 
readers. However, I will now try and make up for 
lost time by giving you the following extract from 
Blackwood's" Ma<)a:ine, 1884, vol. 135, p 52. The 
article is called "Figures in the Fire," and from one 
image to another the writer thus passes on: — 
My pendent figure has quite burned away while I 
have been letting my pen run, where it appeared 
there is a great space now among the coals ; and as 
I regard the space more particularly, I perceive that 
it has bounds, and that the form is that of a tea- 
cup, the resemblance being the more striking from 
the figure of a spoon standing up in it. Now I am not 
very curious in China cups, or cups of any kind, but 
I own to having had in these latter days, some sad 
thoughts on the declining reputation of tea itself. 
It is no longer the beverage which " cheers but not 
inebriates ;" if we listen to the most radical of our 
dietists, it is a rank poison. I am not sure but 
that it is more deadly than the long-denounced 
alcohol, which has been so thoroughly vilified that 
its learned assailants can find no convenient bit of 
surface on which to implant a stab or a kick; and 
so are driven to attack a new offender. Now tea 
does, in these circumstances, exceedingly well to be 
angry. After the way in which we English, not so 
long ago, thought proper to land and cherish it, it may 
well complain that our heart is no longer towards 
it as of yore — 
" Though my many faults defaced me, 
Could no other arm be found 
Than the one which once embraced me. 
To inflict a cureless wound ? 
I can remember when I lay in a tropical fever, 
and my soul desired drink. " Take some tea," said 
my doctor; " tea will only soothe and heal you: 
take as much as you like of that." Now I suppose 
that I should, in the same circumstances, bo told to 
refrain front tea as from perdition. 
