172 
ODOAKDO BECCAEI. 
Another interesting excursion lie made was up the Batang ' 
Lupar River to its source and across the Dutch border to the lakes 
on the great Kapuas river. 
Although his book is rich in botanical notes, as Mr. Burkill 
has already mentioned in this article, the large zoological collec- 
tions and notes he made testify to the wide interest he took in 
even r phase of Xature. His reptile collection from Borneo con- 
tained 88 species, of which 19 were new to science. His collection 
of bird-skins totalled some 800, representing 226 species. The 
orang-utans particularly interested him; he collected no less than 
48. To pick out a selection of his more interesting zoological notes 
is a difficult task. To illustrate the variety of his notes one may 
refer the reader to his description of the “ sumpitan fish'” which 
gains its insect food by squirting a jet of water at them; the edible 
birds nests ; the symbiosis of ants and “ hospitating ” plants such 
as Nepenthes; the cause of eyespots on the wings of pheasants and 
butterflies. 
His notes on the natives of the country, their origin, customs, 
languages, etc. are equally varied. 
Beceari tells us in the introduction to his book that if it had 
not been for a happy chance that led to his meeting the Ranee of 
Sarawak in Florence, who urged him to the task, he would never 
have put together the notes of his youthful travels for publication 
after the lapse of some 40 years. He dedicates his book to the 
Ranee, and it is thus to that talented lady that we owe this in- 
tensely interesting narrative of Bornean life, besides her own de- 
lightful book on Sarawak also written many years after her last 
visit to that country. 6 
Beceari visited Sarawak first during the reign of the first 
White Rajah, Sir James Brooke, who at the time however was in 
England where he spent the last five years of his life. His nephew, 
Charles Brooke, then Tuan Muda, practically assumed the reins 
of Government in 1863, although he did not become Rajah until 
the death of his uncle in 1868. The remarkable policy laid down 
by the first Rajah and so faithfully carried out by his nephew the 
late Rajah over a long period of 54 years excited Beccari’s warmest 
admiration, as indeed it has in many other writers. This policy 
was to rule the country for the benefit of its people. The ad- 
vantages to be derived by foreigners settling in the country under 
the Rajah’s flag, were a secondary consideration. I cannot ' do 
better than quote Beccari’s remarks. He revisited Sarawak at the 
end of 1877 and found that his earlier favourable impressions of 
the Brooke rule were fully confirmed: 
“ The Rajah considers himself the father of his people, 
who have all his thought and care, and he does his utmost to 
lead his subjects along the road of progress and civilisation, 
though without sudden or violent changes, to which he is ab- 
« My Life in Sarawak, by the Ranee of Sarawak. 
Jour. Straits Branch 
