XIX.] 
LABUAN. 
405 
course to Manilla, but the loss of time during our long stay in 
Japan compelled me to give up that plan. The course was 
shaped, however, not directly for Singapore, but for Labuan, a 
small English possession on the north side of Borneo. Its 
northern extremity (the coal mine) lies in 5° 33' N.L. and 
115° 12' E.L. England took possession of Labuan on account 
of the coal-seams which are found there^ which are of special 
importance on account of the situation of the island nearly 
in the midst of the large, numerous, and fertile islands of 
south-eastern Asia. It was the coal-seams too that attracted 
me to the place. For I wished to see whether I could not, 
in the neighbourhood of the equator itself, collect valuable 
contributions towards ascertaining the nature of the former 
equatorial climate. 
We at first made rapid progress, thanks to a fresh and 
favourable monsoon wind. But when we reached the so-called 
belt of calms, the wind ceased completely, and we had now to 
avail ourselves of steam, which, in consequence of the low 
power of the Vegas engine and a stroug counter current, carried 
us forward so slowly that it was not until the I7th •November 
that we could anchor in the harbour of Labuan. 
The largest of the islands belonging to the colony has, with 
a pretty considerable breadth, a length of 10' from N.E. to S.W. 
It is inhabited by some thousands (3,300 in 1863) of Chinese 
and Malays, together with a few Englishmen, who are either 
crown officials or employed at the coal mine. The north part 
of the island has a height of 140 metres above the sea, but 
towards the south the land sinks to an extensive sandy plain, 
closely overgrown with bushy thickets and traversed by low 
marshes. Most of the inhabitants live along the shore of the 
harbour which bears the now, or perhaps only for the present, 
indispensable name for English colonies (which on that account 
conveys little information) of Victoria. The Governor's fine 
residence lies at a little distance from the haibour town in the 
