MISCELLANEOUS NOTICES, &C. 
xxxvii 
amount to 2/0,000 souls, and that they were greatly ad¬ 
dicted to head hunting, and many natives intimately ac 
quainted with the Kayans all give evidence to the interior 
parts of Borneo being populous, and it would he difficult to 
conceive how a small body could drive the aboriginal inha¬ 
bitants before them unless possessed of superior arms, which 
the Kayans are not. 
I here take leave of Mr Burns with* ut applying to him 
the abusive terms he has so liberally bestowed on others, 
but it is alike self respect and the respect due to 
your valuable journal which have induced forbearance; but as 
in the same journal he has accused an amiable and absent 
gentleman of “slander” and two other gentlemen of giving 
to the public “extravagant statements” it was due not only 
to the accused but to your readers to prove that there is no 
foundation for Mr Burn’s assertions, which may be treated 
with a smile or a frown as a person may lean either towards 
the Epicurean or Stoic philosophy. 
Truth and justice demanded thus much—but further than 
this it would be waste of time and reason to pursue the 
topic, 
,( To waft a feather or to crush a 
A FRIEND TO THE ABSENT. 
