NORTH BORNEO. 
37 
besides, continued sitting still in the boat is most unhealthy work: several times when we 
attempted to walk along the river-banks the slushy paths were up to our knees in water 
and mud. I am now beginning to be quite doubtful of ever doing anything in this 
country, and at times almost make up my mind to return home. During the whole 
time we were on the Padas River we seldom got a night’s rest for mosquitoes, my men 
being quite done up, having no nets. 
On the evening of the 17th we again were amongst the mangrove-swamps ; and just 
as our prahu reached the sea it became firmly fixed in the mud; as the tide was receding, 
we had to remain there until morning. At 9 a.m. we arrived at Mempakol; and thus 
ended the most uneventful and worst managed expedition I have ever made: in fact, I 
must apologize to my readers for recounting this part of my history; but it will give them 
some idea of what a naturalist has to endure, and to any intending traveller one of the 
many ways in which he may be duped. 
For the next few weeks after my return to Labuan I was laid up with slight attacks 
of fever, and so was my native servant, who in a very few days after my return went out 
“ on the spree ” and neglected to turn up for a day. When I sent after him, he told my 
messenger that he would come back on the morrow; but on his arrival he found another 
carrying on his occupation. Natives and Chinese servants are very fond of leaving in this 
abrupt manner, generally waiting until their month’s wages have been paid, so it is best to 
pay them shortly after their money is due. 
The small town of Port Victoria is composed of a row of one-storied Chinese brick 
shops, with the usual collection of native “ attap ” dwellings in the outskirts. The 
Government office is a fine roomy wooden building; but there is an air of neglect about 
this small town, which is perhaps to be accounted for by the fact that, since the coal-mines 
were abandoned, trade is not nearly so brisk; then Chinese shop-keepers are naturally a 
slovenly lot of people, taking little or no interest in the outward appearance of their 
business premises. The harbour is better than most others in Borneo ; with the assistance 
of a few feet of nebong pier large steamers can unload within a few yards of the shops. 
During one of my visits to Labuan I visited Coal Point, the scene of the Oriental 
Coal Company’s workings. It was indeed a sorry sight: thousands of pounds worth of 
machinery lay about in all directions, often a mass of rust, and of course all woodwork was 
long since destroyed; most of the brass fittings had been cut away or unscrewed from the 
engines and other plant by, it was supposed, Bruneis from the mainland, who must have 
thought the white men big fools to leave so much valuable metal about—in which they 
were not far wrong, as I believe most of this wilful waste was due to certain Government 
claims on the property. 
In Labuan I amused myself collecting birds, and in making short expeditions to some 
of the small islands which form the Labuan group. The commonest species of birds in 
the island were three sorts of Paddi-birds, which at the moment are busy proving one of 
Darwin’s great doctrines—“ the survival of the fittest.” The commonest species of Paddi- 
bird at present is Munia brunneiceps; this species has almost extirpated a once commoner 
species, M. f means, a much smaller bird, but in habits identical with the other bird, and 
thus perhaps competing slightly with it. Of late years one of the Governors of Labuan 
