EXPLORATION 
OF 
MOUNT KINA BALU, NORTH BORNEO. 
CHAPTER I. 
VOYAGE TO SINGAPORE. — SINGAPORE.-START FOR MALACCA.—ALOR-GAJAH.-ANTS.—EASTERN 
EVENINGS.— PULO SEBANG.— LEECHES. MERLIMAU.— CHIN CHIN.— MOUNT OPHIR.— PADANG 
BATU.—RETURN TO SINGAPORE. 
N October 1884 the good ship ‘ Khedive ’ sailed from Tilbury 
laden with a human freight, to be discharged during her voyage 
over nearly half the world. Amongst the passengers were health- 
seekers for Gibraltar and Malta, soldiers for Egypt and Aden, 
planters and merchants for India and the Straits, and a few bent 
on seeking adventure in strange lands; to the latter category I 
myself belonged, and will ask my readers to follow me in my 
peregrinations. 
What was the primary cause of my visit to Borneo I have by this time forgotten : 
perhaps I was inspired by that interesting volume, ‘ The Forests of the Far East,’ in which 
Mr. Spencer St. John gives an account of his interesting expeditions to the mountain of 
Kina Balu, this mountain up to the date of my exploration having refused to render an 
account of its ornithological treasures. 
Well! we have started—waving hands and distant cheers are all that we can see and 
hear of friends that perhaps many of us will never meet again. In a few hours, causes 
over which w^e have no control reduce many of us to a state of woe-begone helplessness : 
the Bay of Biscay was indeed unkind. On the fifth day of our voyage Gibraltar is 
reached just before sunset; after a few hours’ stay we enter the gates of the Mediterranean 
B 
