150 
KINA BA LIT : SECOND EXPEDITION. 
seem fairly common in this part. The next morning I sent three men over to the 
Tampassuk to ask my friend Sultan Paitailan to bring over twenty-two buffaloes to carry all 
our impedimenta. The Sultan came the next morning, and we discussed the possibility of 
sending the boat round to the Tampassuk River full of baggage ; hut in the end gave up this 
idea, as the Tampassuk bar is a bad one and the sea rough, and a wreck would he fatal to 
our success. 
20th.—I am attacked every day with a low fever, which is far from pleasant. The 
country round about Kina Balu is always hidden in cloud, so the wet season must still be 
continuing : the Tampassuk Bajows report the river very full. 
It was not until the 30th that the Sultan w T as able to collect the desired number of 
buffaloes, and on that day we reached the Tampassuk River. The next day I walked 
back to Abai with the men and arranged the rest of the baggage left there, consisting 
of a small stock of rice and other provisions; we pulled the pakarangan out of the sun 
into a mangrove-swamp, and put a quantity of water into it, covering it over with kajang 
mats, leaving word with some Bajow salt-makers to look after it until we returned. 
The plain is now swampy, and in places the mud is waist deep ; Snipe and Golden Plover 
are now plentiful. 
1st January, 1888.—The Sultan thinks we shall be able to start inland on the day 
after to-morrow, but is afraid of another flood on the Tampassuk before the dry season really 
sets in. A Bajow and his wife have been having high words in a house on the opposite 
side of the river this morning, and the lady nagged at her spouse for so long that it ended 
by the man drawing his kris and waving it about in a threatening manner in her vicinity : 
this quieted the woman at once. 
2nd.—The Ilanuns called early and tied up their packs, hut only for sixteen buffaloes, 
though I could have had thirty if I had required them; but I prefer to divide the risk and 
take only part of my things, leaving two Kadyans here with the rest, who are to come on 
in a few days. The Sultan requested me not to employ Bajows, as he could find sufficient 
men amongst the Ilanuns ; this, of course, I was willing to do, as the Bajows had refused 
to help me before. Billio is still alive, and again joined the ranks as interpreter, and again 
stipulated that he was not to go to Kiau with us. The famous blanket of last year 
has been divided amongst the Billio family, Billio himself wearing a long strip as a 
cummerbund; he has not sufficient cheek, however, to ask for another. I amused myself 
in the afternoon shooting Snipe, and unfortunately lost a Snipe which I have little doubt 
was a Great Snipe (Scolopaxmajor). The plain is in a fearful state, a mass of slushy black 
mud, and it will, I expect, be most unpleasant walking to-morrow. The river is sufficiently 
low, so if all goes well we shall reach Ghinambur to-morrow evening. 
3rd.—We were all on the road by 7 A.M. ; but for the state of the plain our journey 
would have been most enjoyable: the Tampassuk is decidedly lower than it was when we 
returned last year. We arrived at Ghinambur soon after 4 p.m., without a drop of rain 
falling during the day. The old Dusun who entertained us last year did so again, but 
owing to the fact that our host kept his buffaloes and pigs fenced in below the house, 
where they wallowed in several feet of their own filth, the stench arising from such a 
cesspool prevented my sleeping. Every now and then a buffalo would change the position 
