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THREE IN NORWAY. By Two of Them. 
 With a Map and 59 Illustrations. Crown 8vo. 
 2s. boards ; 2s. 6d. cloth. 
 
 B.C. 1887 : A RAMBLE IN BRITISH 
 COLUMBIA. By J. A. Lees and W. J. Clutter- 
 buck, Authors of ' Three in Norway.' With Map 
 and 75 Illustrations. Crown 8vo. 6s. 
 
 THE SKIPPER IN AECTIC SEAS. By 
 W. J. Clutteebuok, one of the Authors of ' Three 
 in Norway.' With 39 Illustrations. Crown 8to. 
 10s. U. 
 
 London : LONGMANS, GBEEN, & CO. 
 
' IS TOW ' COAIKG FEOII MUAKA TO LABUAN 
 
1) 
 
 A 
 
 &- \"' enow. 
 
 ABOUT 
 
 CEYLON AND BOBNEO 
 
 BEING 
 
 AN ACCOUNT OF TWO VISITS TO CEYLON, ONE TO 
 
 BOBNEO, AND HOW WE FELL OUT ON 
 
 OUB SOMEWABD JOUBNEY 
 
 BY 
 
 WALTEE J. CLUTTEKBUCK, E.E.G.S. 
 
 AUTHOR OF 'THE SKIPPER IN ARCTIC SEAS' 
 AND JOINT AUTHOR OF 'THREE IN NORWAY' AND 'B.C. 1887' 
 
 WITH FORTY-SEVEN ILLUSTRATIONS 
 AND TWO MAPS 
 
 LONDON 
 LONGMANS, GBEEN, AND CO. 
 
 AND NEW YORK : 15 BAST 16 th STREET 
 
 1891 
 
 All rights reserved 
 
PRINTED BY 
 
 SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE 
 
 LONDON 
 
 Ki 
 
 to 3/7/ 
 
 x 
 
 cC^ 
 
PREFACE 
 
 This book is about Ceylon as it was fourteen years 
 ago ; about Ceylon as it is now ; also about Brunei, 
 which is a very, very ancient part of Borneo ; and it 
 treats in a few chapters of North Borneo, which is to 
 all appearances ' a bran new place.' 
 
 Everyone sees things from a different point of 
 view. My view may be hopelessly uninteresting to the 
 world in general, but if you have undertaken to scan 
 this book you must put up with it. Yes ! read on ; 
 feeling sure that something better is coming. Will it 
 come ? 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I. Arrival in Colombo 1 
 
 II. Travelling Up Country . . . . . 11 
 
 III. The same Journey in 1890 .... 15 
 
 IV. On Tea 26 
 
 V. Coolies 34 
 
 VI. Way Down Upon the Kehelgama River . . 46 
 
 VII. The Planter's Life 54 
 
 VIII. Down the Diokoya Valley 63 
 
 IX. The 'Bopats' 71 
 
 X. In the Lower Country . • . . . 82 
 
 XL Mount Lavinia 88 
 
 XII. Something about the Natives at Mount 
 
 Lavinia 101 
 
 XIII. Travelling in Ceylox . . . .118 
 
 XIV. At Manly's 124 
 
 XV. Departure from Ceylon 131 
 
 XVI. A Shipload of Emigrants for North Borneo 132 
 
 XVII. Arrival at Sandakan 139 
 
 XVIII. We Start for the Wiids 149 
 
Vlll ABOUT CEYLON AND BORNEO 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 XIX. In the Low-lying Tobacco Country . . 155 
 
 XX. Bos Banteng 159 
 
 XXI. Some Bornean Natives 164 
 
 XXII. Our Return 176 
 
 XXIII. Natives op North Borneo .... 186 
 
 XXIV. Elephants 192 
 
 XXV. Labuan 200 
 
 XXVI. Brunei 207 
 
 XXVII. Brunei (continued) 215 
 
 XXVIII. Singapore 224 
 
 XXIX. We set out on our Return . . . 234 
 
 XXX. Aboard a M. M. Steamer . . . . 241 
 
 XXXI. We Arrive at Marseilles .... 250 
 
 Appendix . . 259 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTEATIONS 
 
 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 ' In Tow ' Coming from Muara to Labuan . . Frontispiece 
 In Peeadenita Gardens .... .To face page 28 
 
 kondesalle ferry . . . . 
 
 Bullocks at Kondesalle .... 
 The Bamboos. From Warleigh Ford, Dickoya 
 Van's Native Servants from Java 
 Native Women at Brunei .... 
 
 A Native Fisherman's Dwelling near Muara 
 
 84 
 89 
 120 
 193 
 217 
 225 
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS IN TEXT 
 
 PAGE 
 
 A Group of Singhalese Lads beneath the Cocoa-nut Trees 9 
 
 Washing Cows in the Lake at Colombo 19 
 
 Douglas's Old Bungalow 23 
 
 A Tamil Coolie Woman picking Tea 27 
 
 Large Tea Leaf. Tea Flower and Seed. The ' Pluck ' . 31 
 
 Tamil Woman's Earring . . 40 
 
 An Old Tamil Woman covered with Jewellery ... 42 
 
 Edward and Douglas inspecting Cattle 55 
 
 The Mortared, Whitewashed Lump of Clay .... 69 
 
 The Old Malay Conductor ... ... 72 
 
 Singhalese Men Washing for Gems 77 
 
 The Ants on my Shirt-sleeve 79 
 
x ABOUT CEYLON AND BORNEO 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The Stick Insect 80 
 
 The Trotting Bullock . . 86 
 
 The Sea Coast 90 
 
 March, 1876 • 9 1 
 
 March, 1877 . 91 
 
 Crows at Mount Lavinia 94 
 
 About Thirty-six Feet from the Ground . . . . 97 
 
 Katamarangs Ashore . 101 
 
 'Elp!! 'Elp!! 105 
 
 Hair-cutting . . . 108 
 
 Near Mount Lavinia . . . . . 114 
 
 A Bullock Hackery 129 
 
 A Chinaman .... 135 
 
 The Pier at Kudat 141 
 
 Our Bungalow in Borneo . 167 
 
 The ' Tongered ' 169 
 
 The Back of a Dutchman's Bungalow in the Low Country 
 
 about Thirty Miles Inland ... . 179 
 
 Angseuna Trees, Labuan . . 202 
 
 Town op Brunei on Piles . .... 209 
 
 A House in Brunei 211 
 
 All that is to be seen of a Brunei Boat retiring . . 219 
 
 The Brunei Street Lamp 220 
 
 Boys Bathing beneath my Bunk aboard the Borneo Boat . 228 
 
 A Chinaman's Razor 231 
 
 A Chinaman's Boat at Singapore 232 
 
 A Katamarang at Mount Lavinia 244 
 
 MAPS 
 
 Sandakan Harbour to face page 150 
 
 British North Borneo and Brunei .... at end 
 
ABOUT CEYLON AND BORNEO 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 ARBIVAL IN COLOMBO 
 
 It was on December 20, 1889, that I arrived at 
 Colombo in Ceylon. I am going to tell you just what 
 I saw in the island on that occasion, and I also wish 
 to give some of my experiences during a short resi- 
 dence there thirteen years previously. There is no 
 use in apology, so let me begin at once. 
 
 I stayed with a planter called Douglas two long 
 dry months, and at the end of that time I should not 
 have gone if I had not been turned out. He found 
 that I was not only planted at his up-country bun- 
 galow, but that I had become rooted in his house. 
 At length, with one final fell swoop, he dragged me 
 out and I wandered on. 
 
 I left, however, behind me some frail tendrils, 
 some fragments of myself, such as a couple of tins of 
 bad tobacco ; but as Douglas was not a smoker, he 
 could not be tempted even in a moment of despondency 
 to light a pipe with this. I also left behind me a 
 collarless flannel shirt, and a photograph of Mrs. 
 
 B 
 
2 ABOUT CEYLON AND BORNEO 
 
 Cameron's, representing a young lady in a gauze 
 turban, apparently suffering from sea-sickness, having 
 evidently just remarked that she wished she were 
 dead. There was much pathos in this picture. I 
 also left behind me in my room a smell of smoke, and 
 this was nearly all, if I do not mention Douglas's 
 regrets that I had ever taken it into my head to come 
 out there. Eh ! I certainly left all this behind when 
 I quitted Ceylon ; was it not enough ? 
 
 After three weeks of rolling about at sea it seemed 
 strange on arriving at Colombo to find everything 
 still around one, a quiet room on awaking in the 
 morning, instead of the ever-pulsating throb of that 
 never-tiring screw propelling you forward through an 
 apparently ceaseless ocean. 
 
 It was strange to lie awake and listen to the shrill 
 crowing of the domestic cock, and Tamil jinrickshaw 
 coolies hallooing to each other from where they stood 
 in the street below in this sort of way — 
 
 Vrhr\fWwv\AA«~™ tlh vVlirrvvA/vvvvrwv^wv,^ dil 
 
 Whn\Ann/v\An/vvvw\/v\A~v*~~~~ww~- &h Wlirf\fv\AA^dh 
 
 W JlDvvvwwvwwvvvwwwvvvwwwvw ^ <Ln an i 
 
 Then the other fellow — I mean the man who was. 
 hallooed to— answered ' Hm,' and presently he would 
 say ' Hm ' again. At least this is what their intellectual 
 conversation sounded like to a stranger. Doubtless 
 those who speak the Tamil language fluently would be 
 as much engrossed with the spokesman's tail, as the 
 auditor was outside my bedroom window. Perhaps 
 they would feel inclined to say at the end of each 
 sentence, 'Hm,' just as the Tamil man did who was 
 being talked to in the street. 
 
AEEIVAL IN COLOMBO 3 
 
 Then there was the distant hoarse croaking of a 
 hundred crows, with many other sounds which were 
 not the least European, and anything but ship-like. 
 Very soon you began to realise that you were not at 
 sea any longer, and instead of the quiet uneventful life 
 that you had been leading for the last three weeks, 
 you awoke once more to that struggle for existence, 
 that bullying and being bullied, which goes on in our 
 everyday life. Some men are struggling for money, 
 others for health, whilst some are wading on through 
 their span of existence seeking amusement only, and 
 scarcely ever finding it. Of this latter class there 
 were shoals in the hotel at Colombo, as it is the great 
 junction for all travellers who come out eastwards 
 from home. 
 
 How delightfully ridiculous some of the fellows in 
 the hotel looked, got up for dinner in the evening with 
 white Eton jackets, white trousers, and gaudy 
 ' cummerbunds ' instead of waistcoats. Certainly 
 they had the advantage of looking cool in this costume 
 compared with the Australians who were hurrying 
 through Ceylon, and who appeared warm, decidedly 
 warm, in their European costumes. The thermometer 
 registered 86° in the shade, and there was enough 
 moisture in the air to stifle one. 
 
 Colombo is not a place that inspires Europeans 
 with energy. I agree with the Yankee who said, ' It 
 just slew me to see them fellars sitting there with 
 their stomachs decked out in ribands, and them funny 
 little coats on. Of all the blarmed foolishness that 
 these British colonists are capable of, well, I guess 
 this is the worst.' I am not sure this Yankee was 
 not right in his way of looking at it. It is not as 
 
 B 2 
 
4 ABOUT CEYLON AND BOENEO 
 
 though in Colombo you were in the best hotel in the 
 world, where out of deference to the good feeding you 
 wished to show some respect to the host ; but although 
 the dining-room is magnificent and the ' boys ' very 
 clean looking, as their appearance and combs were all 
 that one could wish in the way of respectability, still 
 when the hotel was full it was as much as you could 
 do to get anything to eat for dinner. 
 
 In my opinion the managers might get some tips 
 from the Messageries Maritimes steamers, as without 
 doubt there is some mode by which perfectly tender 
 and well-cooked meat can be provided when alongside 
 the equator, which is at present either unknown or 
 unpractised on shore in equatorial regions. 
 
 Talking of dinner reminds me that it is not always 
 beneficial to dme too freely in Ceylon. I was awakened 
 one night in the hotel by hearing a young man in the 
 next balcony to mine soliloquising to the moon ; he 
 was saying in a loud and rather husky voice, ' Night, 
 most glorious night, surely thou wert not made for 
 slumber.' Then he began clearing his throat as if he 
 were either going to sing or to cry ; I was not sure 
 which. I thought it would be better to stop him, and 
 recommended him to go straight to bed, in a rather 
 dictatorial voice, which eventually reduced him to 
 submission. Eeally it is extraordinary what an effect 
 these Ceylon curries will have upon some folks — 
 whether it is the ' sambal,' or the cocoa-nut, or the 
 onions, I do not know. 
 
 The rooms at the hotel are all open at the top to 
 let in air. I do not mean that they are open to the 
 sky, but there is a great space between the rooms and 
 the roof, as the walls only reach part of the way up, 
 
ARRIVAL IN COLOMBO 5 
 
 and sounds in one room can be heard in another in 
 the most appallingly distinct way. 
 
 There was a fellow in the next room to mine who 
 appeared to be suffering from sea-sickness in its most 
 aggravated form. Often he would wake up at mid- 
 night, uttering sounds which made one's blood curdle 
 with their hollow gruesomeness. This unfortunate 
 man, I ascertained, had been struck by the sun, and 
 this is the usual way that sunstroke attacks you, 
 besides making you as sick as a dog for some weeks. 
 Amid such horrors of midnight agony, when in the 
 lonesome stillness of tropical darkness the air was 
 suddenly rent by these most sickening sounds, I 
 realised that it is not earth's clear sunshine that 
 always makes folks happy ; and, even at the end of a 
 day of most genial brightness, there "comes a night 
 which with its long black loneliness seems even darker 
 than our home darkness. 
 
 Talking of these low-walled rooms reminds me of 
 a story of two little boys whom I knew. They were 
 staying at the Galle-Face Hotel at Colombo, and a 
 gentleman called Mr. B. and S. was sleeping in the next 
 room. One morning they locked their bedroom door so 
 that no one might come in to disturb them, and getting 
 up on the top of the ' almirah,' or wardrobe, they peered 
 over the ridge of the intercepting wall, and saw Mr. 
 B. and S. trying to shave himself in bed. The situation 
 seemed so comic that they could not help laughing. 
 Mr. B. and S. looked up, and seeing them there 
 said, 'Get away, you naughty boys.' The bigger boy 
 replied, ' Oh, no ; please we have come to see you have 
 your bath.' And so they had, poor little dears ! and it 
 was a shame to oust them from their seat of vantage. 
 
6 ABOUT CEYLON AND BORNEO 
 
 The hotel at Colombo is a remarkably comfortable 
 house, quite close to the harbour, which it overlooks. 
 It had beautifully clean, well-kept rooms, a mighty ver- 
 andah ; and with its punkahs seemed quite perfection 
 in comparison with the old Galle-Face Hotel which I 
 knew fourteen years ago. The Galle-Face Hotel was 
 formerly managed by a Parsi, 1 and although it was in 
 those days the best in Colombo, it was nevertheless 
 one of the worst hotels in the great universe. The 
 beds were very hard, the mosquito curtains were holey, 
 and the mosquitoes ravenous. The servants were un- 
 civil, all Christians, and therefore all thieves. I would 
 have recommended visitors to commit some act of 
 violence on their arrival in Colombo — if they had the 
 courage to do it in such an enervating climate — for in 
 the Government prisons food was not so rare, and one's 
 property was protected. As, however, we had arrived 
 unwarned, we had to put up with the mosquitoes in a 
 fleay shake-down. 
 
 I remember one day I was staying in that 
 hotel with Douglas — who has always been my bosom 
 friend — and we asked three men to come and lunch 
 with us. We apprised the Parsi hotel-keeper of this 
 fact early in the morning, in order that he might get 
 a good feed ready for five hungry young men by tiffin 
 time. 
 
 When the hour of lunch had arrived we started 
 with inferior soup, and then came some unedibly tough 
 beef-steak. They changed our plates for another 
 course, and we waited awhile full of hope. The cham- 
 pagne was bad and almost undrinkable ; however, 
 
 1 This hotel is now under European management, and is exceed- 
 ingly comfortable and clean. 
 
ARRIVAL IN COLOMBO 7 
 
 everyone sipped the nasty wine, and we all became 
 impatient. 
 
 We waited longer. 
 
 Then we shouted for the servant and told him to 
 make haste with the next course. He left the room and 
 did not return. We called the barkeeper and besought 
 him for more food. He looked confused and said 
 there was no more. We were horrified and hungry, 
 while our guests were hungry and amused. We 
 begged that Parsi on our bended knees to bring us 
 something edible. He replied, ' All right ! ' as niggers 
 generally do, and in a quarter of an hour six hard 
 poached eggs were placed before us. It seemed im- 
 possible to get anything else, and we had to apologise 
 to our guests, who said, 'Oh, don't mention it,' though 
 they must have felt very hungry. We therefore asked 
 them all to dinner at another place. And they 
 remained our friends. 
 
 The temperature in Colombo does not vary more 
 than twenty degrees all the year round, and there is 
 a wonderful evenness about the length of the day, 
 only about a quarter of an hour's difference being 
 apparent in the sunrise during summer and winter. 
 You can easily guess what a trying influence this 
 must have upon Europeans, how pale and how washed- 
 out-looking the ladies who reside there become ; so 
 that a change home, or at any rate to the hill stations, 
 is necessary every two years. 
 
 The folks who live in Colombo, and I believe all 
 dwellers in the East, rise about 5.30 in the morning 
 and have a meal called ' tea,' which is a cup of 
 tea with a slice of toast and jam ; then they go 
 straight out for their exercise — either riding or 
 
8 ABOUT CEYLON AND BOENEO 
 
 walking — till nine, when they have a bath and sit 
 down to breakfast, which is rather a heavy meal eaten 
 beneath a swinging punkah. They begin with fish 
 and go on to beef-steak, with a course of curry to 
 follow. 
 
 The curry in Ceylon is a very different dish to one 
 of the same name in England. Curry here means a 
 course, and a very big course, to itself. You are handed 
 first rice, which is small and exceedingly dry compared 
 with what you generally get at home ; then follow 
 three sorts of curry — vegetable, fish, and meat. After 
 this a man comes round with a nasty sort of dried-up 
 fish, called ' Bombay duck,' and a round thin wafer 
 biscuit, which you are intended to pound up in your 
 rice. Lastly, there are two kinds of ' sambal,' which 
 is the heating part of the curry, and which you add to 
 your liking, as the curries are not hot in themselves. 
 Point de Galle used to be celebrated for its prawn and 
 oyster curries which were certainly very good; but 
 now the mail steamers come to Colombo, I doubt if 
 Point de Galle is celebrated for anything except its 
 unvarying dulness. 
 
 In the hills of Ceylon they make a curry called 
 ' Drum-stick.' This is a vegetable curry composed of 
 the pods of a long thin sort of bean, the shell of which 
 is much too stringy to eat, but the beans and flesh in- 
 side the pods are really first-rate. The meat in Cey- 
 lon is generally too tough to be good, but you can with 
 safety make your meal off curry and fish, as the fish,, 
 although not equal to what you get in Europe, is ex- 
 cellent if well cooked. 
 
 The residents of Colombo are engaged in business 
 all through the middle of the day, and they only make 
 
ARRIVAL IN COLOMBO 
 
 9 
 
 a slight lunch or tiffin, saving their appetites for a 
 great dinner at six o'clock. By four business is over 
 for the day, and they enjoy the ocean breezes, either 
 walking or driving along that spray-bedrenched 
 desert, the Galle-Face ; a spot which is one's ideal of 
 tropical cheer lessness. With an appetite encouraged 
 by the sea air they return to dinner, which is con- 
 structed on exactly the same principles as breakfast. 
 
 A GKOUP OF SINGHALESE LADS BENEATH THE COCOA-NUT TEEES 
 
 Then they smoke in a reclining position till bedtime 
 at nine. 
 
 The Europeans dress chiefly in white duck. Their 
 costume is complete with a coat, a pair of trousers and 
 a vest. Therefore, dress should not be an expensive 
 item hi a man's economy, if it were not for the Sing- 
 hale dhobi, or washerman, but of him I will say some- 
 thing presently. White duck clothes can be washed 
 
10 ABOUT CEYLON AND BORNEO 
 
 continually, but at each washing they shrink a little. 
 Even when a gentleman of Colombo has been fortunate 
 enough to secure a dhobi who will not tear his ducks 
 to pieces in two washings, he finds that when they 
 have been washed several times his costume appears 
 ridiculous to the European eye, for his sleeves retire 
 up his arms and his coat only comes down to bis hips. 
 A few years ago a man was fortunately not judged 
 by his dress in the colonies, as he would be in merry 
 England. A fellow wearing trousers only reaching to 
 his ankles, and a hat that looked as if it might have 
 belonged to his great-great-grandfather, was merely 
 respected as an old colonist, and not regarded as a 
 pawnbroker's assistant, as he might be at home. 
 
11 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 TRAVELLING UP COUNTRY 
 
 How different railway travelling is in Ceylon now to 
 what it was thirteen short years ago ! I left Colombo 
 station at 7.30 one morning in December 1889, and 
 arrived at Hatton Station in Dickoya (4,168 feet above 
 sea level) at three o'clock in the afternoon ; from 
 thence I had to travel a distance of only five miles 
 along a wonderfully good road before getting to 
 Douglas's bungalow. 
 
 Formerly the railway only went to Navalapitiya, 
 which was twenty-nine miles by road from his estate, 
 and we had to get up before cock-crow to catch a train 
 which left Colombo Station at 6 a.m. 
 
 I will give my experience of such a journey copied 
 from my journal of March 1877. 
 
 It was necessary to take food with you in the train, 
 also to have a meal before starting. We got up at 
 5 a.m. and sent off our luggage in a bullock cart, a 
 mile and a half to the station. Then we tried to get 
 a little breakfast which had been ordered over-night, 
 but only managed to stow away some tea without 
 milk, and two scraps of toast, for which we were 
 charged two shillings a-head. After this meal we got 
 into a dirty-looking bandy (cab) with a lame horse, 
 
12 ABOUT CEYLON AND BOKNEO 
 
 and were driven to the station where the train was 
 waiting, as Colombo was the terminus. 
 
 The railway line was then badly laid, and you went 
 jolting along at the rate of about twenty miles an 
 hour, in the most distressing fashion. In fact, railway 
 travelling in Ceylon was not then made very fascinat- 
 ing. The luncheon which we brought from the hotel 
 proved a failure, as there were not enough sandwiches, 
 and the claret was very muddy and horribly sour. 
 
 The train went slower and slower as we left the low 
 country behind, and the last fifteen miles took an hour 
 and a half to travel over. Navalapitiya was then the 
 terminus, and here every one descended. The plat- 
 form in those days presented such a picture of jabber- 
 ing niggers, all anxious to seize and be off with your 
 luggage, that it was necessary to swear and hit at them 
 with your umbrella before you could get them to do as 
 you wished. 
 
 Being hot, tired and hungry, we went to the rest- 
 house, or inn. The food was very inferior, and we 
 came to the conclusion that you had to be an experi- 
 enced colonist in order to relish it. There was only 
 one conveyance to be obtained in the place, and with 
 this we had to content ourselves. The horse was very 
 lame, having something wrong with his four legs. 
 He was also exceedingly thin, and looked as though he 
 would not be able to stand up without the carriage to 
 support him. 
 
 We had a distance of twenty-seven miles to accom- 
 plish before night ; in this conveyance we proposed to 
 perform twenty-five miles of it. The owner, who was a 
 Mahommedan Moorman, told us before starting that 
 he had sent on a fresh horse for us ten miles in ad- 
 
TRAVELLING UP COUNTRY 13 
 
 vance, with which to frisk along the second half of the 
 journey. 
 
 We therefore started filled up with hope. 
 
 First of all a thunderstorm broke over us, with 
 wind and raindrops that seemed as big as shillings ; 
 these descended for about an hour, wetting us to the 
 skin, and against which my old mackintosh offered 
 but a pitiful resistance. Then it cleared off for a space, 
 and we walked for a mile or two to help the miserable 
 limping animal. 
 
 We caught up our second horse being led by the 
 horsekeeper soon after leaving the rest-house, and it 
 was slowly trotted alongside us until we changed 
 quadrupeds, if you can call them quadrupeds, as they 
 had not four feet to go on. We now sent the first one 
 homewards. I say homewards, because it is doubtful 
 whether he was ever able — without the carriage to 
 support him — to stand up during his return journey. 
 I hoped, for the poor horse's sake, that he might 
 fall down dead, and thus get out of this wicked, 
 hard- faring world. 
 
 We then advanced at about four miles an hour, as 
 our fresh horse had a very sore shoulder and was 
 appallingly lame. The driver whipped away most 
 mercilessly, making it quite painful to sit behind him. 
 However, the journey had to be accomplished, so we 
 did not remonstrate, but prayed meekly for the end. 
 This wretched horse fell down soon after starting and 
 recut an old broken knee. When we reached Watte 
 Wella rest-house, and sixteen miles of our journey 
 had been completed, he was bleeding both at his knee 
 and at his shoulder. 
 
 Here we abandoned our carriage, as we had only 
 
14 ABOUT CEYLON AND BORNEO 
 
 eleven more miles to travel that night. The horse 
 was evidently too feeble to proceed further, without our 
 walking on either side of the shafts and holding him 
 up. We therefore engaged some coolies to carry our 
 lighter luggage, and set out to walk the remainder of 
 our journey to Dickoya. We arrived at our destination 
 about nine o'clock, wet through and rather dispirited. 
 The latter part of our road had been through an ele- 
 vated district, and Watte Wella rest-house 1 , which was 
 almost our highest point, is 3,628 feet above sea-level. 
 
 About thirty years ago all the lower part of 
 Ambegamoua was covered with primeval jungle — and 
 leeches. After that it became very popular with 
 pioneers of coffee-planting, and nearly the whole of 
 the timber was felled and coffee planted in its place. 
 It was found, however, that owing to the great rainfall 
 and the comparative absence of top soil, coffee could 
 not be lucratively cultivated. Many of the estates 
 were therefore abandoned, while others through good 
 management were just kept floating till the time for 
 tea-planting arrived, and then they were once more 
 worked at a profit. Now some of them pay hand- 
 somely, others only moderately. 
 
 Through this district our road had gradually 
 ascended, winding most picturesquely round the 
 mountain sides and along the valley, in which the 
 scenery was quite beautiful, especially here and there, 
 where one had an extensive view of the lower country, 
 or where one passed through tracts of the original 
 jungle which were then left standing. 
 
15 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 THE SAME JOURNEY IN 1890 
 
 Since my former journey, only thirteen short years 
 ago, the whole of Ceylon had advanced a great many 
 stages in civilisation. 
 
 The scenery through which the train took us on 
 the occasion of my second visit was very varied. 
 First of all, on quitting the town of Colombo we came 
 to a country which was very wet under foot. This 
 wetness did not come down from above, at least 
 nothing but the sunshine came down on this day, 
 although in the afternoon the distant horizon looked 
 gloomily black. When I say a ' country wet under 
 foot ' I mean a district abounding in paddy-fields, and 
 vegetation all green with tropical luxuriance. Here 
 and there a Singhalese village peeped out full of one- 
 storeyed, partially open-aired, shops called ' caddies.' 
 These had any quantity of plantains hanging from 
 their verandahed tops in clusters, some green and 
 others ripe. Then we saw the schools with their 
 brown cocoa-nut leaved roofs, their wooden pillars, and 
 white mud walls not more than two feet high. Little 
 Singhalese boys looked out from between the posts 
 at the train passing, and stared with their great brown 
 eyes as though they had never seen such a thing 
 before. 
 
16 ABOUT CEYLON AND BORNEO 
 
 We passed Singhalese men and women hacking up 
 the few dried rice-fields with 'mometies.' In Ceylon 
 the spade is unknown ; indeed, it would be useless, for 
 the natives never wear boots, and therefore could not 
 tread on the spade as our English labourers do. A 
 momety is a sort of large-bladed hoe, with which all 
 the digging is clone. They momety up their paddy- 
 fields instead of ploughing them, because the rice-fields 
 of the valleys are as a rule too small to plough. 
 
 We saw clusters of Singhalese dressed in their best 
 white 'comboys ' and pink jackets, carrying umbrellas, 
 evidently going to or returning from the nearest town. 
 They looked very pleasing in the distance, as they 
 trooped on beneath beautiful flamboyant trees which 
 overshadowed their pathway, while others walked in 
 gaily coloured troops in the bright sunshine. Then 
 there were old men with perfectly bare shaven faces 
 and heads, dressed in yellow robes, who, I believe, were 
 Buddhist priests, and whom I respected in a mild 
 way. 
 
 In the scorched-up rice-fields were numbers of 
 tamed wild buffaloes with ever flopping ears. 
 
 The buffalo is unlike the ordinary cow — indeed, 
 rather more unlike than the dog is unlike the cat. 
 The head of the buffalo is more pointed than that of 
 the cow, and it is built on utterly different principles. 
 Its long, thin, ribbed horns slope back on its head, and 
 when the head is lifted into the air the horns come 
 beneath the crest on its neck. It has no hump on 
 its back, as all the cows and oxen out here have. 
 But it has about one hundred and sixteen thick, up- 
 standing, black hairs on its neck, just where a horse's 
 mane would come, and not another hair on its dark 
 
THE SAME JOURNEY IN 1890 17 
 
 coloured body. It even appeared to eat in a different 
 way to the ordinary cow of commerce. You hear 
 none of that chumping sound which makes your heart 
 glad and brings a feeling of content over your spirit 
 in the meadows of England, but there is a sort of wild 
 dash about these brutes which the lover of cows can- 
 not admire. 
 
 The buffalo is an essentially water-loving animal. 
 It likes to stand for hours together in the water, with 
 nothing but its head in the air. I saw one which had 
 scraped a sort of nest for itself in the mud of a shallow 
 stream. It was apparently quite contented and happy, 
 sitting and chewing the solacing cud of contentment, 
 with nothing above the brook's surface but its nose, 
 eyes, mouth and horns. 
 
 There are three other sorts of cattle which one 
 frequently sees here. The beautiful Indian bullock, 
 with its long thin horns and cream-coloured body, 
 which draws the folks to church at the rate of two 
 and a half miles an hour. It is said to trot wonder- 
 fully fast, but I have never had the advantage of see- 
 ing these docile animals summon up the courage to 
 break into a trot. 
 
 Then there is the ordinary bullock, which draws 
 carts in this country, and is very slow and stupid. 
 Thirdly, the little black-coloured bullock, which really 
 does go fast in the little ' hackery ' for a short dis- 
 tance, and then comes to a full stop. He has reins 
 made of thick string which run through his nose from 
 nostril to nostril, as this, I believe, is the tenderest and 
 most sensitive part of his body. He will run — for one 
 can scarcely call it trotting— for about five miles. 
 Then the hirer of the public hackery has to creep out 
 
 c 
 
18 ABOUT CEYLON AND BORNEO 
 
 and get into another, which, with a fresh bullock, is 
 waiting to take him on. Thus he proceeds at the rate 
 of about five or six miles an hour. 
 
 Besides the string, which answers as a rein, they 
 have absolutely no harness. The cross piece of wood 
 attached to the shafts which goes over their necks 
 comes in contact with the hump on their shoulders 
 when they are drawing ; and they throw back their 
 heads and catch this cross piece just behind their 
 little ears when they go clown hill. Thus a bullock 
 is harnessed very differently to a horse, and uses 
 utterly different members in drawing forward or push- 
 ing backward. They are very patient, and ready to 
 put up with almost any brutality from man. In fact, 
 they seem to say, in a mute way, ' We will stand any- 
 thing on earth, but do not twist our tails in that 
 unnatural manner.' 
 
 As the train goes up the mountain side, one leaves 
 the low country behind and proceeds at a very slow 
 pace, not only because the ascent is steep, but be- 
 cause it is a Government railway. The scene is 
 wonderfully pretty as you look down over the in- 
 numerable green-terraced paddy-fields, interspersed 
 with thick jungle trees topped by the cocoa-nut 
 and areca palms. Away in the distance there 
 stands forth a peaked bill-top, the rocky eminence of 
 which looks like an ancient and almost ruined tower. 
 From its summit our train must appear like a creep- 
 ing caterpillar feeling its way up amidst the distant 
 rocks and trees, winding its course in and out of 
 the steep hill-side — hill-sides which, in addition to 
 the steaming paddy-fields down below, and the multi- 
 tudinous tree-tops, with the dark, dark green of the 
 
THE SAME JOURNEY IN 1890 
 
 19 
 
 old leaves, and the reddy brown of the young ones, 
 are enlivened here and there with native mud huts 
 nestling in the grassy mountain ridges. The sides of 
 these abodes seemed all split and bursting open from 
 the heat of the sun. 
 
 Soon our train reached a station called ' Kadu- 
 ganawa,' which was just a picture, a most beautiful 
 picture, with pots of luxuriant maiden-hair ferns 
 
 m>mmPMm : ^ 
 
 WASHING COWS IN THE LAKE AT COLOMBO 
 
 rising up in tiers, and clusters of creepers hanging 
 down from the overlapping verandah roof. There 
 was also a very beautiful feathery fern which had the 
 name of Sellaginda lavigata on it, displaying palmy 
 leaves all round an earthenware pot suspended from 
 the roof. Then the rest of the station-house dis- 
 appeared under a mass of pink convolvuli. 
 
 There were plantains by the score with their 
 closely packed green fruit, from the centre of which 
 
 c 2 
 
20 ABOUT CEYLON AND BORNEO 
 
 there came out a wiry tail, topped with a sombre, 
 pointed knob. In this hot, damp climate plants 
 will grow where you would think there would not be 
 even space to cling. "What beautiful green ferns find 
 a root-hold in the granite rocks along the railway, 
 and seem to sprout as if they were growing in the 
 most luxurious, deep-soiled bank ! Wherever a crack 
 opens wide enough to let in a clinging root, you will 
 find the slab covered with ferny creepers. 
 
 After leaving all these hot native plantations and 
 rice-fields behind, we got up to where there was a 
 great extent of apparently worn-out land, and where 
 the soil was covered with what appeared to be short 
 brown grass, interspersed with valleys of jungle trees. 
 The nearer hills were in the glare of the sun, while in 
 the distance there were jungle-covered mountains, 
 appearing a deep blue beneath the clouds which 
 hovered over them. 
 
 Oddly enough I could not get a carriage when 
 leaving the station at Hatton, as there had been so 
 many folks coming up on this Sunday from Colombo, 
 and so much running about the country, that all 
 the bandies were away from Hatton wandering over 
 the districts of Dickoya and Maskeliya and far up 
 the mountain sides. However, having made friends 
 with the nigger at the station, who was selling most 
 unwholesome-looking cakes and dispensing tea to the 
 hungry travellers, I ventured on two of these cakes, 
 which, though tasting most discouraging, I managed 
 to exist on for many hours. 
 
 Then I took my luggage across to the rest-house, 
 where there was a single young man standing in the 
 verandah smoking a cigarette, and looking most 
 
THE SAME JOURNEY IN 1890 21 
 
 insufferably bored, as though he did not care one 
 solitary damn for anything in this world or the next. 
 Before him was a pair -horsed bandy with one dejected- 
 looking horse harnessed to it, and apparently un- 
 willing to move, although it was not guarded by any- 
 one. It kept switching its tail backwards and 
 forwards in the sunshine, as though wishing for 
 nothing so much as to remain there through a never- 
 ending train of hot summer days, till the bandy, 
 which looked as if it would fall to pieces, should 
 become scorched up by the burning rays of that 
 tropical orb, and should moulder away. 
 
 I asked this young man why he stood there in 
 contemplative misery, and what he was waiting for. 
 He told me he had come over from Maskeliya, a 
 distance of eighteen miles, to meet his brother, who 
 had arrived upon these spicy shores from England, 
 and was to have left Colombo that day. ' But,' said 
 he, ' as he has not come by this train, and there is no 
 other till to-morrow afternoon at the same hour, I 
 shall not wait any longer, but go back to Adam's 
 Peak, beneath whose shade I will linger out my 
 existence, careless of what becomes of him.' My 
 Maskeliya friend was evidently annoyed, for he added, 
 ' It is too bad when you find that the fellow has not 
 taken the slightest notice of the letter which you 
 wrote him, but is casually drinking the soda-water of 
 Colombo' (not unmixed with English cognac,' he added, 
 sotto voce), ' regardless of your dejection up here amidst 
 these valleys of tea and trouble.' 
 
 He was going three miles of his return journey in 
 the same direction that I was, and I asked him for a 
 lift. When he had had the other horse attached to 
 
22 ABOUT CEYLON AND BOKNEO 
 
 the ramshackle bandy, we got in together, and jingled 
 our way along the hard high road. I had a distance 
 of about eight miles to go altogether before finally 
 arriving at the house whither I was bound. Having 
 been rattled along the road, in and out of the many 
 bends which make a straight path in this moun- 
 tainous country, we arrived at Wannarajah Bridge, 
 the junction at which my road diverged from that of 
 Maskeliya. Here I got out to walk the two and a 
 half miles to Castlereagh, where I met Douglas waiting 
 for me with two horses and any quantity of baggage- 
 carrying coolies. From thence we rode on a few 
 miles to Claverton bungalow, where I was at home. 
 
 Claverton bungalow is quite different from what it 
 used to be when I was here in the time of coffee- 
 planting. It is built much higher up the hillside, and 
 in a more any position than in olden days. 
 
 Then, Claverton was a three-roomed mud hut, 
 placed in the middle of the coffee, whereas now it is 
 a twelve-roomed wooden house, standing in a rose- 
 besprinkled grassy garden, with tall bamboos rising 
 up behind, and great trees with seats beneath their 
 shade on the well-kept sunny lawn. It is in a 
 country far away from factory chimneys and the 
 smoke of coal, where no sound is borne to the ear 
 except the occasional call of coolies, and the splash, 
 splash of the ever working water-wheel. Every now 
 and again a gust of wind blows up the sound of the 
 distant rushing river as it dashes in breakers over its 
 rocky floor. 
 
 How different was the scene to which I awoke next 
 morning, when all nature was steeped in glorious 
 sunshine, when the hills looked so cloudless and near, 
 
THE SAME JOUKNEY IN 1890 
 
 23 
 
 and the far-off mountains, with a white haze rising 
 up from the valley, appeared so distinct, and yet so 
 blue ; how different indeed to the misty coldness of a 
 December day in our fog-bedaubed little island ! It 
 was now December 23, and about the most beautiful 
 time of the year in Ceylon. The thermometer at this 
 elevation registered 76° in the shade, but in the bright 
 sunshine woe betide the man who ventures forth 
 
 Douglas's old bungalow 
 
 without first bedecking his head with a 'topee,' or 
 solar hat, as, within seven degrees of the equator, the 
 sun shines as though its rays were perdition let loose. 
 Douglas's bungalow used to be, like all the houses 
 in Dickoya, a mere cottage built of mud, with three 
 rooms twelve feet square, and having a porch or 
 verandah of about the same dimensions before the 
 front door. The roof was made of wooden shingles, 
 split from trees on the estate. The walls which faced 
 
24 ABOUT CEYLON AND BORNEO 
 
 the south-west were protected on the outside by 
 weather-boarding, lest the wind and rain should wash 
 them down during the wet season. In spite of this a 
 fall did once occur. 
 
 We were awoke at midnight during the tempest 
 which heralds in the breaking of the south-west 
 monsoon, and takes place about May 20, by hearing a 
 most tremendous crash. When we had scrambled 
 out of bed and rushed from our rooms to see what 
 was the matter, we found poor Douglas on the floor, 
 beneath a heap of fallen debris. It was a pitiful 
 sight to watch our recumbent friend trying to extri- 
 cate himself from his uncomfortable position ; whilst 
 the wind and rain, which formerly were kept at bay by 
 the thick wall, were now sweeping through the three- 
 sided bedroom, covering the floor with mud. 
 
 Fortunately we were in a glorious colony, where 
 the stormy winds are warm, and where the ' talipot ' 
 leaf can be procured in its crispest perfection, so that 
 such accidents were only laughed at by the planters. 
 Having extricated the muddy Douglas, we made up a 
 bed for him in our third, or dining, room, where he 
 slept out the night, and the breach was soon re- 
 paired. 
 
 The walls of this edifice were altogether in a very 
 shaky condition, and let in the air through many 
 a crack and fissure. It had then been built about 
 four years, and was never intended for a permanent 
 structure. 
 
 In this small building three of us lived, and if a 
 couple of visitors turned up — which occurred about 
 every other day — they had to sleep on couches in the 
 dining-room. The servants always slept in the 
 
THE SAME JOURNEY IN 1890 25 
 
 verandah, or on the kitchen floor. This kitchen was 
 a kind of ' lean-to ' shed against the back of the 
 house, and was amply supplied with ventilation. 
 
 "We papered the walls of our dining-room with 
 pictures from the ' Graphic ' and ' Illustrated London 
 News,' to keep them from falling in. The result was 
 so fascinating that it was almost impossible to pay 
 attention to anything else when at table in that room. 
 Strangers especially seemed quite carried away by the 
 stirring scenes represented on our walls. Sometimes 
 neighbours who dropped in to breakfast or dinner 
 forgot all about the meal that was going on, and 
 became quite absorbed in some picture of their far-off 
 home, or, indeed, moved to tears by a representation 
 of Queen Victoria distributing Christmas presents to 
 the poor at Osborne. And the steaming fragrance of 
 the bubbling stew scarce recalled their wandering 
 spirits to life and hunger. 
 
 Even in Ceylon, art will cast her influence over 
 savage man ! 
 
26 ABOUT CEYLON AND BOENEO 
 
 CHAPTEE IV 
 
 ON TEA 
 
 The valley of Dickoya was now wholly occupied by 
 tea plantations, and the jungle that clothed it twenty- 
 eight years ago had almost entirely disappeared. 
 Journeying up the undulating valley from Hatton 
 towards Bogawantalawa, no one can fail to be struck 
 by the way in which the whole surface of the land 
 seems to be green with tea. 
 
 The dogged determination and persevering energy 
 of the Englishman have nowhere been more strikingly 
 illustrated than in this country, where only a few 
 short years ago the planters' hopes rested on coffee, 
 and the mountains now so green with tea were then 
 luxuriant with coffee bushes. This product, in which 
 so many millions of English capital were invested, 
 suddenly failed owing to the appearance of an in- 
 sidious, and so far apparently incurable, disease 
 known as ' Hemileia vastatrix.' With the failure of 
 coffee the hopes of the planter seemed doomed, 
 and a period of depression and disaster naturally 
 followed. 
 
 After this cinchona was tried, from the bark of 
 which quinine is made. This threw a transient gleam 
 of hope over the planter's path ; but it also proved 
 delusive, as the quantities of bark thrown on the 
 
ON TEA 
 
 27 
 
 London market soon reduced the price so much that 
 its production did not continue to pay. 
 
 Happily for Ceylon, tea was thought of, and the 
 land which was formerly so prosperous in coffee 
 
 A TAMIL COOLIE WOMAN PICKING TEA 
 
 promises to be even more prosperous in tea. To 
 convert the ruined coffee estates into tea gardens 
 meant further capital expenditure, and was of course 
 the work of some years. The planters' energy may be 
 gauged by the fact that eight short years ago the 
 
28 ABOUT CEYLON AND BORNEO 
 
 main staple of the country was coffee, a wholly top- 
 soil feeder. This has now been changed to tea, which 
 subsists chiefly on subsoil, and Ceylon promises to 
 become before long one of the main factors in the tea 
 markets of the world. 
 
 At first the tea was despised, but, having lived 
 down all evil report, it is now admittedly the best tea 
 put on the London market, and commands the 
 highest price. It is very different from the old China 
 teas we used to drink in days gone by. 
 
 The recipe for making Ceylon tea is very simple. 
 Put half as much in the pot as you used to put when 
 using China and Japan teas. Pour boiling water on 
 it, and let it stand one, minute only before pouring it 
 out, otherwise it becomes too strong. 
 
 The tea plant is what I went out to Ceylon to see. 
 This plant engrosses the whole attention of hundreds 
 of Englishmen ; engrosses their attention so much 
 that they cannot think of anything else. They do 
 not talk of anything else, and do not realise that 
 there is anything in this world but tea. 
 
 If you look over the whole valley of Dickoya, which 
 is about twenty miles long and four miles broad, you 
 see nothing but tea plantations covering the whole 
 extent. The estates average about 250 acres, and as, 
 when you go out walking or driving, you see little else 
 and hear nothing but tea talked about, the conversa- 
 tion naturally becomes hopelessly tedious to a fellow 
 just come from home. 
 
 Some untravelled Englishman may ask, What is 
 this tea plant like ? To the casual observer it is 
 exactly like a coffee plant, which I will first endeavour 
 to describe. The leaves and berries somewhat re- 
 

 '^#+*.: ,^ 
 
 IN rEKADHNI\'A GARDENS 
 
ON TEA 29 
 
 semble the Portugal laurel ; it is topped at three feet 
 six inches in height, and it has a single stem which 
 makes a first-rate walking stick. From this stem 
 come a great many nearly horizontal branches, the 
 bearers of the leaves, flowers, and berries. When one 
 comes to regard the tea bush closely, it is utterly 
 different, being a real bush, and having a great many 
 stems instead of one. The leaves are of a much 
 deader-coloured green than coffee leaves, with little 
 or no shine on their surface, and they are all, as in 
 the photograph, jagged round the edges. Tea bushes 
 have leaves which vary in size ; this depends chiefly 
 on the jart, what we know as Chinese jarts being 
 small, and the Indian being infinitely larger. The 
 large leaf in my photograph was one of an indigenous 
 bush, and next it come the tea seed-pod, the flower, 
 and then the leaves as they are picked for making 
 into tea. 
 
 The coolies break off the newly-grown shoots when 
 two leaves have flushed out and another one is coming 
 on, so that in tea drinking we imbibe almost as much 
 juice brewed from the stem as from the leaf. In the 
 photograph I have put on the right-hand side the 
 quantity of leaf and stem plucked together. The 
 stalk is rolled and dried with the leaves, and assists 
 greatly in the composition of tea, being quite as young 
 and soft as they are. After the young green leaves 
 have been picked, they are spread out on 'jute 
 hessian,' called 'tea tats,' in an upper storey of the 
 tea factory, to wither. This withering takes an un- 
 certain number of hours to accomplish, as it makes a 
 great deal of difference whether the weather is fine or 
 not, and from which quarter the wind comes ; the 
 
30 ABOUT CEYLON AND BORNEO 
 
 ■wither not being so rapid in wet weather. The leaves 
 are then brought down into the bottom floor of the 
 factory, where they are put into a silently-working 
 machine, and rolled for forty-five minutes. They are 
 next taken to a breaking and sifting machine, where 
 they must be well broken and sifted, judging from the 
 jerky way in which this machine works. The leaves 
 which do not pass through the holes in the bottom of 
 the sifter are now put back into the rolling machine 
 again, where they receive forty-five more minutes of 
 crushing and rolling ; this second time they suffer 
 under extreme pressure. When the leaves come out 
 they are all heaped together on a table covered with 
 a cloth, and left there to ferment, which process should 
 take place in about three hours. 
 
 What fermentation is I do not know, what the use 
 of it may be I cannot tell ; but this I do know, for I 
 have been informed by the best authority in Ceylon, 
 that if the tea is fermented too long it becomes soft. 
 I was told this in such a matter-of-fact way that I 
 naturally concluded that everyone except myself knew 
 what soft tea felt like, looked like, and tasted like. I 
 am bound to confess the truth that I personally have 
 not the faintest conception how soft tea does taste. 
 English ladies are supposed to know more about tea 
 than anyone else on the face of our globe, and I will 
 leave it to them, therefore, to decide which it is the 
 worse to be compelled to drink, very hard or very 
 soft teas. 
 
 When the teas have been fermented, they are put 
 into a tea-drier. There are a great many different sorts 
 of tea-driers ; every planter at whose house I stayed 
 told me that, having seen or tried a lot of these 
 
ON TEA 
 
 31 
 
 machines, he had come to the definite conclusion that 
 his was the only tea-drier worth a cent. He hinted 
 that all other planters were going to the wall as fast 
 as they possibly could, simply because they would use 
 Jamison's down-draught Morocco tea-drier, or some 
 other one that was not exactly the same as his own. 
 When the tea comes out of the drier it is sifted, the 
 
 LARGE TEA LEAP TEA FLOWER AND SEED THE ' PLUCK ' 
 
 The lady's hand shows the size of the leaves 
 
 finest being Broken Pekoe, the coarser Pekoe, and so 
 on ; it is then ready to be packed and sent home. 
 The finer tea, which is generally made from the smaller 
 leaves and stalk only, has infinitely the best flavour. 
 
 You can always tell tea leaves from any others 
 with which your grocer may think it cheaper to 
 adulterate the tea, because tea leaves have a jagged 
 exterior — as in the photograph — and other leaves, 
 
32 ABOUT CEYLON AND BOENEO 
 
 though they can be rolled up in the same way, still 
 lack those saw-like edges. 
 
 Everyone who came to see my friend Douglas was 
 taken straight down to the old coffee store, which had 
 been converted into a tea factory. The smell of 
 crushed tea leaves which arose from the building 
 was quite delicious to anyone visiting the factory for 
 the first time. When we arrived there, this fragrant 
 aroma was wafted to us on the lazy air. Outside the 
 factory was a large water-wheel humming placidly, 
 as the water kept shooting over it with a regular 
 splash, splash. This sound is quieting and gentle in 
 an age of new-fangled turbines and motors, remind- 
 ing one of a time which is past and gone for ever. It 
 recalls to one's mind all sorts of things connected with 
 trout streams and alders, bluebells and shadows, 
 house flies and wasps. When you got inside the 
 factory there were a great many silently-working 
 machines, and beyond was a room two sides of which 
 were covered with canvas, to prevent dust coming in 
 from the main building. In this room a kettle full of 
 water was kept constantly boiling over a lamp made 
 on purpose, and with it the planter continually made 
 cups of tea. When it had stood in the pot exactly 
 five minutes, he poured it out into a white china cup, 
 without a handle, in order to taste it, to look at its 
 colour, and see in cooling how much scum collected 
 on the top. With these teas they rinse out their 
 mouths, not as if they liked them, but simply to taste 
 and distinguish between the flavours. When they 
 have looked wise over it for a moment or two, they 
 eject the rank liquid. 
 
 I defy anyone who has not been brought up to 
 
ON TEA 33 
 
 tea-tasting to be able to discover any difference 
 between them, as, by the time he has got to the third 
 cup, his palate has become so confused that although 
 he thinks it necessary to look knowing over fourteen 
 or fifteen cups, really he does not know if he is tasting- 
 dust from the bins or Broken Pekoe. 
 
 A fellow came down to the factory one day, who 
 did not think we knew how tea should be manu- 
 factured. He was a remarkably silent man by nature, 
 and when we took him into the nice clean factory he 
 was evidently surprised, comparing it in his mind with 
 other stores that he had seen, perhaps with his own. 
 Presently we asked him if he would care to taste any 
 of our teas. When he had taken about ten mouthfuls 
 and had ejected them again, he looked satiated. We 
 asked him what he thought of them. First of all he 
 considered for a minute, then he sniffed at the tea 
 leaves from which this very strong brown liquid had 
 been produced, and having extracted all the scent that 
 he could collect, he began fingering them over, one by 
 one, in the light. Presently, after some moments' 
 silent thought, he remarked, ' H'm, pretty good ! ' and 
 this was all we could get out of him. 
 
 It is curious how little satisfies some people. 
 Douglas said to me afterwards, 'Wonderful man, 
 Mount, ain't he ? ' I naturally wanted to know why. 
 Douglas replied, ' Well, you see, he knows all about 
 tea.'' It is a remarkable fact that Douglas was as 
 pleased as Punch at this man's visit to the factory. 
 
34 ABOUT CEYLON AND BORNEO 
 
 CHAPTEE V 
 
 COOLIES 
 
 The tea is picked by coolie men and women. 
 Here and there you see a Kangani, or head man, with 
 a stick in his hand watching ; and a conductor who is 
 over them all. Our conductor was a rare old sort ; 
 he was a Malay by birth, whose parents had come over 
 from Sumatra. I should say that he had been 
 remarkably well instructed in his school days, as he 
 spoke Malay, of course ; he knew English, and could 
 swear in Tamil and Singhalese. He had been working 
 on this and the adjoining estate for twenty-six years, 
 so that he could now reckon exactly what time of day 
 his master was likely to come out, and what language 
 he would in all probability use when he lost his temper 
 over the coolies. He knew when he could get away 
 from the men working in the field without his absence 
 being detected. He knew just what he ought to say 
 and leave unsaid when his master was so much 
 annoyed that he could scarcely contain his fury, and 
 was boiling over with rage which almost amounted to 
 despair, in order to turn all the fury off his own back 
 and turn it on to the backs of the Kanganis. Oh, he 
 was a faithful servant, and a true one ! 
 
 Eemark the Tamil coolie sharpening an axe on a 
 bit of granite. He does it as though the axe only 
 
COOLIES 35 
 
 wanted scraping for half an hour on any kind of stone, 
 and might be held in various positions during that 
 half-hour, and still at the end of the time would be so 
 sharp as to be capable of cleaving great blocks of wood. 
 Look at him while he is performing this fraud ; he 
 works away as if he were doing the cleverest thing 
 under the sun, as if he knew exactly how the axe 
 .should be held, and was perfectly master of the 
 situation, till at last you begin to think you know 
 absolutely nothing about sharpening an axe. If you 
 simply regarded this coolie from a distance, it cer- 
 tainly would be borne to your mind that he had got 
 that axe as keen as a razor, and that it only wanted a 
 little stropping before it would be fit for you to shave 
 yourself with. Now step up and try to cut a piece of 
 turnip with the axe, and you find that all this half- 
 hour's labour has been in vain, that in all probability 
 he has been rubbing that tool on a bit of quartz, the 
 result being that it is if possible rather more blunt 
 and jagged than it was before he began. 
 
 Then examine the weapon and see how loosely the 
 axe-head is fastened to the long thin stick which he 
 calls the handle, and you no longer wonder that the 
 Tamil man is not very apt at chopping sticks. But 
 mind, this refers only to the Madras Tamil, as the 
 natives of Ceylon are singularly clever with an axe. 
 In fact, they are good at four branches of industry. 
 They can fell jungle really beautifully; you would 
 think to watch them with their long-handled axes that 
 they must have picked up the art of swinging them 
 before they were born, as. they never seem to strike a 
 tree an eighth of an inch out. 
 
 As domestic servants the Singhalese are wonder- 
 
 D 2 
 
36 ABOUT CEYLON AND BORNEO 
 
 fully clever ; as washermen they will beat any other 
 nation in beating your clothes to rags ; and as bullock- 
 drivers their natural cruelty is unsurpassed in the 
 annals of this world. This is all they can do, as far 
 as my experience goes, whereas the Tamil man can be 
 taught to do anything under the sun indifferently, and 
 some few things well. The Tamil certainly is a very 
 good fellow ; but all Singhalese are naturally deceitful, 
 and it is only when they have a very strict master or 
 mistress over them that they will work satisfactorily. 
 
 It is wonderful how much English is spoken by 
 the Singhalese, the Tamils, and the Moormen in 
 Ceylon. I am told that the most important item in 
 a boy's education is English. Not only can a boy 
 speak English fluently, but he can read and write it. 
 
 This was written up in one of the Christian 
 ' Swamy ' houses on the adjoining estate, ' God may 
 bless Mr. Alane.' Here the English-speaking Kangani 
 had evidently got the English ever so slightly con- 
 fused in his brain, as doubtless he intended to put, 
 ' May God bless Mr. Alane.' It was unfortunate this 
 mistake was made, as in another very English hand- 
 writing beneath this was written simply the words 
 ' He may ! ' thus throwing a terrible doubt over the 
 situation. 
 
 The Tamil coolie and the Chetti are black spots 
 on this earth, over whom I will linger for the next 
 page or two. 
 
 The Tamil coolie is nearly black compared with 
 the Singhalese. He has naturally long black hair, 
 not crisp and curly like that of a negro, but smooth, 
 well-oiled tresses, which he ties up in a knot behind. 
 Erom his forehead a shaven patch goes back about 
 
COOLIES 37 
 
 half-way over his head, and it is from this bald patch 
 that the Tamil coolie's long black hair begins. 
 
 They used to shave with glass, but in these days 
 razors are so cheap that in all the native caddies 
 there are men who ply a trade in shaving the 
 Kanganis' heads. However, if you go to the 'lines,' 
 or native dweUings upon an estate, you may see the 
 coolie being shaved in all his native ignorance. It is 
 done in the following way. They break an old black 
 glass bottle and shave each other's heads and faces 
 with the broken fragments, without using soap. This 
 does not as a rule produce a brilliant shave, although 
 it is a very conscientious one. 
 
 I think that the Tamil coolie has not an unusual 
 growth on his chin, as it is much less than that of an 
 average European, so that shaving the chin, which 
 takes place about once a week, is not hard work. 
 But there must be a good deal to take off the head, as 
 the hair grows unceasingly there through incalculable 
 ages. Even the most aged and decrepit have hair on 
 their heads which would actually shock our too suscep- 
 tible old minds. In fact, I am not sure that it does 
 not disgust us to see the aged native meandering 
 along the roads with such perfect hair and teeth. 
 
 Ceylon for the ordinary Tamil is now a remarkably 
 healthy and money-making country. In wandering 
 up the Dickoya roads, or through the native shops, 
 you will, in all probability, never meet a beggar, and 
 you rarely see one on whom disease has laid its hold. 
 This is in Dickoya, as I do not know anything about 
 other districts. All the Tamils appear to be hard- 
 working and well fed ; their thin legs look as though 
 they had come out of the tempestuous storms of life, 
 
38 ABOUT CEYLON AND BORNEO 
 
 away from the disquiet of overpeopled India, to the 
 respectable luxury of rice at six shillings and sixpence 
 a bushel, and high wages in Ceylon (about sixpence a 
 day). 
 
 There are three things which a Tamil man fears 
 more than anything else in the world — viz., getting his 
 head wet, the wild elephant, and walking alone near 
 the jungle at night, when our friend might meet 
 'Pisasi' (the devil). This latter no Tamil man has 
 been known to do willingly. The Tamil woman, on 
 the contrary, when she goes forth in the rain, puts 
 nothing over her head but the thin cloth she wears 
 about her person. Even in the middle of the day, 
 when the sun is shining blistering hot, as the Yankees 
 would say, she exposes her bare head to its rays with- 
 out apparently feeling it in the least. 
 
 The coolie always wears on the top of his head — 
 mind you, on the top, so that it can be no protection 
 from sunstroke — a thick turban, which is often made 
 of an old Turkish cap, surrounded with two or three 
 bright-coloured handkerchiefs. Then, on working 
 days, in the early morning, he decks his body with 
 a very old coat, which once, in years gone by, be- 
 longed to a British soldier or policeman, and has been 
 handed down till it has lost all its colour and buttons. 
 The pockets also are worn very threadbare, and are a 
 sort of dirty white, the result of having the hand 
 constantly thrust into them during long years of 
 toilsome labour in other foreign lands. The coat has 
 at length found its way here to be a covering for the 
 Tamil coolie's back. It is merely used as an overcoat, 
 for when the sun gets up it is discarded, and he works 
 with nothing on him but what is called a ' cloth,' 
 
COOLIES 39 
 
 ■which means a long piece of once white linen that has 
 now become a nondescript colour. This covers the 
 middle of his person only, his legs and body being all 
 bare, and showing nothing but brown skin. 
 
 The religion of the coolies is Buddhism, and on 
 every estate there is a Swamy house, with a couple 
 of clay images decked in all sorts of old bits of finery, 
 which I am told they worship. I should think these 
 images represent the devil ; of this, however, I am 
 not sure, as, oddly enough, I have never seen him. 
 These Swamy huts are small, clay, two-roomed con- 
 structions, with the most grotesquely painted mud 
 walls, a mud floor, and thatched roofs. 
 
 I went one day to the ' lines ' on the estate. The 
 rooms were all close to one another. It is all very 
 well for the planter to have good roomy lines put up 
 for his coolies, but they infinitely prefer living in 
 small, clay-lined, chimneyless rooms, where they can 
 have a fire and make them as close and smoky as 
 possible. When the atmosphere is so thick that you 
 can cut it with a knife, they breathe it in with the 
 utmost gusto. They actually seem to like having 
 bloodshot eyes, the result of a smoky atmosphere. 
 
 In these stuffy little habitations they live, and live 
 well. Their food consists chiefly of rice and curry 
 made from vegetables. They never eat meat, except 
 on very grand occasions, when twenty of them kill a 
 pig and devour his flesh. 
 
 As we approached the lines there were rather 
 offensive smells, but when we got inside they were 
 wonderfully clean, considering all the floors were 
 strewn with dry cow-dung. It was a Sunday, so a 
 fire burned in nearly all these abodes, and three or 
 
40 ABOUT CEYLON AND BORNEO 
 
 four naked much-bejewelled children seemed to inhabit 
 each one. The coolies carry all their worldly wealth 
 on themselves, their wives and children. 
 
 Furniture is an unknown commodity with the 
 Tamil coolie, and if he left anything really worth 
 having in his doorless lines, it would in all probability 
 be stolen. He has to put all his gold and silver about 
 the persons of himself and his family, which accounts 
 for resplendency of many of their ears, noses, necks, 
 arms, wrists, ankles and toes. 
 
 The ears of female children are cut and leaden 
 rings inserted in the aperture, in order that, when 
 they are grown up, they may have a sort of solid 
 wooden cart-wheel, about two and 
 a half inches in diameter, put in 
 the ear. Some of the women in- 
 sert any quantity of jewellery in 
 place of this cart-wheel, probably 
 iamil woman's because they happen to be well-to- 
 do, and having already bandaged 
 up their arms, wrists, and noses with ornaments, there 
 is nowhere else to put the superfluity of their wealth. 
 The older women wear golden rings in their ears, as 
 you see in tbe picture. They are about an inch and 
 a half long, and made of the same lustrous material, 
 which is intended to look to us men the most attractive 
 thing under the sun. The Tamil lady who has had 
 two or three husbands, all of whom have been more 
 or less wealthy, has her ears entirely covered with rings 
 and jewellery. My photograph does not show it dis- 
 tinctly, but this old lady had about eight rings in each 
 ear, all of curious savage workmanship, which she no 
 doubt thought very beautiful. How they can sleep 
 
COOLIES 41 
 
 with all this jewellery hanging down just where they 
 lay their heads I cannot imagine. 
 
 AKangani's wife decks herself with a heavy mass 
 of plain rounded silver about an inch broad ; this she 
 puts on her arm just above the elboiv, and three or 
 four other bracelets on her wrists, made of silver wal- 
 lavie and gum. Some of the women have four or five 
 of these wallavie bracelets on each arm, whilst many 
 of their fingers are literally clogged with silver rings.. 
 
 I saw a woman one day with an enormous cat's- 
 eye set in gold ornamenting her nose. It seems a 
 pity that some of our English women do not adopt 
 this plan of displaying their diamonds. Without 
 doubt they show off to better advantage when placed 
 conspicuously on the nasal organ than if simply worn 
 in rings or bracelets. Who can help seeing them ? 
 A mere glance will show the finery with which such a 
 woman is graced ! Even a plain woman looks well 
 when adorned with this sort of appendage, as it 
 shows real earthly value. They cannot have such 
 jewels stolen, as they are welded into the nose. These 
 ladies seem to think that mental beauty is a mere 
 nothing in comparison with this gilded magnificence. 
 
 The merry little children had enormous ' tum- 
 mies,' the result of living perpetually on quantities 
 of rice ; their ornaments were apparently of gold and 
 silver, and were worn round their ankles and necks, I 
 presume for decency's sake, as beyond these they had 
 no covering whatever; but I am forgetting — some 
 of them had silver rings on their toes, so they were 
 not what you can actually call naked. 
 
 The coolie's pay of sixpence a day is so enormous 
 that he can afford to dress his children in this aston- 
 
42 
 
 ABOUT CEYLON AND BOENEO 
 
 ishing way. Most of the coolies do not care to work 
 more than five days in the week, as they can earn 
 enough riches in that time to support a whole 
 family. 
 
 AN OLD TAMIL WOMAN COVERED WITH JEWELLERY 
 
 These men also bedeck their persons with jewellery 
 of some kind. I will tell you what a full grown 
 Kangani generally wears. He has a bracelet on his 
 left leg, a ring on his second right toe, four bejewelled 
 earrings in one ear, whilst another gold earring full 
 
COOLIES 43 
 
 of jewels hangs from a second puncture higher up on 
 his left ear. 
 
 There is one sort of black man in Ceylon who 
 has caused me considerable diversion. This is the 
 ' Chetti.' 
 
 In days gone by, before there was a railway up to 
 the tea districts, we had no means of getting money 
 except from the Chetti. I will try to describe this 
 species of nigger as I constantly saw him then. Even 
 now I often wish for his loanly hand to help me on 
 my way, as he was the man from whom we always 
 borrowed small sums of money, and although we had 
 to pay a high rate of interest, it was the only way, in 
 those dark days, of getting money at a moment's 
 notice. 
 
 I do not think the Chetties ever wear jewellery ; 
 they are a tall race of Indians, and have long smooth- 
 cut features ; they shave every hair off their heads and 
 faces. The Chetti creeps round your bungalow en- 
 veloped in a long flowing cloak of white linen, which is 
 thrown over his shoulder, and he wears a kind of 
 white hood over his head. 
 
 I speak now of a clay when we were always ' hard 
 up,' and a Es. 10 note was a perfect mint of Godsends 
 to us. I speak of a day when we owed the Chetti 
 rupees which ran into three noughts. Never repeat 
 this to the Chetti, but, truth to tell, we could not have 
 paid him even if we had wanted to — but we did not 
 want to. 
 
 As you sat writing your letters beside the bungalow 
 window, where the mid-day sun came streaming in 
 with an awful heat, suddenly you felt that an eye was 
 fixed on you, and looking up you encountered the 
 
44 ABOUT CEYLON AND BORNEO 
 
 dark, glowering gaze of the Chetti demanding to be 
 paid. Or you might go out into your garden, to pull 
 up some weeds and pick the vegetable-marrow which 
 your soul had been doting on for days. But lo ! when 
 you took it between your fingers it felt light ; presently 
 you saw that it was, like most other things in this 
 land of tropical vegetation and rapid growths, ' rotten 
 to the core,' and you glanced up in displeasure, only to 
 see a silent form gliding from behind a corner of the 
 bungalow. This was Mr. Nana Eamen Chetti, come to 
 demand money or to lend it on exorbitant security. 
 
 Supposing you went out for a ride and called on a 
 friend living two or three miles away ; then you re- 
 turned in good spirits, but to find this tragic being 
 waiting before your porch, and demanding in hollow 
 accents to be paid. 
 
 Or, maybe, you were sitting in the verandah, 
 smoking your evening pipe of peace after the usual 
 hard day's work, and thinking all sorts of thoughts of 
 home and bliss ; thinking maybe of the smell of hay, 
 and a distant cawing sound seemed to come from the 
 rookery hard by ; you did not realise that it was but 
 the moaning of yon foaming torrent, crying ever sea- 
 wards in its frantic course. Suddenly the prospect 
 was darkened by a silent shadow, and the Chetti 
 passed before your eyes, gliding along like a stage 
 villain, hissing his Tamil threats, so that they just 
 caught your ear and roused you from those sweet day- 
 dreams. 
 
 But the most gratifying sight I have yet witnessed 
 in the whole course of my chequered career was Nana 
 Bamen drenched to the skin, when he had not been 
 able to bring out his umbrella because some brother 
 
COOLIES 45 
 
 Chetti had robbed bim of it. Then his tragic gar- 
 ments stuck to him like a glove ; all that dignity was 
 gone, and he presented the appearance of a very much 
 bedraggled drowned rat. 
 Then I was glad. 
 
46 ABOUT CEYLON AND BORNEO 
 
 CHAPTEB VI 
 
 WAY DOWN UPON THE KBHELGAMA RIVER 
 
 There is hardly a tree left standing in the district of 
 Dickoya, except along the topmost ridges of the hills 
 enclosing the valley ; here the jungle has not been cut 
 down, because the position is too exposed for the tea 
 bush to flourish. 
 
 Fresh trees have been planted round some of the 
 bungalows, but they are not native trees ; they were 
 struck chiefly because of the rapidity of their growth, 
 and partly because the Englishman could not bear to 
 have the common jungle tree growing in his garden. 
 Therefore he planted the Australian blue gum, and 
 other productions which do not arrive at perfection in 
 these damp tropics, but only present a bony, leafless 
 substitute for the native trees. 
 
 The Dickoya valley is consequently dreadfully bare, 
 and if it were not for the naturally pretty lay of the 
 land, and for some beautiful high bamboos down to 
 the river's bank, it would be tediously monotonous. 
 
 Many of the more recent planters left clumps of 
 jungle standing, where they intended to build their 
 bungalows, and told the Singhalese woodman to ' spare 
 the tree ' for an acre or two. Others left belts of 
 jungle all down their plantations to keep the wind off 
 the young bushes. But this did not prove a success, 
 
WAY DOWN UPON THE KEHELGAMA KIVEB 47 
 
 as without the support of the rest of the forest the 
 belts, which had always been used to relying on their 
 neighbours, got blown down by the great gusts of wind 
 at the bursting of the south-west monsoon. 
 
 There is no doubt that trees harbour innumerable 
 insects and flies in Ceylon. Indeed, the voracious 
 leech lurks beneath the jungle shade, and delights 
 to disport himself in the moisture that is collected 
 there. 
 
 I used to be the proud possessor, with another 
 fellow called ' The Dove,' of about six hundred acres 
 of land extending on either side of the river Kehel- 
 gama, further down than any other estate in Dickoya, 
 on the outskirts of the district, a long way from a 
 village of any sort. This land was divided into two 
 estates, one on either side of the river ; it enjoyed per- 
 haps a heavier rainfall than any other tract of land in 
 that part. 
 
 The coolie who went daily for our letters had a 
 tramp of nine miles by a jungle-track over the 
 mountain to Watte Wella for the post, and in wet 
 weather when the streams were swollen there was 
 considerable danger attending the voyage. One day 
 in the year 1877 the coolie started in the morning 
 and never returned again ; he was probably carried 
 away and drowned in some mountain torrent. This 
 was a great trouble to us, as we could not easily get 
 another man to fill his place. There were reports 
 afloat that the jungle was infested with elephants, and, 
 as I said before, Tamil coolies have a deadly horror of 
 elephants. Eventually we got one brave young man 
 to go for one and a half man's pay, and the thing 
 was settled. 
 
48 ABOUT CEYLON AND BOBNEO 
 
 The returns on this estate showed a rainfall of 
 180 inches a year. This rainfall was highly detri- 
 mental to the cultivation of coffee, as, the lay of the 
 land being exceedingly steep, the top-soil was soon 
 washed away when the protecting jungle was cut down. 
 This does not make nearly so much difference with 
 tea, which is a subsoil feeder, but with coffee it was 
 fatal, as the subsoil was not rich enough to produce 
 good crops of berries. 
 
 Our bungalow looked very pretty from a little dis- 
 tance, with a hill on the opposite side of the valley, 
 whose summit was crowned with uncut jungle. There 
 was very little room inside the house for anything but 
 a bed and wardrobe in each of its two rooms, conse- 
 quently washing of all sorts had to be carried on in 
 the verandah, and we took our meals in the porch. 
 
 The Dove, my partner, had been the architect. 
 I should recommend other planters to construct their 
 mansions on any other plan but this, if they think 
 of introducing comfort or convenience into their 
 dwellings. 
 
 The river that divided the two estates was very 
 rapid and rather pretty in parts. Just opposite the 
 bungalow was an island, covered with jungle and 
 abounding with leeches. This island was very pleasant 
 to look at from a little distance. 
 
 The only fish in the river were a sort of barbel, 
 which ranged in weight from a quarter of a pound to 
 five pounds. They were a sporting fish to catch, but 
 would only take a worm and not a fly. As food the 
 Ceylon barbel is tough, woolly, full of bones, and 
 rather stringy. I was present when one was caught 
 weighing four and three-quarter pounds. It was a 
 
WAY DOWN UPON THE KEHELGAMA RIVER 49 
 
 very game fish, and looked delicious when cooked — 
 hut I still regret having eaten any of it. 
 
 "When we first began to cut down and cultivate 
 the jungle lands of these properties there was no 
 bridge over the river. In approaching our bungalow 
 you had to swim, or if it were very fine weather it was 
 possible by taking off your clothes to wade across, 
 as the jungle-track from Dickoya came in on the 
 farther side of the stream. I used always to undress 
 on the opposite side, leave my clothes there and swim 
 across, then walk up to the bungalow, call for towels, 
 and wear one of the Dove's suits while I remained 
 there. Then, when my visit was concluded, I took off 
 those little garments, swam the river, and joined my 
 clothing again on the farther side. 
 
 N.B. — I am very thin and six feet high ; the Dove 
 was rather stout and only five feet seven. 
 
 After awhile, however, the Dove instituted a 
 bridge, and by chance constructed a remarkably pretty 
 one, which was quite in keeping with Nature's attempts 
 to make the place pleasing to the eye. 
 
 From the side of the jungle- shaded stream, upon 
 which green lichens and moss congregated in damp 
 obscurity, there stretched out from rock to rock a 
 rustic wooden bridge over a deep, secluded pool. Here 
 when you leant with folded arms upon the wooden 
 paling, and looked away to where the bubbling waters 
 ever jabbered over a little fall above, then loitered on 
 beneath the bridge as though unwilling to leave this 
 locality of rest and peace for the turmoil of the thickly 
 peopled low country, you could scarcely dream that 
 you were in the busy haunts of man, and that close 
 beside you were jungle trees, which ere long must fall 
 
 E 
 
50 ABOUT CEYLON AND BORNEO 
 
 to the axe of approaching civilisation. How delight- 
 ful it was, during the short span of existence which 
 that bridge enjoyed, to lean on the rail and watch the 
 floating dragon-flies as they hovered over the water's 
 brink, or to contemplate the tropical butterflies wafted 
 on the morning breeze. You could really enjoy such 
 sights in mid-stream for awhile, out of the way of the 
 too friendly leech. 
 
 At the bursting of the sou'-west monsoon this 
 bridge was hurled down, broken into a thousand pieces, 
 and carried away by the torrent. 
 
 I went down to the estate one day, and, arriving 
 late, found the Dove entertaining the district parson. 
 This clergyman was supported by the planters in 
 the districts of Dickoya and Maskeliya. He received 
 about 3501. a year to minister to their souls, and to 
 preach twice every Sunday to a collection of them in 
 a ' coffee store.' He had no poor to look after and 
 nothing to do with the niggers. They had a separate 
 divine, who made a specialty of conversion and the 
 destruction of idols ; and having no other employ- 
 ment on weekdays but to compose his two sermons 
 for Sunday, he went the rounds of the district, rallying 
 the backsliders and trying to induce sinners to return 
 to the coffee store. 
 
 Our parson was considered rather sanctimonious, 
 and not exactly suited to a planting community. He 
 had never been to the Dove's before, as our estate 
 lay at the utmost extremity of the district. 
 
 We played whist after supper, and before turning 
 in the parson proposed prayers. The Dove jumped 
 at this, as if he had been accustomed to reading them 
 himself every night. Then he ordered the two ser- 
 
WAY DOWN UPON THE E.EHELG-AMA RIVER 51 
 
 "vants to come in, knowing that he never engaged a 
 servant if he was a Christian ; as Christianity with 
 these dark-skinned men means education, education 
 generally means dishonesty and thieving. Then he 
 motioned the servants to sit down, which they did not 
 like doing in the presence of their master, and our 
 parson read some passages from the Bible, after which 
 he shut up the book and knelt to pray. The servants 
 did not understand this at all, and I heard the Dove 
 shouting to them in a whisper behind the parson's 
 back. ' Kneel down, d — n you, like we do ; can't 
 you see, you idiots ? ' The Dove himself had 
 clothed his countenance with a saintly smile, and — 
 being the most abandoned young villain unhung — he 
 entered into the prayers with the utmost fervour. 
 
 The Dove was not first-rate as a planter, though 
 he lived on the estate. He was always anxious to get 
 away, being as good a fellow to meet at dinner as I 
 knew ; besides, he was the ' darling of the ladies,' so 
 it was rather difficult to keep him at his work. He 
 became very friendly with the parson and deceived 
 him horribly, but the parson gave rather good dinners. 
 
 One day I went down to visit the Dove, and 
 found him absent, as he too often was. I slept that 
 night and the following night at the picturesque but 
 ill-constructed bungalow, and still he did not return. 
 The Dove was very fond of wandering up the 
 valley for change of air and — ' spirits.' 
 
 On the second day he came home in the after- 
 noon. When he arrived he was in rather a funny 
 condition, as he had been kicked on the head by a 
 horse, and two of his teeth were knocked out ; so what 
 with a swollen head, a bunged-up eye, and the liberal 
 
 E 2 
 
52 ABOUT CEYLON AND BOENEO 
 
 potations of brandy he had been obliged to take to 
 keep him from fainting on the way down, he seemed 
 quite confused. 
 
 I undressed him and put him on a sofa, where he 
 slept heavily till eleven o'clock at night ; then he woke 
 up much refreshed, ate a liberal supper, and would keep 
 talking till the small hours of the morning, when I got 
 him finally to bed. By next day he had quite re- 
 covered, and came to breakfast at seven o'clock fresh 
 and cheerful, and, barring the absence of his two 
 front teeth, he looked the same as usual. 
 
 On another occasion, when I was in Colombo with 
 the Dove, a friend asked me to come and dine, 
 saying that ' he and his wife would be delighted to 
 make the acquaintance of my partner, of whom they 
 had heard a good deal, if I would bring him too.' 
 The Dove consented to come, and after spending 
 the afternoon at the club with some friends, he 
 appeared dressed at dinner time all right, except that 
 before the meal he seemed rather cloudy in his con- 
 versation. 
 
 During soup and fish he was strangely silent, and 
 when the entrees were being handed, we heard a 
 smothered snore from the Dove, and discovered 
 that he was fast asleep with his head on his shirt- 
 front. We tried to wake him, but failed utterly, so 
 left him sitting there dreaming the happy hours 
 away. 
 
 When the ladies left the room we took him from 
 his seat at table, and calling a cab, carried him out to 
 it. The door of the cab for some reason refused to 
 open, so we let down the window, and, shoving him in 
 through this aperture, sent him back, with a note 
 
WAY DOWN UPON THE KEHELGAMA EIVEE 53 
 
 pinned to his waistcoat telling his servant to put him 
 to bed. 
 
 I was a good deal put out by my partner appear- 
 ing to such disadvantage before my friends, and at 
 one o'clock in the morning went to his room at the 
 club to curse him if he were asleep, or lecture him if 
 he were awake. I found that he had woke up about 
 midnight, dressed, had some supper, and was there 
 playing billiards with some friends, much too cheery 
 and well disposed towards men to allow of my saying 
 anything severe to him. 
 
 That is the sort of man my partner was ! 
 
54 ABOUT CEYLON AND BOENEO 
 
 CHAPTEE VII 
 
 THE PLANTER'S LIFE 
 
 Sunday in the coffee districts used to be spent 
 differently to what it is in England. It was the 
 great day for sport and visiting one's friends. It was 
 not likely that a service would be held within one's 
 reach more than once in three weeks, and as it was a 
 rule for coffee planters to give themselves and their 
 coolies a rest on the Sabbath, we generally had the 
 day all to ourselves. Our great monkey drives were 
 always held on Sunday, and those who had hounds 
 made that a day for hunting the ' Sambur deer,' or 
 the wild boar, thus combining recreation with health- 
 ful occupation and keeping one out of mischief. 
 
 The service held in a coffee store presented rather 
 a lively picture, compared with the church service of 
 an ordinary country village at home. There was, of 
 course, no bell to call the slothful Christian to his 
 prayers, and as the congregation was collected from 
 a radius of eight or nine miles all round, some folks 
 met at the right hour, while others joined in any 
 time during the morning. Almost everyone rode, and 
 as you approached the house of prayer you were 
 likely to come on a group of ' horsekeepers ' clad in 
 white linen, tending the horses of the worshippers, 
 and keeping the flies off their charges with a per- 
 
THE PLANTER'S LIFE 
 
 55 
 
 petual swishing of a long hair tail that they carry on 
 purpose. 
 
 The coffee stores were -very often constructed with 
 an iron roof, and during a heavy storm service had 
 to be suspended for a few minutes until the rain 
 
 
 EDWARD AND DOUGLAS INSPECTINO CATTLE 
 
 abated, as the parson could not shout against the 
 noise made by heavy rain on an iron roof. 
 
 Sunday was also a great day for inspecting cattle 
 and cattle-sheds, just as in England. The picture is 
 intended to represent Douglas and his friend Edward 
 ' doing ' the cattle-sheds. 
 
 Edward was the best and quietest of my acquaint- 
 
56 ABOUT CEYLON AND BORNEO 
 
 ances in Ceylon. I loved him with a deep and 
 undying affection, which I still hold in the bottom of 
 my heart. 
 
 He took me quietly apart one day, and told me 
 all his wrongs. Amongst other things he said that 
 twenty-six hairs had come out of his head within 
 a week. That he was sure the rest of them were 
 loose, and that if nothing were done he would comb 
 them all out in a very short time. 
 
 I regret to say that I did not miss such an 
 opportunity, but replied promptly that I thought 
 he would become as bald as a coot ; the only thing 
 which any sensible fellow would do under these 
 circumstances was either to apply to a Mr. Medring- 
 ton, who lived in my native town at home, for half a 
 dozen bottles of hair restorer, which must be promptly 
 applied to the scalp ; or to have every hair on his 
 head shaved down to the roots. 
 
 The end of it was that, not having time to send 
 half round the world for this hair restorer, I persuaded 
 him to have all his hair cut off. 
 
 About eight o'clock one night we lit two lamps and 
 hung them to the beams of the verandah. Edward 
 sat beneath, and Douglas and I soon cut every hair 
 off his head with nail scissors. 
 
 In those days Edward had the reddest of cheeks, 
 so the white skin on the top of his head, without any 
 hair to shield it, looked perfectly dazzling. 
 
 Two days later he had to go out into the clearing 
 and watch about three dozen women picking coffee. 
 The poorest joke amuses a Tamil woman, and it was 
 necessary for a young planter to look very dignified 
 before them. When the wind blew his hat off, it was 
 
THE PLANTER'S LIFE 57 
 
 more than the Tamil ladies could stand, as he certainly 
 did appear very funny with his bald white head ; so 
 they indulged in a perfect hurricane of titters, and 
 Edward was eventually forced to retire discomfited 
 from the field. 
 
 Sundays, when the coolies were away, he did not 
 think it necessary to wear a hat, and besides, he 
 fancied the air might assist the growth of his hair. 
 Therefore Edward may be distinguished from Douglas 
 by the circle of his bald head appearing above the 
 horizon of his shoulders. 1 
 
 You could not with comfort stand close up to the 
 wall of the cattle-shed, as it was very dirty, and 
 swarms of flies found their way up your legs, so 
 inspecting cattle on Sunday could scarcely be termed 
 * an easy lounge.' 
 
 A planter's life was not all ' beer and skittles.' I 
 will now give you some idea as to how he passed his 
 days in the ' new districts,' as this part of Ceylon was 
 called. He rose every morning of his life at 5.30 a.m., 
 dressed in haste, and went out to ' muster ' ; that is, 
 to some central part of the estate where he found all 
 the coolies assembled, and here he proceeded to 
 appoint each one his work for the day, jotting down 
 in a book how many men were to go to each kind of 
 work. ' Muster ' was only disagreeable on a very wet 
 morning, when the coolies would not turn out of the 
 ' lines ' of their own accord, and the planter had to 
 arm himself with a stick, and, entering their odori- 
 ferous dwellings on an empty stomach, force them to 
 take the field by brute persuasion. 
 
 1 Let me mention that Edward's hair did not continue to come 
 out, which may have been owing to our treatment. 
 
58 ABOUT CEYLON AND BORNEO 
 
 After ' muster,' he returned to the bungalow, and, 
 having sent off the post coolie, and coolies for any- 
 thing else he might require from the native village, 
 he was ready for tea. 
 
 Tea was generally eaten at 6 a.m. It consisted of 
 bread, jam, and coffee. In those days we always ate 
 jam in Ceylon instead of butter, as butter was not to 
 be procured at any price, while jam came out from 
 England in tin pots. The bread was very bad, being 
 made by a native man in Colombo, and then sent up 
 to the coffee districts. We ate it about ten days old, 
 as it took that time to be brought up in a bullock 
 waggon, and in this damp climate it was always full 
 of mildew, and generally full of ants also ; toasted 
 was the best way of eating it, as this killed the ants 
 and made them more digestible. 
 
 After tea, the planter started out with his thickest 
 boots on, and a long stick to help him up the hills. 
 Then he walked up and down the mountain steeps, 
 bullying the coolies, and being bullied by them, in the 
 scorching sun, till nearly 11 a.m., when he returned to 
 the bungalow to have a bath and proceed to breakfast. 
 
 Now it was nearly mid-day, and getting very 
 warm ; and as he sat at breakfast the insects and 
 house flies, which were in scores, drove him nearly 
 wild by crawling over his face and hands and tickling 
 his neck, till he swore awful oaths, and used such 
 damning language as he would blush to think of in 
 cooler, sunset moments. 
 
 This is very different now, as the planters gener- 
 ally live in beautifully clean bungalows, where flies 
 are not, and the kitchens, which used to be the lurk- 
 ing-places of insect life, are now patterns of tidiness 
 
THE PLANTER'S LIFE 59 
 
 and cleanliness. Many of them have English fire- 
 places, and all that brings comfort to the British 
 soul. 
 
 I think there are few servants in an English 
 gentleman's household at home who are humble 
 enough to be content with a meal such as used to 
 form the ordinary planter's breakfast. Beef was the 
 only meat procurable, and it was so coarse, tough, 
 and bad, that only compulsion would induce one to 
 live on it ; in this country of thunderstorms it could 
 not be hung long enough to become tender before it 
 came to table. 
 
 After the meat one always had a course of rice 
 and curry, which was generally very good. The drink 
 of the planter was bottled beer, generally Ind, Coope 
 & Co.'s, which was brewed so strong, to keep in a 
 tropical climate, that there was danger in drinking it. 
 
 As soon as breakfast was over, the planter started 
 out again to look after the coolies. He found that 
 next to no work had been done in his absence, as the 
 Tamil coolie requires continual supervision, and the 
 Kanganis seem to possess very little influence over 
 their gangs, and are not able to keep the work going 
 very much in the superintendent's absence. 
 
 To climb up the mountain side to some distant 
 part of the estate was no easy matter at this time of 
 day, as the sky had now clouded over for the coming 
 storm, and the air was close and heavy from the 
 approaching depression. A thunderstorm broke over 
 our end of Dickoya nearly every afternoon during the 
 five winter months of the year, between 1.30 and 
 5 p.m., and continued for two hours and a half. The 
 month of January was generally rainless, but during 
 
60 ABOUT CEYLON AND BORNEO 
 
 the six summer months it rained, more or less, all 
 day, but it was more likely to come down in the after- 
 noon than the morning. 
 
 At 4 p.m. work was knocked off for the day, and 
 the planter returned to his bungalow, drenched to the 
 skin, but more comfortable, as the air had become 
 cooler. Then he had to write down in his books how 
 many Tamils had been at work, what each one had 
 been doing, and what his pay was to be for the day. 
 This took about an hour and a half on an ordinary 
 estate, where, say, 120 coolies were employed daily. 
 After this, it was necessary to give out medicines and 
 dose niggers who were ailing. Castor-oil is their 
 favourite drug, and they seemed to think it did them 
 more good if it were poured down their throats by the 
 master himself. 
 
 Then he had to settle disputes, if there were any, 
 and make contracts and arrangements with head men 
 for weeding, building cattle-sheds, ' lines,' or other 
 works. By the time all this was finished it was 
 getting dark, and his work was pretty well over for the 
 day. 
 
 At 7-p.M. he had dinner, the same kind of meal as 
 breakfast ; and at 9.30 p.m., worn out with his day's 
 toil, he retired to bed for eight hours' sleep, if he were 
 not disturbed by the numberless fleas, mosquitoes and 
 rats that in those days infested a planter's bungalow. 
 Mosquitoes could be kept off satisfactorily with netting, 
 but against fleas no bed is proof. 
 
 On five nights of the month the planter had to 
 devote two and a half hours after dinner to estate ac- 
 counts, and all letters had to be then written, as the 
 rest of the day was fully occupied. 
 
THE PLANTER'S LIFE 61 
 
 This is a hard life when one considers the sameness 
 and monotony of the daily round of duties in a country 
 without summer and winter ; where every day is the 
 same length and temperature ; where the thermometer 
 does not alter twenty degrees all the year round, and 
 where there is no change of seasons, so pleasing to the 
 eye at home. 
 
 But planting has its advantages compared with 
 life in other colonies, as when the planter did get 
 away from his work to other bungalows he was likely 
 to meet first-rate fellows. The Ceylon planters are 
 mostly English gentlemen, and not a collection of 
 knaves from all nations, that one sometimes stumbles 
 upon in the British colonies. They were wonderfully 
 hospitable amongst one another, and a stranger tra- 
 velling through these districts would probably have 
 greater kindness shown him than amongst any other 
 community in the world. 
 
 There were no inns or houses for the accom- 
 modation of strangers in the hills of Ceylon, except 
 one or two Government rest-houses. These were 
 placed at very long intervals along the high roads, 
 say eighteen miles apart. Yet there was no fear of a 
 traveller not getting a bed and meals on his journey : 
 any planter was only too pleased to make the way- 
 farer at home in his bungalow, and set before him the 
 best that his house could produce, although he might 
 have known nothing of him previously. I have 
 known a planter turn out of his own bed to make 
 a stranger comfortable, while he slept on the floor or 
 on a curtainless mosquito-betroubled sofa himself. 
 
 Towards the middle of May the south-west monsoon 
 generally burst. In 1876 the tempest was more 
 
62 ABOUT CEYLON AND BOKNEO 
 
 violent than usual ; the rainfall in thirty-six hours 
 registered eighteen inches at our end of the valley. 
 It was very distressing to see the damage done to the 
 properties after the first burst and four or five days of 
 rain and wind were over. New roads that we had 
 been making, culverts over which we had spent weeks 
 of honest labour, were swept clean away ; coffee trees 
 were washed out of the ground by the score; the 
 Dove's wooden bridge over the river had disappeared, 
 and everything seemed to be wrecked and wasted. 
 
 It is astonishing how very bad things look the first 
 time you visit them after the storm, when you have to 
 wade through your estate among debris and mud 
 in the pouring rain, compared with what they do a 
 fortnight later, when the waters have subsided, and the 
 sun has come out between the clouds and brightened 
 the scene of desolation with its genial rays. 
 
63 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 DOWN THE DICKOYA VALLEY 
 
 On the 26th January, 1890, thirteen years later, I 
 rode down the Kehelgama river from Claverton to our 
 former estate ; no longer along the splendid bullock- 
 cart road of Dickoya, but by a walking road engineered 
 by the planters, which seemed to be constructed for 
 walking purposes only. It might almost be said that 
 this road was made for a party to scramble along. It 
 was not good compared with the delightful Govern- 
 ment roads which are now being cut everywhere. 
 
 When I at length reached my journey's end, I 
 found the planter and his wife living in a particularly 
 pretty bungalow. This bungalow was perched on a 
 very steep hillside, so that in looking out of the 
 window of the verandah drawing-room, you caught a 
 glimpse of the garden walk immediately beneath. 
 Then your eye travelled on down over so steep a field 
 of tea that it made you almost giddy to look at it. 
 
 Beyond was the rushing river, here and there 
 white with foam, as it dashed over its rocky bottom ; 
 and presently in its deeper and more tranquil parts of 
 a deep green. In the river were such gloriously 
 wooded islands, filled with great slabs of rock and 
 covered all over with jungle creepers. These trees 
 were left from the primeval forest which surrounded 
 
64 ABOUT CEYLON AND BORNEO 
 
 this gorge of the valley thirteen years previously. 
 They occupied islands of disputed ownership, and were 
 therefore left standing as marks of the almost 
 undreamt-of magnificence before the valley was made 
 the object of English enterprise. 
 
 Close to me in the bungalow were ferns all sil- 
 very and golden, shaded from the sunlight which 
 flooded all things outside by a latticed part of the 
 verandah. From the lines far away came now and 
 again sounds which seemed to vibrate in the sunny 
 air ; they were the distant shouting of the nigger 
 children's voices, modulated by the intervening 
 distance, and the incessant turmoil of the rushing 
 river. 
 
 I stayed here one night, and was astonished at the 
 absence from the bungalow of our interesting little 
 friend the mosquito. For the first time since I came 
 to Ceylon his netting was absent from my bed. 
 
 The weather had been so glorious since my arrival 
 that it seemed impossible that I could remember a 
 rainfall of one hundred and eighty inches in a year ; 
 yet not only was that the case, but about the same 
 amount is registered now, and appears likely to be the 
 fall through endless ages. The cutting down of all 
 these tropical jungles by the Englishman has made 
 no difference, as the rain descends as much as ever. 
 It is true that formerly it came in gradual showers, 
 whilst now it comes in a tropical downpour. 
 
 There was a friend of Douglas's to whom the horse 
 that I rode had belonged in former times. He used 
 to stroll over some mornings and have a chat. He 
 told us some curious circumstances relative to this 
 quadruped. They were communicated in such a 
 
DOWN THE DICKOYA VALLEY 65 
 
 matter-of-fact way that at first I could not refrain 
 from believing them ; on thinking the matter over, 
 however, I could scarcely credit all that was told me. 
 
 He said that this sort of horse was called an 
 * Indian,' and that when it was younger it had been 
 a terrible one to ' plant.' This word sounded strange, 
 and puzzled me a good deal. 1 had to ask its mean- 
 ing. He replied that the horse took it into its head 
 to remain just before the verandah when it was brought 
 round for its master to mount. 
 
 It seemed that he came out one day, and seeing the 
 horse waiting with the horsekeeper before the door, 
 he climbed up into the saddle. Nothing, however, 
 would induce the beast to advance or retire more than 
 an inch, or, in fact, to move away from where it was 
 standing. 
 
 They tried all sorts of expedients, but nothing 
 would prevail on him to move. At length my friend 
 thought of a plan, a brilliant plan, which was 
 promptly put into execution. A fire was lighted be- 
 neath the animal, and when the flames began to make 
 it too hot for this Indian steed, he moved about five 
 paces, and then stood still again. A second time they 
 kindled a fire beneath him, and when it was all ablaze 
 he struggled off and ' planted ' again, this time so con- 
 scientiously that my friend had to give up riding until 
 the horse had grown more tractable. 
 
 He told us that this horse was very long. Before 
 he bought it he had a most gorgeous stable built, with 
 granite pillars and a shingle roof. But being down in 
 Colombo attending horse sales for three months, he 
 had not been able to look after its construction himself. 
 
 One day he wrote to the conductor saying he was 
 
 F 
 
66 ABOUT CEYLON AND BORNEO 
 
 coming up country, with a horse which was to fill the 
 new building. It did fill it till it was over full. Hor- 
 rible to relate, the new stable was too short for the 
 horse, and the tips of his ears were not concealed from 
 the scorching rays of the eastern sun. The further 
 end of his hocks and tail also protruded from the 
 shelter of the shingle roof. 
 
 Then my friend was very angry and called the 
 conductor some names, most of which I have forgotten, 
 but amongst others I remember that he was ' an over- 
 withered Pekoe-Sue-drinking son of a tea-merchant.' 
 
 My friend was therefore obliged to have a new 
 stable built, at an enormous outlay, 'which,' as he 
 said, 'just shows how easily man is deceived, and how 
 the wisest of us poor mortals, by leaving these im- 
 portant items to the management of a black man, is 
 apt to be led astray.' 
 
 One day we went for a trip in the train from Hat- 
 ton to Nanu-oya, which is the top end of the railway. 
 I say the ' top end,' because it rises the whole way up a 
 steep incline. The station of Nanu-oya is 5,300 feet 
 above sea-level, nearly 1,200 feet above Hatton. We 
 left Hatton at 10.50 a.m., and after zig-zagging along 
 through an apparently endless multitude of tea estates, 
 we arrived about one at Nanu-oya, in the district of 
 Dimbula. 
 
 It was quite distressing to encounter nothing but 
 tea all the way. The hills would be exceedingly pretty 
 if they were only covered with jungle, or if they had 
 anything else growing on them but this interminable 
 tea. Unfortunately there is nothing else, except on 
 the highest crests of the surrounding mountains, and 
 
DOWN THE DICKOYA VALLEY 67 
 
 there nature seems to assert her rights with patches 
 of beautiful jungle, which vary the scenery, and cause 
 a soothing influence to the eyes of sinful man. 
 
 It is extraordinary to look over the Dickoya 
 valley, a valley which only thirty short years ago was 
 completely covered by a vast solitary jungle, amid 
 whose labyrinth of moss-grown trees there was no 
 road, and scarcely a trail. Here the huge ' Doon ' 
 raised its straggling limbs aloft, and a mass of trop- 
 ical creepers intercepted the way to all else besides 
 monkeys and an occasional elephant. There was a 
 silence that might be felt over all things ; and, 
 beyond a mosquito or two, the half-starved leeches 
 seemed the only indication of life. 
 
 To see this valley now, with scarcely a tree left 
 standing, but with its many well-engineered cart- 
 roads, its estate roads, and thousands of drains ; to 
 see the white pillared tea factories, the bungalows, and 
 the tea estates ranging over the hills, is a wonderful 
 sight, but it is no longer picturesque. During that 
 day's journey how we longed for one acre of ' patna ' 
 to vary the monotony of this ever-green tea. 
 
 The station of Nanu-oya was brand new, and so 
 terribly English that it did our hearts good to go 
 to the native shops and find the native Singhalese 
 selling native fruits out of a native kaddy. 
 
 It is curious to notice how this railway line circu- 
 lates amongst the thousands of acres of tea and coffee 
 plantations in its upward progress, and winds in and 
 out like a snake amongst the bushes. At one place 
 we came right over and in sight of the line which we 
 had left miles behind; yes, far, far down below we saw 
 the tail of the serpent swinging round beneath. 
 
 F 2 
 
68 ABOUT CEYLON AND BORNEO 
 
 The carriages were divided into square compart- 
 ments, about double the size of a broad-gauge com- 
 partment on the ' G.W.E. ' in England. 1 They had 
 three armed cane-bottomed seats on either side, with 
 windows behind, and one seat between the two rows 
 with its back to the engine, holding in all seven people. 
 If you are sleepy or ill at ease from any cause, I do 
 not know anything more hopelessly wearying than 
 these pillowless seats, as they have absolutely no sup- 
 port for the back of the head. If you fall asleep your 
 head rolls out of the window behind. If you try to lie 
 down on three seats in a row — which is possible — you 
 find that you are occupying too much space, and some- 
 one else is sure to come in, with no end of tin boxes. 
 This makes such a clattering, and fills the air with 
 such an execration of coolies, that sleep is out of the 
 question, and jou. have to get up and make room for 
 the new-comer. Besides, these trains are generally too 
 full to allow you to lie in comfort on the three seats, 
 so that it is necessary to sit bolt upright, to face into 
 the glare of the opposite windows, and not to mind 
 the friendly chattering and chaff that is going on 
 among the six other planters who are your fellows in 
 adversity. 
 
 However, for apicnic, as we were going, I do not know 
 that you could come across any picture more delight- 
 ful than our carriage presented. We had taken a table 
 with us, and absolutely quantities of food. There was 
 our hamper filled with all that the Claverton cook's 
 most cunning machinations could contrive, and 
 another hamper with a pie in it. Even now that I 
 
 1 The gauge of the Ceylon Railway is 5 ft. 6 in. The G.W.R. broad- 
 gauge is about 7 ft., while the English narrow-gauge is only 4 ft. 4| in. 
 
DOWN THE DICKOYA VALLEY 
 
 69 
 
 am back in England I often think of that pie. When 
 I am bored to death sitting in a hard-seated, hard- 
 backed pew, pretending to listen to a long-winded 
 sermon, then I think of that pie, and it gives me 
 comfort somehow in the chilly stone-floored church. 
 
 We had with us plantains and the egg-shaped tree 
 tomato, mangoes and pineapple. Taking it altogether, 
 with the coolness of the hill breeze and the slow 
 
 THE MOETARED, WHITEWASHED LUMP OF CLAY 
 (See next page) 
 
 motion of the train ascending those tea-covered moun- 
 tains, we spent a very jolly time. 
 
 Going up the line we came to a station where lots 
 of coolies turned out from our train, and we noticed 
 one young Tamil girl, got up in her best red-and- 
 yellow-checked summer costume, descend with two live 
 chickens, one under each arm. These she had brought 
 with her on an outing, because she was afraid they 
 
70 ABOUT CEYLON AND BOBNEO 
 
 would be stolen if she left them behind to wander 
 about the home ' lines.' 
 
 Talking of chickens reminds me of a fact which 
 seems to throw a veil of inanity over Tamil coolies' 
 Hindoo worship. There was a Swamy-house close by 
 Claverton ; merely a thatched roof on poles, beneath 
 which were two little whitewashed pyramids, on the 
 tops of which were placed earthenware saucers. What 
 these saucers might have contained I do not know, 
 as when I visited this sacred spot they had nothing in 
 them. 
 
 I was told by the owner of the estate that the 
 coolies who constructed these sacred pyramids had 
 built up inside each of them a live chicken, and let it 
 perish for want of air, so that you may say with the 
 poet : 
 
 1 Stranger, pause, and shed a tear : 
 
 A gruesome deed was acted here. 
 
 Beneath this mortared, whitewashed clay 
 
 A fowl was foully put away. 
 
 Hidden beneath this sordid block 
 
 Lies our old friend, the barn-door cock.' 
 
71 
 
 CHAPTEE IX 
 
 THE ' BOPATS ' 
 
 I was watching some coolies playing cards on a Sunday 
 morning, from a point of vantage whence I could not be 
 discerned. It was very comic to see the four naked 
 figures squatting on their calves — as only the nigger 
 can squat — on the sunlit ground, with a piece of sack- 
 cloth instead of a card table. They seemed full of 
 chaff amongst themselves, while the old conductor sat 
 in a verandah round the corner with his spectacles on, 
 writing in an enormous book. He looked up now and 
 again to utter many Tamil expressions, in a loud 
 authoritative voice, to some coolie women and children 
 who were busying themselves near by. 
 
 Away in the distance the banana leaves were being 
 blown about, as though a hurricane was at work on 
 them ; really it was only the mid-day breeze which 
 was stirring up their long feathery leaves. 
 
 Then the hens — for there are always fowls where 
 Tamil coolies are collected — were wandering about en- 
 gaged in busily scraping up the sunbaked clay ; or 
 jerking themselves forward as they talked to one 
 another, each thinking herself the only chicken in 
 this great world. 
 
 There was a little girl sitting on a stone before the 
 old conductor's house, feeding herself from a bowl of 
 
72 
 
 ABOUT CEYLON AND BORNEO 
 
 rice, and the great big chickens would keep coming up 
 as if they thought it was their bowl and not hers ; so 
 that she could scarcely keep them off with her hands, 
 as they seemed so remarkably tame and were so per- 
 sistent in their adoration of the rice. 
 
 THE OLD MALAY CONDUCTOE 
 
 A little way off two children were wandering about 
 among the tea bushes, perfectly naked, not feeling the 
 sun in the least, but laughing a sort of merry childish 
 laugh which was pleasant to hear. Here a girl came 
 by bringing on her head a brass ' chatty ' filled with 
 clear water from the stream, and there lay the inevit- 
 
THE ' BOPATS ' 73 
 
 able thin coolie dog, a poor beast who never gets 
 anything worth eating, and does not know what the 
 smell of a bone is like, he gets one so seldom. How 
 these poor dogs live, stretched out at full length in 
 the sun all day in this condition of ruminant vacuous- 
 ness, is a mystery. It is truly said that we live by 
 eating, and many a dog that I know lives simply for 
 eating ; but these poor dogs, if they have come into 
 the world with any such intention, have long ere this 
 found out they must live to sleep instead ; they seem 
 to sleep in order that they may live as economically 
 and as quietly as possible. 
 
 Looking at it from my point of view on this day, 
 Ceylon seemed to be a peaceful sunshiny country, 
 where it was delightful to idle away a few long weeks 
 of life. But I really knew that your happiness in 
 this land all depended upon whether the ' dhobi ' had 
 brought your clothes from the wash lately or not, as 
 that was an occasion which generally turned the 
 summer of life into a dismal winter-time of bitterness. 
 As you looked over the shirts, which so few short 
 weeks ago had been brought freshly out from home 
 aU spotlessly white, starched and new, you found 
 them now ruined by his exertions over the purling 
 streamlet. When you saw the lack of starch, the 
 frayed cuffs, and noticed how your shirt-fronts were 
 torn away by brutal struggles with the stones at the 
 frothing brook side, you found that in spite of sun- 
 shine and these valleys laughing with crops, life was 
 not aU bliss even here. 
 
 Watch a dhobi at work ; see him clashing your 
 best white shirts against a rather rounded stone by the 
 stream. He has nothing on except his loin-cloth, 
 
74 ABOUT CEYLON AND BORNEO 
 
 because he perspires so freely. Watch his exertions, as 
 with both hands uplifted he swoops down with your 
 shirt upon the stone ; and then you tell me that there 
 is no black man in Ceylon who works half as hard as 
 an Englishman. 
 
 When Englishmen say that coolies are poor 
 creatures without any gumption in their build at 
 all, it goes straight home to my heart, and I 
 see what a maligned being the Singhalese man 
 really is. 
 
 The highest part of the estate where I was 
 sojourning in Dickoya was just 1,200 feet above the 
 river Mahavelaganga, which rushed by rapidly at its 
 foot. From this eminence one got a glorious view of 
 Maskeliya's jungle-covered mountain tops. Here 
 and there a bit of smooth slab rock was seen, which 
 had proved too hard, slippery, and steep for anything 
 but moss to grow on its sides. Beyond were the 
 forest trees, with their magnificent branches rising up 
 in an apparently never-ending maze ; while nearer to 
 me were ruddy tinted leaves showing brightly against 
 the dark-green foliage of the jungle beyond, making in 
 all a beautiful picture. 
 
 It was here that we saw the tracks of an elephant 
 quite fresh upon the tea-bush-covered soil. This 
 elephant only lived about ten clays from that time, as 
 he was shot by a planter when roaming foolishly 
 about the ridge of the adjoining estate. 
 
 The ordinary elephant of Ceylon has no ivory 
 tusks worth mentioning, and is therefore useless when 
 killed. It is necessary to shoot them whenever they 
 come out on the estates, as the coolies are in such 
 desperate terror of elephants that you cannot induce 
 
THE 'BOPATS' 75 
 
 the men to go forth and weed or pluck tea when the 
 tracks are at all recent. 
 
 On February 12 I gathered that long brown horse 
 from the stable, and after bidding adieu to my 
 grieving friends, I was borne swiftly away from 
 Claverton's sheltering grasp, and travelled far up the 
 Dickoya valley till at length I came to Eltofts in 
 Bogawantalawa. 
 
 What a name the further end of Dickoya possesses ; 
 but what a much more beautiful name is that of the 
 stream which tumbles down over its rocky bottom ! 
 It is called the ' Bogawantalawaoya,' a name which 
 has become so familiar to me now, that it seems like 
 nothing to say it right off, and I give way to its many- 
 syllabled and somewhat tangled mass without even a 
 quiver in my voice ; for is not use second nature ? 
 
 Here they showed me many things with which I 
 was — strangely enough — already familiar. There was 
 a factory in which the machines were turned by a 
 turbine, and we tasted, with a grave face, about four- 
 teen of the bitterest, strongest teas that you can 
 possibly imagine. 
 
 One morning we went to the ' Bopats.' After 
 climbing uphill for two mortal hours, we got within a 
 stone's throw of the Bopats. We had been mounting 
 up, first through a large tea estate, with blue gums 
 planted along the roadside. These trees are intended 
 to give shade, which in any other country they may 
 do ; in Ceylon there is far too much rainfall in the 
 year to suit the blue gum, and planting them seemed 
 to have been a waste of time. However, you see their 
 smooth mildewed stems everywhere. 
 
 Then we penetrated a quantity of dense jungle, 
 
76 ABOUT CEYLON AND BORNEO 
 
 and at length got out on to another tea estate, up 
 which we struggled, till at last when we had passed 
 a tea factory, a pretty bungalow, and a number of 
 Tamils picking leaves, we came to more jungle. 
 
 I had intended telling you about the Bopats, but 
 must say, with the parson, ' My friends, let us pause 
 and consider,' for surely it was too hot, and the sun 
 was scorching our backs too much to rush on. We 
 had now got up many feet above the Bogawantala- 
 waoya, and looking down the zig-zag steps from the 
 gorge we had ascended, we could see over the tree 
 tops the far-away coffee and tea fields, to where great 
 patches of jungle and patna were lying sweltering in 
 mid-day heat. Above us were trees with branched 
 heads of leaves in great clusters, as they towered aloft 
 against a background of granite walls. These walls 
 were so steep that man in his most aspiring moments 
 could never think of scaling their weather-beaten 
 sides. 
 
 We clambered up the pathway and felt like ants 
 creeping up a moss-covered wall, till at length the 
 summit was reached, and we found ourselves suddenly 
 on the Bopats. They were apparently endless grassy 
 downs with sloping hillsides, and every now and then 
 jungle rising out of them, while in the distance rocky 
 mountain peaks rose above this beautiful undulating 
 ground. 
 
 We wandered over a grassy plateau, it appeared 
 to me for miles, and at length beneath some huge 
 rhododendron trees, having descended by impercep- 
 tible degrees, we came to a stream, where three 
 Singhalese men were washing for gems. They had 
 dug a pit beside the water's edge, and from this grave 
 
THE ' BOPATS 
 
 77 
 
 they ladled basketfuls of mud and sand. Then, 
 sitting on a plank with their feet in the water, they 
 rinsed all the mud out of the baskets, and left in the 
 bottom a few handfuls of quartz, which they looked 
 carefully over in hope of finding untold wealth. I 
 suppose it would be needless to remark that while we 
 stood and watched them nothing of any value was 
 found — nothing, in fact, except pebbles and sand. 
 
 We remained about half an hour watching these 
 gemmers ; then one of us said, ' How delightful this 
 
 SINGHALESE MEN WASHING FOR GEMS 
 
 existence must be, sitting on a wet board all day with 
 your legs in the cool water, sifting, ever sifting, your 
 bosom swayed with the hope of eventual success, and 
 your manly form exposed to the rays of the sun, only 
 five degrees from the equator ! Then when the rain 
 comes on you retire to your jungle home, where you 
 chew " Betel nut " till it is over.' 
 
 It is needless to remark that there is nothing these 
 naked Singhalese men. fear like rain, absolutely no- 
 thing. They go and live away amid the jungle 
 
78 ABOUT CEYLON AND BORNEO 
 
 leeches, and rather seem to enjoy baffling their 
 attacks ; but give them a couple of spots of rain, and 
 off they go, never mind how precious the stones may 
 be they are finding. 
 
 The gemmers had built a couple of what might be 
 termed altars on the banks of the stream close by the 
 scene of their labour. They were a description of 
 small dolls' houses, standing on poles about five feet 
 from the ground, and well roofed in with talipot 
 leaves. Beneath the talipots were what we will call 
 some seedy offerings, as they appeared to consist of 
 the seeds of a reed, and were doubtless placed there 
 as a propitiatory offering to their gods. Why they 
 should have been put to the trouble of erecting altars, 
 or whether the gods were satisfied with their talipot 
 roofing, we shall never know, as we were Christians, 
 and these natives were presumably Buddhists, which 
 makes a difference. 
 
 Then we turned homeward, and found it much 
 easier work walking down the mountain slopes than 
 it had been crawling up. 
 
 On one occasion we scrambled through some leafy 
 scrub and got down to a natural cave close by the 
 river's edge. The roof of this rocky cavern was 
 plastered over with swifts' nests. These swifts in 
 Borneo are called ' callocalid,' and their i nests 
 ' neottopteris.' i . 
 
 The garden swift of our English homes does not 
 exist in the tropics. I believe the Bornean swift is 
 smaller than a British swallow. It makes a nest of 
 weeds, feathers, and saliva ; a glutinous saliva which 
 fastens the nest to the overhanging rocks. These 
 nests must be worth nearly forty shillings a pound, 
 
THE 'BOPATS' 
 
 79 
 
 for the Chinese make soup of them. Bird's-nest soup 
 is an article I am totally unacquainted with, but I 
 understand the Chinese are very fond of it. They 
 only cook the glutinous saliva, and not the feathers 
 and weed. 
 
 We gathered two of these nests, for this was not 
 the season when the birds were laying. The nests 
 were packed carefully away in a tin box amongst my 
 clothes, where I thought they would travel securely, 
 
 THE ANTS ON MY SHIRT-SLEEVE 
 
 and as they were clean and stiff I did not even trouble 
 to wrap them in paper. On opening my box at the 
 end of its journey, a feeling of horror crept over me 
 when I saw an ant — yes, a small black ant — creeping 
 out quite unconcernedly from beneath a vest. Then 
 I took the contents of the box to pieces, and found 
 some more in my pyjamas ; but what they particularly 
 seemed to fancy was my sponge, as this was full of 
 them. 
 
80 
 
 ABOUT CEYLON AND BORNEO 
 
 I thought these insects would drown easily enough, 
 and did not bother about them, but left rny sponge 
 unmolested for the night. However, in the morning 
 they seemed to have increased amazingly, as I saw 
 them running here and there all over my white 
 washing stand. I discovered them in what appeared 
 
 THE STICK INSECT 
 
 to be hundreds issuing from the recesses of my cup- 
 board, and when I dipped my sponge in the water it 
 did not kill them ; they actually liked it. 
 
 I was then torn with doubts whether a life infested 
 with ants was worth having, or if it would be better 
 to put an end to such a miserable existence. 
 
 In spite of this I live on. 
 
THE 'BOPATS' 81 
 
 Talking of insects reminds me of one which I dis- 
 covered adhering to my person when I was down by 
 the river which runs through Claverton. I suddenly 
 observed something moving clumsily about near my 
 ear. It was impossible for the animal to get nearer, 
 as the length of its body (seven inches) prevented its 
 crawling between my shoulder and my ' solar topee.' 
 It had probably crept on to my hat from some over- 
 hanging bough. I snatched this creeping thing away 
 and examined it closely. It was emerald green all over, 
 and exactly like a bit of bamboo. Its six legs were very 
 minute in circumference, and came out almost at right 
 angles to its body. This object is called a stick insect, 
 and is the most distasteful-looking creeping bug, and 
 the largest, I have ever seen. 
 
82 ABOUT CEYLON AND BORNEO 
 
 CHAPTEE X 
 
 IN THE LOWER COUNTRY 
 
 On February 15, leaving Eltofts, I came down the valley 
 again to Claverton. This was the day of the Dickoya 
 race meeting, and no Englishman in the whole of the 
 district could get a moment's work out of the coolies. 
 They went down by thousands, dressed in perfectly 
 clean white cloths, to attend the races ! Every man, 
 every woman, and every child who could walk, was to be 
 seen tottering down towards the course. Mothers, 
 with babies which should have been in arms, slung 
 their children, wrapped in white ' sarongs,' on to a 
 pole ; thus with one end of the pole over their 
 husband's shoulder and the other over their own, they 
 marched along. 
 
 Many of them went ten miles or more from the 
 estate to the Darawella racecourse, and then back 
 again the same day. Coolies were packed round the 
 little district course in thousands, not betting on the 
 races as we Englishmen should do, but looking on it, 
 we supposed, as some religious ceremony. It was 
 strange to look round the little Darawella flat and see 
 Tamil coolies in a white and black mass packed up to 
 the top of the hills which surround the course. 
 
 It happened to be a beautiful summer day, and 
 they appeared to enjoy themselves in a quiet way to 
 
IN THE LOWEK COUNTBY 83 
 
 the utmost — more, in fact, than the planters did ; as 
 although there were plenty of ladies present, still these 
 British ladies were separated from the men, and 
 remained seated in a little throng by themselves during 
 the whole performance. 
 
 On March 2 I left Douglas's bungalow and the 
 valleys laughing with tea crops, and went down to the 
 Peradeniya Gardens, to Kandy, and to Kondesalle. 
 Peradeniya Gardens are quite beautiful, but I shall 
 not mention these, as they have often been described 
 before. 
 
 From Kandy I was driven about four miles to 
 Kondesalle Ferry. It was a pleasant drive through a 
 perpetual Singhalese village, which is at first a town, 
 but which soon becomes scattered, with dwellings about 
 every hundred yards. 
 
 Singhalese people cannot exist as the Tamils do, 
 in ' lines ' perched up on treeless tea estates ; they 
 have to live beneath shady boughs, so that the whole 
 way along this road there were cocoa-nut and other 
 trees, reaching right away from the road as far back 
 as the eye could see. This was not a great distance 
 on account of the mass of leaves which surrounded 
 you. 
 
 After driving some distance alongside the broad 
 river ' Mahavelaganga,' we came to the ferry, with a 
 collection of Singhalese houses on its steep bank. The 
 ferry-boat was a combination of two ordinary dug-out 
 canoes gouged out of tree stems, connected by boards 
 nailed across them, and paddled by an almost naked 
 Singhalese man in the stern. 
 
 At the ferry the river is about two hundred yards 
 broad. Here it is a sluggish stream lazily dragging 
 
 a 2 
 
84 ABOUT CEYLON AND BOKNEO 
 
 its waters along with scarcely depth enough at this 
 season of the year to cover its sandy bottom. We 
 soon stemmed the river, and having reached the 
 further side found a bullock bandy waiting to take us 
 two miles to the abode of one of the planters. 
 
 This journey was accomplished mostly under the 
 shadow of tropical trees. We were now only about 
 1,300 feet above sea level, and a good many miles from 
 the coast, so it was terribly hot. On this level there 
 were no tea plantations, as the climate, together with 
 the soil, renders it possible to abandon tea and to in- 
 troduce instead cocoa bushes, Siberian coffee, ordinary 
 coffee, indiarubber trees, cotton, vanilla, and tobacco. 
 All of these I saw growing in what seemed a subdued 
 confusion. 
 
 Now and again when we came across a plot of 
 ground belonging to and planted by natives, it was 
 filled with Jack fruit trees, cocoa-nuts, plantains, and 
 tomatoes, growing belter-skelter, and looking as though 
 not planted but indigenous. 
 
 There was no natural jungle here ; all the trees 
 seemed to have been planted by natives, and were 
 lacking that natural beauty and those deep, quiet 
 jungle sbadows which exist higher up the country. 
 One missed the thick sbade from lofty trees which falls 
 across the feathery cardamoms on the forest edge. 
 The cricket's loud call, singing his hymn of praise to 
 the dazzling sunlight, was absent. There was no 
 bubbling streamlet to sound its plashing in your ears. 
 
 I have noticed in streams that come from the jungle 
 there are dark transparent pools with beetling insects 
 ever whirling round in irregular circles ; pools in the 
 depths of which one sees a layer of craartzy sand, or a 
 
IN THE LOWER COUNTRY 85 
 
 darkness occasioned by decaying vegetation. Little 
 ferns peep out from cracks in the dark lichen-patched 
 rocks, and the intensely green or yellow-tinted leaves 
 of the cardamoms are reflected with the blue sky 
 above in the sombre waters. A little lower down 
 dried and crackling foliage falls into the purling stream. 
 These streams are spotlessly clear, for they flow from 
 the uncut jungle on the mountain tops, and find their 
 way down amid the drooping foliage. 
 
 Here and there pools have been formed, and if 
 you look into those crystal depths, besides your own 
 reflection you will see quantities of minute animal- 
 cule and fresh-water crabs wandering about beneath 
 miniature slabs of rock. 
 
 But I must return to the bullock bandy in which 
 we started away trotting to the bungalow. 
 
 It is wonderful how these bullock drivers propel 
 their bullocks. They seem to goad them along with 
 sounds only. When accompanied by ladies and gentle- 
 men they cannot of course practise the cruelties 
 common to Singhalese bullock drivers. The Singha- 
 lese make a noise exactly like the grunt of a pig, at 
 the same time twisting the bullock's tail in a way 
 that must be exceedingly disagreeable to the poor 
 beast. 
 
 Our driver was a Tamil who had been taught by 
 his English employers, so that he only dared hold up 
 his stick in a threatening attitude ; I never saw him 
 strike with it. Our bullock kept up a subdued trot 
 from mile to mile on end, and when he was asked to 
 stand he just stood without so much as flopping his ears, 
 and scarcely swishing his tail. He stood often quite 
 quietly for an hour, either in the sun or the shade, it 
 
86 
 
 ABOUT CEYLON AND BOENEO 
 
 made no difference which. In fact, this was the most 
 interesting and domestic bullock I have ever known. 
 
 The accompanying portrait of his head should 
 give some idea of how he looked when he stood 
 calmly waiting for what would happen next. 
 
 When I got up to the bungalow I found bullocks, 
 bullocks everywhere, and not a drop to drink ! This 
 is not strictly true, as there were plenty of deep wells, 
 
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 THE TKOTTLNQ BULLOCK 
 
 but the rainfall was very light compared with that in 
 the tea districts. There were, however, no horses 
 hereabouts, but everything was done with bullocks. 
 There were four bullocks to turn the machinery in 
 the store, and bullocks to carry water from the well to 
 the bungalow — in fact, where estate roads were so 
 satisfactorily cut they could have bullocks everywhere. 
 There is one charm about Kandy in addition to 
 the scenery, which is, the fire-flies at night. After 
 
IN THE LOWER COUNTRY 87 
 
 dark every bush and tree is alive with floating phos- 
 phorescent light. They are around you in countless 
 myriads of light, floating about in ever-moving 
 gyrations. 
 
 A gentleman came out from home a few weeks 
 before I was in Kandy who was making a study of 
 human skulls, and as the Weddas of Ceylon are said to 
 be the oldest race now extant on the face of the eartb, 
 he wanted very particularly a Wedda's skull. He 
 therefore travelled far into the country till be came 
 to the abode of this almost uncivilised race, and 
 through an interpreter said what he had come for. 
 The man interpreted his wishes as follows : ' This 
 Englishman wants a Wedda's head, for which he 
 will give you eight pounds of tobacco and three 
 pounds of the best beads.' The Weddas then looked 
 wise, but did not say anything or do anything. So 
 the Englishman got the interpreter to repeat his 
 desire, but not being able to get any response went 
 away in disgust. 
 
 About three weeks after this he arrived at the 
 hotel in Kandy, and found a very high parcel wrapped 
 in banana leaves awaiting him. On opening it, it 
 proved to have a partly putrified Wedda's head in it. 
 Whether they had killed their fellow man, or if he 
 had died a natural death, will always remain a mystery. 
 I believe this is a fact. 
 
88 ABOUT CEYLON AND BOKNEO 
 
 CHAPTEK XI 
 
 MOUNT LAVINIA 
 
 What a sweetly pretty address this place has ! It is 
 ' Mount Lavinia,' Dehiwala, and the only other post- 
 mark my letters had on them was ' Oalkissa.' I 
 should think from reading this address that it must 
 be a second-rate heaven in disguise. 
 
 It is a pretty promontory, lying about nine miles 
 from Colombo along the sea-coast, and jutting out 
 into the ocean away from the unbroken forest of 
 cocoa-nut palms. If you could come to it on one of 
 those cold east-winderly days in England, you would 
 think it quite a paradise on earth. 
 
 The ground round the hotel is covered with a kind 
 of short grass, which makes it look green and bright 
 right down to the sea. On the top of this green 
 knoll a former governor of Ceylon built a villa ; it is 
 a handsome building, and stands about fifty feet above 
 the sea. After he left Ceylon it remained untenanted 
 for some years, and then a railway was made down 
 the coast which passed close to it; an enterprising 
 Englishman bought the building and turned it into 
 an hotel. 
 
 It is a large well-built house and makes a capital 
 hotel, so close to the sea that you have only to step 
 out of the door, walk twenty yards down the green 
 
MOUNT LAVINIA 89 
 
 slope, and you come to the rocky coast against which 
 the boundless Indian Ocean continually dashes. 
 
 The railway runs from Colombo to Mount Lavinia, 
 and the station of Mount Lavinia is only about two 
 hundred yards from the hotel. You can run thence 
 into the metropolis in about half an hour. 
 
 To the right and left of the promontory stretches 
 a sandy beach with cocoa-nut palms growing right 
 down to its edge, and their roots running into the 
 sea. These sands look most attractive from a 
 distance, but are not really agreeable to walk on, 
 for they are soft and allow one's feet to sink in at 
 every step, making a journey over them most fatigu- 
 ing. Quantities of insects most hostile to man are 
 ever disporting themselves on this briny shore. 
 
 The climate at Mount Lavinia is so muggily hot, 
 I would say if it were English so damply hot, that 
 although I fancy the thermometer never goes beyond 
 86° even on an April day, still the moisture evapora- 
 ting from this shimmering sea is very damp. Indeed, 
 so damp is it that unless you take your clothes out 
 of the tin box which contains them every three days 
 or so, and hang them up in the sun to dry, it is im- 
 possible to keep the mildew away. 
 
 The shore between Mount Lavinia and Colombo is 
 perfectly flat and a trifle uninteresting, with nothing 
 to look at but palm trees, the sand, and the sea, 
 therefore a walk along the strand is rather a monoto- 
 nous proceeding, without any rocks or picturesque ex- 
 crescences of any kind. They did say that there used to 
 be a shell somewhere along the coast, but one afternoon 
 a native man picked it up and gave it away. Now there 
 is nothing to disturb the peaceful serenity of that vast 
 
90 
 
 ABOUT CEYLON AND BORNEO 
 
 expanse, which stretches away to Colombo. That 
 desert area is abandoned entirely to the roots of the 
 cocoa-nut trees, the playful flea, and the crabs. 
 
 Ceylon is a wonderful country for crabs. There are 
 land crabs in the hills, and sand crabs on the shore. 
 
 When I was taking my walks abroad one morning, 
 
 THE SEA COAST 
 
 what should I see but about three million black-crabs- 
 picked-out-with-red-points, sitting together on a small 
 rock, and seemingly immersed in the contemplation 
 of their own gorgeous persons. 
 
 They looked at each other and smiled disdainfully 
 as they saw me approaching, but did not say anything 
 — I do not think that crabs ever talk much one with 
 
MOUNT LAVINIA 
 
 91 
 
 another. Evidently they thought that I should be 
 afraid, as there were so many of them congregated 
 
 MAKCH 1876 
 
 together. They just stood on the top of that rock in 
 a cluster, showing off their red points and looking 
 
 MAECH 1877 
 
 haughty, till I jumped on to the place where they were 
 thinking, and then they ran for their dear lives. 
 
 In referring to a journal which I kept when I was 
 
92 ABOUT CEYLON AND BOBNEO 
 
 in Ceylon in 1877, I notice the following statement : 
 ' May 10. — Left home for Ceylon, via America, this 
 day year ; both myself and my luggage are consider- 
 ably demoralised since then. My case of rods has 
 gone home ; one of my portmanteaux was given to a 
 chambermaid in Salt Lake City, and my other cases 
 have dwindled away to nothing. My hat-box was 
 thrown out of a porthole, being of no further use, 
 as the top hat which it contained is being worn by 
 the boots at the Brevoort House in New York. I 
 always found it too small, but he had a little head. 
 My guns have become rusty, my clothes misshapen 
 and faded with wet and sun. If you were to take 
 the contents of my tin box away, I should be left to 
 roam the earth clad like a nigger. 
 
 ' Thus it is in life.' 
 
 There are numbers of crows at Colombo, and 
 many more at Mount Lavinia. They are wonderfully 
 tame — so tame, in fact, that you dare not leave your 
 room or go to sleep in it with your window open, as 
 they would be sure to come hopping in and take away 
 any jewellery and pins that you happen to have left 
 on your dressing-table. 
 
 When you are sitting in your easy-chair and have 
 dropped off into a doze, you may be suddenly 
 awakened with a start by the hoarse cawing of a thin 
 black object with an enormous shiny bill slightly on one 
 side. He hops on to your looking-glass off the window 
 sill, just to examine, and see that you have not left 
 anything of value about. He has a dark brown neck 
 and throat, and his prominent beak is terribly long, 
 black, and defiant in appearance. This is the crow. 
 
 One day a man let off a fowling-piece near my 
 
MOUNT LAVINIA 93 
 
 window, and on looking out I saw that he had killed 
 one of these hoarse-croaking birds. Immediately an 
 innumerable multitude of cawing black objects came 
 from everywhere, so that the air was in no time thick 
 with winged blackness. All the taller branches of the 
 trees had tens and twenties of these birds on their 
 flat tops. Such a cawing went on, as each dying bird 
 talked the matter over with the other flying birds, 
 that you could not get in a word edgeways. Although 
 this foul deed had been perpetrated in their very midst, 
 they could do nothing as a retribution to the man ; 
 and eventually they went away leaving the air a good 
 deal clearer by their absence, but still agitated by their 
 distant cawing. 
 
 In Ceylon, especially in the low country, these 
 crows are the public scavengers. You see them every- 
 where. They get very daring where there are settle- 
 ments, as they soon learn that the natives will not 
 harm them ; and the Englishman is scarce in many 
 parts of the island. 
 
 I have seen an old crow fly down and take a piece 
 of bread out of a child's hand, as she was walking 
 with her nurse on the road. If you leave a biscuit 
 or anything edible on the table in your room, and 
 forget to shut the window, you may be quite sure 
 you will not find that biscuit on your return. 
 
 Supposing I opened my window at Mount Lavinia 
 and threw out a morsel of food, at once about ten 
 or twelve crows came flying round. They came from 
 distant lurking-places amongst the debris of the new 
 buildings, and from the housetops. I think that they 
 can see a bit of biscuit right through a brick wall, 
 and smell a morsel of carrion when they are about 
 
94 
 
 ABOUT CEYLON AND BORNEO 
 
 145 miles away from it. I might continue throwing 
 pieces of biscuit out, and was quite sure that none 
 
 CEOWS AT MOUNT LAVINIA 
 
 of them would ever touch the ground, as these crows 
 kept flying round and round, and catching them in the 
 air before they had fallen two yards. A feeling comes 
 
MOUNT LAVINIA 95 
 
 over me that no one will believe this, but it is perfectly 
 true. 
 
 All day the hoarse caw of phlegmatic old crows 
 was wafted to one on the summer breeze from their 
 resting-places amongst the cocoanut branches. 
 
 I have heard a great deal about the brightly - 
 plumaged birds of the tropics, and I have read that 
 birds with most brilliant feathers are to be found in 
 India and Ceylon. Probably there must be birds of 
 this description somewhere, but I have never seen 
 them myself. If Emerson Tennant and other authors 
 say there are such birds, of course there are. 1 
 
 One day, on emerging from a cocoanut plantation, 
 I came on a bit of broken wall, on the top of which a 
 bird was standing, and showing a wonderfully clear 
 outline against the blue and boundless ocean beyond. 
 The scene was so striking that I could not help ex- 
 claiming with the poet, 
 
 What bird is this with feathers gay ? 
 
 Of course I could not really deceive myself. I was 
 perfectly aware, in spite of the poesy which filled my 
 soul, and found vent in mutterings such as these, that 
 it was only a specimen of the domestic crow. 
 
 We tried shooting the crows with a rook rifle, but 
 they took in the situation in a moment and avoided 
 us. We never got a shot, though we lay in ambush 
 all one afternoon under the shadow of palm-trees, 
 waiting for them to alight. 
 
 It occurred to me whilst waiting thus that a crow 
 
 1 Oddly enough, you cannot find them on the sandy cocoanut- 
 planted land which extends for miles in every direction inland from 
 Mount Lavinia. 
 
96 ABOUT CEYLON AND BOKNEO 
 
 must be a bird of remarkable decision, for this reason. 
 When a crow approaches a cocoanut-tree he does not 
 falter or pause for a moment, but goes straight for 
 one leaf and settles on it. Supposing there are one 
 hundred cocoanut palms on half an acre of land, and 
 each tree has thirty-seven leaves on it, does it not 
 seem wonderful that a crow should be able in a 
 moment to select one leaf out of so many, and make 
 straight for it ? I call him a remarkably clever bird, 
 but then Ceylon is a wonderful country and Ceylon 
 crows are exceptional. 
 
 There is no tide at all in Ceylon. The height of 
 the sea along the coast is, like everything else in the 
 island, always the same; except that when the 
 monsoon changes it makes a slight change also. The 
 extraordinary thing is that the sea on this coast rises 
 two or three feet during the north-east monsoon, and 
 falls again during the south-west — although the coast 
 faces right into the south-west, and the wind is about 
 twice as strong during this monsoon. The rivers also 
 that flow out on this coast carry about three times the 
 volume of water during the south-west monsoon that 
 they do during the north-east. But as the ocean is 
 pretty vast here I suppose they could not raise it much 
 even if they did their best. 
 
 As I said before, Mount Lavinia is a pretty place, 
 being a little promontory surrounded on three sides 
 by the sea. Its connection with the cocoanutty land 
 is very small. When you have wandered on to the 
 main shore, you see an irregular mass of cocoanut 
 trees, an interwoven chain of light bark stems, all of 
 the same thickness, as these trees do not, like our 
 English trees, get any larger with age, but come out 
 
MOUNT LAVINIA 
 
 97 
 
 of the ground apparently the same circumference as 
 they mean to continue until their dying day. A 
 young cocoanut tree is, indeed, a beautiful thing, 
 
 ABOUT THIRTY-SIX FEET FROM THE GROUND 
 
 haying all the thickness of a full-grown tree ; but it 
 has more leaves, and these leaves are just as large, as 
 feathery, and a lighter green. 
 
 One day I was watching a coolie climb a cocoanut 
 
 H 
 
98 
 
 ABOUT CEYLON AND BORNEO 
 
 tree and pick a lot of cocoanuts from the top. The 
 coolies climb these trees in such a clever way that I 
 should like to try it myself very much. They tie 
 their feet together with a loose piece of rope, and then 
 go up like a caterpillar, doubling themselves up and 
 undoing themselves all the way. But if I tried to 
 imitate this mode of climbing, I suppose I should 
 have to begin by dressing myself as the natives do for 
 the occasion. 
 
 The costume is exceedingly simple, consisting of a 
 hat only and not another stitch of clothes except a bit 
 of ' loin-cloth,' which means a morsel of rag round 
 their waists. Besides, they have the rope which ties 
 their ankles together, if you consider this clothing. I 
 give a portrait of a gentleman shinning up a tree 
 (as the Yankees would say) in pursuit of cocoanuts. 
 
 I have also tried to give some idea of the owner 
 of the cocoanut trees. Sometimes he used to stand 
 with his bands folded behind 
 his back almost all day long. 
 I could see him in this position 
 whenever I looked out of my 
 window. This dotard would 
 stand thus silently on the shore, 
 always expecting a boat to come 
 in from the sea, which never 
 came. 
 
 Sometimes he went fishing 
 
 in the early morning with a 
 
 casting net. He stood with his simple fishing costume 
 
 on, watching the sad sea waves as they came tumbling 
 
 in, in great long rollers. 
 
 There was a knowing look in his eye, and he had 
 
MOUNT LAVINIA 
 
 99 
 
 the net thrown over one shoulder ready for action at 
 the right moment. His attitude reminded one of 
 some noble beast of the forest — a tigress, ready to 
 leap on its prey — as he waited there patiently expec- 
 tant, looking for the wave that was to bring him the 
 fish he intended to capture. 
 
 On a sudden he darted forward and threw the net 
 out in a circle over a dancing wave. Then he 
 cautiously drew it ashore so as not to let a single fish 
 escape. Now he examined the net to see what luck he 
 had had. Behold there 
 was nothing. There 
 never was anything. I 
 watched him very often 
 at this occupation, but I 
 honestly confess I never 
 saw him catch a fish. 
 
 A look of disappoint- 
 ment then settled on the 
 old man's face as it natur- 
 ally would, but he did not 
 give in. Fresh every other morning he came to his 
 work, I am sorry to say always with the same success. 
 
 Beneath the young cocoanuts, immediately be- 
 low the hotel on the landward side, a Sambur deer 
 was tied and feeding ; at least she was not feeding all 
 the time, as at intervals she licked a young fawn, or 
 came putting her long tongue into your hand. This 
 was a tame deer. Indeed, it was the fault of every- 
 thing on this green bank of loveliness that it was too 
 tame. 
 
 When I was out on the lawn before the house, 
 one of the donkeys of the place, which was wandering 
 
 H 2 
 
100 ABOUT CEYLON AND BORNEO 
 
 about quite close to the building, suddenly came up 
 over the quiet lawn and took a bite out of my sleeve. 
 Then this restless ass (bent on doing mischief) went up 
 and disturbed one of the landlord's deerhounds which 
 was sleeping in the shadow of the house. The poor dog 
 did not like this at all, and said so ; but the donkey 
 stood there, the incarnation of all that was aggravat- 
 ing, with his ears back, bobbing his head forwards 
 and backwards. By his looks I gathered that he 
 intended to say to the dog, ' If you do not move out 
 this instant, I'll kick you,' so with a howl of disgust 
 the dog decamped. 
 
 Talking of dogs reminds me that training into 
 Colombo there was a sight visible from the carriage 
 window which, although occurring frequently, still 
 fills one's soul with a very sad feeling. Three terrier 
 doggies were being washed by their two dog-keepers 
 in the sea. Why I infer that this filled my soul with 
 disgust is, that the dear dogs disliked being operated 
 on in this way so very much. Some dogs love going 
 down to the seaside and madly plunging in of their 
 own accord after sticks, but still they cannot bear 
 being submerged beneath its waters by a common 
 nigger man. 
 
 Truly I yearned over those poor little dogs, who, 
 although it was not cold, were shivering. I could 
 not help observing the piteous expression on their 
 faces as they were being wiped over with towels. It 
 made me almost weep to see them with their tails 
 between their legs, and their eyes almost closed, yet 
 running down with tears, meekly giving way to the 
 overbearing scrubs which were administered by these 
 wretched black men. Leave me weeping. 
 
101 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 SOMETHING ABOUT THE NATIVES AT MOUNT LAVINIA 
 
 The sea at Mount Lavinia looked brimful of kata- 
 marangs (native boats). It seemed to be overflowing 
 with them. These boats came gliding on through 
 
 
 KATAMARANGS ASHOKE 
 
 the restless waters of that bright Indian Ocean, till 
 they arrived at the shore, where they did not appear 
 to stop. You would think that any ordinary minded 
 boat would stop when it got to the land, but these 
 katamarangs kept heedlessly sailing on up the sandy 
 
102 ABOUT CEYLON AND BOKNEO 
 
 beach till at length they rested beneath the cocoanut 
 trees. 
 
 I could not at first think how this was managed, 
 but presently one of the boats came in, and I saw 
 that the sails were kept up while six or seven men 
 pushed it on to the sandy shore till it was out of the 
 reach of the sea. Even then — in this wonderful 
 country — they do not trouble to pull the sails down. 
 There would be no use in doing this, when the wind 
 comes from exactly the same direction and with almost 
 the same force six months in the year. The fisher- 
 men leave them up, with a steady breeze bagging 
 them out, till they want to go sailing out again. 
 
 The next village to Mount Lavinia is called 
 Angulana. It is the largest fishing village in the 
 island of Ceylon. I went there one day and watched 
 an aged native sitting beneath a cocoanut shed selling 
 fish. 
 
 Quantities of fish were lying about, and men kept 
 plunging their skinny arms down into the bottom of 
 boats — where their feet never go, as the hollow trunks 
 are infinitely too narrow and deep to admit of this — 
 and bringing forth all sorts of fish. The most noticeable 
 of these were ' Tunnyfish,' about three feet long. 
 This old gentleman was not only crowded with buyers, 
 but he had on quite his go-to-meeting expression as 
 he scornfully took the pennies from the natives who 
 showered them in. I should have said that this 
 haughty old gentleman was the ordinary salesman 
 for a certain number of boats. 
 
 There were several Singhalese on the sandy ground 
 playing cards beneath the shadow of cocoanut trees. 
 They were playing quite a different game to any that 
 
MOUNT LAVINIA 103 
 
 I had witnessed before. It had this redeeming quality, 
 that the men smiled over their game as if they 
 enjoyed it ; and although they were playing for 
 coppers, they did not drink, and apparently did not 
 quarrel as our fishing population would think it 
 necessary to do at home. Eight dark and almost 
 naked natives sat there upon the crabby sand, with 
 their legs bundled away under them — in a position 
 that no European can think of, much more perpetrate 
 ■ — playing a game of cards of which I could make 
 neither head nor tail. I suppose that its intricacies 
 were not hidden from them, for they smiled so cordially 
 as they handed over the coppers to one another. I 
 could not but think that it was the easiest game in 
 the world for the nigger man to understand. 
 
 These natives were sitting near a cocoanut shed — 
 everything was cocoanutty down there — the roof was 
 made with the brown weather-beaten leaves, the 
 walls were constructed of leaves plaited together, and 
 the posts made of cocoanut stems. They sat on a 
 cocoanut leaf mat, they drank out of the shells of 
 the nut, and if you said you were thirsty, they eater- 
 pillared up the trees and plucked green cocoanuts for 
 you to drink. The cool bright milk of the green nuts 
 was very refreshing. 
 
 I will give an extract from my journal of 1877. 
 
 ' I thought that I would like to go out fishing on 
 the high seas with a native man in a native boat, but 
 the sea looked so horribly rough that I was nervous. 
 One day a native boat came in from a fishing expedi- 
 tion and disgorged its freight on the shore just below 
 the hotel, when the fish were, as usual, sold by auction. 
 I was present at the sale. Then joy entered my soul 
 
104 ABOUT CEYLON AND BORNEO 
 
 that I had never started on a fishing cruise : for, until 
 that day I had not been aware of the nature or 
 dimensions of the denizens that I should have had to 
 contend with. I was horror-struck to see them pull 
 out of the boat no less than fifteen fish of the most 
 ferocious and strangest aspect that it is possible to 
 imagine. They resembled fish which I have seen 
 men carrying about on poles in Chinese pictures. In 
 the same way Singhalese salesmen carry fish, one at 
 either end of a pole, probably because they are afraid 
 to get nearer to them. 
 
 ' If you can picture to yourself such a horrible 
 scene, imagine what my feelings would have been had 
 I — in ignorance of the nature of these fish — gone 
 out to capture them. Supposing one of these denizens 
 of the sea, refusing to be abstracted from the water, 
 had seized me unarmed and almost alone in our little 
 craft, and carried me away down, down, helplessly 
 clasped in his slimy jaw, to lowest hell, there to 
 make sport of me with his demon satellites.' I have 
 attempted a sketch of the situation, in which I pre- 
 sume that the native fisherman ' stands in with the 
 green-eyed monster.' 
 
 All niggers seem to have a wonderful tendency 
 to ' perch ' themselves. In the low country they sit 
 on a rail and support their extended arms on their 
 knees, their legs being folded under them in the 
 position of a frog about to spring. I think this is 
 done to avoid the ants and flies that infest the 
 ground. 
 
 Up country there are not apt to be convenient 
 rails, so that they generally settle down on a log or 
 stump when they want to rest. I made a study of a 
 
MOUNT LAVINIA 
 
 105 
 
 Singhalese and a Tamil man fishing, poised in what 
 they considered a comfortable position, and in a be- 
 
 'elp ! ! 'elp ! ! 
 
 coming attitude, but my publishers, oddly enough, did 
 not think it sufficiently attractive for insertion. 
 
106 ABOUT CEYLON AND BORNEO 
 
 They -will sit like this for hours, pursuing some 
 mild occupation, or pensive, enjoying the thoughtful 
 sunshine. 
 
 They seem to have much more power of utilising 
 their feet than we have. I suppose — as they never 
 wear boots — their feet become much more supple than 
 ours. They can cling wonderfully to a rail when 
 ' perched.' They can climb up a cocoanut tree or 
 walk over a wet log in a most surprising way. They 
 will use their toes for picking up a knife or stone 
 from the ground, where we have no power to move 
 ours. 
 
 A new wing was being built to the hotel at Mount 
 Lavinia, and by looking out of my window I could 
 see the works going on. The Singhalese contractor 
 was a very good-looking man. His name was Alus 
 Appoo. 
 
 The Singhalese men draw their long hair back off 
 their faces, and tie it up in a sort of suppressed chignon 
 behind. They wear a yellow tortoiseshell comb in 
 their hair, which looks from the front like a pair of 
 rather saturnine horns. 
 
 The only way a new-comer has of distinguishing 
 between a young Singhalee man and a young girl is, 
 that a man wears a comb, and a woman does not. 
 After a stranger has been in Ceylon a short while, he 
 discovers another difference — viz., that a Singhalee 
 lad is very pretty and feminine-looking, while the 
 young girls are short and exceedingly ugly. 
 
 The Tamils in this respect resemble Europeans, 
 as their women are decidedly good-looking, while the 
 appearance of the men is comparatively ugly and 
 honest. 
 
MOUNT LAVINIA 107 
 
 There were also a number of Tamil women at 
 work on the new building. They were mostly em- 
 ployed in carrying basketloads of sand, for making 
 mortar, from the shore to the works. Many of them 
 had one or two babies with them : little naked trots 
 of from one to three years old. Some carried their 
 infants on their backs, others left them to sprawl 
 about among the brickbats and mortar, while they 
 went down to the shore for the sand, and returned to 
 chide their babes after each load. All the women 
 talked and scolded the whole day through, and the 
 mammas had intervals of ten minutes constantly, to 
 suckle and tend their offspring. 
 
 The porters on the railway between Colombo and 
 Mount Lavinia wore a most becoming costume — viz., 
 a suit of blue serge, jacket and breeches, with a red 
 cloth sash tied round their waists, and a kind of 
 smoking-cap, also of serge, to protect their heads. 
 They thought themselves great swells got up in this 
 way, and most of the porters in and near Colombo 
 affected the English language. They all carried white 
 cotton umbrellas, to keep their clothes dry in the rain 
 and keep up their dignity with when the sun was 
 shining. 
 
 There was a sort of head porter at every station, 
 who wore a white belt in addition to his other gar- 
 ments, and altogether clothed himself in haughty 
 superiority. His belt hung over one shoulder and 
 round his body. I noticed one day, when I went to 
 Colombo, that the head man at the Fort station carried 
 in his hand a linen handkerchief with a border of 
 lace round it. Imagine a nigger and a railway porter 
 with a lace handkerchief. These coloured men never 
 
108 
 
 ABOUT CEYLON AND BOBNEO 
 
 use handkerchiefs, as the art of blowing the nose as we 
 do it is at present unknown to them. This porter 
 was a Tamil man, but he cultivated a moustache, 
 which Tamil men seldom do, for the very good reason 
 that they cannot. They rarely have any hair on 
 their face at all. The Malays almost always have a 
 moustache and nothing else, while the Singhalese all 
 wear a thick beard. 
 
 One morning a Singhalese man came and per- 
 
 HAIE-CDTTING 
 
 formed on my head. This gentleman had devoted his 
 life to the science of barbery. He was then getting 
 old, but had certainly not attained perfection in his 
 art. I dare say he found this foreign and barbaric 
 occupation uphill work, as the Singhalese never cut 
 their hair, except perhaps once a year, when they tie 
 it up with a piece of string, as you would a horse's 
 tail, and chop it off level. However, he pushed on 
 manfully, slicing people's chins and making terraces 
 of their back hair daily for his daily bread. He stood 
 
MOUNT LAVINIA 109 
 
 a long way from his victim, as though he were afraid 
 of your pinching his legs when he came round in 
 front. I fancy he was not so much at home lopping 
 off one's locks as he would have been mowing down 
 a stubbly beard with the patriarchal razor that he 
 carried in his belt. I never allowed him to try this 
 latter operation on me : having submitted to one 
 experiment seemed more than sufficient. 
 
 One day, when I was down here in 1877, a Mr. 
 Johnson made himself known to me and was very 
 civil and chatty, as he said he had met me somewhere 
 before. 
 
 Mr. Johnson slept in the next bedroom to mine, 
 and as the rooms were all open at the top for the sake 
 of ventilation, as in Colombo, I could hear anything 
 which went on in Johnson's room. 
 
 One morning he said to his servant who was helping 
 him dress, ' Boy, I begin to think you must be rather 
 a fool ; you will play the very devil with my finer 
 feelings if you don't take care. This is the second time 
 you have cut your beastly hand stropping my razor.' 
 
 Then ten minutes later I heard this : ' It concerns 
 me to think what a fool you are getting. When you 
 chew betel-nut, I must beg that you will not spit on 
 my clean shirt-fronts.' After a pause he continued, 
 ' Of course the red mark produced by your careless 
 ejection of saliva is of no consequence on other parts 
 of the shirt, but I fear that you will render the 
 garment useless for the time being, if you will persist 
 in spitting your betel on to the front.' From this 
 last remark I presumed that there was a red mark on 
 his shirt-front. 
 
 Both the natives of Ceylon and the Tamils are 
 
110 ABOUT CEYLON AND EOKNEO 
 
 very fond of chewing what is termed 'betel.' The 
 following information was obtained from an English- 
 speaking Singhalese in Colombo, and I am not sure 
 that it is correct. 
 
 They take the green leaf of the pepper-vine, which 
 is called by the Tamils betel. It looks something like 
 an English vine-leaf, and is about the same size. In 
 this they fold up rather more than a saltspoonful of 
 ordinary lime made from coral, which is called by the 
 Tamils ' chunam ; ' to this they add some scrapings 
 of areca-nut and flavour it with the seed of car- 
 damoms. With this combination in their mouth they 
 chew and spit all the time between meals. English- 
 men who have tried it tell me there is no virtue in it, 
 but perhaps the nigger would find no virtue in 
 chewing tobacco. 
 
 Mr. Johnson was in business in Colombo, and was 
 away there all day, coming back to the hotel in the 
 evening to dine and sleep. He came into my room 
 early one morning, and said he hoped I would make 
 any use of his servant I wanted while he was away 
 during the day. I thanked him, and he added, ' The 
 fellow isn't much good, but (here the boy came into 
 the room, and Johnson, fixing his glittering eye on 
 him, said sternly) if it amuses you to watch the 
 behaviour of a being quite bereft of sense, it may be 
 gratifying to observe this fellow at his work.' 
 
 It was very kind of Johnson to lend me his 
 servant, but considering I never had enough occupa- 
 tion for myself, I did not know how I should keep 
 this boy employed. At first I felt like a host with a 
 troublesome guest on his hands and no amusement 
 with which to divert him. 
 
MOUNT LAVINIA 111 
 
 Presently this young man came and told me 
 a long story about his relations having come down to 
 Colombo for one day, and might he go and see them ? 
 Then I was delighted, although I feared it was a lie. 
 I said, ' Go, my friend ; minister to your aged relations 
 all day long, and may God speed you.' So he went. 
 
 I did not suppose that, because his expression was 
 somewhat sinister, his soul was ill at ease. He 
 always looked as if he had swallowed a crayfish, claws 
 and all, having in his absent-mindedness omitted to 
 remove the shell. Besides, he had espoused our 
 religion and taken a Christian name, ' Samuel.' We 
 know from missionary books that those who act thus 
 are always happy ; generally they die young and go 
 straight to heaven. 
 
 There was a young gentleman I knew up country, 
 whom let us call Tom. 
 
 One day, when I was reading the paper in the 
 sitting-room at Mount Lavinia, who should come in 
 but Master Tom, with three Burgher ladies, all dressed 
 as we used to say at school ' up to the nines ; ' Tom, 
 with a frock-coat and tall hat, and the ladies equally 
 beautiful, but more showy. He seemed rather embar- 
 rassed at seeing me, as of course he had no right to 
 be down there escorting ladies about, but ought to 
 have been one hundred and fifty miles away on 
 his estate driving coolies. I believed that Tom was 
 engaged to be married to one of these Burgher girls, 
 or else he was not engaged and ought to have been ; 
 it was always rather a shadowy affair, and I could 
 never quite get to the bottom of it. He was very 
 unwilling to acknowledge any engagement, as they 
 were an attorney's daughters, and partly black. 
 
112 ABOUT CEYLON AND BOENEO 
 
 Tom had brought his fiancee with her mother and 
 sister to lunch, hoping he would come across no one 
 he knew, and seemed far from pleased at finding me. 
 
 Seeing that he was uncomfortable and did not 
 introduce me to the females, I said I was sorry but I 
 had to go away on business. Then I walked down to 
 a small Singhalese town about four miles away and 
 came back by train. 
 
 On arriving once more at Mount Lavina station, 
 I alighted on the platform, where four persons at once 
 caught my eye running over the bridge from the hotel 
 to the train. Three females and one male were 
 occupied in this way. When they came nearer I saw 
 that they were Tom with his top-hat in his hand, and 
 his frock-coat tails flying in the wind, followed by the 
 three Burgher ladies whom he had brought to lunch. 
 They passed me in a state of profuse heat and visible 
 perspiration. 
 
 I hallooed out to them in passing, ' Lots of time, 
 the up train is not in yet.' They thanked me, and 
 slackening off their pace walked into the station, just 
 in time to see the train go off without them. 
 
 I am not naturally vicious, and did not mean to 
 do those backsliders any real harm, but I was in 
 error. 
 
 I saw them no more except through a window, 
 when they did not look pleasant, and I silently prayed 
 that Tom might be killed in a railway accident when 
 the next train went to Colombo, or that some casualty 
 might prevent us meeting in this world. As it 
 happened we never did come across each other again. 
 I hope that this introduction of the incident will not 
 remind him of tbe circumstance. 
 
MOUNT LAVINIA 113 
 
 There was very little to amuse a visitor at Mount 
 Lavinia. He had either to eat, sleep, or do nothing. 
 These pastimes palled on one after a while. It was 
 comparatively easy to kill the morning when one was 
 fresh and capable of understanding anything, but 
 towards midday, when the thermometer stood at 89° 
 in the shade, and everything seemed parched with heat, 
 life sometimes seemed almost unbearable. 
 
 Supposing you had eaten lunch and become tired 
 of reading, a monotony crept over your perspiring 
 existence which rendered you rather hopeless and 
 despondent. 
 
 In the evening things freshened up a bit. Fellows 
 came back from Colombo with the latest home tele- 
 grams. You had news from England of your mother- 
 in-law's death, or other incidents which brightened up 
 your future. Then there was dinner to be eaten, and 
 the temperature fell a few degrees, which made life 
 more bearable ; at least, more bearable until ten 
 o'clock struck the hour for retiring to rest. 
 
 Going to bed in these balmy climes is not nearly 
 so much trouble as at home, because you have not so 
 many clothes to take off. When you are stretched on 
 the mattress, there are some foreign creatures which 
 at times make sleep very difficult. Fleas are the 
 chief nuisance. I am a light sleeper, and therefore 
 cannot remain torpid when attacked by more than 
 half-a-dozen at once. It would be rather a good plan 
 to water one's couch with tears, as they used to do 
 in the Bible. I think that a flea would feel uncom- 
 fortable finding himself the centre of a rather large, 
 and an unusually salt, tear. 
 
 One night, just as I had turned into my fleaey 
 
 I 
 
114 
 
 ABOUT CEYLON AND BOKNEO 
 
 shake-down, a reptile in the shape of a centipede 
 crept up my arm, and inflicted two wounds. These 
 inflamed and made my arm swell for a couple of days, 
 but as I succeeded in killing the centipede I did not 
 mind so much. 
 
 NEAK MOUNT LAVINIA 
 
 Fleas were not the only objection to a sojourn 
 here, as in addition you could hear everything that 
 went on in the whole house ; the rooms, as I said 
 before, being open at the top. 
 
 Some questions which puzzled me much at one 
 time were : Has an hotel servant any right to have the 
 
MOUNT LAVINIA 115 
 
 hiccoughs at night ? Is a visitor at an hotel in the 
 colonies justified in complaining to the manager 
 about it ? 
 
 Supposing a servant has the right to create this 
 alarming misery outside your bedroom door at two 
 o'clock in the morning. What advantage does he 
 derive from keeping himself awake, merely that he 
 may annoy anyone who happens to be within reach of 
 these gastronomic sounds ? 
 
 How was I to reprimand the man, if I could not 
 speak Singhalese, and he did not understand English ? 
 Could I stone him with boots and books till he went 
 away ? 
 
 When one hiccough was over the anticipation of 
 the next, to me lying awake in my bed, was something 
 awful. I thought that I would count to ten and see 
 whether it came. No, not yet. I counted five more, 
 still all was silent. I began to think the malady was 
 over for the time, when another spasmodic cough 
 arrived and fidgeted me out of my life. 
 
 I knew that if it went on much longer I should 
 be a lunatic before they came to call me in the 
 morning. Happily, a thought occurred to me, which 
 I at once adopted. It was a jug of cold water. . . . 
 He was gone, and the passage outside my room was 
 an inch deep in water. Well, I thought, it should 
 have soaked in before morning, and in the cool grey 
 dawn be refreshing the gold-painted cornice of the 
 saloon-ceiling below. 
 
 One night my rest was again disturbed. I was 
 awakened at about 2.15 a.m., by hearing someone 
 rattling at the handle of my door. As this continued 
 for some moments and no one came in, I said, ' Who 
 
 l 2 
 
116 ABOUT CEYLON AND BORNEO 
 
 is there ? ' There was no answer, and the rattling 
 still went on. As I knew that my door was not 
 locked I hallooed out, ' Come in if you want to, but 
 don't stand there making that noise.' Again no 
 answer ; so I got out of bed and opened the door. 
 Outside I found a youngish man in evening clothes, 
 with a candle in his hand. This young man I had 
 noticed at dinner with a party of strangers. He 
 immediately said, ' Oh, I thought this was No. 14.' 
 I replied, ' It is No. 14. What do you want ? ' He 
 said, ' Oh, I beg your pardon ; I've m-made a mistake,' 
 and went away. 
 
 I turned into bed, but presently I was disturbed 
 again. There was more rattling at the door, so I 
 shouted out, ' What the dickens do you want ? ' 
 Then I got up to go for that miscreant ; but the 
 scoundrel, who had returned this time without a candle, 
 had hold of the handle of the door outside, so that I 
 could not turn it, and, therefore, could not get at 
 him. 
 
 Presently, by keeping quite silent, I heard him 
 walk off, but discovered that he had found the key 
 on the outside, so had locked me in and gone away. 
 Then I was roused. The blood of one of my uncles, 
 who fought in the battle of Balaclava, seemed boiling 
 up in my veins, and I shouted till nearly the whole 
 hotel were awake, till someone came and loosed my 
 bondage. 
 
 Then I took the door-key, and, entering the room, 
 double-locked the door, not omitting to bolt it ; also 
 I shut and bolted my window, as I knew that I had 
 been contending with a lunatic. I thought that he 
 might return in the still night-watches, and make 
 
3I0UNT LAVINIA 117 
 
 life hideous to me again. There was a parapet, broad 
 enough to walk along, outside the window ; this was 
 why I bolted it. 
 
 How he knew that my number was fourteen I 
 cannot tell, as, on inquiry, I found that he was a 
 stranger here. The rooms were only numbered in 
 the manager's brain and on the books. These 
 numbers dodged about in the most promiscuous way. 
 
 The lunatic left early next morning, and I joined 
 my prayers with those of his well-wishers for his 
 speedy dissolution. 
 
118 ABOUT CEYLON AND BORNEO 
 
 CHAPTEK XIII 
 
 TRAVELLING IN CEYLON 
 
 When in Dickoya, twelve years ago, civilisation had 
 not reached its present perfection. 
 
 The following may give some idea of the sort of 
 troubles the planter had to contend with in those 
 days. 
 
 One day in June I went up country and found the 
 whole of Dickoya clothed in a tarpaulin of perpetual 
 rain clouds, which crawled over the mountain tops 
 and shed humid misery on all the district throughout 
 my stay of a few days there. 
 
 On the last day of my visit I walked up to a 
 bungalow in the afternoon, where I was to dine and 
 sleep, and arrived there at about four o'clock. The 
 manager of the estate, whom we will call Mack, 
 was leaving the district of Dickoya for good on the 
 morrow ; and he had been asked out to a farewell 
 breakfast with his wife at a neighbouring bungalow. 
 
 On my arrival I shouted in vain for a servant, 
 but the place seeming quite deserted, I took possession 
 of an armchair in the drawing-room, where I patiently 
 waited a couple of hours till Mr. and Mrs. Mack came 
 home. When they returned we found ourselves in 
 the following interesting situation : Mr. and Mrs. 
 Mack were both wet through, not in the English sense 
 
TRAVELLING IN CEYLON 119 
 
 of the word, but drenched with tropical rain ; they 
 were sick and headachy from poisonous champagne 
 they had been obliged to drink at the parting break- 
 fast. The servants, in the absence of their master, 
 had stolen the key of the wine cupboard and were all 
 lying on the kitchen floor hopelessly drunk. The 
 Macks were expecting some rather smart people to 
 arrive in half an hour, who had been also asked to 
 dine and sleep. 
 
 None but colonists can look these sort of domestic 
 trials in the face calmly, but in this wonderful 
 country — where in those days everything always went 
 wrong — we were equal to the occasion. 
 
 By a little after eight o'clock, a party of six of us 
 sat down to a moderately good cold dinner. We were 
 all dry, cheerful, hungry, and full of hope. We had 
 one servant, that two of our friends had brought with 
 them, to wait on us. So we got through that evening 
 remarkably well. 
 
 The following day we journeyed down to Colombo 
 again ; Douglas, Mack, and myself making the party. 
 The drive down to Navalapitiya was — as usual at 
 this season of the year— remarkably wet. 
 
 Douglas, who was sitting with his face away from 
 the horses, of course talked cheerily all the way. 
 Unfortunately his chat was once interrupted by the 
 horses giving a sudden start forward, when he was 
 shot out into the road, taking a square tin box with 
 him. They both fell right into a ' horsekeeper ' who 
 was running behind the carriage, and the two got 
 mixed up together with the box on the road, and had 
 some difficulty in disentangling themselves. Beyond 
 this we had no accidents. . 
 
120 ABOUT CEYLON AND BORNEO 
 
 Mack, who spoke Tamil and Singhalese well, 
 seemed to derive some satisfaction from swearing in 
 these foreign tongues at the bullock-cart drivers, who 
 never would get out of the road for our carriage to 
 pass. Every now and then he would hop out of the 
 bandy with the whip in his hand and clear the way 
 forcibly ; using, what we guessed must be strange 
 oaths or blood-curdling threats in Singhalese, as his 
 face got, if possible, redder than usual with the 
 exertion. 
 
 It was in those days a laborious task travelling in 
 the tea and coffee districts of the island, but not nearly 
 so bad as making a trip along some of the roads in the 
 lower country, where bullock-carts were not generally 
 used. 
 
 On reaching Colombo I slept the night in one of 
 those rendezvous for mosquitoes and lizards which 
 happily no longer exist — viz, a ' native-kept hotel.' 
 
 The following morning at five o'clock I left again 
 by a so-called ' coach ' for a place called Eatnapura, 
 which was at that time rather out of the way. Why 
 the vehicle in which we travelled was called a ' coach ' 
 I do not know, as it was only a native-made waggonette 
 drawn by a pair of horses. The seats were narrow and 
 very slippery ; the back was an iron rail ; and if you 
 want to know to what a pitch human misery could be 
 brought on earth, you should in those days have 
 taken a ten hours' trip in the Eatnapura coach. 
 
 I was crowded in with three natives ; one a Chetty 
 as black as your boot, while the other two were 
 Mahomedans, who presented a kind of yellowy brown 
 colour all over. 
 
 I offered my vis-a-vis a cigar, so as to make 
 
THE BAMBOOS. FEOJI WAHLEIGII FOKII, DICKOYA 
 
TRAVELLING IN CEYLON 121 
 
 friends with him. He smelt it and passed it to the 
 next man, who also smelt it and looked it all over, 
 then passed it to the third man who, sacrificing himself 
 to science, bit off the end and smoked it ; after which, 
 as the Yankees say, 'he reached around and spat.' 
 With this harmonious pastime he continued to amuse 
 himself for nine blessed hours, till we at length arrived 
 at Katnapura, and the journey's end put a stop to our 
 misery. 
 
 The cruelty with which the horses were treated on 
 this journey is more than I can describe, and I hope I 
 may never see such a sickening sight again as they 
 presented at the end of each stage. If there be a hell 
 for lost souls, I hope the nigger drivers of those coaches 
 may be compelled to occupy the corner next the fire 
 when they go there. 
 
 I was very glad to leave the coach at the end of 
 our ten hours' sit, and at Eatnapura Rest-house they 
 treated one very well. 
 
 They gave me a novelty in jams, a nutmeg jam 
 which the old man told me he made out of nutmegs 
 from trees in his own garden. It was a hopelessly 
 sweet and tasteless compound. 
 
 The next morning I had breakfast at the Eest-house, 
 and after breakfast asked the Eest-house keeper if I 
 could buy a pipe in the native village. He said ' no,' 
 but he could sell me one himself. I asked, ' Was it 
 new '? ' He said quite delightedly, ' No, not new,' and 
 he went and fetched it. He was right ; it was not new. 
 It was an old very-much-smoked meerschaum, with 
 a dirty piece of silver round the stem. I did not buy 
 it, as I did not ' kind of fancy ' the look of the thing ; 
 which surprised and disappointed the old man. 
 
122 ABOUT CEYLON AND BOBNEO 
 
 From thence I walked on a great distance — how 
 far I do not exactly know : I think it was about thirty- 
 one miles. The journey took me two days to accom- 
 plish. At length I found myself about 2,000 feet above 
 sea level, on a new clearing that had just been opened, 
 called by its owner Townhope. 
 
 The last day's walk had been a very tiring one, 
 almost entirely through rice fields and cheenah thickets. 
 This cheenah grows on land that has been cultivated 
 by natives, and which has been grown over by a kind 
 of high thorn bush with prickly stems, something like 
 the blackberry bush at home, but a good deal higher. 
 The paths through the cheenah are not quite high 
 enough for the European to walk through without 
 stooping. They are cut by the natives, who are gene- 
 rally a much shorter race than we are. In this case 
 there were six or seven miles of cheenah, which made 
 travelling quite exhausting. 
 
 The rice fields are merely tiring to walk over for a 
 long distance. It is very annoying to keep slipping 
 off the ledge which divides one level from another, and 
 to get your feet wet through in the hollows whenever 
 you slip. 
 
 I found my friend Manly very cheerily living in a 
 small hut made of planks, the inside of which was 
 about twelve feet square, containing no furniture but 
 a camp bed and some boxes for seats. He had written 
 saying he could not put me up, but as I had not 
 received the letter, there I was, and very glad I had 
 come. Happily I had brought a hammock with me, or 
 I should have had nowhere to sleep. After dinner we 
 rigged up this hammock. The first time I essayed to 
 lie flat in it the ropes broke and I came down to the 
 
TKAVELLING IN CEYLON 123 
 
 floor on my head, but eventually we succeeded in 
 fixing it up rightly. 
 
 Here I spent a fortnight, and we had a very plea- 
 sant time together. We saw no other Europeans, as 
 Townhope was an isolated clearing in a vast forest of 
 jungle on the mountain side, and no one else lived 
 within some miles of the hut. 
 
 "We used to go out with guns and search for game 
 whenever there was time and the coolies did not 
 claim Manly's attention ; but we always came home 
 covered with leeches, wet through, thoroughly worn 
 out, and unsuccessful, but not disheartened. 
 
 We were told the district was famous for sapphires, 
 and we spent one or two afternoons in the river's bed 
 with baskets searching for them, but never found any- 
 thing of real value. It rained every day, but not all 
 day, which was fortunate, as Manly's hut being very 
 small, we only turned into it for the purposes of 
 eating and sleeping. The rest of the time was spent 
 out of doors. 
 
 Meat was difficult to obtain at Townhope, and 
 always as tough as leather when it came to table ; 
 but the boy made excellent curry, and we cut down 
 ' Kitool palms ' and ate their young shoots boiled for 
 vegetables. Manly had laid in some tins of Dundee 
 marmalade, which helped one wonderfully with the 
 musty bread. With Manly's huge form and cheery 
 face opposite me across the board, I manage to ' 'tice 
 down ' quite my share of the meals. 
 
124 ABOUT CEYLON AND BOENEO 
 
 CHAPTEE XIV 
 
 AT MANLY'S 
 
 After I left, however, Manly had some very fair sport, 
 as, in writing to me the following November, he gave 
 me a graphic account of how he had with three hounds 
 run down an elk or ' Sambur deer,' and eventually 
 stuck it with a knife in the river. The river ran 
 through the jungle about a mile and a half from the 
 one-roomed bungalow. 
 
 He had also shot one or two so-called ' red deer,' 
 and a good many jungle fowl and hares, all of which 
 must have been delicious food in that country, re- 
 markable for the scarcity and toughness of its beef. 
 His letter went on to say : ' There are now about 230 
 acres of land felled and opened here, and, as you know, 
 I am the only Englishman living in these parts. 
 
 ' I had very hard work to clear the land, and it was 
 all done with borrowed labour. One connection of 
 about 500 coolies refused to work, and I was harassed 
 into using strong language. They tried to " hammer " 
 me, but by the greatest piece of good luck I got the 
 better of them. 
 
 ' The trouble had been brewing for one or two days, 
 till one morning the head Kangany was very insolent, 
 right out on the far side of the Donhead clearing — 
 about two miles from my bungalow — away from my 
 
AT MANLY'S 125 
 
 own coolies, and in front of his lines (huts). He called 
 me all the names that he could think of ; names which 
 are not down in the Tamil dictionary. 
 
 ' I managed to keep my temper, as I knew how it 
 must turn out if I did not, and told him quietly 
 enough that he must go back to his estate on the 
 following morning. That I should stop all his pay. 
 He replied that any way he would have something for 
 his money ; and aimed a blow at my head with a large 
 stick, which must have finished me if I had not 
 guarded it with my cane. Then I closed with him 
 and succeeded in throwing him over a pretty deep 
 ravine. 
 
 ' At this moment I saw a man coming towards me 
 with an uplifted " alavanga " (crowbar). I waited till 
 this fellow got within a few feet, and then kicked him 
 straight in the pit of the stomach. He threw up his 
 arms, screamed and dropped his alavanga straight 
 into my hands. Just then I was knocked down from 
 behind with a " momety," for now the coolies were all 
 round me and quite close up. However I at once 
 managed to get on my feet again, and close in front of 
 me was the Kangany whom I had shoved over the 
 ravine, but who had managed to climb up again. I 
 felt very much as if I was drunk from this fall, but I 
 just had sense enough left to deal him a blow with the 
 alavanga, straight across the face. He was insensible 
 for two days. 
 
 ' The coolies then ran away in every direction ; but 
 presently turned round and pelted me with stones. 
 However, I burst through them towards the jungle, 
 got into an overgrown ravine, and cut like a hare to 
 the bungalow. They lost me in the jungle, and being 
 
126 ABOUT CEYLON AND BOENEO 
 
 new to the place had to go back round by the road. I 
 met them at the bath-room with two loaded guns, and 
 swore I would shoot the first man who passed the 
 conductor's hut. About twenty-five of my own coolies 
 now came, and pelted them with stones till they left 
 the ground. 
 
 ' The next day some policemen came and took away 
 all whom I could identify. They were eventually 
 brought before the magistrate, pleaded guilty, and got 
 as heavy a sentence as he had the power to inflict, 
 which was a very light one. The magistrate advised 
 my taking the case before the Supreme Court, when 
 the punishment would have been much greater ; but 
 it was too long and too expensive a business for one 
 in my position, so that I could not do it.' 
 
 You see that in those days life was not all beer 
 and skittles in Ceylon. 
 
 Altogether, I was away ten days, and then deter- 
 mined not to go back by the same route, or to suffer 
 the anguish again which had been my lot with the 
 three black men in that Eatnapura coach. 
 
 Having, therefore, walked down to the Eest-house, 
 I took my passage on board a coffee barge which was 
 to convey me fifty miles down the Kalloo Ganga. 
 I agreed to pay the owner a pound if he would land 
 me at a place called Bolgodda, which was only a drive 
 of ten miles from Moratooa station on the Mount 
 Lavinia line of rail. I had to take my own provisions 
 with me, and the accommodation was, speaking mildly, 
 very inferior. 
 
 At one o'clock I walked down to the nearest bend 
 in the river from the Eest-house, and found the 
 barge moored alongside the bank ready for her 
 
AT MANLY'S 127 
 
 passenger. I went on board provided with beer, 
 bread, eggs, and tough chicken, also a clay pipe and 
 some second-rate tobacco. Then we started on our 
 journey. 
 
 The boat was propelled by four naked Singhalese 
 coolies, who rowed with heavy ' sweeps ' ; there were 
 some more men to steer, and others to swear, as they 
 aped the English bargee in this particular. There 
 was also another passenger, a Singhalese man, who 
 could speak a little English, and he proved very use- 
 ful to me, as, of course, I did not know a syllable of 
 Singhalese. 
 
 The barge was full of coffee, except in one small 
 space at the end, where a place was cleared for us to 
 sit. This was covered with a cocoanut-leaf roof, and 
 beneath this a board for sleeping on was laid 
 down, with two cocoanut mats over it. On this 
 board I became torpid at night, as, what with the 
 awful heat, and the mosquitoes, the hardness of my 
 couch, and the six niggers lying alongside me, I got 
 very little sleep. 
 
 We were all obliged to crowd under that scanty 
 cocoanut-leaf roof as it rained hard during the 
 night, and the heat in our berth was something 
 terrific. 
 
 The river Kalloo was exactly the same the whole 
 fifty miles that I went down it. It is very pretty to 
 look at once, but becomes monotonous after the first 
 few minutes. There are highish banks on either 
 side, completely covered with plantains, bamboos, and 
 palms, with creepers growing up the stems of the 
 trees, and hanging down in great clusters over the 
 water, the whole presenting a tangled jungle of the 
 
128 ABOUT CEYLON AND BOKNEO 
 
 greenest green. But there is no change. Each fresh 
 bend in the river presents another stretch of the 
 same monotonous tropical beauty, and one's eyes 
 soon tire of this verdant scenery. 
 
 However, I enjoyed my trip very much, as the 
 weather cleared a little, and at night there was a 
 moon shining brightly between the showers. The 
 combination of sunshine and moonlight, clay pipe and 
 bamboos, produced a very peaceful and soothing effect 
 on me, weary with travel. 
 
 The natives paddled on till about half-past eleven 
 at night, when they moored the barge alongside the 
 bank. Then everyone, except the mosquitoes, re- 
 posed till early morn. 
 
 About six they were up again and working steadily 
 on down stream, till at twelve we moored against the 
 north bank at Bolgodda. Here I disembarked with 
 my baggage and got a bullock hackery to drive the 
 ten miles to Moratooa station. 1 We changed bullocks 
 once on the way, as no Ceylon bullock ever goes more 
 than seven miles at a stretch. We drove the ten 
 miles in two hours. 
 
 The bullocks used for this purpose are very small, 
 only about the size of a donkey, and have a hump on 
 their backs. They are brought up from their mother's 
 lap to trot, and trotting is their profession. They 
 can go about six miles an hour, and are able to trot 
 for exactly six miles, then they stop. So that if you 
 wish to make a journey of fifty miles, it is necessary 
 to find out first how many times six will go into fifty ; 
 if you can discover this, it is possible to calculate how 
 
 1 I had to pay about 2s. 6d. for the hire of the hackery, which, I 
 believe, was nearly double what a native would have paid. 
 
AT MANLY'S 
 
 129 
 
 many relays of bullocks you will require to perform 
 that journey. 
 
 The bullock hackeries are so low from the floor to 
 the top of the cover, that there is hardly room to sit 
 upright with your legs dangling over the road. 
 
 You have to take your hat off inside these vehicles, 
 and it seems most inconvenient, as there is no place 
 to put a hat. The seat, which is the most slippery 
 thing — except ice — that I have ever unwillingly slid 
 along, has no ridge to prevent anything sliding off it 
 
 A BULLOCK HACKER1 
 
 and on to the ground. If you put your paraphernalia 
 into the network which is slung beneath the bandy, 
 it gets filled up with dust, kicked up by the heels of 
 the bullock ; or you may find the net is not strong 
 enough to bear your camera-legs, and hat, and gives 
 way, causing untold dust and misery. 
 
 In case of rain there is only just room for one man 
 to crouch under shelter ; even then he has to double 
 
 K 
 
130 ABOUT CEYLON AND BOKNEO 
 
 himself up in the position of a frog about to make a 
 spring if he means to keep dry. 
 
 The Government of Ceylon have instituted turnpike 
 gates all along the high roads in the low country, at 
 a distance of about five to seven miles apart : there- 
 fore the natives have instituted post-houses for the 
 change of the bullock hackeries all along the roads, 
 one on either side of the turnpikes. By this simple 
 arrangement they can drive from Galle to Colombo 
 (seventy miles) without paying a single toll. 
 
 A native drives his seven miles ; leaves his bullock 
 hackery at a near post-house ; walks through the bar 
 and takes another hackery on the further side. Then 
 he drives to the post-station on the near side of the 
 next pike, and so on all the way, walking through the 
 pikes and driving the distance between each. 
 
131 
 
 CHAPTEE XV 
 
 DEPARTURE FROM CEYLON 
 
 But I have frivoled away long enough in Ceylon : let 
 us go on towards Borneo, whither I was bound, and 
 where I was not led to expect much. A gentleman 
 who had been out there told me before leaving Ceylon 
 that Borneo was ' a dashed half-Crown sort of place : ' 
 which in fact proved to be true, as it does only half 
 belong to the British Crown. 
 
 I left Colombo on Sunday, March 9, in the Nor- 
 deutscher Lloyd steamer 'Preussen,' and made my way 
 to Singapore. 
 
 It took us five days' screwing at the rate of thir- 
 teen knots an hour to reach this port, and I wondered 
 to myself if I should not be deafened with music 
 before arriving there. They had a brass band on 
 board which played the whole day long in the loudest 
 tone possible in our over-decorated saloon. However, 
 eventually we steamed into Singapore unhurt. 
 
 K 2 
 
132 ABOUT CEYLON AND BORNEO 
 
 CHAPTEE XVI 
 
 A SHIPLOAD OF EMIGRANTS FOR NORTH BORNEO 
 
 After a stay of some days, the time came for me 
 to be quitting Singapore, so I said good-bye to the 
 tame honey bear in the hotel gardens, and a great 
 deer which was just like a dog with his friendliness to 
 man, and left. 
 
 From Singapore I went to British North Borneo, 
 to Labuan and to Brunei. 
 
 Nearly all the Chinese population of Singapore 
 seemed to be aboard the ' Banee,' going down with us 
 to Borneo. On the decks of this little steamer there 
 were no less than 360 Chinamen and Malays going to 
 be Bornean coolies. I am only speaking figuratively 
 when I say that there seemed to be nearly all the 
 population of Singapore, as I am told that there are 
 about 500,000 Chinese in the city alone ; but in look- 
 ing round our decks you would think that the. whole 
 of Singapore were trying to crowd themselves on 
 board. 
 
 The air seemed thick with the smell of Chinamen. 
 I believe that it is the smell of opium-smoking which 
 makes the Chinese nationality seem so disagreeably 
 aromatic. Any quantity of human beings cannot of 
 themselves smell as strongly as these folks did, without 
 the assistance of opium. 
 
EMIGRANTS FOR NORTH BORNEO 133 
 
 Each coolie emigrating to Borneo pockets an 
 advance of about 51. before leaving Singapore. Be- 
 sides this, 101. has to be paid by the landowner in 
 North Borneo to the commissioners for coolies who 
 are to stay three years on an estate. When they had 
 pocketed their 51. the coolies' great object used to be 
 to get off the ship which was taking them down to 
 Borneo before it left port, so that they might enlist 
 again and pocket another 51. In consequence of this, 
 the ships now steam out a little way from port as soon 
 as it gets dark, and anchor about three miles from land ; 
 as far away as possible from all boats, so that the 
 coolies may find it impracticable to swim. 
 
 In spite of this, one of our Chinamen did jump 
 into the water late at night, as we did not leave the 
 roads finally till 9.30. Our captain was not told 
 of this occurrence till about twenty minutes after it 
 had happened, so that he could not discover the 
 whereabouts of that sinking Chinaman. Then one of 
 our passengers said to the mate, ' He'll have a pretty 
 long swim before he gets ashore, won't he ? ' To which 
 the mate answered, ' He'll have about ten fathoms to 
 go before he arrives at the bottom. I reckon he 
 won't reach anywhere else to-night.' 
 
 This was the only Chinaman that we lost on the 
 trip except one. His tale was rather peculiar from our 
 British point of view, but perfectly ordinary from a 
 Chinese. 
 
 He was sitting one night on the railing which 
 surrounds the ship, and he happened to drop off, 
 first into a doze and then into the sea. The rest of 
 the Chinese who were round him thought this such 
 an ordinary occurrence, that they did not say a word 
 
134 ABOUT CEYLON AND BOBNEO 
 
 about it till the following morning, when there was a 
 ' muster ' of Chinese coolies and one was found to be 
 missing. The head man then asked where he was, 
 and ever so many men said, ' Oh ! that Wee 
 Chunk, we saw him drop into the sea, we suppose it 
 is he who is not here.' Thus these sublime mortals 
 look on a death as the most ordinary occurrence in 
 life. 
 
 If we had been told he had fallen into the 
 sea, as it was a calm night we should have lowered 
 a boat and picked him up, thereby saving the estate 
 to which he was going about 151. 
 
 Perhaps we should have also afforded the China- 
 men some pleasure ; but there is no knowing in this 
 deceitful world if we are all built alike or no. These 
 Chinamen are so hopelessly Chinese and unlike any- 
 thing which has been brought up under European 
 influence, that we cannot understand them. 
 
 On our way out of port we passed numbers of 
 steamers lying in the roads of Singapore. They were 
 painted white, green, and black, and flying the flags 
 of various nationalities. Amongst others was a flag 
 that I had never seen before ; it puzzled me, as I could 
 not make out to what kingdom the steamer belonged. 
 It was a yellow flag with a broad cross on it ; one 
 side of this cross being black and the other red. She 
 looked a very neat little steamer of about 700 tons 
 register, and, on approaching nearer we saw that she 
 was called the ' Eajah Brooke,' and this was the flag 
 of Sarawak. 
 
 The second day after leaving Singapore we came 
 in sight of some islands called the Sirhassen Islands, 
 and eventually we steamed quite close to a mountain- 
 
EMIGRANTS FOR NORTH BORNEO 135 
 
 ous headland called Koti, which is the most northerly 
 point of South Natuna Island. 
 
 These islands belong to the Dutch, but at present, 
 I believe, have not been taken any further notice of 
 except the fact being generally known that Holland 
 holds them under her thumb. There is no govern- 
 ment, and there are no Europeans living on them — 
 nothing, in fact, but a savage naked Malay race. Ships 
 are not in the habit of coming here from Singapore, as 
 this track leads nowhere except to the island of 
 Labuan. 
 
 The Natunas are biggish 
 islands x and are inclined to 
 be hilly, though the Southern 
 group are not mountainous. 
 
 It seemed to me a pity 
 that such an apparently fertile 
 spot should be under Dutch 
 rule, or perhaps it would be 
 better to say ' marked in 
 the maps as Dutch.' They ' 
 have now been some years 
 
 under the beetling eye of Holland, but at present the 
 natives do not know what a European looks like. 
 
 But to return to our Chinese coolies. Some of 
 those aboard ship were good-natured-looking enough, 
 but from what I have seen of the Chinese coolie, I 
 should say that he very seldom smiled, and never 
 laughed. It does not seem to be their nature to 
 laugh. 
 
 Of course they had not any more hair on their 
 
 1 The largest being about the same area as the island of Majorca, 
 in the Mediterranean. 
 
136 ABOUT CEYLON AND BOENEO 
 
 faces than a buffalo has on his back ; indeed, they had 
 less : aboard the ship, where they had not been 
 shaved for a week, you could see this easily enough. 
 I shall have something to say about a Chinaman 
 being shaved when we return to Singapore. 
 
 They all had a long pigtail, which was wound for 
 convenience round their head, but I think they only 
 wore their hair bound up in this way when at sea. 
 Then for dress, each Chinaman had a black linen 
 pyjama jacket and trousers. The trousers were so baggy 
 that each leg was more like a woman's petticoat, 
 coming down within a couple of inches only of his 
 ankles. 
 
 Every Chinaman had a long, narrow wooden box 
 stained red, in which all his possessions were stowed 
 away. When he wished to unlock it he inserted a huge 
 key and turned it first forward two-and-a-half rounds, 
 this struck an alarum which gave seven tings ; then 
 he turned it backwards half a round, which gave two 
 tings. At least, this was the plan adopted by a China- 
 man who resided close to my chair on deck. I 
 constantly heard other boxes being opened with the 
 same click of the alarum which announced the pro- 
 ceeding. 
 
 Picking one's way along the decks amid the thick 
 multitude of Chinese life which was exposed there, 
 one saw them playing cards very frequently. I do 
 not know if they were playing with two packs or 
 with only one, but their packs consisted of infinitely 
 more than fifty-two cards. They were little slips of 
 cardboard about three inches long by one inch 
 broad, covered over with Chinese emblems in black. 
 Four men played cards together, all sitting cross- 
 
EMIGRANTS FOR NORTH BORNEO 137 
 
 legged on grass-made mats spread one over the other ; 
 they played for copper coins just as the fishing popu- 
 lation did in Ceylon. 
 
 A little further on some Chinamen were engaged 
 in ' skinning ' the rind off sago roots (which resemble 
 turnips) with their long trails ; then eating the roots 
 greedily and with evident enjoyment. 
 
 They generally messed in knots of four together, 
 when they consumed any quantity of rice, dried little 
 fish — which from our European point of view looked 
 exceedingly tough and bony — and hard-boiled eggs, 
 all of which were ladled down with chopsticks. These 
 chopsticks were merely two little bits of rounded wood 
 about as thick as a pencil. The end which they put 
 into their food was stained pink, and the other end, 
 which was green, was interlaced in the fingers ; both 
 ends being flat like an uncut pencil. How they can 
 get the contents out of the shell of a hard-boiled egg 
 with two little rounded sticks and put it gradually into 
 their mouths, it would be difficult for anyone who has 
 not had the advantage of seeing it done to imagine. 
 I only know that it is possible because I have seen it 
 repeatedly. Both chopsticks are held between the 
 thumb and first finger of the right hand only, and are 
 somehow guided by the other fingers. 
 
 The only thing which I thought extraordinary after 
 seeing them consume some eggs in this way was, that 
 the gentleman who had scraped the rind off the out- 
 side of the sago plant with his nails, had not done it 
 with his chopsticks. 
 
 It would be easy enough to devour rice as China- 
 men do, for they merely tipped up the small bowl 
 which contained the rice till it was about on the level 
 
138 ABOUT CEYLON AND BOBNEO 
 
 of a cup of tea being poured into the mouth. Then 
 they shovelled it in with chopsticks, just as we shovel 
 coals into a furnace. 
 
 They were great at making tea, apparently the 
 weakest possible tea, without sugar and of course with- 
 out milk. They poured it out into little bits of handle- 
 less cups, and sipped it as if it were port wine. 
 Four of these little Chinese cups were put on a very 
 small tray. They used such an absurdly small tea-pot 
 that we could not help laughing as we saw them with 
 awfully grave faces pouring out and drinking this very 
 feeble, and one would think very tasteless, beverage. 
 
 One of our Chinese fellow-passengers was sick with 
 an overwhelming headache, so he got another China- 
 man to pinch him on the chest till it bled. Then he 
 seemed satisfied. Although his head did not get any 
 better, still his soul sat easier. 
 
 The Chinese certainly at present seem unspoilt 
 by European innovation. When we were in Singapore 
 I saw a Chinaman cleaning the mudspots off a bright 
 blue umbrella. He produced a bottle full of water, and 
 after sucking this liquid into his mouth, kept shooting 
 it out again over the spotted umbrella till all the mud 
 was washed clean off. A Chinaman has the power of 
 squirting from his mouth harder than any other 
 human being on the face of this vast globe. 
 
139 
 
 CHAPTEE XVII 
 
 ARRIVAL AT SANDAKAN 
 
 After being four days at sea we came in sight of 
 Borneo. There was nothing to see here except hills 
 and mountains, all covered with impenetrable jungle 
 and ever topped in clouds. 
 
 Borneo is one of the largest islands in the world. 
 One of its mountain peaks goes wandering up thirteen 
 thousand odd feet into the sky. 
 
 We anchored eventually off Labuan, which is an 
 interesting little island about six miles from the main 
 coast. 
 
 This, unlike North Borneo or Sarawak, is a little 
 British colony. 
 
 I will endeavour to tell you more about Labuan 
 on my return journey, but now let us proceed to 
 Borneo. 
 
 When the ' Banee ' had amassed all the coal and 
 bananas that she could collect during a stay of thirty 
 hours, we steamed on to a small place with about three 
 houses in it, called Gaya. It is situated on a steep 
 island, quite close to the main Bornean coast, and 
 belongs to the British North Borneo Company. I 
 believe it is sixty miles from Labuan. 
 
 Here we were very kindly treated by one Wheatley, 
 the Government agent, who showed us ail kinds of 
 
140 ABOUT CEYLON AND BORNEO 
 
 curious swords and implements collected from the 
 natives. 
 
 Amongst other things was a stuffed crocodile. 
 Then one of us said, ' Now that is a most interesting 
 and amusing creature, and how delightful his teeth 
 look, when he is stuffed like that. A fellow whom I 
 know had a tame one, near whose tank he lived, and 
 he loved it with an appalling affection. One morning 
 when he woke up from a most peaceful and gratifying 
 slumber, he found this crocodile crouching on the end 
 of his bed. Then he gave one fearful yell, and tear- 
 ing his hair, rushed shrieking from the room. Thus 
 he parted company with that bally alligator for ever.* 
 This story might have been true, or it might have 
 been untrue, but we could scarcely believe it, as we 
 thought that crocodiles, however tame, would not 
 come out of the water into one's bedroom. 
 
 This Government agent lived perched up on a hill 
 in a roomy palm-leafed bungalow supported on posts, 
 so that the floor came about eight feet from the light 
 yellow clay soil. Then down below us was the wooden 
 pier, with more palm-leaved houses at its seaward end. 
 
 Then we went steaming on past Kina Balu, 13,698 
 feet high, which is the highest mountain in Borneo ; 
 and although we were forty miles from it, still it 
 looked very fine as we got a peep of its lofty summit 
 away amongst the clouds. After this we came to a 
 place called Kudat, where we had to wait thirty- six 
 hours. We were obliged to stay a long time in each 
 of these ports, because the natives and Chinamen 
 would not work after dark ; besides which our emi- 
 grants would have deserted if we had lain alongside 
 the pier, consequently we were forced to go out about 
 
AREIVAX AT SANDAKAN 
 
 141 
 
 a mile to sea every night. We were going to traverse 
 a difficult part of the coast on the morrow, which it 
 was necessary to take in the daylight, therefore we 
 stopped two nights off Kudat. This, like the other 
 villages along the coast, seemed a brand new little 
 place, quite full of Chinese houses down beside the 
 sea, whilst the natives lived in separate villages out 
 
 THE PIER AT KUDAT 
 
 on the waters ; then away up on the hill, about fifty 
 feet above us, there were two or three European 
 houses, and that was all. My photograph was taken 
 from the ship, when we were slowly nearing the pier, 
 between the coral reefs. 
 
 The following day we passed some low-lying 
 islands ; on the shores of one called Banguey, 1 I was 
 
 1 Banguey island is the only part of North Borneo which is said 
 to have been of volcanic origin. 
 
142 ABOUT CEYLON AND BOKNEO 
 
 told there were two tobacco estates, but these were 
 not apparent to the naked eye as we steamed past, 
 nor were they visible if one clothed one's eyes with 
 glasses, for that matter. What a desolate place this 
 would be to pass one's existence in, with nothing but 
 an untrustworthy steam launch, in which to cross 
 over the many miles of open ocean before reaching 
 civilisation ! It is a healthy climate away here on 
 these wooded islands, but how awfully deserted you 
 must feel when you look forth over an endless stretch 
 of ocean ! How you must long to see one ship, one 
 boat, one anything, instead of the monotonous dis- 
 tance of sea, only sea ! A sea out of whose blue waters 
 fish were constantly jumping, and above whose white 
 coral reefs great eagles hovered, and an innumerable 
 number of birds winged their unceasing way, but still 
 a sea on whose surface no fisherman's boat could be 
 seen. How deserted, how lonely this ocean looked, 
 from our human point of view ! 
 
 There was a young gentleman who came on board 
 the vessel at Kudat, and was only going with us as 
 far as Sandakan. I forget what his name was, but 
 let us call him ' Silly Infant,' as he would talk, talk 
 unflaggingly till ' all was blue.' Even during this 
 short period, he was so overflowing with animal spirits 
 and information, that it would have been impossible 
 for a second spokesman to squeeze in a word by the 
 edge. He talked incessantly till 12.15 at night, and 
 as we all had our beds on deck and slept on the sky- 
 light, it was impossible to do anything but doze while 
 this conversation continued. At 5.30 next morning, 
 however, he awoke, remarking, ' Let me see, I was just 
 telling you about,' etc. etc., and went on as though 
 
ARRIVAL AT SANDAKAN 143 
 
 he had not been interrupted by five and a quarter 
 hours' sleep. Even our captain, who was not only 
 the best of fellows, but the most chatty, absolutely 
 could not get in a word edgeways against this irre- 
 pressible young man, who always carried the day. 
 
 When we at length arrived at Sandakan — which, 
 by the way, is pronounced Sndarkan — we found our- 
 selves beneath a little bit of a shed at the end of the 
 pier, under the following very interesting circum- 
 stances. It was raining in a tropical downpour — so 
 hard, in fact, that it was difficult to hear what your 
 neighbours said to you, as the drops of rain made 
 so much noise coming down on the iron roof. Being 
 nine o'clock at night, it was of course pitch dark. All 
 the coolies had gone away, as their day's work was 
 done. We had left our ship about a mile off, out in 
 the bay, and had what seemed another mile to tra- 
 verse, from the pier to the house whither we were 
 bound. 
 
 At present there are no roads of any sort in 
 Sandakan, the capital of British North Borneo ; only 
 yellow clayey footpaths zigzagging up the hills, and 
 sandy tracks along the seashore, where all the natives 
 and Chinamen live. No wheeled vehicle has yet been 
 started in North Borneo, as the roads are not broad 
 enough ; even the jinrickshaw is at present unknown- 
 There were a few riding ponies in the town, so that, 
 except your feet, this was the only means of loco- 
 motion. 
 
 The hotel was a small wooden structure, contain- 
 ing about a dozen bedrooms and a bar. We were 
 told it was doubtful whether we could get anything 
 here, fit to eat or not. 
 
144 ABOUT CEYLON AND BORNEO 
 
 After waiting impatiently for three-quarters of an 
 hour the rain cleared off and we were able to get 
 away ; but the foot-paths were wet and very slippery, 
 as no stones were used in Sandakan for road mend- 
 ing, and wherever there happened to be a morsel of 
 clay it became quite greasy on a night such as this. 
 
 However, at last we reached a large square two- 
 storeyed bungalow, whence the dulcet strains of an 
 English comic song were wafted to us on the hot wet 
 April air. 
 
 Sandakan is a very jolly little place, because it is 
 at present so very original. It extends altogether 
 about two and a half miles along the shores of 
 Sandakan Bay. This bay is a great and deep inlet 
 of the sea, being about one mile and a quarter across 
 opposite the steep island of Bahala at the entrance 
 to the bay, and about fifteen miles in length. All the 
 land on the Sandakan side of the harbour is steepish 
 sandstone and sandy land, I believe of the Devonian 
 period. On the opposite side of the bay it is altogether 
 flat, and was probably formed by the mighty Keena- 
 batangan river flowing into the sea, leaving deposit 
 after deposit of light alluvial soil for generations. 
 Therefore from the town you see about four miles 
 away innumerable mangrove swamps coming into 
 the sea and stretching back for many miles inland, 
 till your eye encounters higher ground where ordinary 
 jungle exists. 
 
 "When I say that Sandakan is about two and a 
 half miles in length, I mean the China town and the 
 two ' campongs ' or villages on either side of it, inclu- 
 ding the saw mills, which occupy a good deal of space. 
 The English residents live scattered about on the 
 
AEEIVAL AT SANDAKAN 145 
 
 hills, within half a mile of the back of the town ; 
 some in wooden bungalows, and others in native 
 houses made of poles and palm leaves. Down by the 
 side of the sea there was such an exceedingly strong 
 smell at low tide, of a mixture of Chinamen and bad 
 fish, that on a hot afternoon it was difficult to bear 
 up under its influence. The company who own North 
 Borneo are now busy trying to do away with this 
 aroma, by selling the muddy shore to anyone who is 
 willing to lay down stones and build above low water 
 mark. As the land is very valuable this may be 
 completed in the course of some years, but not now — 
 no, not now. 
 
 Immediately behind the China town come hills on 
 this natural promontory, a promontory to which I do 
 not think any name has yet been given ; hills which 
 are more than half jungle covered, with here and there 
 an Englishman's bungalow surrounded by patches of 
 primeval forest. Here there is an endless maze of 
 green and brown all mixed together, and towering 
 aloft. Even down below, where the jungle has fallen 
 to the fell axe of civilisation, the second growth is 
 beautiful, with large-leaved ' hamerangs ' amid a bed 
 of tropical brake-ferns. 
 
 When we had been in Sandakan only one day, the 
 weather became brilliantly fine, with a gentle north- 
 easterly wind a-blowing ; so that we enjoyed our life 
 after being cooped up in steamers on the ocean, or 
 shut up in the tropical heat of Singapore. There was 
 a certain freedom about life in Sandakan which we 
 found delightful; for instance, the chickens, of which 
 our hostess kept dozens, were so tame that they were 
 constantly coming into the dining-room when we were 
 
 L 
 
146 ABOUT CEXLON AND BOKNEO 
 
 at breakfast or dinner. The servants could scarcely 
 move about between these birds and the table, without 
 now and again tripping over a feeding fowl. One day 
 I found that through some foolishness I had left my 
 bedroom door open, and a small number of these birds 
 ■ — sixteen I think it was — were under my bed and 
 on it. 
 
 But this was not the only Bornean creature which 
 made its presence felt in Sandakan, as the spiders 
 were numerous and almost fierce in their attentions to 
 man. Now if there is a thing in this world which I 
 think lucky, it is the gentle adulation of a spider ; but 
 when a great hairy fellow comes down from the ceiling 
 by means of a thread as thick as a piece of cotton, and 
 after looking around for a while, twinkles his black 
 eyes and makes a spring for your arm, well of course 
 one does not mind it. But when one of these fellows 
 took it into his enormous head to besprawl himself all 
 over my scalp, this seemed to me to be too bad, as it 
 was encroaching on the kindliness of my disposition. 
 Consequently, when he placed himself in this situation 
 it was more than even my long-suffering gentleness 
 could stand ; disgusted I shook him off. At first he 
 ran a little way from me, then stopping and turning 
 round, he seemed to lisp one silent prayer for ven- 
 geance on my head. Then he made off rapidly into 
 the verandah's dim twilight outside my door. I felt 
 that a day would come when he would have his 
 revenge. 
 
 There were some Chinese geese here which tickled 
 me a good deal by the way that they conducted them- 
 selves. I do not know if geese carry on the same 
 games in other countries as they do out here ; I have 
 
ARRIVAL AT SAHDAKAN 147 
 
 never had the advantage of watching geese so minutely 
 in my own country as I have in this tropical clime. 
 Imagine the folly of going to sleep in broad daylight, 
 when there is the whole night in which I should hope 
 every bird, except an owl, did sleep ; and going to 
 sleep on one leg, probably in order to rest the other. 
 There were two Chinese geese asleep at nine o'clock 
 one morning, when I happened to pass by a crowd of 
 these birds. They were geese who generally paddled 
 about all day in a stream below a Chinaman's house 
 in this town. They drowsed quietly on, in spite of 
 the dogs and men who kept passing over the wooden 
 planking of a bridge hard by, with their heads tucked 
 back over one whig, while their beaks were resting 
 beneath the sheltering grasp of the other wing. 
 
 I thought what strangely weird birds these were. 
 
 There were nine geese altogether ; two had their 
 bills shrouded with a covering wing while they slept 
 on one leg. The other seven were standing about, oc- 
 casionally shaking their feathers thoughtfully in the 
 shallow water in a restful condition, or standing on the 
 sandy bank apparently relishing the soiled leaves of 
 some very dirty grass, at which they kept pecking, and 
 now and again calling in shrill overstrained whispers 
 to one another. Presently a great Chinese dog came 
 down amongst them. Then they seemed offended, 
 and stood perfectly straight up with their heads, 
 necks, and bodies all in a line. Now they waddled 
 very slowly across some green grass close to the 
 stream, all this time making as they swayed forward 
 the most fearful goosish noise to which human ear has 
 ever been a prey. Then two of them slowly napped their 
 extended wings, and the unoffending dog having by 
 
 L 2 
 
148 ABOUT CEYLON AND BORNEO 
 
 this time moved off, they stood perfectly motionless, 
 left off screaming, and closed their eyes, whether from 
 a feeling of disdain towards the outer world, or because 
 they wished to ease their eyes after using them for 
 this time or two, I could not make out. Here I left 
 them, as I was unable to remain all day watching 
 their movements. It seems to me that geese will be 
 geese everywhere, and certainly these geese were the 
 most awful geese that I had ever seen. 
 
149 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 WE START FOR THE WILDS 
 
 Nearly seventy-five miles from Sandakan by sea 
 there was a tract of jungle land about 15,000 acres in 
 extent, which had been bought from the North Borneo 
 Company to plant with tobacco. At the time I speak 
 of only six acres of this land had been felled, and 
 none of it planted, but the manager was busy ' burning 
 off ' the six acres of felled land. 
 
 To this property, which lay on the Toongood 
 Eiver, we intended to go as soon as we could get a 
 1 tonkang,' or native barge, ready to take up a quantity 
 of sawn boards for the construction of a new bungalow 
 which the manager was building on the new estate. 
 
 The Toongood Eiver is a branch of the Labuk. 1 
 On the latter stream there were already two tobacco 
 estates, which had been worked for over a year. Each 
 of these properties had a steam launch, which was kept 
 running to Sandakan about once in ten days. 
 
 One of these steam launches came in to Sandakan 
 while we were there. We therefore wrote a very civil 
 letter to the agents, telling them exactly how we were 
 situated, and asking if they could delay her departure 
 for the Labuk four hours, till we could get our ton- 
 kang ready, as we wanted to be towed up to the junc- 
 
 1 See the map at the end of the book. 
 
150 ABOUT CEYLON AND BORNEO 
 
 tion of the two rivers, which was only about five miles 
 from the jungle property where we were going. To 
 this civil letter we had a less civil answer, saying that 
 the steam launch would not wait a moment after the 
 specified time. We therefore went to the native cap- 
 tain, and talked the matter over with him. He said 
 he had a relation who was dying, and, as far as we 
 could make out, he would not leave him till he was 
 dead. Long before this aged gentleman had breathed 
 his last we had our tonkang ready and lashed to the 
 pier. 
 
 The bottom of this barge was full of boards, and 
 on the top of them came our luggage, cook, servants, 
 and ourselves, with an awning over all. 
 
 When the moon was shining brightly at about 
 half-past ten at night, the steam launch started off, 
 towing two heavily laden tonkangs behind her ; one 
 of these belonged to the owner of the launch, whilst 
 wewere on board the other. It was fortunately a 
 dead calm, otherwise we should not have been able to 
 proceed so smoothly over the tropical sea, as the ton- 
 kang is an exceedingly bad sea boat, being merely an 
 open barge-shaped construction, about thirty feet long 
 and twelve feet broad. It took us altogether forty-six 
 hours to accomplish that seventy- five miles of sea and 
 river. Our slow progress, however, told hardly on a 
 young Englishman called 'Mum,' who was going up 
 the Labuk to one of the tobacco plantations. The 
 night before we started he went aboard the little steam 
 launch with only enough sardines and bread to last 
 him for four meals, thinking that on the following 
 morning at six o'clock the launch would put out to sea 
 with one light tonkang behind her, and would soon 
 
WE START FOE THE WILDS 151 
 
 reach the estate ; whereas she did not leave Sanda- 
 kan till the following evening with two heavy tonkangs 
 in tow, so that he not only had a very uncomfortable 
 night lopping about in the harbour on the flattest of 
 hard benches, but, fearing lest she should sail any time 
 during the following day, he stopped aboard wearing 
 his soul out in that square box which I suppose you 
 would call a cabin. 
 
 When we steamed out we found the rudder of our 
 tonkang had not been properly shipped. This became 
 very apparent, as she would not steer at all ; therefore 
 the captain of the launch had to shut off steam, 
 while we sent two men overboard to try and right it. 
 In doing this we drifted so much that we came right 
 athwart the anchor rope of a native craft which was 
 resting there. This rope became mixed up with our 
 rudder in such a labyrinth of confusion, that after a 
 while our men seemed to find it difficult to tell even 
 which was hemp rope and which was rudder. We were 
 therefore obliged to tell them — unbeknownst to the 
 natives aboard that little sailing ship — to cut this 
 anchor rope and let our rudder go free. This was 
 promptly done, and then we got away. 
 
 We supposed that when the natives found out 
 their drifting condition, they must have made the 
 gentle moonlight pale before their execrations, but we 
 did not hear them, as the thud, thud of our little 
 steamer was all that was borne to our ears over the 
 subdued water. 
 
 We soon left Pulo Bay Island behind, with its low- 
 lying tropical trees, and the many miles of flat look- 
 ing mangrove swamps on the opposite shore to 
 Sandakan. After a while we saw by the full moon- 
 
152 ABOUT CEYLON AND BORNEO 
 
 light that we were getting right out into the ocean as 
 we steamed slowly round the intervening headlands 
 of Bahala, and away to the dark blue distance beyond, 
 
 All the next morning we were crossing' more sun- 
 lit seas, but now the distance was hidden by treey 
 islands. By four o'clock we had got amongst swamps 
 again in the mangroved entrance of the Labuk 
 river. We stopped for half an hour off a forest- 
 covered hill, which had been christened Balmoral out 
 of respect for our Queen. It was a very poor place, 
 with only five or six native huts or piles coming out 
 of the river. 
 
 That night we anchored for about six hours, as 
 there is a certain danger to boats travelling at night 
 on account of the ' snags.' Great mangrove trees, 
 looking like birch trees at home, were all around us, 
 and these mingled with the nepah's feathery palm 
 leaves, were all that we could see from the flat river's 
 bed. 
 
 The next morning we got into a straggling native 
 village, not closely packed, but with huts about every 
 hundred yards apart, and with boats constantly flit- 
 ting from one side to the other. These houses were all 
 nepah-covered, with sloping concave roofs, and each 
 house had an entrance from the river — an entrance 
 made of very broad ladders from the water up to the 
 doors of the houses. The houses were altogether 
 built on piles driven into the muddy banks, as these 
 people make the river their highway, and have no 
 paths and no connection with one another inland. 
 There were a few native ladies in front of the houses, 
 and any number of jolly little children bathing and 
 amusing themselves as much in the water as out of it. 
 
WE START FOR THE WILDS 153 
 
 It was towards noon on the second day that we at 
 length approached the first of the three so-called 
 tobacco plantations in this part of Borneo. In two 
 of them the nursery stage seemed only to have 
 been reached ; nevertheless they were called tobacco 
 estates. 
 
 Here the launch left us, as it was bound for a pro- 
 perty further up the main river. The jungle to which 
 we were going, as I said before, was situated about five 
 miles up a branch of the Labuk. 
 
 The manager of the property was soon made 
 acquainted with our arrival, and immediately set out 
 in a boat to collect his visitors. By nine o'clock that 
 night we were up at his bungalow, enjoying the rice 
 and chickens which he had provided for our reception. 
 
 The last ten miles of our trip had been entirely 
 through jungle, except where a Dutchman had felled 
 about 300 acres in readiness for planting tobacco. 
 
 After winding our way up the stream we had at 
 length seen flames, caused by the burning of felled 
 forest ; flames from the only six acres of cleared land 
 on this estate, thus leaving 14,994 acres of standing 
 jungle on the property. 
 
 This jungle was so thick that man could not pene- 
 trate it at will. It only seemed to be frequented by 
 innumerable monkeys and butterflies of every hue 
 and size, which made the forest bright with their lazy 
 wings. 
 
 This uncivilised country is peopled with monkeys. 
 You can scarcely go round the bend of any river 
 without seeing monkeys high up above decamping 
 along the branches of the trees. If you are walking 
 they very often remain motionless till you get right 
 
154 ABOUT CEYLON AND BOENEO 
 
 beneath the lofty boughs to which they are clinging ; 
 then the playful crowd will all rush off together, mak- 
 ing such a disturbance that you cannot help thinking 
 the old gentleman himself must have got into the 
 lonely jungle. 
 
 We saw one orang-utan in the forest ; and at Kudat 
 the Government agent had two great big ones who were 
 tame ; at least, we were told they were quite tame, but 
 they did not look inviting, so we did not try. They 
 were tied to trees in his garden. We were informed 
 that they were only very playful amongst themselves, 
 which we were glad of. 
 
155 
 
 CHAPTEE XIX 
 
 IN THE LOW-LYING TOBACCO COUNTRY 
 
 All the low-lying land in British North Borneo is 
 covered with almost impenetrable jungle. It is so 
 thickly covered with timber and scrub, that there is 
 scarcely an acre in the flat country where you can 
 penetrate without some native going before you to 
 cut the way. This makes travelling amongst the 
 tangled mass of foliage and creepers a heavy and 
 laborious task. 
 
 It is anything but healthy on the swampy land 
 of this primeval forest. Being only raised a few feet 
 above the sea level, it is flooded every year during the 
 rainy season. The climate is therefore decidedly damp. 
 
 There is, I believe, a rainfall of nearly two hundred 
 inches in the year, consequently the wash coming off 
 the mountains must be very great. The flat lands of 
 North Borneo have been completely formed by genera- 
 tions of wash coming down in this way, and leaving a 
 very recent deposit. 
 
 It is most difficult for new-comers to get any 
 drinkable water. Of course this is one of the reasons 
 why there is so much fever among the Europeans and 
 a disease called ' bery-bery ' amongst the imported 
 labour. Some of the new tobacco estates are particu- 
 larly unhealthy, not only on account of the water, 
 
156 ABOUT CEYLON AND BORNEO 
 
 but all land when it is first opened so near the equator 
 must be unwholesome with the tropical sun and rain 
 coming down on freshly dug up earth and decaying 
 vegetation. 
 
 I think that all young men who go out to a country 
 like this ought to make some provision before leaving 
 home by which they can get back again if necessary. 
 What can a young Dutch fellow do on a tobacco estate 
 in North Borneo, when he has come all these miles 
 across the sea, buoyed up with the hope of eventually 
 becoming rich, as many of the planters in Sumatra 
 have already done, when he finds at the outset that, 
 in spite of his dogged determination to get on, his 
 health is failing him, and he has not the money to 
 take him back to a European climate ? 
 
 When a tobacco estate has been opened a year or 
 two, and the manager's bungalow is placed on land 
 which has been formerly cultivated, it becomes infi- 
 nitely more wholesome and healthy. 
 
 The Chinese coolies who are opening an estate 
 sometimes die off like rats. This happens on all the 
 properties situated in an unwholesome part of the 
 country. A Dutch planter said to me, talking of the 
 estate on which he was then living, ' This place is 
 wonderfully healthy : we have only had thirty coolies 
 die within the last month.' ' Out of how many ? ' I 
 asked. ' Well, out of 220 ; whereas look at such and 
 such a place on the Keenabatangan, where 150 have 
 died out of 300 in the month.' 
 
 I was told that the Chinese coolies could live 
 healthily near Deli, in the great tobacco country of 
 Sumatra, all the days of their existence. Probably 
 they will be able to live in the same way here in a few 
 
IN THE LOW-LYING TOBACCO COUNTRY 157 
 
 years' time, but at present, owing to the unhealthiness 
 of opening estates amid the interminable jungle, and 
 the class of opium-smoking coolies who are obtained 
 from Singapore, the death-rate is terribly high. 
 
 The most successful tobacco planters seem to be 
 those who have been engaged in the same occupation 
 in Sumatra, before coming to Borneo, as from what 
 I could understand the low country about Deli has 
 much the same climate as North Borneo. 
 
 It is difficult to imagine how some of these tobacco 
 estates will pay when they are worked by English or 
 Scotch men, who have had scarcely any training or 
 experience in the cultivation of tobacco, considering 
 the estates have to pay as much as 100 dollars (nearly 
 17Z.) for each coolie. At present the Chinese coolie 
 can be imported to Deli, in Sumatra, at infinitely less 
 cost than here, although the distance from Swatow, in 
 China, must be nearly double what it is from Swatow 
 to Sandakan. But the planters there have steamers 
 running for no other purpose than carrying coolies. 
 
 North Borneo possesses at any rate one advantage 
 over Sumatra — viz., land can be bought here now for 
 an almost nominal sum. As in all new countries, the 
 planter has a good deal to contend with at first. 
 There are no Government cart roads in the country 
 yet, and the seaway is the only means of transport. 
 It is true that this seaway is very remarkable, as one 
 can get a great many miles up most of the tidal rivers, 
 in the low-lying country, by means of a steam launch. 
 It is only possible to penetrate the low lands, and of 
 course one cannot tell what is in the interior, or what 
 the soil and rainfall may be away on those mountain 
 sides which were discernible from the sea. 
 
158 ABOUT CEYLON AND BOKNEO 
 
 There seems little doubt that many paying pro- 
 ductions might be grown, if only one could get cheaper 
 labour ; labour which might be imported from India 
 or the Straits Settlements. 
 
 The soil here appeared very rich, if one could 
 judge from the magnificent jungle and rich under- 
 growth. 
 
 It is not a good sporting country, although there 
 is plenty of game ; but the jungle is so filled up with 
 undergrowth, and in places so crowded with an im- 
 penetrable bamboo, that it makes silent walking after 
 game very difficult. 
 
 I was told that in the flat lands, which extend from 
 twelve to fifteen miles into the interior, there was not 
 a single acre of open country, all this recent deposit 
 being terribly overgrown. 
 
 About the bison and elephant of North Borneo I 
 shall have something to say later on. There are in 
 all four different kinds of big game to be shot out here : 
 the elephant, the bison, the rhinoceros, and the deer. 
 I do not consider wild-tame buffalo to be game. 
 
159 
 
 CHAPTEE XX 
 
 BOS BANTENG 
 
 We had come here to shoot, so let me describe our 
 first day's shooting adventure. 
 
 My friend had brought four Javanese men with 
 him from Batavia, three of whom always accompanied 
 us on our jaunts in the jungle. Two of these men 
 were old gun-bearers, who could follow up marvellously 
 the fresh trail of any animal, and could detect the 
 objects of the chase in the thickest forest long before 
 the ordinary Englishman discerned anything but a 
 tangled mass of leaves. 
 
 Besides these men, we took with us a little Java- 
 nese servant, who carried a huge vulcanite bottle full 
 of cold tea. This bottle was encased in felt, and was 
 constantly dipped in any muddy jungle water that we 
 passed, thereby rendering the tea inside deliciously 
 cool and refreshing. 
 
 In Borneo you live on boiled rice — this is your 
 staple food ; the natives eat nothing else, and I 
 believe it is wholesome, although of all dry tasteless 
 foods commend me to simple rice without curry or 
 milk. We always took with us a packet of rice, tied 
 up with bark strings in two large green leaves which 
 the natives use instead of paper. This was not our 
 only form of food, as we consumed therewith a sort 
 
160 ABOUT CEYLON AND BOBNEO 
 
 of long, lonely, raw ham-sausage, made in Holland, 
 which was much too salt for my taste in cold blood. 
 Also, having British prejudices, I did not like uncooked 
 ham. 
 
 We soon got into the swampy jungle, where a tree 
 called rizophore threw out innumerable roots. Eoots 
 that made one swear, as they seemed to have grown 
 simply to annoy the harmless traveller. Eoots with 
 pointed angles coming up all over the ground about 
 one foot high, then going down into the ground again 
 in the shape of a capital M- They were just hard 
 enough to provoke you to tread on them, but not 
 sufficiently stable to bear the whole weight of your 
 body. I thought that if anything deserved a bad 
 name, it was these deceptive wooden angles. Please 
 remember, when I say they were ' most damnable, 
 that when I encountered them I was rather tired and 
 very hot. I should think, from their shape, that this 
 ground must have been under water for six months in 
 the year. 
 
 When I speak of rizophore swamps, I do not mean 
 that there was nothing else besides this tree, as there 
 was a thick undergrowth everywhere. We also saw 
 a great quantity of objects most interesting to the 
 human eye. Amongst other trifles we were fascinated 
 by the appearance of two sorts of fungi, growing far 
 away from the haunts of men. One of them had 
 a white stem — as most fungi have — from the top of 
 which, about thirteen inches from the ground, there 
 came down a cage of white honeycombed network, 
 making an enclosure large enough for a canary's cage. 
 On the top of the central stem there was a light green 
 knob. 
 
BOS BANTENG- 161 
 
 If this fungus sounds too extraordinary to be 
 true, I must refer my readers to the backwoods of a 
 Bornean jungle, where they can go and see it for them- 
 selves. If all Oriental mushrooms smell as strongly 
 as this one did, I pity anyone who indulges in 
 picking them. 
 
 There was another kind of fungus which struck 
 me as being very peculiar, for it grew on a tall 
 dead-black stem. The specimen we came across was 
 about one foot two inches high, then came a perfectly 
 black dish surrounded by a broad white rim. 
 
 We also passed quantities of pitcher -plants, some 
 growing on stems by themselves, others at the end of 
 a fern leaf like a long oval hart's-tongue. 
 
 We came across several little mounds which were 
 rendered beautiful by the numerous Neboung palms. 
 It seemed as if no other trees would grow amongst 
 these palms, since they absorb all the good, even of 
 the poorest soil. From this tree the natives slice out 
 supple pieces of wood for tying on to the sides of 
 houses to keep the dry palm-leaves in place. 
 
 Then there was a vast acreage of flat land covered 
 with very much overgrown forest, and in this flat land 
 the bison (Bos Banteng) disports himself all through 
 the day, only at night going down to the river to 
 drink. 
 
 The Bornean bison is one of the largest wild bison 
 that exists anywhere in the world. This particular 
 species is, I think, found only on Barli Island, in 
 Java, and Borneo. I believe that it belongs to the 
 same genus as the Bos Gaurus, the only perceptible 
 difference being that, though the bulls of both the 
 Banteng and the Gaurus are black with white 
 
 M 
 
162 ABOUT CEYLON AND BORNEO 
 
 stockings, still the cow of the Banteng is a deep 
 reddish brown, while the Gaurus cows are black. 
 They are utterly different from the Tsine of Burmah, 
 which, I am told, is only a tame Bos genus which 
 has for many years run wild. They are something 
 the shape of the domestic cow, with a hump on their 
 backs, and a drop in front of it of from four and 
 a half to five inches. But their height is enormous 
 compared with our shorthorns at home. The bull 
 of this species stands about six feet two inches high 
 at the shoulder. In spite of his height, he is most 
 difficult to discern when at rest or feeding in the thick 
 forest. 
 
 About eleven o'clock on our first day we came 
 across quite fresh tracks, which made us sure that the 
 game could not be far ahead. After following these 
 for about an hour, dodging and scrambling pretty 
 silently amid the growing labyrinth, Van, who had 
 won the toss in the morning, came in sight of some 
 bison feeding about forty yards away. He put up 
 his rifle to have a shot, but at this moment the 
 ugliest of our Javanese gun-bearers, who had been 
 suffering from a cough lately, gave way to a hacking 
 bark, which you would have said was anything but 
 human. These bison, however, took it for a strange 
 sound issuing from some unknown beast — in which 
 particular they were right— so that they promptly 
 decamped, and Van was left silently and gently 
 muttering oaths. 
 
 We thought, however, that never having heard a 
 human being before, they would not go very far, and 
 hi this we were right. We had not proceeded on 
 their tracks more than half a mile before we came up 
 
BOS BANTENG 163 
 
 with them again. On this occasion Van merely fired 
 at something brown, which he could see in the 
 distance amidst a crowd of jungle leaves, as he feared 
 that if he approached nearer, they might be scared. 
 Then one rifle shot sounded in the stillness, and the 
 bison lay struggling on the ground, shot through the 
 back-bone. 
 
 We had about two miles to accomplish before 
 getting home. We always carried compasses with us, 
 as without them one would be lost, unless the sun was 
 shining and either rising or falling. We then steered 
 for the river along which was a track. The ugliest 
 of our Javanese went before us to cut down the 
 undergrowth the whole way with a Javanese knife- 
 This knife was a cut between a sword and a very long- 
 bladed bill-hook, and was worn in a scabbard. 
 
 When we got back to the estate — I was going to 
 say to ' the plantation,' but I suppose I should err in 
 calling the six acres of felled jungle ' a plantation ' — 
 we sent out twelve coolies to bring in portions of 
 the defunct corpse, which they did with the greatest 
 alacrity. This was a delightful change to them after 
 hacking up the berooted land round the bungalow. 
 Besides which they all got some of the meat, and 
 for comestible purposes it proved a first-rate old 
 cow of the jungle. 
 
 M 2 
 
164 ABOUT CEYLON AND BOBNEO 
 
 CHAPTEE XXI 
 
 SOME BOENEAN NATIVES 
 
 Although we were twenty miles from the mouth of 
 the river, a certain rise and fall of the tide made 
 itself felt, and this was also the case in a slighter 
 degree two miles further up the Toongood ; hut there 
 it ended. In spite of our being under this tidal 
 influence, there were quantities of fish both large and 
 small in the stream. But having omitted to bring a 
 fly rod from Europe with us, we could not entangle 
 them, although we angled with the utmost assiduity. 
 We fished with rice and with the fruit of a jungle tree 
 which grew over the river. Small pieces of this fruit 
 were constantly cast into the sluggish stream by the 
 monkeys, so that fish were always rising beneath the 
 boughs, and snatching at morsels which fell on the 
 shining water. 
 
 I noticed five different kinds of fresh-water fish in 
 the blue depths of this silent river. There was a very 
 small fish something like a stickleback. Another 
 about the same shape and size as a gudgeon, and 
 quantities of fish very much like the roach, only with 
 rather larger scales. Also a great big fish weighing 
 up to about six or eight pounds, with a perfectly 
 smooth, scaleless skin, and two limp porcupine-looking 
 quills coming away from its jaw, and reaching down 
 
SOME BOKNEAN NATIVES 165 
 
 to the tail. What the use of these protuberances may 
 be, I am quite at a loss to imagine. The natives 
 generally use an animal like a big cr ay-fish, which 
 they manage to attract from its hole among the 
 sandstone rocks, as a bait. These large fish are 
 marked very funnily ; they are a lightish colour all 
 over the body, with four oval black spots down their 
 sides, and red tips to their tails. 
 
 There is yet another fish about six inches in 
 length, which appears to swim entirely with its tail, as 
 it goes wagging itself up and down with short jerks. 
 This species has the most startlingly projecting black 
 eyes, surrounded by a circle of white. Its body is 
 covered with broad black spots on a greenish white 
 background. In fact, this is the most showy fish we 
 saw in tropical waters. 
 
 I hope that someone will write a book, one of these 
 days, about the fish in North Borneo and how to catch 
 them otherwise than with dynamite, as this seems 
 nearly the only method now in vogue amongst 
 Europeans. 
 
 Apropos of fishing, an Englishman who had been 
 staying up the Trusan Eiver, which runs out in Brunei 
 Bay, told me the following : 
 
 ' The natives had been for some weeks collecting 
 "tuber " from the forest and depositing it in bundles 
 under the fort where we were staying. Tuber is said 
 to be a creeper, and not plentiful. The root, which is 
 used for fishing purposes, has a heavy sweet odour 
 something like bignonia flowers. 
 
 ' The fishing began on a day when the water was 
 very low and clear : it took place in a part of the river 
 which was free from rapids. They beat the tuber out, 
 
166 ABOUT CEYLON AND BOENEO 
 
 filling the bottoms of their canoes with a milky fluid 
 which exuded from the roots. 
 
 ' A short time after they had capsized their canoes 
 fish came to the surface and gasped, apparently to suck 
 in air, but a slight touch was enough to make them 
 dart off. Then the natives speared the larger ones and 
 caught the smaller ones with nets.' 
 
 The trees were very beautiful all the way up the 
 river, especially a kind of ficus, or banyan, which was 
 perpetually dropping its fruit into the water. This 
 is the tree beneath whose shade were a crowd of 
 ever-rising fish. The leaves on these trees are ex- 
 ceedingly small and green, but they have white, or 
 almost white, stems and bark. 
 
 The tree-ferns, hanging down in great solid balls of 
 root over the water, were indeed strange. One wonders 
 how they came there, so far away from the ground, 
 apparently growing on nothing ; really they are lodged 
 on the minute stems of creepers. This fern looks like 
 a very large and green hart's-tongue, and I believe it 
 is called the large elk's-horn. In this way it grows 
 on a thread, balancing itself between us mortals on 
 this hot earth and heaven's blue vault above. 
 
 At a certain season of the year it is incased in a 
 most beautiful pot of green foliage. From this pot 
 descend a great quantity of offshoots, so that this enor- 
 mous fern has what I should call three sorts of leaves : 
 the hart's-tongue fern-leaves, the pot which is some- 
 thing like the outside of a cabbage, and the drooping 
 tendrils resembling nothing that I ever saw before in 
 my life, except perhaps pieces of thick penny-a-yard 
 green ribbon. 
 
 On this estate they were building a new house 
 
SOME BORNEAN NATIVES 
 
 167 
 
 down by the sad pools of that jungle-reflecting river, 
 instead of the iniquitous mosquitoey place where we 
 were then living. It was being constructed almost 
 entirely without nails. The natives sew the beams 
 together with long strips of rattan which have been 
 cut out on purpose, as the British nail is almost 
 unused here. 
 
 Native tools are generally employed, and it is very 
 
 OUB BUNGALOW IN BORNEO 
 
 extraordinary in this age to come across a part of the 
 country where the American axe is an almost un- 
 known weight. Except the boy who cuts up kindling 
 at my English home, and who uses an old-fashioned 
 piece of iron with a straight stem for an axe, I had 
 thought that our cousin's implements were used every- 
 where; however, it seems that I was wrong, as the 
 coolies on this estate had not come up to the Yankee 
 invention yet. 
 
168 ABOUT CEYLON AND BORNEO 
 
 The insects in our dining-room were in such count- 
 less thousands that they would indeed scandalise the 
 English housewife. On the table during the day- 
 time hundreds of little ants, which you could scarcely 
 follow with your eye in their quick gyrations from 
 one side to the other, were always on the move, 
 looking out for morsels of sugar, or anything edible 
 which might be left after our meal. They also eat 
 the remains of a small sort of cockroach, of which 
 in a week we kiUed hundreds. These creeping animals 
 would always crawl over our books or our paper when 
 we were reading. 
 
 After dark, however, the ants were not so trouble- 
 some, but flying insects which constantly flitted around 
 the lamp were then the predominating nuisance. For 
 instance, flying ants, cockroaches, beetles, moths and 
 grasshoppers were everywhere. I do not speak of the 
 ' Praying Mantis.' The largest and brightest green 
 varieties were constantly getting mixed up between 
 one's mouth and cigar end, and entangling themselves 
 in one's hands. The white lamp became perfectly black 
 every evening with dying flying insects, whose legs 
 and wings had become transfixed in the stickiness 
 of its paraffiny surface. 
 
 There was also a beast that we dreaded because 
 he was so assiduously rough-and-tumble in his per- 
 severing attention to man. This was the ' Tongered ' 
 (Malay), 'Cicada' (Latin). He came in the stillest 
 hours of evening, when we were just thanking our 
 stars that the cool night was at length settling down 
 after a day of perspiration, probably after a day of 
 search for jungle beasts which we never found. 
 
 The days in this tropical heat were very tiring, 
 
SOME BORNEAN NATIVES 169 
 
 although we might have been dressed in almost nothing- 
 ness — viz., a thin linen jacket and trousers made by the 
 Chinese, which were wonderfully light in texture. 
 Still the exercise was exceedingly wearing work, and 
 we came home worn out with our toil. Then it was 
 very tiresome to have a huge ungainly brute, about 
 two and a half inches long — with large unblinking 
 eyes that frightened you — come bouncing in and 
 whirling round and round in the most unblushing way. 
 It would stop perfectly motionless for two seconds, 
 only that it might have breath to go on again ; when 
 this had continued for about half an hour we felt 
 quite crazed with prolonged agony, and saw that the 
 only path to peace 
 was to get behind 
 the mosquito cur- 
 tains. Having ex- 
 tinguished the lights, 
 sleep at length came 
 to our wearied eyelids, and we were for a time out of 
 this exasperating misery — out of the hell on earth 
 into which these interesting animals had made our 
 bungalow. 
 
 I will try and give you some idea from my journal 
 of how I was situated in the evenings : ' It is evening 
 now; the clock marks half-past seven. We have 
 been out stalking, and have returned wet and weary. 
 We have had our dinner off chicken soup and Hong 
 Kong potatoes, chicken bones and potatoes, finishing 
 up with unedible salt beef and potatoes. The lamp 
 before me is already quite black with dead winged in- 
 sects ; I have just counted sixteen to the square inch. 
 Huge sort of earwigs are crawling about the table at 
 
 THE ' TONGERED 
 
170 ABOUT CEYLON AND BORNEO 
 
 which I am writing, to say nothing of flying ants, and 
 night-flies of an emerald green with pink eyes. Small 
 creeping beetles are also there, and in spite of my having 
 my trousers tucked into my socks, there are — yes, there 
 certainly are — insects creeping up my legs, as the floor 
 is also covered with living creatures. One fly that I have 
 just slain is quite beautiful ; it has a body the colour 
 of pink blotting-paper, and imagination defies one to 
 dream of such fairy wings, such pink transparent 
 wings, with a creamy coloured boundary all round. 
 
 ' On the table beyond this is a well-known novel by 
 Charles Lever, a pair of nail scissors, a bottle half- 
 full of some iniquitous compound which they call claret, 
 and two earthenware jars filled with the most doubtful 
 filtered water. Then comes a long Chinese cane- 
 bottomed chair, in which Van is smoking Sumatran 
 cigars, reading a novel between whiles when these 
 myriads of insects will let him. Next there is a side- 
 board, made by the natives out here without nails ; its 
 timbers are tied together with pieces of bamboo, on 
 which every ant in the universe seems to be collected, 
 trying to attack certain jams which are placed in 
 basins of water to keep them at bay. 
 
 ' Beyond that is the darkness of night, and about 
 ten yards away is the jungle, whence comes a chorus 
 from thousands of crickets. One cricket constantly 
 gives a lullaby sound, while another is like the distant 
 barking of a very high-voiced terrier. Some are just 
 singing, others chirping, so that the medley which 
 is borne to us from the primeval forest hard by, is 
 mingled together in a multiplication of harmony, 
 conducive to sleep if to nothing else. Out here, when 
 we have been walking in this hot dense jungle for six 
 
SOME BORNEAN NATIVES 171 
 
 hours at a stretch, sleep comes to our wearied bodies 
 uncourted and almost unsought.' 
 
 Many miles from the sea as we were, the days 
 were hotter than they were down by the shore, but 
 the night watches were certainly cooler. When 
 darkness had come in its sudden way over the earth, 
 and we had concluded our meal, we turned in behind 
 the mosquito curtains and were soon slumbering 
 beneath the kajung roof. 
 
 One day, whilst staying in this immense tract of 
 hitherto unexplored jungle, we went up the river about 
 five miles, till we saw a hill in the distance. We saw 
 this hill because a few acres of land had been felled, 
 where some Dyaks and Doessans had settled. We 
 stopped some time at a place where a quantity of 
 pebbles were left uncovered by the retiring tide. Two 
 boatloads of Dyaks from Sarawak had also unshipped 
 themselves there (the Eajah of Sarawak, you may 
 remember, has his kingdom in Borneo). They lived 
 up this river, and were on their homeward way after 
 an outing to some friendly tribe up another tidal stream. 
 They told us how their tribe had had a battle with 
 some Doessans who lived about six days' journey up 
 the Toongood, and how they had killed some eighty 
 men, when they were only thirty warriors themselves. 
 We believed that there were altogether about a 
 thousand Doessans up the river, but whether they had 
 all joined in doing battle with this warlike little tribe 
 or no we could not tell, so that we only answered in 
 the British tongue, saying : ' Go, tell that to the 
 Marines ! We know that you are the most warlike tribe 
 in Borneo, but this killing business is a thing that we 
 cannot believe.' Then we resumed the conversation 
 
172 ABOUT CEYLON" AND BOENEO 
 
 in their language. We thought that these folks had 
 either allowed their imagination to presume very much 
 on past events, or that they were lying to deceive us. 
 They were all fine healthy-looking fellows, tattooed in 
 blue over their hands and bodies with remarkably pretty 
 and artistic patterns, which were all very similar. 
 
 The Dyaks appear to suffer from very experienced 
 dentists, as they all have their teeth cut off almost to 
 the gums, and there are crosses of a metal which looks 
 like gold put through each tooth, and this, with their 
 gums running down with betel-nut, makes their ap- 
 pearance fascinating in the extreme. 
 
 As it was low tide we went up several little rapids, 
 and eventually got out of tidal waters. Then we 
 paddled through the beautiful tropical jungle to a 
 spot where there were ever so many native houses, 
 each one more dishevelled looking than the last, but 
 with quite well-to-do families ' aboard ' them. I use 
 this term as you have to climb up a ladder on to these 
 houses just as you do on to the deck of a ship, as each 
 dwelling was raised four feet, at any rate, on sticks 
 above the ground. 
 
 We visited four houses and found the natives quite 
 friendly to the British stranger. They asked us to 
 sit down on their clean mats, in spite of our boots 
 being quite covered with dirt. In one smallish room 
 five families were living, and anything to compare 
 with the shortness, stoutness, and ugliness of the 
 females it would be impossible to find. 
 
 In one of the houses which was inhabited by 
 Dyaks they had a very interesting collection of old 
 Chinese cannon. Cannon made literally years ago, and 
 brought over here by Chinese pirates. These cannon, 
 
SOME BORNEAN NATIVES 173 
 
 "which were made of brass or bronze, were covered all 
 oyer with patterns. Doubtless the time will come 
 when the Dyaks will be so civilised, or so drunken, 
 that they will want to sell them ; but at present they 
 would rather part with their souls than these curiosi- 
 ties. 
 
 They all had dogs ; partially civilised races always 
 seem to have dogs. 
 
 There are dogs by the dozen in the islands of 
 Tonga, South Pacific. Dogs by the hundred in Greece, 
 and dogs by the thousand in Constantinople. Some 
 of them are half-starved, and are generally anxious to 
 bite you if they can make up their minds to face 
 the stranger ; but, except in the out-of-the-way parts 
 of Greece, they have not the required pluck. In Greece 
 a few years back, and I suppose it is the same now, 
 dogs to the south of the Gulf of Patras were rendered 
 uncommonly fierce by the natives. When passing a 
 native's house, two or three of these yellow-coloured 
 brutes would fly out and lay hold of you, unless you 
 could find stones to keep them at bay. If you shot 
 them the natives seized you, and would not let you 
 go without paying a ransom. 
 
 When travelling in a far and foreign country like 
 Borneo, you do not find, as far as my experience goes, 
 the folks who live here half so disagreeable or so 
 dangerous as, for instance, the common Greeks. I am 
 told that in the Solomons, which, I believe, are the only 
 islands in the world where missionaries have failed to 
 penetrate, the natives are either very friendly or else 
 take a dislike to you and kill you right off. How much 
 better this is than in Greece, where they naturally 
 hate every stranger ! It is only by putting a veil over 
 
174 ABOUT CEYLON AND BOKNEO 
 
 their feelings that they become civil, but really they 
 and their great yellow dogs are bullies together. 
 
 But to return to the Bornean native dogs. , They 
 are smooth-haired and look like little terriers. They 
 seem courteous to the stranger. In the native houses 
 they sit just below you on a sort of floor made of bars 
 of wood, about four feet from the ground. I say a sort 
 of floor, because the dogs wbich we saw on our visit up 
 the river were just balanced on four crossed sticks ; 
 there was nothing beneath them but the earth, with 
 here a goat tending her young or there some chickens 
 feeding and pecking about. Some of these birds were 
 looking wise, and throwing out a remark now and then 
 as hens always will, and the dogs sat snoozing up 
 above them, so mild and gentle in their deportment 
 that it was difficult to believe we were amongst an 
 only partially civilised race. 
 
 Then, about one foot above the dogs, came the floor 
 of the native abode, which was an endless transparent 
 matting of sticks woven together with about an inch 
 between each stick, through which you could see the 
 dog, the goat, and the chickens beneath you. It also 
 let in a very delightful air to us, literally sun- 
 bescorched from the river that we had left down below. 
 
 The whole ceiling seemed to be composed of an 
 originally brilliant coloured, but now faded, mosquito 
 curtain, made out of thin chintz. This was evidently 
 let down at night over a whole family ; thus with their 
 mats they could keep out of their abode all flying 
 things. 
 
 The small children were swinging in little beds 
 hanging from the roof. The bar above each little bed 
 was covered with charms, doubtless to soothe the devil 
 
SOME BOKNEAN NATIVES 175 
 
 and keep him at bay. But they were very funny 
 charms used for this purpose. I saw little bits of 
 chains, chains which out here are attached to a casting- 
 net, just as lead is used at home ; and all sorts of 
 things tied in small leaf-made bundles, precious things 
 I should think, which would be sure to scare the old 
 gentleman if he should be around. 
 
 The furniture of their house was very simple ; it con- 
 sisted of a few cooking utensils, some logs of bamboo 
 which, I believe, contained rice, an old - fashioned 
 European gun, and about five Dyak swords. There 
 were also the paddles of their canoes, some fish-hooks, 
 lines, and a few mats, and some small bags hung up 
 which might have contained anything. 
 
 They seldom cultivate more than half an acre of 
 land, which seems to be laid aside for the production 
 of rice. Fishing and making war upon their enemies 
 suit their fancy more than anything else. 
 
 We stayed about watching the natives and trying 
 to talk to them for some time. At length we wended 
 our way homeward, a much easier matter than coming 
 up, as the tide was with us. 
 
176 ABOUT CEYLON AND BORNEO 
 
 CHAPTEE XXII 
 
 OUR RETURN 
 
 One day some natives brought us a large fire-back 
 pheasant that they had caught by some heathen means 
 out in the jungle, and as I have never before seen 
 a pheasant of this sort, I will give you some idea of 
 what it was like. 
 
 Its beak was light-coloured ; its eyes were the most 
 beautiful magenta ; its head was light blue, shiny, 
 and featherless, except on its crown, where there were 
 about twenty quills standing straight up in the air ; 
 its body was dark purple all over, except a few inches 
 from the tail, where there came a large spot of velvety 
 red feathers ; and its tail had a clump of yellow ochre 
 plumage, surrounded by some feathers which were such 
 a dark blue that they appeared almost black. 
 
 The fire-back pheasant is pretty common out here ; 
 it always alights on the tops of the tallest trees, where 
 it is difficult to see it. There it utters the following 
 crow all the morning and part of the evening : 
 
 'Whoo what whoo what what 
 
 what whoo what 
 
 what wt wt 1 — t — t-t,' beginning very 
 
 slowly and ending in a terrible hurry. 
 
 The natives brought at the same time, thinking, I 
 suppose, that we were in want of birds for table pur- 
 
OUE EETURN 177 
 
 poses, a curious mixture between a bird and a cat, 
 called the flying squirrel. 1 This creature was brown 
 and hairy all over his body, with furry speckles like 
 buttons on his outside, but underneath all brown and 
 covered with very fine hairs. He had the largest and 
 most brilliant eyes of any animal I have ever seen, 
 with short, perky ears which always looked as if they 
 were cocked. He measured one foot five inches from 
 the end of the tail to the tips of the ears. His whole 
 person was covered with loose, hairy skin, which ex- 
 panded when he extended his legs, and hung down in 
 loose folds when he was walking. 
 
 I cannot fancy anything more dreadful than seeing 
 one of these bright-eyed little squirrels flying about 
 one's porch at night, because with their dark brown 
 wings and shadowy outlines they would make one 
 think they were the restless shadow of one's mother- 
 in-law. 
 
 I am told there is some doubt about these four-footed 
 animals, whether they can fly up to the height whence 
 they came, or no ; as it is believed that they cannot ' flit 
 any,' as the Yankees say. I mean that they cannot use 
 their kite-like skin as wings. The question I believe 
 remains unsettled, if they can rise up from one tree 
 to the same height on another, or, in fact, whether 
 they have the power of motion in their flight. 
 
 In the daytime there were always great, big, un- 
 canny-looking birds flying about, which with their 
 top-heavy heads and enormous beaks made one think 
 of an ugly dream. With outstretched necks and 
 scarecrow wings, they flitted hoarsely croaking over 
 our heads, like demons in distress. This was the 
 
 1 This was a specimen of the flying lemur, Galeopitmecus. 
 
 N 
 
178 ABOUT CEYLON AND BORNEO 
 
 hornbill, of which I was told there were four different 
 sorts in Borneo. One that we shot was the only bird 
 of any real value, as having a solid horn over its beak ; 
 it is worth at least five pounds in Java. The Chinese 
 make buttons from this ivory-looking excrescence. 
 
 Now that I have got on the subject of animals, let 
 me proceed to the snake. "We found one day, when 
 returning from the jungle, a little snake curled up on 
 the path, sleeping its happy hours away in the sun- 
 shine. It was apparently only an innocent little 
 thing with a large pink-and-yellow-coloured check 
 pattern all over its body. We slew that serpent with 
 a great stick, as he was what the Javanese call an 
 ' Olar Lemah,' which happens to be one of the most 
 poisonous snakes in the jungle. 
 
 Then on the last day before we left the estate there 
 was an enormous fire made with heaps of branches 
 from the fallen timber, which it was necessary to burn 
 off before tobacco could be planted. 
 
 When feeding the flames I saw a very big chame- 
 leon of the brightest emerald green, who must have 
 been two feet long, though most of his length was tail. 
 The poor beast seemed to have been startled out of his 
 lair, and out of his senses, by flames which encom- 
 passed him on every side. He stood beside me gazing 
 at the light all round, too bewildered even to move, 
 although I kept passing close to him. I hoped that 
 poor chameleon would see a to-morrow, though I 
 doubt if he ever did. 
 
 Eventually we left the six acres of clearing and 
 came down the river about nine miles, where we made 
 an encampment on about as lovely a spot as it is 
 possible to imagine. Our tent was a good big one ; 
 
OUE EETUBN 
 
 179 
 
 it was one of those tropical double tents with an outer 
 tent cloth, so that it was perfectly cool during the heat 
 of the day. We had two canvas beds rigged up inside 
 and a mosquito netting over each. 
 
 The tent was placed beneath the forest trees, down 
 beside the river. In looking out over this deep, muddy 
 flowing stream, you saw first of all trees, which ren- 
 dered the spot shady ; trees with great leaves, like 
 
 THE BACK OF A DUTCHMAN S BUNGALOW IN THE LOW COUNTRY ABOUT 
 THIRTY MILES INLAND 
 
 overgrown walnut leaves at home, coming down in a 
 fringe almost to the water's edge. Beneath these a 
 sort of black tarpaulin tent had been placed by our 
 men, wherein to sleep. There were gun-cases on the 
 ground, and up above, hanging on slight timber cross- 
 bars under this roof, were the clothes of our four men 
 — I mean their change of clothes. 
 
 To the right, a few yards away, was the temporary 
 
180 ABOUT CEYLON AND BOENEO 
 
 kitchen, with a great high table made out of bits of 
 jungle wood, tied together with rattan, as of course 
 the spiked nail was an unknown weight with us. 
 Upon this table were always stowed away more things- 
 than could conveniently be put there, so that some 
 chickens which were bought from a passing Doessan's 
 boat, and which were tethered with long bits of rattan 
 to the table legs, found it a most convenient locality, 
 as they were always picking up bits of curry stuffs 
 and rice which the cook let fall. The fire came just 
 beyond this : a fire whose blue smoke against the dark 
 green leaves, reminded me of many a day when 
 bustling scenes have ended with pipes round the care- 
 less camp fire in colder climates. 
 
 There was to the left an apparently endless mass 
 of a species of wild sugar cane growing right down to 
 the margin of the river, presenting a sombre green- 
 and-yellow background. A rope hung before the tent 
 covered with bath towels, socks, and jerseys put there 
 to dry. The whole was backed up by the primeval 
 forest on the opposite side of the water. It was indeed 
 a beautiful picture to look at once in a way ; but 
 when the thought occurred to your mind that it was 
 always the same, day after day and year after year 
 through the endless cycles of eternity, and has been, 
 as Mark Twain says, ' through the twilight of tradi- 
 tion,' it appeared a trifle more monotonous than an 
 Englishman with English thoughts could stand. 
 
 The flies were just too terrible in this far off jungle 
 land. Flies of every sort came buzzing outside our 
 tent, and into it. We had a table rigged up for co- 
 mestible purposes, and a bench beneath it ; these were 
 the most delightful places in a picture that you can 
 
OUR RETURN 181 
 
 conceive, as the deep shadow of trees hedged them in 
 on all sides. But when you came to real life, there 
 were mosquitoes of course, yes, lots of them, sandflies, 
 and big buzzing black flies that stung whenever they 
 got a chance, which was not infrequently, as they 
 could pitch upon your pants without making the 
 slightest noise ; then they wheedled their proboscis in 
 between the stitches, as though there was nothing in 
 the way. You were not aware of their presence until 
 you felt the most horrible sting ; even then they seemed 
 all prepared to fly away if you made the slightest 
 movement, or even turned round to see the cause of 
 your misery. 
 
 All these were nothing compared with the ants and 
 leeches. The ants climb up the roots of certain 
 trees ; this is done without any reason, as far as one 
 can see, except it may be in order to annoy passers by. 
 As we were generally the only persons who had 
 foolishly wandered along that particular piece of , 
 jungle since the foundation of Borneo, these 
 creeping insects must have found it rather slow work 
 waiting, ever watching for someone on whom to vent 
 their stinging passions. When they did at length find 
 us they launched out, as our five persons were con- 
 stantly so covered with revengeful ants, stinging to 
 the best of their ability, that our men, with their bare 
 legs, were very often nearly driven to distraction. 
 They could not put down their knives, because they 
 had to cut a way through the almost impenetrable 
 jungle, and of course could not put down our eight- 
 bore guns which they were carrying in their other 
 hands, so had to endure for a few minutes the nips of 
 these infuriated little beasts. 
 
182 ABOUT CEYLON AND BORNEO 
 
 Then the leeches — but I have already told you 
 enough to make it apparent that life in this low-lying 
 jungle, even in fine weather, is not all bliss. In wet 
 weather not only is it oppressively hot and un- 
 healthy, but you have all these plagues a hundredfold 
 worse. 
 
 From this camp we saw a very large crocodile 
 swimming up the river, and a great many pigs, one 
 of which we shot. But pigs are useless here, as they 
 dig up and devour defunct Chinamen, so that they 
 fail to come up to our ideas of human food. How- 
 ever, we had one Chinaman with us to look after our 
 boat, who consumed the pig greedily. 
 
 After wandering about the forest for two days, 
 looking for bison, we suddenly heard the whistle of a 
 steamer going up the river, and as we knew that this 
 would be our only chance of leaving these aborescent 
 banks for nine days, we were obliged to make signals 
 to her as she was returning, and hasten on board. 
 
 When we got down the river, how cool, how 
 delicious, aud how fresh the sea seemed after our stay 
 of sixteen days in the Bornean interior ! I never liked 
 being at sea before, but its flylessness was quite de- 
 lightful to our irritated natures. 
 
 There was one bird on this river which I ought to 
 mention. He was such a peculiar and unorthodox 
 sort of fowl, that his circumstances attracted my at- 
 tention. His name was, I think, an ' Indian Darter ; ' 
 our Malay servants called him Monok Besse ; he was 
 like so many of the larger Bornean birds, remarkably 
 thin, and appeared as though his food did not agree 
 with him. On his first appearance it was difficult to 
 tell whether he was a bird or not, as he was swimming 
 
OUE RETURN 183 
 
 along beneath the water, with nothing above but a 
 snake-like neck and head. This is the way these 
 creatures always sail about, looking infinitely more 
 like serpents than birds. We then got closer to this 
 retiring fowl, who, with a rushing sound and an enor- 
 mous amount of flutter, rose gradually from the river ; 
 he flew across with dripping wings, and seemed to be 
 quite out of his element when flying. I never dreamed 
 of anything more long, stiff, and water-washed than 
 this black dripping object looked. Eventually he 
 pitched on a bush beside the water's edge ; he did not 
 appear to have fixed on any particular branch, but 
 just came down haphazard, with all his wet-through 
 wings stretched out, and looked uncomfortable till 
 we got out of sight. Whether he ever collected him- 
 self and sat in a more bird-like position we do not 
 know. 
 
 Our boat was called the ' Normanhurst,' and was 
 quite a big vessel of sixty tons register, with her deck 
 amidships and before the funnel ; she had been 
 hired for the trip by one of the two estates up the 
 Labuk. We had to go out some miles from the mouth 
 to an island called Labaran, where the owner of the 
 estate had left a tonkang collecting sea-weed beneath 
 the sea, which he wished to have brought to the surface 
 again. It took the captain of our ship ten hours to 
 get that boat righted. 
 
 The island of Labaran is sandy and flat, and is 
 covered with thin high jungle. We were anchored 
 about three-quarters of a mile away from the coast, 
 but even at that distance we could hear the jungle 
 crickets making such a loud singing all through the 
 middle of the day, that in spite of the sailors pump- 
 
184 ABOUT CEYLON AND BORNEO 
 
 ing, and the engine giving vent to occasional very 
 hoarse breathing, their singing could easily be dis- 
 tinguished across the intervening sea. The weary day 
 was almost closing when we were able to put the 
 tonkang in tow and start off for Sandakan. 
 
 Man is but an erring thing, full of fear and all 
 kinds of like sensations when any imaginary cause 
 for such feelings crops up. It is pleasant to think that 
 in your individual case there never was, and never 
 will be, any fear ; but just wait until your time 
 comes. 
 
 When we got to Sandakan some very black clouds 
 which we had seen over the distant low-lying country 
 came up and overshadowed everything. Then all was 
 quiet for a while, till the solemn bush was troubled, 
 and the most cruel thunderstorm rent the air that it 
 has ever been my lot to witness. This lasted for 
 three mortal hours. Four times the vivid lightning 
 was followed immediately by a thunderclap which 
 seemed to show us that there was only a moment's 
 breathing-space between us and eternity. It was as 
 though the clouds could not tear themselves away, but 
 kept wandering round the hills of Sandakan letting 
 off their apparently pent-up fury over the harbour 
 where we were. Although the thunder presently 
 ceased, still the rain kept falling in water-spouts, and 
 as our cabin opened on the decks we were obliged to 
 remain with the doors closed, so that it was miserably 
 hot inside. 
 
 At length the cloudy morning broke, and relief 
 came to our wearied souls when we were nearly 
 stifled. We scrambled ashore out of that dripping 
 steamer, and having slimed like snails up the clayey 
 
OUE RETURN 185 
 
 paths to our former abode, we found that in spite 
 of the bungalow having been built on the side of 
 a well-drained sandy hill, the rainfall during the 
 night had been so excessive that all the bottom floors 
 were under water. 
 
186 ABOUT CEYLON AND BORNEO 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII 
 
 NATIVES OF NORTH BORNEO 
 
 In Borneo the Dyaks are a race of shortish men, 
 but not nearly so short or so small as the Malays. I 
 was told that they were exceedingly plucky. There 
 were some Dyaks in the ' North Bornean Police ' (this 
 is merely a name, as they are really soldiers), although 
 the company who owns North Borneo has imported 
 a quantity of Sikhs from India, who are remarkably 
 fine looking men, on purpose for this police work. 
 Still they have some Dyaks amongst their forces. 
 These men could not stand the English way of making 
 war with the rifle. They looked at the thing from 
 this point of view : there is no fun in just standing 
 behind a rifle while you let it off, no danger, and very 
 little agony to be seen ; it does not require any heart- 
 rending excitement to shoot an enemy down from a 
 distance — in fact, the use of a rifle is altogether too 
 slow a way of doing the job. These Dyak policemen, 
 when they have fired one shot at their adversaries, 
 like to throw away their guns and dash in with a 
 knife, yelling like madmen. Then when they see 
 blood streaming in every direction they are pleased ; 
 for this is the form of butchery they love. It is no 
 wonder that the company should import Sikhs for 
 their work, who in dealing with the natives use rifles 
 
NATIVES OP NOETH BOENEO 187 
 
 which they let off only when they are ordered to. The 
 Dyak's way of doing the job, although it must require 
 a certain amount of pluck, will not do in modern war- 
 fare. 
 
 The Sulus are another native race. They are tall 
 men — in fact, the only tall men that I saw in Borneo — 
 and in addition to being tall, they are sineivy, thin and 
 strong. To say that Sulus never grow fat would be 
 going too far, but I have never seen one out of the 
 scores who come in boats from their native island — 
 Sulu Island — who had an ounce of superfluous flesh 
 on his body. They are certainly very well built, 
 almost all of them having a slight tendency to bandy 
 legs ; this I should think they had acquired from 
 generation after generation sitting the whole of their 
 lives in boats, and paddling in a cramped up position. 
 Then: figures together with their native dress make 
 them appear strangely spindly objects. Neither the 
 Sulus nor any of the natives in North Borneo seem 
 to have any hah on their faces, except a very slight 
 attempt at a moustache. Their complexion is natu- 
 rally very light for an Eastern race ; many of them 
 are about the same colour as a very much sun-burnt 
 Englishman. Take a dark-haired Englishman who 
 has been for a trip up the Thames in a boat during a 
 sunny August, and the skin of his face will be just as 
 brown as that of one of these natives. 
 
 The Sulus all wear the native costume. First 
 come the feet, which are bare ; then the legs, on which 
 there is a kind of linen trowsers, so tight that it is 
 said a Sulu having once put them on finds it im- 
 possible ever to get out of them again. This is of 
 course a libel ; however, they are perfectly glove-like, 
 
188 ABOUT CEYLON AND BORNEO 
 
 as they fit close into the legs, till you get up to what 
 we used to call as children their ' sit upon,' when 
 they get so appallingly loose that you can put three 
 ordinary men into them. These garments leave 
 plenty of room, more room inside than is necessary. 
 But it is difficult to say to what lengths fashion will 
 lead, and this is the Sulu fashion. 
 
 They have what we call in Ceylon a cumberhund 
 of gaudy silk round their waist, holding in the many 
 loose folds of their pantaloons. Above that comes a 
 cotton tight-fitting jacket, which is infinitely too short 
 in the waist and too tight about the arms. This 
 collarless jacket is buttoned across the chest with 
 six braided buttons, like some pyjama jackets at 
 home, with a slit up each side above the hips. They 
 all wear hats made out of the same leaves as the 
 house roofs, which end in a point about one foot 
 above the brim. 
 
 We had a native boat built under our own super- 
 vision in Sandakan. It was ordered by Van a month 
 before we came to Borneo, and had been scooped out 
 with the greatest care by a native. Since our arrival 
 this native had been suffering from a sickness in the 
 leg, to which we had devoted a mother's tenderness. 
 It was at length, through Van's administrations with 
 a bottle of medicine, and my continual presence fidget- 
 ing round the bed, getting much better. Therefore 
 we supposed that in return for our kindliness he had 
 taken the greatest trouble in building the boat. It was 
 forty feet long, built of a single log of wood scooped 
 out, with three rims of boards up above and glued 
 together at the seams with dammar or resin. There 
 was an awning of palm leaves constructed over its 
 
NATIVES OF NORTH BORNEO 189 
 
 centre, so that we might find some shade aboard. We 
 then engaged fifteen natives to paddle the ship, and 
 sent her off with our heavy baggage to the Segaliud 
 Biver , whither we decided to follow a few days later. We 
 intended to go altogether about forty-five miles from 
 Sandakan, twenty odd miles of which were across the 
 salt waters of the bay, and twenty miles up the mouth 
 of the little Segaliud Eiver. We therefore connected 
 this native boat to a steam launch which belonged to 
 one of the two estates up the river, and started her off 
 on May 10. We left Sandakan ourselves on the 14th 
 in a steam launch called the ' Despatch,' which we had 
 chartered for the purpose. 
 
 On our way up the river's mouth we passed many 
 a mangrove-covered island. The long branches of the 
 mangrove trees were apparently resting upon those 
 dreamily tinted waters, with strings of green seeds 
 hanging down two feet at least, till here and there 
 they touched the still reflecting sea. Away over the 
 calm sunny waters the light blue distance seemed to 
 rest on uncertain nothingness, while a slight mirage 
 filled up the eastern horizon behind. We noticed the 
 mangrove trees growing innumerable roots from every 
 branch that extended over the watery soil, so that 
 there was great difficulty in seeing accurately amid 
 the mass of rooted branches where one tree ended 
 and another began. 
 
 As we found ourselves further up the river there 
 were other sorts of mangroves, very like our English 
 birch trees, but with rather larger leaves and not 
 quite such white stems. Then presently we came to 
 ' nepah palms,' the leaves of which stretched some- 
 times thirty feet out of the now encroaching tide. 
 
190 ABOUT CEYLON AND BORNEO 
 
 The nepah leaves are without stem or trunk at all 
 above the soil ; they rear themselves aloft, like enor- 
 mous ferns waving in the gentle breeze in a soft and 
 weary way beneath the blazing tropical sunlight. Soon 
 we reached higher land, which seemed overpowered 
 with towering jungle trees, till at last we came to a 
 standstill. 
 
 On this ship we took a cock with us, that had been 
 given to Van as a parting peace-offering by a devoted 
 old native in Sandakan. This fowl ate all day — indeed, 
 it seemed foolish to give it rice because of its magni- 
 ficent appetite. It also crowed continually in the most 
 provoking tone of voice. After a while we began to 
 hate it with a Satanic hatred. Then we were wrecked 
 — but of this I will tell you more anon— and we fain 
 hoped in our secret souls that this bird would be left 
 behind. But just as we were putting off in our boat 
 from the wreck he gave one heartrending crow ; we 
 therefore felt obliged to put back and collect him from 
 the high bows of the ship. The first night ashore 
 that cock remained pretty silent ; this, however, did 
 not last long, as the following morning he was, good- 
 ness knows why, so very proud of himself that he made 
 the surrounding forest ring with his inharmonious voice. 
 Then we took counsel together and determined to 
 slay him, as it was impossible to go on being exaspe- 
 rated and almost driven crazy by this brute. So he 
 was killed, and very lean he turned out to be in spite 
 of his voracious appetite. 
 
 We had intended going about a mile further up 
 the river than we eventually did, but the way was not 
 so open as it should have been. The tide was falling 
 fast, and the native captain did not know the water, 
 
NATIVES OF NOETH BOENEO 191 
 
 so that we presently ran right on to a log of wood. 
 The bows of the steamer were hoisted out of the water, 
 and her stern was almost beneath it. As we were 
 going at full speed, and suddenly came to a dead 
 standstill, the shock was very violent. We should 
 have remained there about six hours, until tbe tide, 
 which was falling, had risen again ; but fortunately 
 the boat which we had sent on before, was waiting for 
 us at a native house about a mile further up the 
 river. When we had whistled furiously at intervals 
 of five minutes for about half an hour, she came 
 round a corner and rescued us. We travelled on 
 merrily to a campong, where we stopped the night, 
 and the following morning, having bundled ourselves, 
 our tents, our cooking apparatus, and our guns into 
 the boat, proceeded about four miles up the stream 
 till we came to a cleared landing stage. Here we dis- 
 embarked, and having loaded our boatmen with all the 
 things, we walked three miles from the river to a tobacco 
 estate, where we put up for the night. This, like all 
 other tobacco estates in Borneo, was an almost flat tract 
 of about three hundred acres of cut down forest. 
 
 I am told that the tobacco grown in this country 
 has an advantage over that of Sumatra, because of its 
 burning a much whiter ash, and nothing could be 
 more spotlessly white than the ash of certain Bornean 
 cigars which we smoked. I was, however, informed that 
 they only grow tobacco suitable for the outside roller 
 of cigars in Sumatra, so that this wrapper, although 
 very well grown, may be completely spoiled by having 
 inferior tobacco placed within its folds. It is also very 
 doubtful whether tobacco becomes improved by the 
 voyage to Amsterdam before being converted into cigars. 
 
192 ABOUT CEYLON AND BORNEO 
 
 CHAPTEE XXIV 
 
 ELEPHANTS 
 
 We only stayed one day on this estate ; the next 
 morning we started off with fourteen of our boat's 
 crew carrying our tent and provisions and enough 
 rice for four days' absence in the jungle. We wanted 
 to discover the whereabouts of some elephants which 
 we had heard were to be found in these parts. 
 Elephants are only to be found in the northern 
 provinces of this island, between the Labuk Eiver on 
 the north and St. Lucia Bay on the south. Why 
 elephants should exist on this north-eastern part of 
 the island and not all over Borneo is a matter of 
 speculation, but the most satisfactory answer that 
 can be found is, that they are only the offspring of 
 certain elephants brought over here years ago from 
 the island of Sulu, when they were turned out and 
 increased in numbers enormously till their present 
 state. Sulu is a few hundred miles to the east of 
 North Borneo. 
 
 Besides the fourteen men, we had told about six 
 natives from the campong to come up, as they said 
 they knew all about the jungle. In addition to this 
 our party consisted of our four servants and our- 
 selves. 
 
 First we had to see all the things packed, and that 
 
ELEPHANTS 193 
 
 all the men had a good meal of rice before starting, 
 and finally we did not get off till nine o'clock in the 
 morning. 
 
 We walked about two miles over the clearing, and 
 then nearly six miles into the jungle, where we pitched 
 our tent in what seemed to be the dampest and most 
 dripping spot on the face of the earth ; not that it 
 was really damper or more dripping than other 
 portions of this interminable forest, but it u-as moist. 
 From here we started off walking in different direc- 
 tions looking for fresh elephant tracks, as we had 
 seen nothing but ' spoor ' three or four days old 
 crossing our trail. I believe an elephant travels an 
 enormous distance every day amid the innumerable 
 multitudes of square miles of jungle which surround 
 it on every side. 
 
 We spent two days in this way, going out separately 
 and searching about for fresh tracks, but finding none. 
 If there had been any we should have been sure tp. 
 come across them, as although an elephant leaves 
 hardly any impression on the leaves of the higher 
 ground with his flat feet, still he is bound to cross the 
 muddy parts of the forest, where we saw plenty of 
 old tracks. 
 
 Our tent was pitched on the side of what was 
 •called a ' cutting.' These ' cuttings ' are made by the 
 surveyors, partly in order that the owners of the new 
 tobacco estates may form an opinion as to the lie of 
 the land, and sometimes for purposes of Government 
 survey. They are formed by cutting down the jungle 
 in a perfectly straight line, generally east by west, or 
 north by south. 
 
 On the second day I lost my way — as who that is 
 
 
 
194 ABOUT CEYLON AND BORNEO 
 
 fresh to this j lingular travel would not ? I was walk- 
 ing with two men : one was my gun-bearer, and the 
 other a silent man from the campong, but a fellow in 
 whom I could place the greatest confidence. We had 
 nothing to guide us but my compass. At about two 
 o'clock the sun became clouded, and it began to rain 
 in the usual tropieal manner, so that my leader 
 paused, as not being able to see the sun he did not 
 know in which direction to go ; then I had to direct 
 him to the best of my possible knowledge with the 
 compass. It seemed, however, that I was a point or 
 two wrong, as eventually after wandering about help- 
 lessly for a couple of hours, we got out into a boundary 
 cutting which we had not either of us seen before. I 
 was for turning to the right, which would lead us in 
 an easterly direction, and the silent man was doubtful 
 which way to go. Eventually, after picking up two 
 sticks and looking very wisely at their ends, he ex- 
 amined the ground most carefully and decided to go 
 to our left in a westerly direction. Thinking that he 
 ought to know more about it than I did, I followed 
 meekly. It was now five o'clock, and we knew that 
 by twenty minutes past six it would be pitch dark, so 
 we pushed forward as hastily as possible, till at length 
 we came to a turning at right angles to the cutting 
 along which we were walking. Knowing that our 
 tent was on one of these cuttings going north by 
 south, we hastened down it, hoping that it would lead 
 us campwards. As there were three or four cuttings 
 going in the same direction, it was very doubtful 
 whether we had struck the right one. Fortunately, 
 just as darkness was coming over us, we heard a rifle 
 being fired by Van, who was giving us up as lost. 
 
ELEPHANTS 195 
 
 We reached camp in a very exhausted condition. 
 Then I asked why my guide, when he was doubtful 
 of our whereabouts, had picked up bits of wood and 
 looked so carefully at their ends ? and learned the 
 following piece of information : when you get 
 thirsty, as there is no drinkable water you have to 
 apply to your guide, who has probably lived in the 
 vicinity of these forests all his life ; he cuts down the 
 thick stem of a particular jungle creeper and carries 
 it to you horizontally, then by turning it up vertically 
 over your mouth, a stream of water issues forth which 
 is very clean and wholesome, as it has percolated 
 through the soil, and been gathered up by the roots 
 of the creepers. 
 
 Van, we knew, had gone out to our north-east that 
 morning, and when my guide found recently-cut bits 
 of wood from this creeper lying on the ground amongst 
 the debris, he was sure that they were left by Van's 
 men, which gave him a clue to our whereabouts. 
 
 How gorgeous our camp fare seemed after being 
 so many hours in the dripping jungle; and how 
 luxurious our bed as we crawled beneath the mosquito 
 curtains ! Stretching our wearied limbs, we soon 
 floated away into dreamland, and were at rest. 
 
 It is impossible to stop up reading in camp after 
 dinner, not only because of your utter prostration, as 
 this tropical exercise takes all the energy out of you, 
 but the flies and moths are so numerous after candle 
 time, that it seems much the best thing to get be- 
 neath the mosquito netting, and, if possible, shut out 
 the fever-stricken fog which nightly creeps round on 
 all sides. 
 
 Van asked me before turning in that evening what 
 
 o 2 
 
196 ABOUT CEYLON AND BORNEO 
 
 sort of jungle it was that I had been roaming through ? 
 I said it was just the same as any other jungle — a 
 mass of awfully big ants, and here and there a crowd 
 of smaller ones intermingled with leeches. It was 
 the most tangled walking that I had ever known in 
 my life, hot, wet, and smelling of decaying vege- 
 tation. 
 
 As we could find no fresh elephant tracks, we 
 decided that we had better get out of this crowd of 
 singing insects and make up the Segaliud Eiver to 
 another locality where we had also heard that ele- 
 phants had been seen. As soon as it got light, 
 therefore, on the following morning, we packed all 
 our things, leaving nothing standing except the tent, 
 beneath which the men lit two fires in the hopes of 
 drying it, while we walked on towards the estate. 
 
 When we had accomplished about four miles of 
 our homeward journey, we saw some quite fresh rhi- 
 noceros tracks in the muddy sides of one of the many 
 almost stagnant watercourses that we had continually 
 to cross. We at once started after this rhinoceros, 
 as it is possible with the most dogged care to follow 
 the trails of this animal. When we had slowly mean- 
 dered along for about a mile — which must have taken 
 us three-quarters of an hour — we came to what is 
 called a ' salt lick,' which is where these beasts love to 
 go and refresh their souls with a taste of salt. Here 
 the rhinoceros had evidently been enjoying himself 
 that morning, as the dirty pools were thick with mud, 
 and the marks were apparent where he had got out 
 and left the water. He had probably not gone more 
 than half an hour, as the pools of water in his foot- 
 marks were still agitated and clouded with dirt. 
 
ELEPHANTS 197 
 
 Then we proceeded almost noiselessly, when suddenly 
 not more than forty yards before us we heard the 
 bushes and undergrowth moving — we stood in 
 breathless silence — presently the jungle trees were 
 parted whence the sound came, and a huge elephant, 
 instead of the rhinoceros we were following, came 
 out and then disappeared in the bush again, feeding 
 right across in front of us, as this was about ten 
 o'clock in the morning. There were apparently no 
 others accompanying him, as we could hear no other 
 sound but the millions of crickets singing in the 
 sunlight from the tree tops. We therefore crept 
 forward till only about twenty-five yards intervened 
 between us and the spot where the elephant ought to 
 be ; the top of his head presently emerged from behind 
 the screen of trees. 
 
 By this time we both had our eight-bores ready to 
 fire, and I was only waiting to get a good sight before 
 I let off mine : however, Van got the first chance, and, 
 although it was fairly my turn to shoot, he could not 
 resist the temptation, and with one shot dropped him 
 dead with a bullet through the brain. Immediately 
 after firing there was a noise through the jungle as of 
 something heavily retiring, which must have been the 
 rhinoceros, as on pressing forward to the stream- 
 bed where our dead elephant had crossed, there were 
 only the quite fresh tracks of a single elephant, and 
 the equally fresh tracks exactly in the same place, 
 only going in a different direction, of a single 
 rhinoceros. Of course when a rhinoceros has been 
 disturbed so closely, it is ridiculous trying to catch him 
 up, so we returned to our elephant. 
 
 I believe this was the only elephant that had been 
 
198 ABOUT CEYLON AND BOENEO 
 
 killed by hunting in the island of Borneo, although a 
 Mr. Allard had shot one which he came on suddenly 
 when rowing up the Keenabatangan Biver. I do not 
 include those elephants which have been killed by 
 natives, as we calculated that the more warlike tribes 
 of North Borneo must have slain at least two since 
 the day when Noah got out of the ark. 
 
 The elephant we had shot was a beautiful old 
 tusker ; he only possessed a few black hairs at the top 
 of his head, about the size of the hairs of a clothes 
 brush, and a few more at the end of his tail, as 
 thick as the thickest bell wire. His body, which was 
 hairless, was brown, and his height at the shoulder 
 was seven feet nine inches ; we took this by 
 measuring one of his fore feet round the outside, and 
 doubling the circumference. His tusks were three 
 feet three inches and a quarter in length, and he 
 was altogether, as the nigger said when the railway 
 engine ran over his wife, ' the bulliest old efferlant that 
 ever I seen.' 
 
 Van said, ' The worst of these elephants is that they 
 leave no tracks behind them when on the higher 
 ground of the jungle, as they have such a soft way of 
 treading and such wonderfully flat feet ; unlike the 
 rhinoceros and the tapir, which are possessed of only 
 three sharp toes on each fore foot, they have five toes, 
 which only just come down to the ground.' 
 
 We promptly sent the men home the four miles 
 which intervened between us and the estate, whilst we 
 waited three hours and a half for their return. A 
 hungry time that was, but not altogether desolate, as 
 we had the elephant's carcase to keep us company; 
 also enormous flies, almost as big as cockroaches, 
 
ELEPHANTS 199 
 
 "which immediately settled on his body, consoled us in 
 part. We had only brought a breakfast of rice with 
 us, which by seven o'clock in the morning had been 
 consumed, so that we had to wait by that defunct 
 corpse till three o'clock in the afternoon, wet through 
 and miserably empty. 
 
 It had rained for half an hour, descending during 
 that interval in lumps — as it rains in bigger things 
 than drops in Borneo. It comes down perfectly 
 straight ; you can therefore find no shelter beneath a 
 tree, and it is preferable standing out in the open and 
 letting the rain descend in its natural course, to 
 receiving it in wine-glass loads from the boughs 
 above. 
 
 They came back eventually with Mr, Kalfsterman, 
 our host, bringing basket-loads of food. A number 
 of Chinese coolies came to cut up and carry home the 
 feet, skin, tail, ears, and tusks of the elephant. They 
 also took with them large pieces of flesh for comestible 
 purposes. At length we were able to slide over those 
 now muddy tracks and reach the bungalow and rest. 
 
 On this trip we had one more day's hunting, when 
 we shot an enormous bull bison. But on May 25 
 we left our hospitable host, because we were com- 
 pelled to leave, not that we wanted to, as in such a 
 doubtful country it is not every day that one meets a 
 Mr. Kalfsterman by whom one is treated as a little 
 lord in disguise. 
 
 After rowing down six miles of the river we came 
 to the ' Punch,' a steam launch which was to take us 
 back the forty odd miles to Sandakan Harbour. 
 
200 ABOUT CEYLON AND BOKNEO 
 
 CHAPTEE XXV 
 
 LABUAN 
 
 I stayed some days more in Sandakan, and then said 
 good-bye to the place for ever, as Van had business 
 which called him away, and without tents or any 
 knowledge of the language I could not go out shooting 
 alone. 
 
 After circumnavigating North Borneo again on 
 our way back to Singapore, we at length arrived at 
 Labuan. This island is only six miles at the nearest 
 point from the coast of Borneo ; but in looking out 
 from the harbour at Victoria across the intervening 
 sea, owing to the flatness of the land you would 
 think that it was a considerable distance, and that 
 the far off hazy mountains must be miles and miles 
 away. It is true that they are some leagues away, 
 but not nearly so far as they appear. In this feature 
 they differ so strongly from the Ceylon mountains, 
 which in the dry season can be seen standing out 
 distinct and clear almost all the day, whereas the 
 Bornean hills are always crowned with cloud, except 
 sometimes in the very early morning. 
 
 Labuan certainly is a redeemed spot in this ocean 
 filled with jungle-covered lands. It has now been 
 under British rule for forty odd years, and although 
 
LABUAN 201 
 
 it seems falling out of repair, still it looks like an old 
 English place. 
 
 When you get under the shadow of the wide- 
 spreading trees, and see the lovely green turf around, 
 the native houses standing back from the now grass- 
 grown roadway, the brick-made gate-posts which 
 remain without any gates to support them, you begin 
 to understand that this island was intended to show the 
 Eastern Pacific England's greatness, but has never 
 realised its dream. Labuan is a heavenly shady place, 
 an island where the ground has all been cultivated 
 for years, an island which seems as though it had 
 been the ideal which the British intended to make it, 
 but is so no longer. 
 
 If you go up the hill to the empty Government 
 House about two miles away from the town, and see 
 what a beautiful cattle-fed park surrounds it with all 
 sorts of wealthy shade-giving trees, if you gaze at 
 the pretty little toy palace with its tennis lawn and 
 shady plantations, it makes you almost shed a tear to 
 see what glories were provided by the British Govern- 
 ment for an English governor who exists no longer. 
 The governor of British North Borneo now acts as 
 governor of Labuan, and his residence of course is at 
 Sandakan ; for although North Borneo is not directly 
 under British rule, but merely beneath the British 
 protectorate, Labuan has always been one of our 
 colonies. This little island, with not more than two 
 dozen letter-writing people on it, has its own stamps, 
 for it is a separate British colony. 
 
 There is a company which has lately been formed 
 for working a coal mine on this far-off little island, a 
 coal mine which was worked years ago, and then as 
 
202 
 
 ABOUT CEYLON AND BORNEO 
 
 no ships came down to these waters it was abandoned ; 
 but now as North Borneo is gradually becoming 
 better known a new company has been started, a fresh 
 opening has been formed to the mine, and already, we 
 were told by our engineer, it turns out coal that is 
 only fifteen per cent, inferior to the coal of Cardiff. 
 
 Beneath the trees of which I spoke and which are 
 called by the natives ' Angseuna ' trees, I met a quantity 
 
 ANGSEUNA TREES, LABUAN 
 
 of ladies who were chiefly remarkable for certain 
 silver buttons which they wore down their dark-blue 
 clothes. Many of them were quiet-looking girls, who 
 had been into Victoria to sell the produce of the land. 
 I was told that they were ' Kadayans,' a tribe, or part 
 of a tribe, who originally lived in Brunei, but through 
 oppression and slavery forced on them by the Sultan 
 came over to Labuan to settle. They are strictly an 
 
LABUAN 203 
 
 agricultural race, very quiet and well behaved, and 
 there must be some two thousand of them now 
 settled in Labuan. There was only one objection to 
 the Kadayans which seemed serious— namely, that I 
 could not speak to them, as I was not familiar with 
 their tongue, and could not get them to stand still to 
 be photographed. 
 
 The people in the village of Victoria were chiefly 
 Chinese, but there were two groups of native houses 
 across the other side of the bay, about half a mile 
 distant, which were altogether inhabited by Malays. 
 These houses were built on piles driven into the sea, 
 about ten yards away from the land. The natives 
 approached their dwellings in quite ridiculously small 
 * dug outs,' so low in the water that they continually 
 shipped little seas, and consequently had to be bailed 
 out every three strokes. 
 
 The folks in these villages supply the outer world 
 with bananas and 'kadjangs.' These latter articles 
 are the young leaves of the palm called ' nepah,' which 
 being dried in the sun become yellow and tough 
 enough to paper the walls of all the native houses. 
 Perhaps to ' paper the walls ' i6 the wrong way of ex- 
 pressing it ; the walls are built of wooden scaffolding, 
 covered with one layer of palm leaves ; these with the 
 heavily thatched roofs, made from the older leaves of 
 the same palm, keep the houses wonderfully cool. 
 
 We could not at first get a lodging here, as the 
 six British residents had no room they could offer us, 
 and we had almost returned shipwards again in 
 despair, intending to go on to Singapore, when some- 
 one with the utmost presence of mind said, 'Why 
 should you not try the Government rest house ? ' 
 
204 ABOUT CEYLON AND BORNEO 
 
 We never knew that there was such a place ; even our 
 informant seemed doubtful about its existence. We 
 then made inquiries as to its locality, and one man 
 thought that there was a rest house, while another 
 was not sure whether it was two miles from the city 
 or four. 
 
 We were not to be done, and set out resolutely to 
 search the island, which occupies about thirty square 
 miles. We thought that it was only owing to our 
 unprecedented tracking powers that at length coming 
 to a cocoa-nut planted field, over which the water 
 from a brook coursed down in un-bebanked freedom ; 
 seeing a small palm-leaved house across the swampy 
 floor, we concluded that this was the Government 
 rest house, which it proved to be. 
 
 The most abandoned dirty-looking Chinaman was 
 the guardian of this heavenly spot. It was, as I said 
 before, a Government rest house, which accounted for 
 a good deal — accounted for there only being one mos- 
 quito netting, instead of two, as written in the bill of 
 fare, and for all sorts of little things which with the 
 assistance of our boys we were able to correct. 
 
 We eventually got settled in this little three- 
 roomed bungalow. It was situated on a hill about 
 two miles away from the town and harbour. We had 
 first to order everything in the way of food that we 
 wanted, and wait patiently while this presiding China- 
 man, who was decidedly slow, carried the articles the 
 two miles uphill from the town, which is trying if you 
 happen to be hungry. 
 
 One day, having nothing better to do, we hired a 
 canoe, with five Malay men to paddle it, and went out 
 to a little wooded island across the sea, called Poolau 
 
LABXJAN 205 
 
 Papan, taking our guns with us, as we thought we 
 might get some pigeons there. Our boat was pro- 
 pelled with live oblong-bladed paddles, which the 
 Malays worked sitting flat on the boards at the 
 bottom, but otherwise exactly as the Canadians paddle 
 their birch-barks. 
 
 When we first started we concluded that this canoe 
 had just been taken from a bath beneath the sea, 
 because it was extremely wet. Too soon, however, we 
 found out that in this we had been mistaken. The 
 tropical sun presently rose in an all-consuming orb, 
 when the boat became almost unwholesome from the 
 sour smell of bad fish, emanating from its steaming 
 interior. Fortunately the men paddled hard, so that 
 we soon got across that breathless sea, or we might 
 have sickened from the smell of decaying fish. 
 
 I never saw a more tropical condition of treey 
 luxuriance than that island presented, with the boughs 
 of many of the trees stretching out over the sea at 
 high water. However, we could not penetrate the 
 mass of foliage, and our shooting was a failure. Some 
 of the trees were full of birds, especially one which 
 was bearing fruit ; the upper branches seemed crowded 
 with winged fowl of every sort. 
 
 There were some fishing natives upon this island 
 who had evidently lived there while they cut up 
 enough drift wood to make fires for all the village of 
 Yictoria during a fearful and stormy winter season, 
 which period they were now waiting for. To judge by 
 the amount of wood which they had stacked away, I 
 should say that they had been waiting expectant for at 
 least ten years. Some of these natives were now quite 
 old and infirm, and my friend said ' that he judged 
 
206 ABOUT CEYLON AND BORNEO 
 
 that if they waited till that winter season came on, 
 they would be older and infirmer by long chalks than 
 they were then.' 
 
 It seemed a peaceful enough life to live beneath 
 the shadow of a great forest, chopping firewood and 
 fishing away their existence, a life which I yearned to 
 waste with these natives if it had not been for the 
 smell of dead fish which surrounded them. Out here, of 
 course, there is no one who is fool enough to buy their 
 wood, and therefore they have to catch fish to live on. 
 There are a multitude of fish everywhere about 
 North Borneo, as, unlike the Mediterranean, there is 
 a tide here, and the sea is not too salt. I believe the 
 natives are not allowed to sell fish in Labuan — in fact, 
 it is the most difficult thing in the world to obtain 
 fish for food there, as I understand a certain China- 
 man buys from Government the monopoly of selling 
 fish, and in a most un-Christian way puts such an ex- 
 orbitant price on it that the ordinary mortal cannot 
 afford to buy any. These natives with the utmost 
 care catch infinitely more fish than they need; the 
 surplus rot away in the sun, so that they smell ap- 
 pallingly, and my friend said, ' The smell of bad fish 
 was so apparent that he could almost divide it with 
 his hand.' He declared that it was visible. A visible 
 smell does not even read pleasantly. 
 
 We watched these men boiling rice, or steaming rice 
 perhaps I ought to say, as they boiled the water in a 
 brass pot, over the mouth of which they put a bit of 
 bamboo containing the rice, and thus steamed it till 
 it was cooked. 
 
 Then we returned to Victoria, bearing with us the 
 result of our morning's outing — viz., one pigeon. 
 
207 
 
 CHAPTEE XXVI 
 
 BRUNEI 
 
 The next morning we started off in a very weather- 
 beaten and rickety old steam launch which happened 
 to be going down to Brunei. A Chinaman was to pro- 
 vide us with a certain amount of food for our journey, 
 and during our stay there, which we thought would 
 occupy us about four days. We left it to this Chinese 
 gentleman to put up exactly what he thought would 
 be right for our requirements. These are the items as 
 he put them aboard the boat, copied from the bill : — 
 
 Two small tins of potted tongue. 
 
 Two of butter. 
 
 Two of Messrs. Moir & Co.'s strawberry jam. 
 
 One (minute) tin of biscuits. 
 
 One bottle of whisky. 
 
 Two dozen bottles of soda water. 
 
 Eight dozen bottles of beer. 
 
 One corkscrew (stolen from us by the crew). 
 
 Three glasses (one stolen). 
 
 This was all ! 
 
 The drink part of the menu seems rather over- 
 balanced, but we have no means of reckoning what a 
 Chinaman will expect you to do. 
 
 Brunei is an independent state between North 
 Borneo and Sarawak. It is governed by the weakest 
 
208 ABOUT CEYLON AND BOENEO 
 
 and most easy-natured looking old Sultan, who, I am 
 told, will not hold his sway much longer, as Sarawak 
 and North Borneo both have an eye on the country, 
 and are both longing to annex it. There seemed 
 every probability of this taking place before even this 
 aged gentleman was hidden beneath the tomb. 
 
 The Sultan of Brunei is what a young English- 
 man who was my companion, and whom we will 
 name ' Slope,' called ' an indifferent and carnal old 
 cuss.' He lives in his own palace, in his own chief 
 town, on his own river, and has twenty wives of his 
 own. 
 
 I believe that the Sultan of Brunei formerly 
 owned the greater portion of North Borneo, but now, 
 how are the mighty fallen ! already the principal 
 chiefs of certain tribes have sent to Bajah Brooke, 
 begging him to rule over them instead of this grasping, 
 ill-regulated old Sultan, as they cannot afford to pay 
 the taxes heaped on them by him. 
 
 The town of Brunei is situated many miles up 
 the tidal waters of a river called the Brunei Biver, in 
 the territory of Brunei. There is one advantage 
 about this country — viz., that the word Brunei carries 
 you a long way. 
 
 This native town was built entirely of wood 
 and palm leaves, on piles driven into the ground 
 beneath the water's surface in the middle of this 
 tidal stream. The Brunei Biver happens to be broad 
 where tbe town is situated, and I should say there was 
 considerable depth in its centre, where the stream 
 flows, as there was a channel or broad street up the 
 middle where no houses were built. We only saw 
 two or three dwellings on the banks ; all the rest were 
 
BRUNEI 
 
 209 
 
 constructed on piles in the river. The picture is from 
 a photograph, and shows the more thickly-peopled 
 side of the channel. You may guess what sort of 
 appearance the city has, when I tell you that there 
 are ahout eighteen thousand inhabitants, all living in 
 these palm-leaved houses, raised about two feet above 
 high-water mark. With the exception of a few 
 Chinese traders, the people live a simple, lazy, am- 
 
 TOWN OF BRUNEI ON PILES 
 
 bitionless existence. They are all Mahommedans, 
 and consequently teetotallers. 
 
 But I am hurrying on too fast. We came down 
 to Brunei, a distance of forty miles from Labuan, in 
 a steam launch, which certainly was of the dirtiest 
 and most inferior description. It was manned by 
 a Malay crew, whose honesty and capability of re- 
 straining themselves were of the lowest type. How- 
 ever, they carried us down safely and only captured 
 
 P 
 
210 ABOUT CEYLON AND BORNEO 
 
 four of our bottles of beer, a couple of pineapples, and 
 a corkscrew, when our boy was not looking. Missing 
 beer when you know that there is plenty of it is not 
 like beer deferred, for drink deferred maketh the heart 
 very sick. 
 
 Talking of pineapples reminds one that they were 
 remarkably cheap at Brunei. We gave our servant 
 twenty cents (about eightpence) to buy a pineapple, 
 and when we went down to the cabin there were 
 eighteen ripe pineapples on the bench. Then Slope 
 said quite angrily to the boy, 'Why did you buy such 
 a lot ? Do you want to feed a whole girls' school ; can't 
 you see that we have not got one aboard ? ' The boy 
 said that he had only bought twenty cents' worth, the 
 same as master told him. 
 
 No sooner had we arrived at Brunei than a quan- 
 tity of natives came on board the launch. One old 
 gentleman first shook hands with us all round and 
 then began talking most confidentially to Slope in an 
 undertone, and, as it appeared afterwards, in an un- 
 known tongue. My friend said at once, looking across 
 at me, ' Let us dissemble : perhaps he is a spy.' Then 
 he stepped aside with the old man, who for about 
 five minutes appeared to be whispering things unheard- 
 of in his ear. Presently Slope said quite audibly, ' Ah, 
 ha, what is this ? ' and he began to roam the decks 
 with unspeakable agony depicted in every pore of his 
 skin. Then I said to him, ' Compose yourself, and 
 when you can cease this roving spirit take me into 
 your confidence ; unbosom yourself to me, and I will be 
 a sharer in your desolation.' He took me aside and 
 remarked in a confidential undertone : ' Well, look 
 here, it is just like this, old man — I can't understand 
 
BEUNEI 
 
 211 
 
 a syllable that this aged warrior keeps pouring into 
 my ears ; what shall I do ? for I am afraid that he is 
 talking something about beer.' 
 
 At this moment the native captain came up and 
 said quite distinctly, ' You must take care, there is 
 much steal man aboard.' Upon which Slope ex- 
 claimed, ' My God, and is it thus I am to die ? I have 
 brought no weapons with me, and this man of iron 
 
 A HOUSE IN BRUNEI 
 
 has followed me even here.' However, after a while 
 we managed to disband the offensive old man, and we 
 noticed in bidding him our final adieux that when he 
 was pretending to pay attention to our remarks he 
 was, like many a small boy at home, much troubled 
 with his nose. 
 
 We then elected to go and call on the Sultan of 
 Brunei, as we thought that he would be just the man 
 
 p 2 
 
212 ABOUT CEYLON AND BORNEO 
 
 to see us out of any difficulty we might have got into 
 with this aged native. We started off in a very small 
 Brunei boat, which resembled a walnut shell, to visit 
 his Imperial Highness. 
 
 I got in first because I had a great idea of getting 
 myself settled, as a kind of ballast, before Slope, who 
 was a heavy young man, should descend into this tea- 
 spoon of a boat. Then Slope got aboard, and having 
 shipped a quantity of water we found ourselves under 
 way. 
 
 Arrived before his kingly portals, we clambered up 
 a ladder and found ourselves in the Throne Eoom or 
 Council Chamber. It was an iron-roofed room, 
 rendered as uncomfortable as possible by having four 
 wooden kitchen chairs round a central dirty wooden 
 table. There were no gilded guards, no attendants, 
 nor anything to indicate royalty, except a rather 
 dilapidated and very comfortless-looking gilt chair 
 raised on a piece of wood called a dais at one end 
 of the room, which, by the way, the old man did not 
 sit on. 
 
 Here we waited for awhile, considering who should 
 occupy the position of spokesman. 
 
 By and bye the old monarch, whose name in short 
 is Sultan Hashim Jalilud Alam Akamadin — the name 
 in the Directory occupies three lines, but there is not 
 room for the whole of it in this page —approached 
 smoking what we at first thought was a churchwarden 
 pipe, but which proved afterwards to be a cigarette a 
 foot long covered with a white palm leaf. He had no 
 one in attendance, and we watched him sauntering 
 across a sort of open yard — if a house on piles can be 
 said to have a yard — where a lot of naked children 
 
BRUNEI 213 
 
 and fowls were playing, till he came to anchor in the 
 iron-roofed room where we were waiting. 
 
 The introduction was then struggled through. We 
 briefly told him in our best Malay that we had come 
 down to see his city, the renown of which had gathered 
 us in from afar, in order to call and pay our most 
 humble respects to one who merited much more than 
 we could do for him (this was too true, as we neither 
 had done, nor intended to do, anything for this 
 sovereign) ; we hoped that handfuls of blessings might 
 ever rest on his undiminished head, etc. 
 
 I do not think that he understood our best Malay 
 words — in fact, we got them so mixed up that we could 
 not make head or tail of them ourselves ; we certainly 
 did not understand him, except when he presently 
 wanted to know for how much we would sell the 
 launch. As it was not ours we had to put an exor- 
 bitant price on it. Then he evidently considered 
 whether it would be safe to seize it or no, and even- 
 tually decided that as Eajah Brooke was then in his, 
 the Sultan's, territory, this would not be a politic 
 thing to do. So having given us some of the 
 groundiest coffee it has ever been my fortune to en- 
 counter, and some cigarettes like his own, which were 
 capital smoking, he sat and looked at us till we did 
 not think that we were getting any ' forarder.' Then 
 we concluded to go, and went. His people eyed us 
 curiously. 
 
 As we were paddled away in the little walnut shell, 
 the rush blinds of the houses in the immediate vicinity 
 were cautiously drawn aside, and we were treated to 
 the furtive glances of what we thought were about 
 eighteen of his wives. These ladies are not particularly 
 
214 ABOUT CEYLON AND BOKNEO 
 
 dark, and with their long black hair done up in a knot 
 on the top of the head, seemed decidedly pretty. They 
 laughed pleasantly at us, displaying the usually fine 
 teeth of tropical women, and were evidently but little 
 accustomed to white faces. 
 
 After a silence of a few minutes I asked Slope what 
 he thought of the Sultan. ' I should say,' returned 
 he rather pompously, ' that the Sultan Hashim Jalilud 
 Alam Akamadin was the personification of intense 
 greatness, illumined — as they say in a most interesting 
 weekly pamphlet called ''Fun" which I have for- 
 warded me from home — by limitless mental and 
 physical versatility ; that these were his leading cha- 
 racteristics. Did you see how his eyes gleamed with 
 a sudden fire when I told him that the launch could 
 only be bought for many thousands of dollars, and that 
 even then I must ask the consent of the owners before 
 parting with her ? Ah, yes, I think he is indeed a 
 great man, and I felt, as we entered his lordly palace 
 like one of the knights of old going to call on the Dey 
 of Tunis ; but his attendants certainly looked askance 
 at us.' 
 
 Soon after this the launch left again for Labuan, 
 so that we found ourselves deserted in this water 
 city. 
 
215 
 
 CHAPTEE XXVII 
 
 bkunei — (continued) 
 
 We came armed with a letter to one Inche Mahommed, 
 the British Consul in these parts. He was a Malacca 
 follower of the Prophet, and had an infinitely better 
 house than the Sultan. To his abode, therefore, we 
 wended our way, as of course there was no hotel in 
 this native place, and we thought that he would be 
 certain to put us up. 
 
 The Moslem, however, was sick; yes, sick unto 
 death. When, therefore, we heard that he could not 
 entertain us on this account, we looked at one another 
 in the most despondent way, and simply gulped and 
 blinked, for this was sad. 
 
 However, when we had got away in our walnut 
 shell again, and made a slight luncheon off pineapples 
 and whisky, we felt better, and after cruising around 
 this town on piles we eventually disembarked at the 
 most superior house of a most superior Chinaman, 
 who what you may call ' extended himself ' as much 
 as possible. He spoke a few words of our tongue, and 
 very kindly cleared out a loft over a kerosene oil and 
 sago store for our accommodation. This store was 
 very dark all day, it smelt horribly of stale sago and 
 rats, so that until you had climbed up a ladder in the 
 thick smelling darkness it was not pleasant to feel 
 
216 ABOUT CEYLON AND BOKNEO 
 
 your way through. Then you saw an enormous 
 beamed wooden loft, where our friend the Chinaman 
 put two beds, and having cleared everything out but 
 the rats, compensated for all drawbacks by the ex- 
 cellence of his cooking. 
 
 Slope remarked, after despatching our fourth bottle 
 of beer, and performing more than his duty towards 
 the food which had been prepared for our benefit that 
 evening, ' I had thought of going up the Kinabatan- 
 gan Eiver and mingling with those native heathens in 
 the backwoods of North Borneo, but think this is 
 even better than living with the prospect of getting 
 envenomed arrows driven into your ribs. Eh, what 
 do you think ? ' 
 
 We were always hungry at Brunei ; it mattered 
 not if we had had no exercise, but had simply paddled 
 round in the boat, there seemed something about 
 those nauseous smells, arising from the falling tide or 
 the aroma of the inhabitants, which distinctly created 
 an appetite. 
 
 There was a single policeman in this city, who had 
 evidently been told off by the Sultan to regard us 
 carefully, as we supposed that he suspected us of 
 fraud. 
 
 Our meals were prepared in a place which we 
 thought was the family joss-house, as there was a kind 
 of altar up at one end of the room, covered with brass 
 things of a sort, and the walls were crowded with long 
 black shiny boards about one foot broad and six feet 
 long, which hung down like pendulums from the ceiling 
 with immense Chinese characters carved on them and 
 painted in gold. In this ancestor-gravestone-boarded 
 dining-room we partook of what the poor folks at 
 
BEUNEI 217 
 
 home call our ' wittles,' together with four great dogs 
 belonging to the Chinaman, which always came in to 
 see just what we were eating, and remained discovering 
 fleas on their persons through the whole of our 
 meals. 
 
 The Chinamen live on a small island in the middle 
 of this river-paved town, and the street outside our 
 dining-room was full of little Chinese children, who with 
 a quantity of Malay men examined our performance 
 through the door and the window bars with the most 
 eager interest. It was then that the single policeman 
 came in useful, as he constantly patrolled up and down 
 making offensive noises at the children, and trying his 
 utmost to frighten them away. At times, however, 
 this seemed to be forgotten, for when we had a fresh 
 course of curry the policeman could not resist the 
 temptation of staring at us along with the rest of the 
 inhabitants of the little island. 
 
 At first we thought it a bore having every mouth- 
 ful of food that we ate criticised in a whispered under- 
 tone by such an admiring audience. But it is wonder- 
 ful how one can become acclimatised to the scorching 
 gaze of the multitude in this worn-out world. Any- 
 way, they seemed to enjoy it and think us extraordinary. 
 
 It seemed, looking out at these naked savages, as 
 though we had suddenly got back to the early morning 
 of history. We were now in a country where almost 
 every adjunct of civilisation was unknown — a country 
 where marmalade, beer, and potatoes had never been 
 introduced— and, after all, our being eyed from the 
 street was merely savage curiosity. 
 
 Most of the children go about perfectly naked, 
 living almost entirely in their little canoes, or in the 
 
218 ABOUT CEYLON AND BOKNEO 
 
 water. We encountered some mere infants in mid- 
 stream nearly a quarter of a mile from shore, in dug- 
 out canoes which were not more than a yard long, 
 and looked as shallow as an ordinary saucer. One 
 day we saw a party of eight naked boys paddling along 
 at a great pace in a boat which could not have been 
 more than two inches out of the river ; when suddenly 
 it struck against the branches of a fallen tree and 
 capsized, pitching them all into the water. The lads 
 seemed to enjoy this catastrophe, and laughing, soon 
 brought the boat to the surface again, when having 
 bailed all the water out with their hands, they crawled 
 in one at a time, either over the bows or over the 
 stern, till they were once more eight little laughing 
 savages in that scooped-out piece of wood. They all 
 seem to swim like ducks from the first moment of 
 their existence in this wicked wide world. 
 
 Both the boys and girls play a most conspicuous 
 part amidst the ever-bathing population of Brunei. 
 When we first arrived we were greeted with shouts 
 from twelve of these urchins, who were in the water, 
 simply swimming and calling out in joyous tones at 
 the top of their voices without any other object but 
 enjoying themselves. 
 
 The women here are provided on the tops of their 
 heads with a cross between an umbrella and a little 
 roof in the shape of a hat, which comes down so low 
 that when you see a boat from behind, you can discern 
 nothing but two moon -shaped things like an archery 
 target in it. You may be quite sure that there are 
 two women before these, and it is made apparent 
 that there is life on board the boat by the ends of 
 paddles which keep dipping into the water as it pro- 
 
JBKUNEI 219 
 
 gresses. These hats are made, as everything else is 
 made out here, of nepah palm leaves. They come up 
 to a central point, and are curved in a convex shape 
 outside. 
 
 On our first arrival in port a crowd of little dug- 
 outs had come alongside the launch, their owners 
 having for sale Brunei tobacco, swords, and blow-tubes. 
 
 ALL THAT IS TO BE SEEN OF A BRUNEI BOAT RETIRING 
 
 These latter were rather a peculiar article of warfare. 
 They were like a very minute gun-barrel, hollowed out 
 of a piece of wood six feet long, up which are blown 
 poisoned arrows. The gentleman who brought them 
 had a quantity of these arrows, one of which he shot 
 off for us to see. It was a little harmless-looking 
 thing, and we could not conceive how he could hit any 
 object, as there was no sight along the barrel. 
 
220 
 
 ABOUT CEYLON AND BOKNEO 
 
 In days gone by these people were a pretty power- 
 ful and warlike race, but they have sadly degenerated. 
 Some of them cultivated little patches of ground with 
 sago and fruits, while others fished; but they are 
 easily contented, their wants are few, and none of 
 them work hard. There appeared to be no army, and 
 only the one policeman, whose office consisted in 
 
 THE BRUNEI STREET LAMP 
 
 moving on the audience who collected round our door 
 as we fed. This minion of the law looked a weak- 
 minded, good-natured old fellow, and the children 
 seemed about as much afraid of him as we were. 
 
 There were, of course, no street lights in the town 
 except one ; this was a single smoky paraffin lamp, 
 which looked unhappy and as if it laboured against its 
 conscience in giving enough light for the many little 
 
BRUNEI 221 
 
 boys to disband after we had done our meal, and for 
 us to fall over the six Chinese dogs as we went to 
 bed. I give a picture of it. 
 
 "Up country the people seemed to be rather lawless, 
 as a notice from the Sultan was posted up outside 
 our door which appeared to be to the effect that a few 
 miles up the river a tribe were busy head hunting ; 
 but, if this were the correct translation of the writing 
 on the wall or not we shall never know, as the 
 Chinaman who was our host was the only man in the 
 whole town who spoke English, except poor Inche 
 Mahommed, and he was sick unto death. 
 
 If this were true it will soon be put a stop to, as 
 on one side the Eajah of Sarawak is now en- 
 croaching on this little empire, while on the other 
 the British North Borneo Company are looking on 
 hungrily. The day cannot be far distant, as I said 
 before, when this apparently quiet little kingdom will 
 be absorbed in the maw of civilisation, and from our 
 point of view spoiled for ever. 
 
 The only thing we objected to in this primitive 
 town were the smells upon our island home, as they 
 were certainly most obnoxious. Foetid odours came 
 constantly up to our lofty bedroom window from a 
 .muddy blackness where the receding tide had left 
 the banks all bare to the scorching sun. We could 
 not keep them off except by going out in our boat and 
 roaming about on the water, as they were infinitely 
 worse in the sunlit day than in the night, when there 
 was nothing but the moon to disturb the placid 
 serenity of the river's bed. 
 
 We stayed at Brunei two or three days, cruising 
 about in a family boat, as, like the rest of the inhabit- 
 
222 ABOUT CEYLON AND BOENEO 
 
 ants, we had to annex a boat to pace the street in. 
 "We wandered through the city taking photographs of 
 nearly all we saw. I say of nearly all, as the females 
 always ran away as soon as our eye was fixed on 
 them. They hid behind palm-leaved screens, from 
 which they either eyed us through holes punctured 
 with their fingers in the cottage walls, or else looked 
 out through cracks in the screens, as their curiosity 
 to see our white skins was too obvious. 
 
 One morning when we came out to the market we 
 found it crowded with boats filled with men and 
 women who ought to have been selling one another 
 their fish and egg produce, but out of curiosity they 
 desisted altogether from their business whilst we were 
 amongst them. We were looked at everywhere as 
 quite strange beings, so that in wending our way amid 
 the watery streets of the town we felt most incon- 
 gruous mortals. 
 
 In certain parts of the river there were crowds of 
 natives fishing with lines out of very long canoes. 
 "We paddled towards one of these collections and I 
 counted as many as forty-six natives all fishing 
 together. But in twenty minutes, while we waited 
 by their side, after most diligently jerking their lines 
 up and down, we gleed considerably — as we naturally 
 took the part of the fish and not of their pursuers — to 
 see that they collected nothing, and we saw no fish in 
 their boats. 
 
 The Brunei Biver is a great stream with hills 
 rising, I should say, about four hundred feet out of 
 the apparently floating town. 
 
 One day we went to a sago factory which is carried 
 on by Chinamen, and in wbich Chinese labour is 
 
BRUNEI 223 
 
 "wholly employed. The smell of sour sago which 
 emanated from that spot was calculated to make you 
 feel ill, if anything on this earth would. We there- 
 fore perspired up a hill about two hundred feet above 
 the factory, to avoid the aroma ; but even there we 
 were attacked by it to such an extent that we found it 
 necessary to descend by an exceedingly steep path — 
 somewhat like the pigs in the Bible, only not into the 
 sea. Down below we found the flavour if possible 
 worse than it had been before. Thence we fled to a 
 grass-grown graveyard beneath some shady trees. 
 In this burying ground all the natives of Brunei 
 have been interred since the beginning of creation. 
 We thought to find peace for our souls amidst these 
 vast tombs of sleeping Malays, but even here we were 
 not safe, as the smell of sour sago penetrated beneath 
 the thick foliage of those guardian jungle trees — 
 trees which were waving over the tomb of many a 
 warrior slain in the fray. Amid imprecations we left 
 that solemn spot and rushed away down the wooden 
 pier ; we fled there with the ghastly smell of sour sago 
 still haunting us. On, on we sped till at length, 
 careless of all else, we threw ourselves into the boat, 
 where, drifting away from the horrible spot, we at last 
 found rest. 
 
 As this was a Sunday, Slope said to me after 
 silently thinking for a long while, 'Do you suppose 
 that the place which I shall visit in the hereafter will 
 smell as badly as that sago factory ? If so, I siuear 
 that from this day I will reform, because I could not — 
 no — I could not, abide for a lifetime, without hopes of 
 death, in such a spot.' 
 
224 ABOUT CEYLON AND BOKNEO 
 
 CHAPTEE XXVIII 
 
 SINGAPORE 
 
 Eventually we left Brunei in a native boat paddled 
 by eight of the inhabitants. It was the same boat we 
 had used when we were the Chinaman's guests, large 
 and open with a palm-leaved awning over its stern, 
 where we sat. We feared, however, that it would not 
 be large enough to face the sea in when we got out of 
 Brunei Bay. 
 
 It is rather difficult to define the difference between 
 the ocean proper and the land-encompassed sea in 
 these Bornean tidal waters. All the ocean is so calm 
 and placid, and you cannot discern the innumerable 
 low-lying islands out at sea. However, we did not 
 know if it would be calm enough to go all the way out 
 to the island of Labuan, a distance of forty miles, in 
 this little boat, or if we should only proceed to a place 
 called Muara (pronounced Moira), fifteen miles along 
 the Brunei inlet. There we could ask an Englishman 
 called Mr. Peck whether we should continue our 
 journey or no. This latter course we eventually 
 decided to take. 
 
 Muara is a small peninsula dividing the sea-coast 
 from the Brunei inlet. A few years ago this was 
 purchased by the Bajah of Sarawak, as it contained 
 some seams of coal. Out of the four mines I am told 
 
SINGAPOEE 225 
 
 that the Eajah gets about a thousand tons per month, 
 and now that he has put up regular English machinery 
 over one of the pits he hopes shortly to be able to ex- 
 port double that quantity. 
 
 When we visited Brooketon— as the Eajah calls the 
 spot where the coal mines are — there were sixty-three 
 Chinese coolies working at the four mines, and between 
 fifty and sixty Malays. Nearly all the coal-cutting 
 was done by Chinese, who were paid about tenpence 
 per truck, there being three trucks to the ton. The 
 largest amount earned by a Chinaman in a month 
 was about 16Z. 6s. When we visited the place there 
 were only two British residents there — viz., Mr. Peck 
 and a Scotch engineer. 
 
 Muara only lay about three miles out of our 
 direct course from Brunei to Labuan ; at any rate, 
 we were not wasting much time by calling there. 
 
 There was a small harbour down at the Muara 
 landing, a miniature wooden pier, a great-little Chinese 
 store and six or seven native hoases placed on piles 
 near the sea. About a mile and a half inland along 
 a flat treeless plain there were a quantity of sandy 
 hills ; on the nearest of these was quite an important 
 bungalow, surrounded by wide-spreading trees ; this 
 was the abode of Mr. Peck. 
 
 Unfortunately we had no letter of introduction to 
 him, and were only two stray travellers who came to 
 this shore in a native boat. Can you in England 
 imagine anything more disagreeable than having two 
 strange young men standing outside your door and 
 waking you up from your afternoon nap by shouting 
 ' boy ' at the top of their voices, and when the boy 
 appeared, not even knowing at whose portals they 
 
 a 
 
226 ABOUT CEYLON AND BORNEO 
 
 were standing ? However, Mr. Peck came forward at 
 this juncture, and most kindly introduced himself, so 
 that we soon put our case before him, saying how we 
 were travel torn, how we were two homeless voyagers 
 who could not string three Malay words together 
 without a fault in the genders, and how we had come 
 to those shores with a boat-load of Brunei natives ; 
 how they apparently said, ' Do not venture further on 
 this boiling ocean, as we have a quantity of fish at 
 home which will go bad if we are drowned, and we 
 shall never get back if we imperil our lives in this 
 little craft.' We begged him to tell us what was best 
 to be done under the circumstances. 
 
 He immediately telephoned down to a Malay man 
 at the harbour to ask what sort of boat we had come 
 in. 
 
 I must interrupt my story to tell you about this 
 telephone, which was of the most novel construction, 
 and had been laid down across the plain between the 
 pier at Muara and the bungalow at Brooketon. Sup- 
 posing on arriving at Muara you wished to send a 
 message to Brooketon, it was impossible to do it with- 
 out first sending a man across the intervening mile 
 and a half to tell someone to listen at the other end 
 of the telephone, as there was no bell or means of 
 communication up at the bungalow. If, on the other 
 hand, Mr. Peck wished to send a message down to the 
 pier, he could ring such a clanging double bell that 
 the coloured gentleman would rouse himself immedi- 
 ately and rush towards the telephone, if it were only 
 to stop the overpowering noise. It was a most con- 
 venient telephone. 
 
 The result of this telephoning was that we were 
 
SINGAPOEE 227 
 
 most kindly asked to stay two or three days at Brooke- 
 ton till a steam launch should be going to Labuan, as 
 Mr. Peck did not think that our boat was large enough 
 to cross the twenty-seven odd miles of sea. The 
 boatmen were therefore told to carry our luggage up 
 to the bungalow. They showed the greatest disincli- 
 nation to carry our four little bags, and even when 
 we had paid them more than they bargained for, eyed 
 us curiously, for they were savage men. 
 
 Brooketon was a beautiful place. All this part of 
 the country seemed to have been inhabited long years 
 back, at a time which no one knows anything about, 
 as there is no history of Brunei ; nothing was appa- 
 rent of the olden times, except the trees planted in 
 clumps over the undulating ground. This was a land, 
 of mystery. 
 
 Upon the hills one was free from everything that 
 was baneful to man. There were no leeches, scarcely 
 any ants or flies ; in fact, nothing which makes life 
 disagreeable in other parts of Borneo. From the 
 bungalow one looked out on a vast park-like expanse, 
 where between the evergreen trees one saw masses of 
 fern of every description filling up the little valleys in 
 this grassy country. 
 
 We went out fishing twice with casting nets in the 
 sea, and it was delightful beneath the shadow of 
 numberless trees to paddle about on the sandy beach 
 in the warm sunny waters, with Mr. Peck's five fox 
 terriers following us. We enjoyed ourselves very 
 much at Brooketon for three days, and then as the 
 steam launch was going to Labuan, towing a native 
 vessel full of coal, we had to say good-bye to Muara 
 and proceed. 
 
228 
 
 ABOUT CEYLON AND BOBNEO 
 
 This steam launch was towing a native boat full 
 of coal— of which I have given a photograph in the 
 frontispiece of this book— and seemed to be suffering 
 from bronchitis. It kept giving way to a short bark at 
 intervals, as it crawled over the placid sea at about 
 four knots an hour. However, eventually we arrived 
 at Labuan, and on the following day a small Chinese 
 steamer started for Singapore ; on this we put our 
 
 BOYS BATHING BENEATH MY BUNK ABOARD THE BORNEO BOAT 
 
 luggage, and having said good-bye to some natives 
 and Chinamen, we left these shores. 
 
 After being four days at sea, we came one evening 
 in sight of the thousands of lights which flood the 
 roads off the port of Singapore, and as we approached 
 nearer and gradually nearer to that sea-reflected city, 
 Slope said he felt like Satan nearing the confines of 
 the earth. It did seem strange, after quitting the un- 
 sophisticated haunts of the Bornean native, to arrive 
 
SING-APOKE 229 
 
 once more in this busy hurrying world of gaslights 
 and umbrellas. 
 
 Singapore has a magnificent hotel ; the buildings 
 are three hundred yards long, so that when the ther- 
 mometer registers 88°, which is often the case, you 
 become so exhausted in this damp climate, wandering 
 along the heterogeneous corridors to get from the 
 dining-room to your bedroom, that you are apt to 
 dissolve altogether. 
 
 The grounds of the hotel are very pretty, if you 
 admire a lawn dotted with green trees and scarlet 
 hibiscus, with a peep of the ocean filled with ships, 
 beyond. But of all the heartrending things that I 
 ever came across, the mutton, the beef, the curry, 
 and the soup which I endeavoured to consume at that 
 magnificent hotel were the most galling. 
 
 Singapore is as greenly beautiful as Colombo, but 
 it is filled with a broad-shouldered race of Chinamew, 
 instead of the Singhalese and Mahommedans who 
 people Ceylon. Why I lay a stress on the word men 
 is because after living in Singapore for a week, I only 
 saw about three Chinese women, and they were peep- 
 ing out from behind wooden walls. There must have 
 been Chinese women inside the blue-washed houses, 
 but there were not a great number of children, and 
 the female element is certainly a rarity, which seemed 
 a pity considering the enormous number of men. 
 
 The huge population of Singapore, as a rule, know 
 nothing of the English language, and travellers are 
 led to suppose that in spite of its having been under 
 British rule for seventy years, for some reason the 
 Chinese have not been compelled to go to school, 
 or learn anything of that glorious civiliser of the 
 
230 ABOUT CEYLON AND BORNEO 
 
 Eastern world, the British tongue. Not only is our 
 language unknown to the ordinary Chinese who form 
 the greater part of the population, but other nation- 
 alities are equally unlearned and indifferent. If you 
 take the Chinese jinrickshaw coolies, they are fine, 
 manly looking fellows compared with the Malays ; but 
 there is not one jinrickshaw coolie out of the thousands 
 you see flocking the streets who can speak two words 
 of English. You would think, therefore, that you 
 were anywhere but in a British colony, when you 
 want to get to your friend's house which lies just 
 round the corner. 
 
 These Malays are utterly different in appearance to 
 the Singhalese. The Singhalese are a tall, bearded 
 race of men : a crafty, subterfuging people, who look 
 effeminately noble, and are utterly pluckless. Where- 
 as these little Malays, although living as near the 
 equator as the Singhalese, have a great deal of pluck 
 ' of a sort ' in them. They are as a rule very short, 
 their features are much more ' squat,' and they seldom 
 have any hair on their faces except a slight attempt 
 at a thin moustache. 
 
 No one who has lived amongst them for a few 
 weeks could mistake a Malay man for a Singhalese. 
 
 No one who has once seen the two nationalities could 
 mistake a Singhalese for an ordinary negro, and yet 
 I fear that many British ladies would not know one 
 from the other. They speak of them all as ' those 
 poor black fellows.' Take an English lady who has 
 interested herself in foreign charities, and has perhaps 
 in the course of her life given •pounds to missionaries 
 in various parts of the world, and I think that very 
 often on seeing them she would not be able to distin- 
 
SINGAPOEE 231 
 
 guish between a bearded Singhalese and a stalwart 
 Maori from New Zealand. 
 
 Have you ever watched a Chinaman undergoing 
 the torture of being shaved ? He first has the long 
 threads of silk unplaited from his pigtail — these are 
 hung up on a peg in the wall ; then the combing out 
 of his hair and the shaving begins. The Chinese 
 barbers use a very sharp razor, but no soap ; probably 
 this is merely because they do not know where to put 
 it, as no Chinaman whom I ever saw had a bristle of 
 hair on his face. Nature has not endowed them 
 copiously with hair except on the back of the head. 
 
 A CHINAMAN S EAZOB 
 
 A man whom I was watching on one occasion was 
 first shaved on the top of his head just above the 
 forehead, where the bristles were about an inch long. 
 Then the razor was carefully drawn down to where 
 his whiskers ought to have been, after which the 
 operator indulged in a few passes over the throttle. 
 Now the work had really begun, and the barber 
 sharpened up his razor on a morsel of leather just 
 about the same size as his palm, which he held con- 
 cealed in his left hand. Then he commenced shaving 
 under the eyes, now above them, between the eyelashes 
 and the eyebrows ; here he found a hair, which he 
 executed with one pass of the glittering instrument ; 
 
232 ABOUT CEYLON AND BOJRNEO 
 
 then he went on to the chin, where of course no hairs 
 were to be found. At length, after half an hour and 
 five minutes of this exquisite work, it was finished, 
 and I began to breathe again, as the suspense of 
 watching the operation had been so great that it had 
 almost deprived me of my vital powers. The China- 
 man had removed no less than fourteen hairs from 
 his victim's face, and now that he had completed his 
 
 A chinaman's boat at singapoke 
 
 task his countenance assumed a look of triumph and 
 delight. 
 
 When you get out of the town of Singapore the 
 country becomes very pretty, as all the roads are 
 planted along the sides with shade-giving tropical 
 trees. Many of the bungalows are built of marble, and 
 placed on small hills covered with Liberian coffee and 
 mangosteen bushes, while enormous breadfruit trees 
 hide them from the busy passing world outside. 
 
 The sight presented to an Englishman who for the 
 
SINGAPORE 233 
 
 first time looks down a road on the outskirts of a town 
 is very curious. The numbers of bullock bandies, jin- 
 rikshaws, and the native life with the indistinct dis- 
 tance of bluish dampness, combine in making a 
 picture which it is difficult to forget. 
 
234 ABOUT CEYLON AND BORNEO 
 
 CHAPTEE XXIX 
 
 "WE SET OUT ON OUR RETURN 
 
 It was June 25 when we left Singapore on our return 
 journey. The air was moist and hot, and the re- 
 gular tropical smell pervaded all things. The sky 
 was clouded over, and everything that you touched 
 was damp. In twenty days we should have left behind 
 us this centre of perspiration and enervation, but 
 first we had to pass through the Eed Sea in July, 
 which was a matter of dismal contemplation, at the 
 thought of which, as they say in the hymn, ' Sank 
 heart and voice oppressed.' 
 
 When I got on board my Messageries Maritimes 
 steamer, the vessel was crowded with French people 
 who were all talking at once. French people can talk. 
 So do English folk — at least, in a girls' school. Pre- 
 sently, when the bell rang for visitors to leave the ship, 
 nearly all the crowd left us, and there remained only 
 about twelve or thirteen passengers. 
 
 It was most amusing to watch the Frenchmen 
 taking leave of each other, there was such a quantity 
 of flourish and holding of hands while they paid 
 parting compliments ; besides so much bowing and 
 taking off hats as they descended the gangway. 
 Some of them stumbled and almost fell into the 
 water, in their efforts to make their parting spirituel. 
 
WE SET OUT ON OUR RETURN 235 
 
 The flush deck of our steamer was of course 
 covered with double awnings, and as the thermometer 
 registered 86° in the shade, we rejoiced beneath 
 punkahs in the saloon. The sea remained quite calm, 
 while a feeble sun was shining through the damp and 
 hazy atmosphere, and the air seemed heavy with 
 moisture. The sheets of our beds were sticky and wet, 
 and in the mornings we put on limp damp clothes — 
 the result being that I contracted such a snivelling 
 cold that I became hateful to those who dwelt along- 
 side me. 
 
 Besides the French, we had aboard the boat five 
 or six Englishmen and a crowd of Spaniards from 
 Manilla. I am afraid that we shunned these Manilla 
 men as a mosquito shuns the smoke, or as a Yankee 
 shuns a Chinaman in California — not because they 
 took the white man's money, as the Chinaman was 
 supposed to do over there, but English folks always 
 will be ridiculously British wherever they are, and we 
 were merely an ordinary British crowd. 
 
 On the evening of June 27, the sun made 
 but a feeble atttempt to come out, and the sea was 
 quite rough. A feeling of nausea crept over me. I 
 regret to have to mention it, but I became sick. I 
 was very ill. Then I became worse. I spent the 
 night amid basins and broken glasses in a state of 
 moaning despondency and abject misery. Early in 
 the morning the sea became calmer ; so did I. Then 
 I called the gargon, who brought me a bottle of sweet 
 champagne, after which I was more hopeful, and ab- 
 sorbed the greater part of its contents with tears of 
 gratitude in my eyes. The sea quieted down very 
 much as the morning wore on, but as I was quite 
 
236 ABOUT CEYLON AND BORNEO 
 
 hollow I did not dare indulge in a bath ; therefore 
 my washing and dressing were almost as simple as the 
 pirate's toilet — viz., two stamps and a damn. 
 
 I stayed on deck all day, and amused myself in 
 watching some Malay men whom we had on board. 
 There were about two hundred of them, all making a 
 pilgrimage to Mecca. They were deck passengers, and 
 lived altogether forward on one of the hatches. I 
 daresay this was very pleasant during the midsummer 
 weather we were suffering from. 
 
 Each of these men had one mat on which he sat, 
 and another that he produced at sunset to perform 
 his devotions on. This latter was much smarter, 
 and might be termed a ' go-to-meeting ' mat. They 
 spread them out on the deck every evening, apparently 
 at the setting of the sun, and all went through the 
 most elaborate salaaming. There was a head pilgrim 
 with them, who seemed to be a sort of people's caterer 
 or guide. He had a map of the world, which he con- 
 sulted at sundown, and told the others exactly 
 whereabouts Mecca lay, so that they might turn their 
 faces in that direction for the evening prayer. 
 
 One evening in the Eed Sea he consulted his map, 
 and appeared doubtful and uncertain. However, the 
 hour of prayer was at hand, so he fixed his point 
 somewhere on the starboard bow, and all the pilgrims 
 knelt, except the personal conductor, "who still studied his 
 map doubtfully. Eventually he concluded that he had 
 made a mistake, as we were passing Mecca at the time, 
 and when the pilgrims had all finished their elaborate 
 prayers, the conductor fixed another spot on the star- 
 board quarter, and they all had to go through the 
 whole of their tedious devotions again. 
 
WE SET OUT ON OUR RETURN 237 
 
 After leaving Singapore, our next calling place 
 ■was Ceylon, where a man whom we will call ' Crab ' 
 joined us. He was one of those pale-faced fellows 
 who live in the low country, and had a dried-up, 
 washed-out sort of expression. Crab was not a 
 remarkably handsome man, although he wore a long, 
 dark-coloured beard and was blessed with a sallow 
 complexion. There seemed to be a ' leer ' always 
 lurking on his countenance. He was what they call 
 in story-books ' my pet aversion,' and my dislike was 
 returned, as he hated me with a death-like hatred. 
 He talked the whole day through, never ceasing to tell 
 exaggerated stories of himself, his own doings and 
 prowess, or to speak highly of his own virtues and 
 ■wealth. He never swore or used bad language, but 
 he snuffled with his nose horridly at intervals, and 
 always told lies without faltering. 
 
 This man would not have been so objectionable if 
 he had only kept out of one's way when he was not 
 wanted, but he was constantly intruding himself on 
 one unabashed. Crab could not take a snub, and 
 always thought his company was acceptable. I was 
 never free from that odious snuffle : wherever I went 
 I could not get out of the reach of Crab's voice, and 
 knowing that I was a very British Englishman, he 
 continually worried me with the charms of a tropical 
 life. 
 
 Crab did not smoke, and never came into the 
 smoking-room, but he constantly stood outside the door 
 and very often gave us the benefit of his lies while 
 leaning against the lintel. 
 
 One day Crab was on deck, and a little Japanese 
 came up smoking ; we all smoked there, although it 
 
238 ABOUT CEYLON AND BORNEO 
 
 was done on sufferance, as the ladies could object if 
 they wished. 
 
 Crab thought himself alone with this Japanese, 
 and did not know how near I and one of the officers 
 were. Then he said, ' That cigar of yours makes me 
 faint, so take it out of your mouth,' which the Japanese 
 refused to do, so Crab said, ' Very well, you little reptile, 
 then I'll throw you overboard,' and advanced to do it. 
 When he had caught hold of him, the first officer, who 
 was standing by my side, interfered, but for some days 
 after that they had to be kept apart, as the Japanese 
 was a man of gentle blood, being related, as I was told, 
 to the Princes of Satsuma, and therefore could not 
 brook being abused without a cause. He looked any- 
 thing but pleasant when we separated them, but 
 like the Japanese, did not say anything, but only 
 thought the more. 
 
 We scarcely had any motion worth speaking about 
 the whole way home, except just at the beginning of 
 the voyage, and again when we were nearing Aden, 
 before we got into the gulf. It is true that one night 
 a fellow who was lying asleep on one of the narrow sofas 
 at the side of the saloon got rolled off, and did not 
 thoroughly awaken till he found himself under the 
 table. 
 
 This incident reminded me of an occasion when I 
 was crossing the Pacific some years ago. Our ship, 
 the ' Oceanic,' was rolling furiously, as a heavy wind 
 was blowing from the southward, which came right 
 across us. We set two jibs to steady her, but each 
 one was immediately carried away by the force of the 
 storm. The sea kept breaking over the decks, and 
 one large wave came down the companion stairs and 
 
WE SET OUT ON OUR EETUEN 239 
 
 into the saloon, so that with this great wave swirling 
 about there was scarcely any room left for us. We 
 feared lest the whole Pacific Ocean should push its way 
 in through the saloon doors, when the ship would be 
 left high and dry at the bottom of the sea. All the 
 deck and passages to our cabins were swamped, and 
 the carpets and footstools were ruined by the inun- 
 dations. After this everything was battened down 
 tightly and all ventilation stopped, and it became 
 terribly hot and stuffy. Sleeping in such an atmo- 
 sphere and under these circumstances was like passing 
 the night in an underground music-hall, while the 
 noise gave it a flavour of the last day, going on all 
 round outside. It was really dreadfully close, and we 
 felt as poor Jonah must have felt, when he was in the 
 whale's belly, long, long ago. 
 
 Next morning there was no cessation to our 
 miseries. We had to hold on all the time, and we 
 cussed each wave as it threw us on to the floor and 
 mixed us up with the stray furniture that was sliding 
 about. 
 
 The saloon on this ship was a particularly broad 
 one, so that, when you slipped off the couch on which 
 you were sitting at one side, there was a long way to 
 go, and your body gained considerable impetus before 
 reaching the further side. Suddenly you felt yourself 
 going, and grabbed at anything — say, the velvet seat 
 of the sofa on which you had been reclining — this gave 
 way and you went sliding over the floor, velvet 
 seat and all. In passing a chair you made a clutch at 
 it, and it gave way also, so you all slid on together 
 till presently you came bump up against the opposite 
 side of the ship, which stopped you rather too abruptly. 
 
240 ABOUT CEYLON AND BORNEO 
 
 Then, if you were not killed by the concussion, you 
 began to collect yourself, to unravel your limbs which 
 were entangled in the chair and cushion, your com- 
 panions in adversity. But by this time the ship was 
 rolling back again, and you found yourself at the top 
 of a steep incline — say an angle of forty-five — with 
 nothing firm but the floor to hold on to, so that you 
 were obliged to slide away. Thus a perpetual racket 
 was kept up, and you were continually rattled against 
 the sides of the ship, like a pea in a box. However, 
 that day the wind ceased to blow, and although we 
 remained shut down we were able to enjoy a peaceful 
 night, and rested without air. 
 
241 
 
 CHAPTEE XXX 
 
 ABOARD A M. M. STEAMER 
 
 We had an American gentleman aboard whom I will 
 call ' The Major,' as fellows do not seem to like 
 having their names published to the world. He was 
 a very good fellow, except when, at the end of our 
 voyage, he came into collision with French Government 
 rules, and then for a time he was not pleasant ; but 
 more of this anon. 
 
 As this was a French ship, of course everyone 
 spoke the French language aboard. It seemed that 
 it was with difficulty at times that the Major made 
 himself understood, in spite of (as he told me) his 
 perfect knowledge of this tongue. He said to me one 
 day, in confidence, ' I am almost sorry that I 
 wasted so many of my youthful hours making myself 
 master of a language which is so obscure that even 
 the Frenchmen themselves cannot comprehend the 
 meaning of much that is said to them in their own 
 tongue.' I suggested that his Yankee accent might 
 be at fault, but he would not allow this, as he said, 
 ' I can write every word without a fault.' This last 
 remark concluded the matter, and I had no further 
 suggestions to make. 
 
 The Major was a Dutchman by birth, but in his 
 
 E 
 
242 ABOUT CEYLON AND BORNEO 
 
 early boyhood he ran away to America, where he was 
 a farmer for many years in the Western States. He 
 found out that I also had visited the glorious West, and 
 became very keen on talking over the old times and 
 country with me. The first night that he made this 
 discovery he kept me up quite late — I think it was till 
 eleven o'clock — chatting about America, cussing all 
 Easterners, and extolling the virtues of all Westerners, 
 especially himself. He became quite enthusiastic 
 about it, and I think fancied himself in the prairies 
 again. He reproduced from the back of his memory 
 a few of the old lies he used to tell straingers, when 
 he was a free American ; lies which he never has 
 the satisfaction of uttering now, for he has changed 
 his abode to the sedate and English East. 
 
 He fought on the Kepublican side during the war. 
 I somehow fancied that he was not one of those who 
 occupied a position to lead on the Northern hosts to 
 death or victory, but that is such a trifle, as he was 
 under the impression that he was entitled to call him- 
 self Major, as that brought back in spirit all the 
 glorious pageant of war. He had his letters addressed 
 to him ' Major,' so that settled the matter. 
 
 After a bit I found the Major had still some land 
 in Western America, which I fancied he would be 
 willing to sell. He wanted to take me out to America 
 and sell it to me ; in fact, the old gentleman had taken 
 quite a fancy to me, and wanted to * do ' me in all 
 sorts of ways. He had a daughter in Switzerland 
 whom I thought that he wanted me to marry, and 
 one night after a good dinner he sat up on deck 
 jodling to me like a Swiss peasant. Also he gave way 
 to a few Yankee religious songs. I hoped, if I was made 
 
ABOARD A M. M. STEAMER 243 
 
 to indulge in wedlock with the Miss ' Major,' that she 
 would not be quite so short and fat as her sire, and 
 would not have such an exceedingly quavering voice 
 when she accommodated me with a little religious 
 music. Well, anyway, this Major was a capital com- 
 panion aboard ship. 
 
 Sunday on a Messageries Maritimes ship is not 
 any worse than other days, for the simple reason 
 that one does not pay the very slightest attention to 
 it. I really think this is rather a disadvantage, as I am 
 an Englishman, and therefore have a lingering in- 
 clination towards church-going and different clothes 
 on a Sunday ; but it seems that in all the world 
 it is only we Englishmen who are supplied with 
 this hankering, and the longer one is away from 
 home the more it is beaten out of one's constitu- 
 tion. 
 
 I will give you a fragment copied from my journal, 
 apropos of the Sabbath Day : — ' The passengers 
 are lolling about smoking, apparently with nothing 
 much to do. Our Ceylon friend is snuffling quite 
 gently as though he felt the influence of Sunday, 
 while others are reading novels and wishing for 
 dinner-time. 
 
 ' "We do not play cards on Sunday ; why we restrain 
 ourselves I cannot imagine, as man is very vile on 
 this side of the globe, and he generally sets aside the 
 Sabbath for the working of every conceivable evil. 
 On board ship there is scarcely room for going to 
 and fro on the earth, and walking up and down it, as 
 Satan used to do when he was dull ; and it is the 
 more to our credit that we abstain from cards, as 
 there is little else to occupy us. Other days of the 
 
 K 2 
 
244 
 
 ABOUT CEYLON AND BOENEO 
 
 week we played cards every evening, and it was quite 
 giddifying (new word introduced because it seems to 
 fit) to watch an old French lady, who could not speak 
 a word of our tongue, play whist every night with 
 three Englishmen who were unable to speak French. 
 She understood that she was to be paid when she 
 won, but they could not prevail on her to comprehend 
 that she ought to shell out when she lost.' 
 
 A KATAHARANG AT MOUNT LAVINIA 
 
 I forgot to say that the Major had done the right 
 thing for such a protracted delay as this voyage 
 seemed to be, as he came aboard with the fixed deter- 
 mination of reading through the whole of George 
 Eliot's novels without missing a word. So he laid 
 in the lot before leaving Hong Kong. If you visited 
 his cabin at any time during the day — it mattered not 
 if it was Sunday or weekday — he was generally to 
 
ABOAED A M. M. STEAMEE 245 
 
 be found there in a hopeless condition of perusal. 
 His floor was covered with volumes already digested, 
 while on the upper berth, the ' Mill on the Floss ' 
 might be seen loitering there, in company with the 
 third volume of ' Middlemarch.' All the rest of 
 George Eliot's novels were somewhere about the 
 cabin, so that, when a sea got up, I should imagine 
 there must have been a terrible scene of wreckage. 
 Even when the ship kept up her monotonous roll 
 from side to side, the bindings were in terrible 
 jeopardy. 
 
 Leaving Aden we were encouraged by the follow- 
 ing facts. There was a ship at anchor in the harbour 
 which had come in the day before our arrival. She 
 had not been properly provided for a tropical voyage 
 at this season of the year, and out of twenty-five 
 passengers whom she had on board, seven had died 
 of suffocation coming down the Eed Sea ; but they 
 had been steaming down wind, and we were going 
 against it. However, it was oppressively hot even for 
 us, as the thermometer did not register below 104° 
 for three days, the air was laden with sand from the 
 desert, and life was almost unbearable. We passed 
 our existence crowded together on the upper deck, 
 sleeping and quarrelling, as, with the temperature so 
 high, we all hated one another, and no one seemed 
 inclined even to read. 
 
 I have got in my journal a short paragraph about 
 one of these days — a very expressive paragraph, be- 
 cause there is nothing else written down on that 
 page to mar its description — viz., ' July 10. We 
 all hate each other aboard this ship. Thermometer 
 104°.' 
 
246 ABOUT CEYLON AND BOBNEO 
 
 That is what I call putting an enormous amount 
 of meaning in a very few words. 
 
 On another page this is written : ' July 11, 12, 
 13, and 14. Things are going on much the same as 
 usual. Awful heat ! Damp ! Punkahs ! Perspiration 
 and Tobacco ! ' You see we were having an intellec- 
 tual time. 
 
 When we arrived at Suez, our anchor was dropped 
 in the gulf, about two miles off the entrance to the 
 Canal. We waited there till a steam launch came 
 out bearing the terrible news that we were to be in 
 quarantine, and not to enter the Canal until we had 
 absolution telegraphed to us from certain officials in 
 Alexandria. We were put in quarantine because the 
 French mail had touched at Saigon, before I got 
 aboard her in Singapore. Since her departure cases- 
 of cholera had broken out in Saigon, and it had been 
 telegraphed home to quarantine us to prevent possible 
 infection. 
 
 All the next day it was undecided how long we 
 should be kept in Coventry, and we were constantly 
 on the look-out, both with field glasses and the naked 
 eye, to see a boat coming from the distant town 
 bringing us tidings of our fate. Boats kept leaving 
 shore, but they did not approach our ship, till at 
 length the western sun sank to rest behind the yellow 
 sand-hills which fringed that deep blue sea, and still 
 we were left in vague uncertainty as to what our fate 
 would be. At last, just as it was getting dark, a boat 
 with the Government flag put off and made straight 
 for us. She brought a telegram saying that we were 
 only sentenced to thirty-six hours' confinement, pro- 
 vided the doctor whom they had brought with them 
 
ABOARD A M. M. STEAMER 247 
 
 could give us a clean bill of health. Then we got 
 that doctor aboard, and he sniffed round the saloon, 
 went into some of the cabins, and after drinking some 
 champagne, felt equal to signing the bill of health, 
 so that the following morning we steamed ahead again 
 through the Suez Canal. 
 
 Coming through tbe Eed Sea, we had had a very 
 hot time, as the chief engineer registered 93° 
 of heat in the water, three feet beneath the 
 bottom of the ship, at four o'clock in the morning. 
 Under these circumstances a bath was a hot bath : 
 such a thing as a cold bath could not be obtained. 
 
 We passed slowly through the Canal, and en- 
 countered a good many camels being ridden by 
 picturesquely attired natives, while other camels in 
 long strings were carrying loads on their backs. The 
 natives of Egypt seem to dress very much for effect, 
 but on approaching them nearer you see how dirty 
 they really are. The sky is beautifully blue, and the 
 sands are dazzlingly yellow, but when you land at Port 
 Said you find it a wretched little sink of iniquity, 
 surrounded on three sides by yellow desert, and full 
 of scoundrels of every nation, where it is difficult in 
 these days even to buy a good cigarette. Fortunately, 
 we only halted there for about eight hours, and then 
 got into the Mediterranean. 
 
 I must refer to tbat man Crab again, as he 
 declared so continually that there was no place in 
 the world equal to his adopted island for climate, 
 scenery, or anything else, that we at length became 
 thoroughly tired of ' Ceylon's spicy breezes,' and only 
 longed for ' Afric's coral strand ; ' for whenever you 
 started a subject of conversation with your neighbour 
 
248 ABOUT CEYLON AND BORNEO 
 
 at table, he immediately jumped down your throat 
 with the superiority of Ceylon, We could not make 
 out why he was leaving an island home which he 
 thought such perfection. 
 
 However, after a while I saw that he was getting 
 ' dried up,' for he did not talk nearly so much, but 
 seemed to dislike me more and more. When I was 
 talking to my neighbours at table, he just, looked on 
 with a critical eye, every now and then coughing 
 quietly, or shifting in his seat by way of showing that 
 he disapproved of my statements, but did not care to 
 contradict them. 
 
 When we had been aboard the ship for about 
 eighteen days, I regret to say that I ' had words ' with 
 Crab ; which only shows how irritable it is possible to 
 get when bored to death on a long voyage. At break- 
 fast one morning the gargon was handing some boiled 
 eggs, when Crab remarked to himself, ' Let's see, shall 
 I have a boiled egg or not ? ' After watching his in- 
 decision for a moment, I said, ' Oh yes, have an egg — 
 it will do you good.' Upon which he arose and said 
 in a loud voice, ' No one aboard this ship dictates to 
 me what I shall eat or drink.' Then he retired into 
 his deck-chair, and remained lost in his own reflec- 
 tions for the rest of the day. 
 
 On another occasion, I came down to breakfast 
 and said, ' It's a fine day, the wind's fair, and I am 
 going to have my hair cut ready for getting into port.' 
 So Crab said, ' Who is going to cut your hair ? ' I re- 
 plied, 'Why, the steward tells me that you often cut 
 the passengers' hair, and I was going to ask if you 
 had any objection to trying on me.' Upon which he 
 turned very pale, and getting up from his chair, 
 
ABOAED A M. M. STEAMEE 249 
 
 replied with the utmost dignity, ' Sir, it is evident 
 that you have forgotten your position on this ship and 
 mine.' Then snuffling quite loudly, he left the table, 
 having only just begun his breakfast, and did not 
 speak to me again for three days. 
 
250 ABOUT CEYLON AND BOENEO 
 
 CHAPTER XXXI 
 
 WE ARRIVE AT MARSEILLES 
 
 There was a beautifully airy smoking-room on deck 
 beneath the awning, where punkahs were con- 
 tinually pulled by Chinamen ; here four Englishmen 
 were often to be found playing whist. The Major 
 sometimes took a hand when no one else could be 
 found. If you could get him into the mood, he was 
 a great hand at telling stories. He annoyed some of 
 us by interrupting a game for the sake of an anecdote. 
 I think I must interrupt my readers in the same way 
 by repeating one of the Major's own. 
 
 It seems that a rather cheeky young gentleman 
 was staying at the same hotel as the Major, and 
 making a mistake, he bounced into the commercial 
 room one day, whistling as he went. One of the 
 gentlemen of commerce there first looked him all 
 over, and then said, being rather affronted at his 
 casual entrance, ' Are you aware, sir, that this is the 
 commercial room ? ' The intruder therefore stopped 
 his whistling, sniffed several times, and at length 
 said, ' Law, so it is.' This tale, although very short, 
 somehow tickled us a good deal. 
 
 Our ship was now filled with discord, and some- 
 how our passengers were divided amongst themselves. 
 Many of them were invalids, and consequently rather 
 
WE ARRIVE AT MARSEILLES 251 
 
 irritable and peevish, while others were naturally ill- 
 tempered. "We relieved the pitiless hours of daily- 
 sunshine with a continual ' divertissement ' as to 
 whether we should leave the ship at Naples, where 
 we knew that there would be no quarantine, or go on 
 to Marseilles, where the captain told us that perhaps 
 we should get quarantined for a week. This remained 
 an open question for some time, till one morning we 
 woke up to find ourselves just entering the Straits of 
 Messina, with Mount Etna on our left hand, and the 
 toe of Italy on our right. 
 
 The morning was beautifully clear and calm, and 
 in that wonderful scenery it was like passing through 
 a bit of fairyland. At midnight we dropped anchor 
 off Naples, where we were only to remain a couple of 
 hours. All the lights in our cabins had been put out 
 an hour before, and the maitre d' hotel refused to light 
 them again. This was before electricity had become 
 an established thing on board the Messageries boats. 
 Thereupon the most awful confusion ensued that one 
 can possibly imagine, as many of the passengers had 
 to pack up their things in the dark, and get off the 
 ship in little open boats ; whilst, to add to their diffi- 
 culties, the most horrible thunderstorm was now 
 raging, and the rain kept pouring down in torrents. 
 
 These difficulties were much more than I cared to 
 contend with, and I remained aboard watching the 
 struggles of my three English friends, and Crab, 
 who, I am delighted to say, left us at Naples. 
 
 By half-past two the rain had ceased, the anchor 
 had been weighed, we were off again, and quiet being 
 once more restored, I slunk away to bed. 
 
 Towards noon on the following day, we saw a faint 
 
252 ABOUT CEYLON AND BORNEO 
 
 outline of coast as we were now off Toulon. The 
 weather had become quite cool and pleasant again, 
 and the day was remarkably fine with a civilised haze 
 over the distance, such as we had not seen for many 
 a month. 
 
 At about four o'clock we found ourselves pretty 
 close to the coast, and as we hoped to get to Marseilles 
 before dark, everyone was on the look out for the 
 longed-for home. Even the Major left an unfinished 
 proposal of George Eliot's in his cabin to come and 
 see the promised land. It was worth looking at, as 
 the day being fine and the sea calm, the hilly coast- 
 line stood out very prettily. White sails were scattered 
 over the distant waters, and birds came floating behind 
 the vessel once more. A certain change was visible 
 over the whole ship, and the placid routine of every- 
 day life appeared to be interrupted, as sailors kept 
 coming aft to undo ropes and arrange chains. 
 
 At five o'clock we found ourselves very close to the 
 high white cliffs. But there always seemed to be 
 another promontory to pass before we should finally 
 arrive alongside the shore. 
 
 At six the sky began to turn red for the approaching 
 sunset, and a more gentle evening and perfect sunset 
 I never saw. Everyone was collected on deck : some 
 of our passengers had not seen European lands for 
 eight or nine years, while others were invalids who 
 longed for their home and rest. 
 
 At last we came very suddenly round a projecting 
 headland on to Marseilles, and the clean looking Euro- 
 pean town with its white houses. The distant roar of 
 the carts and carriages along the streets were sweet 
 sounds to us homeward bound. All on deck gave 
 
WE ARRIVE AT MARSEILLES 253 
 
 way to one cheer of delight as their long-wished-for 
 haven came in sight. 
 
 We talked of what we should do when we landed, 
 where we should dine and sleep. Most of the pas- 
 sengers had put on their shore clothes and packed up 
 their things ready for a start. 
 
 We glided slowly into port, and there came out in 
 boats healthy-looking European men, sunburnt sailors, 
 women in holiday dresses, friends, wives and children 
 to greet some of the passengers. But they did not 
 come aboard. . . . 
 
 They could not come aboard . . . for there also 
 came out to the ship's side a small boat carrying a 
 yellow flag, which stopped those who wished to board 
 us, and brought the fatal news that we must first 
 endure five days at least of quarantine before we 
 might set foot upon that glittering shore. 
 
 This was a terrible blow. 
 
 We had to turn sadly round and steam out of port, 
 to steam away across the bay to a desolate spot called 
 the Quarantine Harbour, where we went to bed mourn- 
 ing, and thinking sadly of the beautiful France on 
 which we had in anticipation already landed. 
 
 How odious the ship and fellow passengers seemed 
 next morning, and how we cursed our luck and im- 
 prisonment ! We found ourselves in a small basin 
 enclosed on all sides by high limestone rocks, so that 
 we could not even behold the open sea from our place 
 of anchorage. 
 
 We were not allowed to leave the ship, except to 
 touch the nearest shore, and walk up and down a few 
 hundred yards of bare white road, the connecting link 
 between two islands. This road had an armed sentry 
 
254 ABOUT CEYLON AND BOENEO 
 
 at either end, to prevent our straying beyond the 
 narrow prescribed limits. That was a sun-scorched, 
 dreary time. The rays of the sun beat down on us from 
 a cloudless sky, and the earth all round the harbour 
 was treeless, yellow, and rock-bound. There was 
 nothing to disturb the calmness of our weary waiting 
 days. We thought of the people ashore enjoying this 
 lovely weather, while we were being baked to death in 
 this most dreary spot. 
 
 After a couple of days I found the way to enjoy 
 a bathe in the sea, which was by landing on this piece 
 of artificial road, and cajoling the sentinels to let me 
 climb over the wall behind it, where I could undress 
 and bathe on the further side without being seen. 
 The water was deliciously cool, and wonderfully 
 transparent, with the bottom so covered with sea- 
 urchins that I was afraid to rest in my swim for fear 
 of their poisonous prickles. 
 
 One day an old fisherman came along collecting 
 sea-urchins, and taught us the way to eat them. 
 First you get a long pole with a three-spiked prong 
 at the end, with which you dig them off the rocks 
 beneath the water ; then you scoop out the fish with 
 a dirty pocket-knife, and spread the roe which is found 
 adhering to the top of the shell on a split roll covered 
 with butter, which you have brought concealed in 
 your pocket. Sea-urchins are a very good form of 
 food for folks in quarantine, living on two meals only 
 at ten francs a day. 
 
 It is curious how the worst side of human nature 
 shows itself when one is in confinement. We seemed 
 so tired of one another's society, and so annoyed at 
 being imprisoned through no fault of our own, that 
 
WE ARRIVE AT MARSEILLES 255 
 
 the greatest ill-temper was shown between the pas- 
 sengers on all occasions. The Major was the only- 
 English-speaking friend I had left, but he was rather 
 deaf, and so much occupied with his wrongs that I 
 tried to avoid him, as he talked of nothing but his 
 detention, and having to pay ten francs a day out of 
 his own pocket for his board. He continually paced 
 the deck with clenched fists, swearing that he would 
 not pay a penny of it, but would compel the wretched 
 French Government, not only to pay for his keep, but 
 also damages for his loss of valuable time. 
 
 He was going to write a statement of his case to 
 the ' New York Herald,' and let all America know what 
 he was suffering at the hands of the miserable 
 Frenchmen. In fact, there seemed little doubt that 
 he would make a stir in the world on his arrival in 
 the lands of civilisation. However, I never heard 
 any talk about it afterwards. Doubtless the ' New 
 York Herald ' thought it would be a pity to subvert all 
 our rules of civilisation by putting in an article 
 against an institution which is carried out by all the 
 ruling powers in this world. Or perhaps the Major 
 thought better of his resolution when he got ashore, 
 and tore up all his threats against the French Govern- 
 ment ; anyway, I believe that it fell through. 
 
 At this juncture, the Major had a lot of George 
 Eliot's novels for sale very cheap. 
 
 There was another small steamer and a sailing 
 vessel, who were our companions in quarantine. We 
 watched with the most exceeding interest, through 
 telescopes, every movement that took place on these 
 ships. Those aboard seemed to have absolutely 
 nothing to wile away the tedious hours of sunlight, 
 
256 ABOUT CEYLON AND BOKNEO 
 
 except to stare back at us. Imagine, therefore, the 
 situation of two steamers lying alongside one another 
 just far enough off to make it worth while studying 
 each other through glasses ; a row of quarantine 
 passengers on each ship, only wishing that something 
 might happen aboard the other worth looking at. 
 But nothing came of it, and when we had spent five 
 days in this profitless way, at eleven o'clock one 
 morning we weighed anchor, and steaming across the 
 few miles of sea that separated us from Marseilles, by 
 exactly twelve o'clock we were free. 
 
 The Major now entertained me at a breakfast in 
 one of the restaurants, where we enjoyed the fruits 
 of the earth without regard to our digestions. When 
 he had drowned his spleen in champagne, he became 
 the gay Yankee once more. It was a lovely day, and 
 we sauntered about all the afternoon enjoying every- 
 thing — the shops, the crowds of people, and the sea as 
 seen from the land. Every woman looked pretty, 
 and every man benign. Our twenty-five centimes 
 ' Londres ' seemed perfection, and life was once more 
 full of hope. 
 
 At six we dined beneath the shadow of trees near 
 the station, and smoked afterwards in some neatly 
 kept gardens near the terminus, where the Major in- 
 dulged once again in the songs of his Fatherland, and 
 I was quite sorry when at nine o'clock I had to leave 
 him and shake his hand at parting. 
 
 Two days later I arrived in London, where I bought 
 a new hat and some tobacco. 
 
 These things were necessary, as the hat I had on 
 had been purchased at the bazaars in Colombo, many 
 a weary month before, and was not quite in the 
 fashion. 
 
WE ARRIVE AT MARSEILLES 257 
 
 Will my readers just peep at me once more ? 
 
 It is six o'clock in the evening. An English lady 
 and two girls were sitting under an aged oak-tree by 
 the wooden gate which leads into the lane at my home 
 in Wiltshire. They were having afternoon tea in 
 company with three dogs. They had had the tea- 
 table put well under the shade, as the weather was 
 remarkably hot and fine that summer afternoon. 
 The world was green, bright, and still all round them, 
 and the distant downs, which you could see through a 
 clump of red-barked Scotch firs, were almost hidden 
 in a blue summer haze. The waters of the little lake 
 below were quite still, except for the occasional swirl 
 of a mighty moving pike, and all Nature seemed to 
 rest in the July hush. The great trees near the lake 
 seemed to peep sleepily down into the gentle, weed- 
 grown waters, and far, far above were swallows 
 sweeping round in distant ovals against the deep- 
 blue English sky. 
 
 A one-horse fly was coming up the drive, and in 
 it a weary traveller, sick of travelling, was coming to 
 rest in the peaceful oasis of an English home. 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 A FEW FACTS ABOUT CEYLON, L ABU AN, 
 NORTH BOBNEO, AND BliUNEI 
 
 The island of Labuan has been a British colony since 
 1847. 
 
 The British North Borneo Company was formed in 
 1882, It took over all rights, territorial and sovereign, 
 from the Sultans of Brunei and Sulu ; the protocol being 
 signed in 1885. 
 
 Galle, in Ceylon, has infinitely the most equable tem- 
 perature out of fifty-one stations given by Blanford in his 
 ' Practical Guide to the Climates and Weather of India, 
 Ceylon, and Burmah, in 1889.' Colombo, being so near 
 Galle, is not given in this work, but Cochin, in the Madras 
 Presidency, with a range of 28°, is the next nearest. The 
 temperature of Galle is, at its highest, 89°, and at its lowest, 
 10° ; being only an annual range of 19° 
 
 The first time that I came to Ceylon I brought with me 
 from England a barometer, which proved utterly useless, as 
 the change of readings in the hills of Ceylon seems to be 
 less than a tenth of an inch in the year. I believe that a 
 real change only occurs once a year, at the bursting of the 
 south-west monsoon. 
 
 The average rainfall at Colombo is 87"3 inches, and at 
 Galle 90'7. The rainfall on the western slopes of moun- 
 
260 ABOUT CEYLON AND BORNEO 
 
 tains in the interior of the island, where the south-west 
 monsoon is felt, is considerably over this. In many parts — 
 take, for instance, Ambegamona — it is double that of Galle. 
 The equable temperature and the high rainfall make 
 Ceylon pecuharly adapted for tea-growing. 
 
 NORTH BORNEO 
 
 The following are some extracts from the ' Handbook of 
 British North Borneo,' which, I believe, was compiled by 
 the North Borneo Government for perusal in England : — 
 
 ' The area acquired by the British North Borneo Com- 
 pany is some 30,000 square miles in extent, and forms a 
 sort of irregular triangle, more than two-thirds of which 
 are bounded by the sea. The coast extends over 600 miles, 
 and all islands within three leagues were included in the 
 cession. 
 
 ' North Borneo has the advantage of being out of the 
 region of typhoons ' (now draw in your breath). ' Earth- 
 quakes and volcanoes — which periodically work such havoc 
 and ruin in the Spanish settlements of the Philippines in 
 the north, and the Dutch possessions of Java and Sumatra 
 further south — are unknown there.' 
 
 Although the tobacco estates of British North Borneo 
 are not at present the most healthy localities that I have 
 visited, still, when the land round Deli in Sumatra was 
 first opened, it was equally injurious to the health of both 
 the Chinese and Europeans. This must be the case in all 
 low-lying districts in the tropics, which are grown over by 
 swampy jungle, and where good water is unobtainable. 
 Until European influence has let fresh air into these scenes 
 of foetid distemper, and introduced artesian wells, or other 
 means of obtaining wholesome water, it must remain so 
 unhealthy that Europeans cannot exist there, and even the 
 natives only live in a few houses along the tidal rivers' 
 banks. 
 
APPENDIX 261 
 
 There seems little doubt that the tobacco estates will 
 eventually pay well, although, from what I can learn, the 
 soil is quite different to the flat lands of Sumatra, which are 
 formed from the deposit coming off volcanic mountains, 
 whereas these Bornean flats were formed by the wash from 
 Tertiary mountains. 
 
 ' Tobacco. — About nineteen years ago it was discovered 
 that tobacco grown in certain parts of the East Indian 
 Archipelago was particularly adapted for use as wrappers 
 for cigars ; and Deli, North Sumatra, soon attracted capital 
 and labour, until the importation into Amsterdam and 
 Rotterdam of East Indian tobacco increased from thirty 
 thousand pounds in 1865 to seventeen million pounds in 
 1882, and has since been steadily increasing. 
 
 ' Many fortunes were made in Sumatra by private indi- 
 viduals, and several large companies sprang into existence, 
 which have continued to flourish, many having paid divi- 
 dends of over 100 per cent. 
 
 ' Planters in Deli are hampered by heavy taxation, and, 
 as suitable land is now difficult to obtain, a new field is 
 eagerly sought by tobacco planters. The first Deli planter 
 who explored the territory of the British North Borneo 
 Company wrote : — " The first tobacco leaves were brought 
 to me at Niow, on a very steep high hill, and when I saw 
 the character of the plant, though only in a few poor leaves, 
 culled and brought to me by a native, I was amply rewarded, 
 and knew from that moment that North Borneo would be 
 a tobacco-producing country." 
 
 ' Tobacco of an excellent quality has long been known 
 to exist in North Borneo. The soil, with its covering of 
 "humus," is very suitable, and the seasons are favourable. 
 Planting takes place in April or May, and in seventy days 
 the leaves are gathered, so that three months only elapse 
 from the time the seeds are put in the nursery beds until 
 the gathering of the harvest.' 
 
 I think that some Bornean cigars which we obtained in 
 
262 ABOUT CEYLON AND BOBNEO 
 
 Sandakan burnt a whiter ash than any cigars I have ever 
 seen. These cigars had been made up in Holland with 
 Bornean tobacco for the outside wrapper, but of what leaves 
 the interiors were composed I do not know. 
 
 I will also insert here a few paragraphs about swamp 
 produce, copied from the same book. 
 
 SWAMP PRODUCE 
 
 ' The greater part of the coast is lined to a considerable 
 depth with enormous mangrove and nipa swamps. One 
 alone of these swamps, extending eastwards from Sandakan 
 Bay for sixty or seventy miles, with an average depth of 
 ten miles or so, contains some four hundred thousand acres. 
 This great acreage of apparently useless swamp is, how- 
 ever, likely to be a source of great wealth in the future. 
 These swamps are everywhere traversable by numerous 
 lagoons, backwaters, and creeks. 
 
 ' Mangrove grows on what is really shallow sea, and 
 mangrove swamps should not be, and in fact frequently 
 are not, marked on the map as other than sea. Mangrove 
 wood is much used as fuel, and even after paying a small 
 freight to Hong Kong, is bought there by some people in 
 preference to coal. 
 
 ' Mangrove Bark is used as a dye and also for tanning 
 purposes. Analysis has shown that it contains 41-398 per 
 cent, of tannic acid. 
 
 ' It is a well-known fact that by doing away with man- 
 grove swamps much sickness is caused ; but, in addition to 
 the distance they are from any of our towns, their size is 
 such that they will meet the largest requirements ever 
 likely to be made upon them without showing any percep- 
 tible diminution. 
 
 ' Nipa Palms. — Above the mangrove, and where the 
 water begins to be brackish, nipa palms commence, and 
 large swamps of them intervene between the mangroves 
 
APPENDIX 263 
 
 and the true land. Those nearer the sea are comparatively 
 small and stunted ; but where the water is more fresh than 
 salt, the leaves attain a height of twenty feet and upwards, 
 presenting a very handsome appearance, resembling the 
 single fronds of a huge fern. This graceful palm is utilised 
 in various ways, the principal being in the manufacture of 
 thatching for house-roofs, in Borneo called attaps. This 
 manufacture is quite an industry of itself, and affords 
 employment to many natives, chiefly women, the men 
 simply bringing cargoes of the fronds to the women, to be 
 stitched with split rattans and made up. 
 
 ' Attap roofs are the best adapted for the Borneo climate, 
 for, whilst the winds are never strong enough to blow 
 them away, they afford the coolest protection against the 
 sun of any kind of roofing known. Attaps are being 
 shipped to China, and, if they gain in favour, there are the 
 possibilities of a very large trade being established. 
 
 ' Kadjanmats, also manufactured out of nipa leaves, are 
 indispensable for travelling purposes ; packed up in the 
 smallest compass when not required, each one is capable of 
 affording sufficient accommodation at night for two or three 
 people, either in boat or forest journeys. They also almost 
 exclusively form the material for side walls and divisions 
 within houses. 
 
 ' The young nipa leaf, unfolded and dried, forms the 
 favourite covering for cigarettes amongst the natives. The 
 fruit is eaten, and, indeed, on one occasion in the old days, 
 when Sandakan ran out of rice, the people had nothing 
 else to live upon for a whole month. In taste and appear- 
 ance it is something like a cocoanut, but much tougher. 
 In Bulu, salt — and, somewhat strange to say, sugar also — 
 is made from the burnt stem of this palm ; considerable 
 quantities of this salt are imported into Sandakan, where 
 the people have not yet cared to make it for them- 
 selves. 
 
 ' Ncbong Palms. — Above the nipa, and where the water 
 
264 ABOUT CEYLON AND BORNEO 
 
 is almost fresh, the nebong grows. It is plentiful in low 
 and somewhat swampy places along the coast, and is 
 generally a sign of the presence of fresh water in the 
 vicinity. It attains a height of forty to fifty feet. The un- 
 split round trunks are used for the posts of Malay houses, 
 while when split up they are employed for flooring, rafters, 
 &o. As a rule, the posts do not last more than three or 
 four years, but as the wood is plentiful, and requires no 
 preliminary preparation beyond cutting to the proper 
 lengths, this disadvantage is the less felt. The head, or 
 cabbage, formed of the unexpanded leaves, is a delicious 
 vegetable. 
 
 ' Its utility to the natives will be understood from the 
 fact that nearly all the houses in the city of Brunei, with 
 a population reckoned at 20,000, as well as the rough 
 bridges, or " jumbatans," connecting them, are built of 
 this palm over the water of the river of that name. This 
 tree will be found most useful by tobacco-planters for all 
 temporary buildings, such as drying-houses, coolie-lines, 
 and so forth, and some have been already exported to Sulu 
 for these purposes.' 
 
 This is a fragment from the ' Brunei Directory,' which 
 consists of five pages only : 
 
 ' When the Spaniards first became acquainted with 
 Brunei, a state of things existed in the capital greatly 
 different and superior to what they are in our time. Then 
 a royal audience was conducted with great pomp and 
 splendour ; now it is an empty form. Then courtiers 
 were clothed in silk ; now they strut about in the filthiest 
 homespun, and are of the venal description. It seems 
 only a matter of time when Brunei as an independent 
 state shall, from sheer inertia, cease to exist.' 
 
 I cull these morsels from the same : 
 
 Under the heading of Marine Department one ship 
 only is given. 
 
APPENDIX 265 
 
 Steam Launch ' Enterprise.' 
 
 Captain Kassim. 
 
 Engineer Sarail. 
 
 Her Britannic Majesty's Consulate. 
 
 Agent at Brunei Inchi Mahomet. 
 
 Carpenters .... Ah Wah. 
 
 Mr. Ah Wah ought to be a proud man, and I hope 
 that he thinks a lot of himself, as in this directory he was 
 put down as what might be a crowd of carpenters. 
 
 PRINTED ET 
 
 SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE 
 
 LONDON 
 
Xenqmojin, Omen k Co.. London* icTfew York.