th of the Iguajit River. This
is the great river of the district, and is navigable for about three
miles. I put off in a boat manned by marines, and was rowed about
two miles up, as far as the mission station. The missionary received
me well, and I stayed there that night, with five men, whom I had
engaged to carry my luggage, for we had a journey before us of some
days on foot to the opposite coast.

My luggage, besides the ordinary travelling requisites and provisions,
included about 90 yards of printed stuffs of bright colours, six dozen
common handkerchiefs, and some 12 pounds' weight of beads on strings,
with a few odds and ends of trinkets; whilst my native bearers were
provided with rice, dried fish, betel-nut, tobacco, etc., for a week
or more. We set out on foot the next day, and in three days and a
half we reached the western shore.

The greatest height above the sea-level on our route was about 900
metres, according to my aneroid reading, and the maximum heat at
mid-day in the shade (month of January) was 82 deg. Fahr. The nights were
cold, comparatively speaking, and at midnight the thermometer once
descended to 59 deg. Fahr.

The natives proved to be a very pacific people. We found some engaged
in collecting gum from the trees in the forest, and others cutting
and making up bundles of rattans. They took these products down to
the Iguajit River mission station, where Chinese traders bartered
for them stuffs and other commodities. The value of coin was not
altogether unknown in the mission village, although the difference
in value between copper and silver coinage was not understood. In
the interior they lived in great misery, their cabins being wretched
hovels. They planted their rice without ploughing at all, and all
their agricultural implements were made of wood or bamboo.

The native dress is made of the bark of trees, smashed with stones,
to extract the ligneous parts. In the cool weather they make tunics of
bark, and the women wear drawers of the same material. They adorn their
waists with sea-shell and cocoanut shell ornaments, whilst the fibre
of the palm serves for a waistband. The women pierce very large holes
in their ears, in which they place shells, wood, etc. They never bathe
intentionally. Their arms are bows and arrows, and darts blown through
a kind of pea-shooter made of a reed resembling _bojo_ (q.v). They
are a very dirty people, and they eat their fish or flesh raw.

I had no diffi