ch ended in their complete discomfiture. Five more of them were
killed upon the spot; and several others that took to flight were
tracked through the snow, and destroyed in their hiding-places. For a
week after, there was very little fish eaten in the ostrog of
Petropaulouski--which for a long period previous to that time had not
witnessed such a carnival.

Of course our Russian hunters came in for their share of the trophies;
and, choosing the skin of one of the bears they had themselves shot,
they left it with the Governor, to be forwarded _via_ Okhotsk and
Yakoutsk, to the distant capital of Saint Petersburg. Shortly after the
fur ship carried them to Canton,--whence they might expect to find a
passage in a Chinese trading vessel to the grand island of Borneo.

CHAPTER FIFTY FIVE.

THE SUN-BEARS.

There are colonies of Chinese settled in different parts of Borneo--
whose principal business there is the working of gold and antimony
mines. These Chinese colonial settlements--along with numerous others
throughout the Oriental islands--are under the protection and direction
of a great Mercantile Company called _Kung Li_--somewhat resembling our
own East India Company. In Borneo, the headquarters of this commercial
association of the Chinese, is the port and river of Sambos, on the
western coast; though they have many other settlements in different
parts of the island. Of course, between these colonies and Canton there
is a regular traffic; and our travellers found no difficulty in
proceeding to Borneo in a Chinese junk which traded direct from Canton
to Sambos. At Sambos there is also a Dutch settlement, or "factory,"
belonging to the Dutch East India Company; and this Company has also two
other stations in the island--all, however, occupying a territory of
limited extent, compared with the large surface of the island itself.
No other European settlements exist in Borneo, if we except an English
"agency" lately established at the little island of Labuan; and a
settlement at Sarawak, under an English adventurer, who styles himself
"Rajah Brooke."

The "rajah" rests his claim to the title and territory of Sarawak on a
grant from the Sultan of Borneo (Bruni); and the _quid pro quo_ which he
professes to have given, was the having assisted the said Sultan in
putting down the "Dyak pirates!" This is the pretence hitherto put
forth to the British public; but on a closer inquiry into the facts of
this transact