only about twenty-seven miles in length and eleven in breadth. We
were particularly warned not to venture into the forest, as we should
run a great risk of being carried off by tigers, large numbers of which
infest the jungles, and, it is said, kill a Chinaman a day, they being
the chief workers in the plantations. The captain gave me leave to
accompany the supercargo, and we hired two small Timor ponies for our
excursion. We had not got far when we met a party of men carrying
between them the skin of a large tiger, propped up on a sort of platform
formed of bamboos, looking very fierce, with its mouth open and tail on
end. They were on their way to the government office to receive the
reward given for every animal killed, just as payment was made in former
years in England for the head of each wolf put out of existence. The
animal had been caught in a pit covered over with sticks and leaves, the
usual mode in which they are trapped. We kept a sharp look-out, with
our pistols ready to shoot a tiger should one attack us. We heard
several roars, and a huge beast crossed the road in front of us. After
this we did not feel altogether comfortable, expecting every moment that
it would spring out from the jungle and carry off one or both of us.

We returned to the city, however, without an actual encounter. I cannot
stop further to describe this interesting place. In a few days we
sailed for George Town on the eastern side of the island of Penang, the
seat of Government of the British possessions in the Straits of Malacca,
Penang is larger than Singapore, a considerable portion being rocky, and
those most industrious of mortals, the Chinese, form the chief part of
the population. After discharging the cargo we had brought from England
for this place, we again sailed, steering through the straits of
Singapore for the eastward.

CHAPTER TWO.

We were bound for Kuching, the capital town of the province of Sarawak
in Borneo, where Mr Brooke, who went out in 1839 in his yacht the
"Royalist," had, by his judgment and intrepidity, established a thriving
community, of which he had been appointed the chief or rajah. The
captain and supercargo had mapped out our future course. This was to be
along the north coast of Borneo, through the Sooloo archipelago, across
the sea of Celebes to the coast of Papua, and thence through the Banda
sea to Timor, whence we were to return home along the southern coast of
Java. It took