heir mercy. Mercy!--a wrong term
to use when speaking of those who never show any. They were all krissed,
to the number of seventeen, in sight of their companions in the other
boats, who were too far behind to arrive in time to render them any
assistance, although it hardly need be said that every effort was made.
The last that was seen of poor Stewart was his body being carried by one
of the Dyaks into the jungle by the side of the river, and the fellow
was so anxious to obtain the much-valued trophy of a white man's head,
that, as he bore it along, he kept his knife sawing at the head to sever
it from the body. Indeed, so much do these people value a white man's
head, that they will build a separate room on purpose to contain it.

Whilst lying at this place, riding to a strong flood tide, a canoe
floated past us, in which we could discern two dead bodies; they were
both dressed as Malays, and the garments were good. Over the bows of the
canoe there hung a handsomely ornamented kris. We tried to hook the
canoe with the boat-hook, but the strength of the tide was so great that
we could not succeed in securing it, and it floated away with the
stream. We presumed that they were the bodies of some of the Malays
killed in the recent conflict, who probably inhabited a higher portion
of the river, and that they had been put into the canoe by their friends
to be carried home, and had been swept away by the tide from not having
been securely fastened, for nothing would have induced the enemy thus to
make us a present of _two heads_.

"We weighed, in company with the steamer and boats, on the same evening,
and returned to Kuchin, where we arrived on the following day. The
men-of-war boats having been towed by the steamer, we arrived some time
before the native prahus belonging to the river, which had accompanied
us. On the following day they arrived, and the scene was novel and
interesting. They all rounded the point together, dressed out with flags
of all descriptions, beating their gongs and tom-toms, and firing blank
cartridges from their "Leilas." Highly elated with their victory, and
with the plunder which had accompanied it, they celebrated it by all
getting excessively drunk that night upon shamsoo.

We remained at Kuchin for three days, enjoying Mr. Brooke's hospitality;
and during that time it was proposed and arranged that we should pay a
visit to the river Loondoo, the residence of a very remarkable tribe of
Dyaks u