RNEO HUNTERS AND EXPLORERS

The Guardian-Mother, attended by the Blanche, had conveyed the tourists,
in their voyage all over the world, to Sarawak, the capital of a
rajahship on the north-western coast of the island of Borneo. The town
is situated on both sides of a river of the same name, about eighteen
miles from its mouths.

The steamer on which was the pleasant home of the millionaire at
eighteen, who was accompanied by his mother and a considerable party,
all of whom have been duly presented to the reader in the former volumes
of the series, lay in the middle of the river. The black smoke was
pouring out of her smokestack, and the hissing steam indicated that the
vessel was all ready to go down the river to the China Sea. Her anchor
had been hove up, and the pilot was in the pilot-house waiting for the
commander to strike the gong in the engine-room to start the screw.

Just astern of the Guardian-Mother was a very trim and beautiful
steam-launch, fifty feet in length. The most prominent persons on board
of her were the quartette of American boys, known on board of the
steamer in which they had sailed half round the world as the "Big Four."
Of this number Louis Belgrave, the young millionaire, was the most
important individual in the estimation of his companions, though happily
not in his own.

Like a great many other young men of eighteen, which was the age of
three of them, while the fourth was hardly sixteen, they were fond of
adventure,--of hunting, fishing, and sporting in general. They had gone
over a large portion of Europe, visited the countries on the shores of
the Mediterranean, crossed India, and called at some of the ports of
Burma, the Malay peninsula, Sumatra, Java, Celebes, and had reached
Sarawak in their explorations.

They had visited many of the great cities of the world, and seen the
temples, monuments, palaces, and notable structures of all kinds they
contain; but they had become tired of this description of sight-seeing.
When the island of Borneo was marked on the map as one of the localities
to be visited, the "Big Four" had a meeting in the boudoir, as one of
the apartments of the Guardian-Mother was called, and voted that they
had had enough of temples, monuments, and great cities for the present.

They agreed that exploring a part of Borneo, with the incidental
hunting, fishing, and study of natural history, would suit them better.
Louis Belgrave was appointed a committee of one t