nce led me to the burial-ground
of part of that tribe settled at Simunjang; but, as they seemed
restless to get away, I only took a hasty survey. The reason, I
have lately learned, for this is, that in their graves they deposit
the golden ornaments and other property of the person deceased,
amounting frequently to a considerable value in the precious metals,
brass swivels, gongs, &c.

"The tribe now at Lundu were formerly settled on the Samarahan river
for many years; and their burial-place there contained the ashes of the
parents and grandparents of the present chief, who, with his followers,
were not long ago driven to Lundu; and their former settlement being
deserted, it has been the employment of some of the rascals here to
rob these graves of their contents, and to desecrate the repose of the
dead. The Orang Kaya of Lundu complained to me sadly, but mournfully,
on this account, and said that if he could not find redress from the
rajah, he must obtain it himself by taking the heads of those who had
disinterred the bones of his ancestors. His whole manner convinced me
that they hold the burying-places in great respect; and my advice,
to remove the wealth and bones to a place of security at Lundu,
was rejected on the ground that they could not disturb the remains
of those whom they had once deposited in the earth.

"While there is so much of right feeling and manly principle in the
actions of these Dyaks, the miserable race who pretend to be their
superiors have no single virtue or good intention. I do not, however,
mean to confound the inhabitants of Sarawak, or the other rivers,
with those of Borneo Proper. The latter are thoroughly corrupt and
profligate. The former are Malays, but have their good qualities, and
certainly are not possessed with the spirit of intrigue which seems
the life, the only moving principle of the Borneons. It may truly be
said of the latter, that they would tell a lie when the truth would
serve them better. They will employ duplicity and treachery on every
slight occasion; defeat their own purpose by their meanness, and yet
continue in the same crooked paths. They will conspire without any
object, or one too mysterious to arrive at; and, while they raise a
cloud of doubts in the mind of the poor, their own equals look on and
detect the game. Yet, after all, they gain but little individually;
because so many are practicing the same arts at the same time with
equal skill; and the country is