g. The best plan would
probably be to make it an adjunct to the Straits Settlements, at the
same time establishing a protectorate over Sarawak and Brunei.

Dr. and Mrs. Leys came on board in the afternoon, and later on we
landed with them at the very rotten and rickety wooden pier, and
reached a grass sward, by the side of which stand the public offices
and a few shops. Some of the party walked, while others drove in
various little pony-carriages. Baby and I went with Dr. Leys to see a
party of Sarawak Dyaks who had just come in from the Barram River with
wedges of gutta-percha, which they were offering for sale, as well as
some weapons and clothing just captured. We bought a good many
interesting things, such as jackets made of cotton, grown, dyed, and
woven by the Dyaks, horn and tortoiseshell combs, kreises, parongs,
knives, pipes, tobacco-pouches, travelling-bags of plaited matting,
and sumpitans or blowpipes from which poisoned arrows are discharged.
They prize these latter very highly, and are generally loth to part
with them, so that we may consider ourselves fortunate in having come
across these few members of a tribe just returned from a warlike
expedition judiciously combined with the more peaceful and profitable
trade of gathering gutta-percha and india-rubber. We also met a group
of bird's-nest collectors, from whom we bought some nests of both the
black and white varieties, scientifically known as _Callocalia_. Then
we purchased two small rhinoceros-horns, greatly prized here for their
supposed medicinal virtues, and considered to be worth their weight in
gold. We succeeded likewise in getting some pairs of splendid
pearl-shells, with fine golden lips and incipient pearls adhering to
them; but I am obliged to admit that they were frightfully expensive.

After visiting all the shops in the town--few in number, and nearly
all kept by Chinamen--we went for a drive into the country. It was
just like driving through one vast park, along soft springy green
roads leading through fragrant jungle. There were no fences, and
fruit-trees of every kind abounded, heavily laden with oranges,
pomaloes, mangoes, mangosteens, durians, and other delicacies--all,
unfortunately for us, at present unripe.

The incongruity of some of the things which were pointed out to us
during our drive was very amusing. There, for instance, stood a large
jail, in the happy condition of being tenantless. So long, indeed, had
it been empty t