which was only 157,501 dols.,
thus showing an increase of about L40,000 in seven years.

On the 11th of June, 1868, at Burrator, in Devonshire, Sir James
Brooke breathed his last, leaving Sarawak to his nephew, Mr. C.
Brooke, the present Raja, his heirs and assigns, for ever. To realise
the importance and extent of the deeds wrought by the late Raja, the
State of Sarawak must be visited--a state which forty years since was
a hot-bed of piracy and bloodshed, a state now as peaceful and secure
as any of the British possessions in the East.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 3: They were both saved eventually, and the courage shown by
Mrs. Crookshank on this occasion will not be readily forgotten in
Sarawak. Mr. Crookshank was afterwards appointed Resident of Sarawak
proper, and retired from the service in 1873.]

[Footnote 4: Mr. Steele was afterwards murdered by Kanowits.]

[Footnote 5: The present Raja.]

[Footnote 6: Black and red cross on yellow ground.]

[Footnote 7: Another vessel of 300 tons, the _Lorna Doone_, has been
added since this was written.]

[Footnote 8: Silver has lately been found to exist also.]

CHAPTER III.

Kuching--Society--The Club--Amusements--The _Sarawak
Gazette_--The Bazaar--Health of Kuching--Life in
Kuching--Rats--Preparations for Journey to the Matang
Mountain.

Kuching, the capital of Sarawak, although smaller than Pontianak and
other Dutch settlements on the coast of Borneo, is generally
acknowledged to be the first town in Borneo so far as civilisation and
comfort are concerned, and is renowned for its Bazaar, which is the
best-built and cleanest in the island. There are two good roads
extending at right angles from the town to a distance of seven miles
each, at which point they are united by a third. These form a pleasant
drive or ride, an amusement unknown in most Bornean townships, where
the jungle and undergrowth are usually so dense as to defy any
attempts at walking, to say nothing of riding or driving.

The number of Europeans in Kuching, although limited, and consisting
of but some twenty in all (five of whom are ladies), form a pleasant
little _coterie_, and there is a marked absence of the scandal and
squabbling which generally seems inseparable from any place wherein a
limited number of our countrymen and women are assembled. The
occasional presence of an English or Dutch man-of-war, also, breaks
the monotony of life, and enlivens matters considerably.