LIFE IN THE FORESTS
OF
THE FAR EAST.
F. Jones, lith.
Day & Son, Lithrs. to the Queen
Published by Smith, Elder & Co. 65 Cornhill, London.
KINA BALU FROM THE LOWER TAMPASUK.
BY
SPENSER ST. JOHN, F.R.G.S., F.E.S.,
FORMERLY H.M.’S CONSUL-GENERAL IN THE GREAT ISLAND OF BORNEO,
AND NOW
H.M.’S CHARGÉ D’AFFAIRES TO THE REPUBLIC OF HAYTI.
WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS.
IN TWO VOLUMES.
VOL. I.
LONDON:
SMITH, ELDER AND CO., 65, CORNHILL.
M.DCCC.LXII.
[The right of Translation is reserved.]
[vii]
I have explained in a short introduction the object and plan of thepresent volumes, and have little more to say, beyond a reference to theassistance I have received, and the plates and maps which accompanyand illustrate them. In order to prevent mistakes, and correct my ownimpressions, I submitted a series of questions to four gentlemen whowere intimately acquainted with the Dayak tribes, and they gave memost useful information in reply. To Mr. Charles Johnson and the Rev.William Chalmers I am indebted for very copious and valuable notes onthe Sea and Land Dayaks; and to the Rev. Walter Chambers and the Rev.William Gomez for more concise, yet still interesting accounts of thetribes with whom they live.
To Mr. Hugh Low, the Colonial Treasurer of Labuan, I am under specialobligations, as he freely placed at my disposal the journals he hadkept during our joint expeditions, as well as those relating to some[viii]districts which I have not visited. It is to be regretted that hehas not himself prepared a work on the North-West Coast, as no manpossesses more varied experience or a more intimate knowledge of thepeople.
With regard to the plates contained in this work, I am indebted to thecourtesy of George Bentham, Esq., the President of the Linnean Society,for permission to engrave the figures of the Nepenthes from theadmirable ones published in Vol. XXII. of that Society’s Transactions,and which being of the size of life are the more valuable.
I have inserted, with Dr. Hooker’s permission, his description of theBornean Nepenthes; and it will always be a subject of regret thatthe British Government did not carry out their original intention ofsending this able botanist to investigate the Flora of Borneo, which isperhaps as extraordinary as any in the world.
I have also to thank the Rev. Charles Johnson, of White Lackington,and Charles Benyon, Esq., for the photographs which they placed at mydisposal, and which have enabled me to insert, among other plates, themost life-like pictures of the Land and Sea Dayaks I have ever seen. Tothe Society for the Propagation of the Gospel I am also indebted fortheir generous offer to place all their drawings at my disposal.