The water, being high, enabled us to see the cleared
places that occurred from time to time on the bank;
though generally only a thick wood or dense jungle
appeared on either hand, yet I never for a moment
was weary of watching the graceful bending of the i
reeds and tall bamboos, and of the varied grouping
of these with large trees. In two places the river
makes such long bends, that artificial canals have
been made across the tongues of land thus formed.
One of these cuts, which was less than a hundred
yards long, saved us going round half a mile by the
river. Every four or five miles we came to a large
kampong, and exchanged our boatmen for new ones,
so that all day long we swiftly glided down the
smooth stream, one relay of men not getting weary
before they were relieved by another, and the
strong current also helping us onward. The kam-
pongs here are free from the filth seen in those
farther up in the interior. The houses are all placed
on posts five or six feet high, for sometimes the
whole country is completely flooded. Many of them
are built of well-planed boards, and have a roofing
of tiles. When the sun had become low, we came
to the large kampong of Baruaiyu. At all these
villages there is a raft with a house upon it, where
the boatmen waited for us. Fastening our boat to
one of these, we took up our quarters in the rajah’s
house. Like those built by our Puritan forefathers,
it had one long roof and one short one, but it was so
low that a tall man could scarcely stand up in it anywhere.
The floor, instead of being level, rose in four
broad steps, and the whole building formed but one