the 16th he has returned to Labuan, and refers to the
sketch of that tiny colony which he had written for
a magazine. “ I t is only a bit of first impressions,
and nothing.like the report of my second expedition
which I have sent home to the Company. Don’t be
too sure about great mineral wealth in North Borneo.
I t ought to be there. Two or three months, I hope,
will show; but, as you know, I am not over sanguine.
I am rather disappointed with Kurching, the capital
of Sarawak. . . . . Yes, Borneo is 100,000 times
better for me than Guy’s Hospital, to which I never
could have gone, and never will go now.
' Kinaram, April 20th, 1882.
D ea r e s t F a t h e r ,— I have just got nearly through one of the
most arduous and difficult enterprises which I hope it will be ever
my lot to undertake. I went to the Labuk Eiver in search of antimony
on March 3rd, having left Sandakan on March 1st. With the greatest
difficulties we got up the rivers, and our long journey overland was
an experience I shall never forget. I have got your nice letters in
reply to my first report on Sequati, and they cheered me more than
you can think; I got them in Central Borneo from Smith, who had
gone back to the coast to fetch food. A description of one of our
most eventful days may interest you, so I will give it as written in
my diary. The result of my expedition is that from Labuk to
Kinaram, all through the following countries—Lomantic, Tandar Batu,
Kagibangan, Tampias, Tonaonona, Tampoular, Sogohtan, Daralai,
Bendonin, Senendan, Byag, Niaasane, Ghanaghana, Tuntone, Danao,
Koligan, Lasas, Virtuo", Bundo, Moroli, Mumus, to Kinaram—there is
no trace of any mineral of commercial value. At Kinaram I am on the
track of the copper, which I shall, I hope, shortly discover.
We arrived at my men’s camp from our short trip at 10.30.
The place was well posted below a bend in the river, at the foot of a
hill 4000 feet high. Potatoes, kaladi, melons, cucumbers were now
plentiful, and my famished men got a feed of something more than
rice, for which they were very thankful. The country here is very
mountainous, and as the river is restricted by high banks, the current
is tremendous ; and all the Dyaks, Sulus, &c., said I was very brave
to go up at all............... The Dyaks here are true head-hunters; and
only a fey days ago a.head was taken at a bridge over .a torrent.
The man was walking over the felled tree, which in this country
always constitutes a bridge, when four men rushed on him, pushed
him down the steep bank, and, jumping down after him, took his
head off in a twinkling. 1 saw the victim’s head and hand in a house
not far from the scene of the murder. The headman said himself
that three weeks ago seven heads had been taken from slaughtered
men of Tingara, with which country he, Sogolitan, was fighting.
The bodies of these men were thrown into the wood near us, and all
the men said that at night, when the wind blew from a certain quarter,
there was a fearful smell of dead animal matter. . . . .
We nearly had a fight with these people next day.
I stand the climate in a most wonderful w ay; poor Smith is knocked
down with’fever when I am perfectly well. I think it is because it
is not my fate to have any ill-luck in Borneo. In five villages
where by certain rites I have been made a brother of the natives, at
my call 300 spears would come out.
Your dear letters, and mamma’s, and Nellie’s, are the only things
that I look forward to. Bessie writes to me now and then. I can
only write this one long letter now, as I have my hands full of work.
In about two months I go back to Labuan, and I shall take a rest of
a month or so.
Dearest love to mamma, Nellie, Bessie, and all my dear friends,
English and American.
Ever your most loving son,
F r a n k .
Kudat, May 18th, 1882.
M t d e a r e s t F a t h e r ,—I have come down from Kinoram for a little
'rest. I have a little station there now, consisting of my house,, the
men’s house, and the guard-house, with a stockade all round them and a
flagstaff in the middle. I have had some very wonderful and in-
terosting experiences, some very happy and some very wretched days.
I have now two white men under me ir my department—Smith, whom
I have sent back to Siquati, and Beveridge, .who is coming from Sandakan
loo King for me. I hope to find him near Kinaram when I go up
this time. I can speak Malay, and I am quite at home.with the
people. On our last journey, however, we nearly had several rows
with Dyaks, who knew absolutely nothing of the Company, and had
never seen a white man.