prise, at six o’clock; with Singapore sampan, Sarawak
prahu, and Residential boat in tow.
Arrived at Sequati River at twelve o’clock, and after
some difficulty in getting the goods landed, owing to
a heavy sea on the bar, we unloaded everything on the
sand-reef at the junction of the Sequati and Kurina
return home. This first diary I received after his death. It was
found in the house he occupied at Kudat. I am convinced that other
diaries exist, and there is some little hope that they may yet he forthcoming.
The reports sent to the Company 'vreve in the shape of long
and comprehensive extracts from his diaries, and were all written in his
own hand. I give them complete as they stand. If they lack colour
here and there, the reason is that they were intended to have a semiofficial
character. Mere personal reflections, notes of home, wayside
incidents of travel and such like details would therefore he eliminated.
These details would he left for publication in the hook. I have endeavoured
to at least suggest some of these outside incidents in the
special information which I have obtained from his first comrade,
Colonel Harington (see footnote, p. 120), and from the traveller who
saw him on his last expedition. So far as the notes of the four
expeditions herein described are concerned, I have not interfered with
the text, except to give headings to the chapters, take out some of the
dates, so as to carry on the narrative without the formality of the
day-to-day entries, and to omit in the first and last diaries masses of
mere technical figures, solar observations, and chemical and other dry
scientific notes which the publishers regard as details rather for the
archives of the Bornean Government than for a hook of biography
and travel. I remember going up to the offices in the City to see
Frank’s first report and being keenly touched with the perfection of the
work. It was a chapter of exploration and diplomacy, a scientific and
geological essay, illustrated with a careful map, sections of an oil-well,
and other notable data. The slave incident (described at page 159)
was regarded by the Governor and the Company as one which reflected
highly upon the sound and cool judgment of the young
explorer. Indeed, from first to last, I never visited the headquarters
of the Company in London without being met with some compliment,
official and otherwise, that had been paid to Frank, both in the public
and private letters of the Governor, or in messages from travellers or
officials who had seen or heard of him. ✓
rivers. I t rained in torrents all the afternoon, and
getting my tent up on a piece of high ground was a
matter of great discomfort and trouble.* The men,
* Colonel Harington writes to me his recollections of this trip to
Sequati and the opening of Frank’s work in Borneo. Prefacing his
notes with a tribute to his companion’s bravery and “ philosophic cheerfulness
” under all circumstances, be says :—
“ During the time I was at Abai inspecting the place as to its suitability
for the headquarters of the constabulary, Frank Hatton arrived
in the Royalist on the 19th of November,- 1881, and disembarked.
His object was to consult with Witti, and then go on to the Sequati
River to inspect and report on the spring of petroleum discovered there
by Witti. During the few days before starting for the Sequati we
made several excursions into the surrounding country, which, unlike
many other parts of North Borneo, is open, free from jungle, and
covered in places with the luxuriant Lalang grass. Frank was delighted
with the beauty of the scenery, and my favourite view from the-hill
opposite the station across the valley and river up to the crowning
heights of Hina Balu especially delighted him. We said that it was worth
while for any good landscape artist to come out and paint a few of the
views—sunrise and sunset in particular being perfect, and I strongly
recommend it to some man with a ‘ worthy brush.’ Frank was very keen
to get to ‘ work,’ however, and so having finished all necessary prepara -
tions, we set off in the launch Enterprise for the scene of his investigations—
our party being Witti, Frank, and I, with Smith, the man of
| underground knowledge,’ and a squad of some dozen natives to act
as guards and labourers. A fine day and smooth sea, and we quickly
steamed the thirty odd miles to the mouth of the Sequati River from
Abai. We landed in the Abai station-boat, and set to work to pick
a camping-ground and land all the stores, tents, and gear, and then at
noon got our breakfasts. To our disgust, about half-way through the
meal, down came the rain in the determined way it has in those
regions, and continued off and on all day; and what was worse, a
strong wind set in from the west, kicking up a heavy sea that didn’t
promise a pleasant return passage for Witti and me. We all ‘worked
like blacks,’ and by the afternoon had set up Frank’s tent, put up a
shelter for Smith and the men, and managed to arrange a protection
and covering for the stores, &c. Witti, Smith, and I, being old stagers,
“ growled ” a good deal over the ill-luck of getting such an inoppor