“ atap” roofed, “ kajanged ” walled house up. I t was
interesting to watch the way the men built it. Two
large stakes, twenty feet long, were driven firmly into
the ground, and then four shorter ones, one on each
side of the main poles. At the top of the two short
poles a cross-pole was fixed, and tied firmly in its
place with split rattans. Two more cross-poles were
then fixed on, and some split bamboos tied on the outside
of the kajangs and fixed on with rattans. With
ataps roofed on well, the house was quite home-like and
comfortable away out in the wilds of Borneo. I had
a flagstaff fixed up close to the house, and the “ Sabah
flag ” run up. The men managed to make themselves
very comfortable by six o’clock, and after this I went
for a stroll along the beach. I noticed numerous
tracks of very large monkeys, which Smith said were
“ orang-utan ” tracks ; a large flock of brown eagles
flew over us at sundown. I had the “ head man ” up,
and gave him some sardines, tea, and milk, at which
he was much pleased. But he pointed out to me
that it was impossible for the men to work at
night (i.e. watch) and in the day also. On thinking
over the matter, I determined to dispense with the
sentinel, as all hands would be required to make the
“ oil dock.” I therefore told' him that it did not
matter watching. On coming back from a stroll,
however, at eight o’clock, I found “ Tulis,” one of the
best of the coolies I got from Labuan, had put a
fellow, one of the Tampassuk policemen, on guard,
and he was standing under the flagstaff with his
Snider rifle. He saluted me, and I told him that I
did not want any one to sit up and watch. “ Tulis,”
however, said that this was a new country, filled with
“ Muruts,” I Dusuns,” “ Bajows,” that the point was
frequented by “ Sulu Pirates,” and that the men were
'afraid of people coming in the night. I showed him
my pistols, guns, &c., and told him we would watch,
and after this the men quieted down. The utter
loneliness of the sea-shore for miles and miles was
depressing, although we sighted three prahus to-day
on the extreme horizon.
Nov. 21.—Got up at six o’clock and started Smith and
all the men cutting trees to make a dock round the
main oil spring.3 The tide was quite out, and it was
raining a little. I had a hole dug, one foot deep by
two feet wide and long, at .the main oil spring. Oil
bubbled up freely. There was a thickness of four
inches of oil floating on mud and water saturated with
oil, in a few minutes. In five hours a double row of
stakes was planted all round the oil, but as it was
raining in torrents, and as the tide was coming in, I
stopped the men working at eleven o’clock. I gave them
a dose of quinine all round. I t rained heavily all day,
so that nothing could be done in the afternoon. I
went up into the jungle above the oil spring, but was
unsuccessful in finding a spring or any section. The
whole place is densely wooded, and it was with the
greatest difficulty I made my way along. There
is about four feet of superficial yellow clay over-
lying the sandstone. The sandstone itself I should
think was of recent origin, as it contains bands of
blue clay in which fossils of tertiary age have been
found. I t is also veined through and through with
oxide of iron, in bands and in concretionary nodules.
1 3 At this place a plan for investigating the oil was drawn in detail
and explained,