the driblets of bloom kept up by them nearly all the year
round.
Still the beauty of tropical gardens is lovely of its
kind. You have, or may have, all the tropical treasures
of Kew—palms, ferns, and orchids—around you in the
open air; but all this is as the beauty of a lovely woman,
jaded by over-enjoyment, the whirl of a whole season’s
gaieties! There is elegance of form, and charm of
colour, all the refinement of cultured beauty, sure enough.
Victoria water-lilies, and dainty nymphseas in open air
pools, the flesh-tinted blooms, and umbrageous leafage
of the sacred lotus also; the noble amherstia, with its
pendants of crimson and gold,—groves of feathery-leaved
palms all this, and very much more, is common; but
it is astonishing how soon one tires of this plethora of
floral charms, and how eager becomes the longing to
sniff the homely fragrance of pinks and wall-flowers ; to
stoop for a violet from a mossy hedge-bank, or a snowdrop
even from a cotter’s garden. Indeed, there is no
gainsaying the fact, as has been pointed out by Wallace
and others, that the most lovely and satisfying, the
most sociable of all flowers, are those of temperate
climates.
CHAPTEE IX.
A VOYAGE TO SULU.
Sulu Archipelago—Long drought—Jungle fires—Sandakan—Good water
supply—Insects and birds—How an alligator was utilised—A boat
excursion—Visit to the shore—A Chinese trader—Chinese hospitality
—Slavery—A walk by the river—Manilla hemp—Native tombs—
Prangipane—or the “ dead man’s flower” — Eough walking—
Interesting birds.
A f t e r having spent some time on the north-west coast
of Borneo, varied by collecting expeditions further in the
interior of the Murut and Dusun countries, I took a
passage on the small trading steamer Far East, bound
for Sandakan and the Sulu Archipelago. An intelligent
young Scotchman, Mr. W. C. Cowie, part owner and
engineer, was on board, and enlivened the voyage with a
fund of information relating to the habits, customs, and
trade of the natives among whom we were going. We
were accompanied by his brother, who was going to reside
in Sulu for trading purposes, and several Chinese and
Malay traders also had taken deck passages. We sailed
about 7 a .m. on April 5th, and the weather being fine we
obtained capital views of the Bornean coast as we steamed
along.
This was the greatest season of drought which had
been known here for some time, nearly five months without
rain, and this under a tropical sun, and in several
places we could see jungle fires raging along the coast.