made here, but I noted nothing among them different to
those of the north-west coast.
When Mr. Pryer first came to live here the natives had
annoyed him a good deal by coming below the house at
night and stealing rice. This they did by mnVing a hole
through the bags with a spear, so that the rice ran through
the interstices of the lath floor, and was caught in a vessel
held below for that purpose. One day, however, a tolerably
large and healthy alligator was brought in for sale,
and with the eye of a naturalist, Mr. Pryer at once saw
his chance. The ugly creature was purchased and confined
beneath the house, and it is needless to add that
the nocturnal pilfering in that direction was immediately
discontinued. Alligators of enormous dimensions are
said to be very common here, but we had to be satisfied
with a glimpse of a shark in the bay. Elephants are said
to come down to the banks of the Sagaliad river, and a
young rhinoceros was actually shot there a few months
only after the time of our visit. Having borrowed a boat
and obtained a native crew we landed on two of the islands
in the bay, and found them equally barren. The only
plants of interest we noticed were one or two species of
palms, which I had not seen elsewhere, and of one of
these I obtained a large quantity of seeds. We saw
plenty of curlew, and large flocks of milk white cranes or
“ padi birds,” rested on the trees near the shore. It was
nearly dusk when we returned to the ship, and being wet
and dirty, as one almost invariably is on exploring tours
in the forest and jungle, we were glad to visit the little
bath-house once more, and change our clothes before
dinner on the cool upper deck of the little steamer.
At daybreak I was awoke by the rattling of the chains
as the anchor was weighed, and in a few minutes afterwards
Sandakan was behind us as we steamed away to
the Sulu Archipelago. We reached Meimbong on the
evening of the 10 th, and anchored just off the traders’
houses, which, as is usual here, are built on piles far
enough out from the shore for vessels to anchor at the
little jetty before the doors. Sulu is about thirty-six
hours steaming from Sandakan, but in this case we were
longer. We reached the islands at the entrance to the
harbour of Meimbong just at sundown, and were much
impressed by the indications of cultivation and fertility
which they presented. We could also see the cultivated
patches and the fruit groves on the Sulu hills
quite plainly, while the cool fresh evening air was deliciously
perfumed, with what we afterwards found to be
a mint-like plant (Hyptis suaveolens), very common
throughout the island, especially in waste places and
cornfields.
After dinner we went ashore to see an old Chinaman
named “ Peah,” one of the principal traders in the place.
His house was half house and half warehouse, consisting
of a large front room the entire length of the house with
some private apartments behind, the kitchen, as is usual,
being a separate structure at the end of the dwelling.
Half the large front room consisted of a raised platform
about four feet in height, carpeted with finely-worked
pandan mats, and covered with a fancy chintz canopy,
fringed in front. Cushions were piled up on the particoloured
^aats, and between these and the partition behind
fancy coloured boxes were piled ostentatiously, each
secured by a brass lock of Chinese manufacture. On
entering we found “ Peah ” sitting on the platform talking
to some Sulu traders, his wife, a neat little Chinese
woman, and about a dozen slaves and attendants, mostly
Sulu girls. The room was but dimly illuminated with
cocoa nut oil lamps, but a couple of composite candles