The Expedition to Borneo of H.M.S. Dido | Page 8

soundly when it comes to my turn so to do.
"August 1st.--I am, then, at length, anchored off the coast of Borneo!
not under very pleasant circumstances, for the night is pitchy dark, with
thunder, lightning, rain, and squalls of wind.
"2d.--Squally bad night. This morning, the clouds clearing away, was
delightful, and offered for our view the majestic scenery of Borneo. At
nine got under weigh, and ran in on an east-by-south course 4 1/2 or 5
miles toward Tanjong Api. Came to an anchor about five miles from
the land, and dispatched the boat to take sights ashore, in order to form
a base-line for triangulation. The scenery may really be called majestic.
The low and wooded coast about Tanjong Api is backed by a mountain
called Gunong [1] Palo, some 2000 feet in height, which slopes down

behind the point and terminates in a number of hummocks, showing
from a distance like islands.
"The coast, unknown, and represented to abound in shoals and reefs, is
the harbor for pirates of every description. Here, every man's hand is
raised against his brother man; and here sometimes the climate wars
upon the excitable European, and lays many a white face and gallant
heart low on the distant strand.
"3d.--Beating between Points Api and Datu. The bay, as far as we have
seen, is free from danger; the beach is lined by a feathery row of
beautiful casuarinas, and behind is a tangled jungle, without fine timber;
game is plentiful, from the traces we saw on the sand; hogs in great
numbers, troops of monkeys, and the print of an animal with cleft hoofs,
either a large deer, tapir, or cow. We saw no game save a tribe of
monkeys, one of which, a female, I shot, and another quite young,
which we managed to capture alive. The captive, though the young of
the black monkey, is grayish, with the exception of his extremities, and
a stripe of black down his back and tail. Though very young, he has
already taken food, and we have some hope of preserving his life.
"We witnessed, at the same time, an extraordinary and fatal leap made
by one of these monkeys. Alarmed by our approach, he sprang from the
summit of a high tree at the branch of one lower, and at some distance.
He leaped short, and came clattering down some sixty or seventy feet
amid the jungle. We were unable to penetrate to the spot on account of
a deep swamp to ascertain his fate.
"A rivulet flows into the sea not far from where we landed; the water is
sweet, and of that clear brown color so common in Ireland. This coast
is evidently the haunt of native prahus, whether piratical or other. Prints
of men's feet were numerous and fresh, and traces of huts, fires, and
parts of boats, some of them ornamented after their rude fashion. A
long pull of five miles closed the day.
"Sunday, 4th.--Performed divine service myself! manfully overcoming
that horror which I have to the sound of my own voice before an
audience. In the evening landed again more to the westward. Shore

skirted by rocks; timber noble, and the forest clear of brushwood,
enabling us to penetrate with ease as far as caution permitted. Traces of
wild beasts numerous and recent, but none discovered. Fresh-water
streams, colored as yesterday, and the trail of an alligator from one of
them to the sea. This dark forest, where the trees shoot up straight and
tall, and are succeeded by generation after generation varying in stature,
but struggling upward, strikes the imagination with pictures trite yet
true. Here the hoary sage of a hundred years lies moldering beneath
your foot, and there the young sapling shoots beneath the parent shade,
and grows in form and fashion like the parent stem. The towering few,
with heads raised above the general mass, can scarce be seen through
the foliage of those beneath; but here and there the touch of time has
cast his withering hand upon their leafy brow, and decay has begun his
work upon the gigantic and unbending trunk. How trite and yet how
true! It was thus I meditated in my walk. The foot of European, I said,
has never touched where my foot now presses--seldom the native
wanders here. Here I indeed behold nature fresh from the bosom of
creation, unchanged by man, and stamped with the same impress she
originally bore! Here I behold God's design when He formed this
tropical land, and left its culture and improvement to the agency of man.
The Creator's gift as yet neglected by the creature; and yet the time may
be confidently looked for when the axe shall level the forest, and the
plow turn the ground.
"6th.--Made