d
fell, burying one of the carpenters, Miller by name, in the sand
underneath it. He was extricated with great difficulty; but before any
surgical assistance could be rendered him he was a corpse. On
examination most of his bones were found to be crushed.

Soon after our return from the Sakarron the expedition to Loondoo was
arranged, and we started in the barge and gig, accompanied by Captain
Keppell in his own boat, and Mr. Brooke and Hentig in one of the native
boats, called a Tam-bang. The distance was about forty miles, and we
should have arrived at four o'clock in the afternoon, but, owing to the
narrowness of the channel, and a want of knowledge of the river, we
grounded on the flats, where we lay high and dry for the space of four
hours. Floating with the following tide, we discovered the proper
channel, and found our way up the river, although the night was dark as
pitch: when near the town, we anchored for daylight.

I may as well here give a slight description of the scenery on the
Borneo rivers, all of which, that we have visited, with the exception of
the Bruni, bear a close resemblance to each other. They are far from
picturesque or beautiful, for the banks are generally low, and the
jungle invariably extends to the water's edge. For the first fifteen or
twenty miles the banks are lined with the nepa-palms, which then
gradually disappear, leaving the mangrove alone to clothe the sides of
the stream. When you enter these rivers, it is rare to see any thing
like a human habitation for many miles; reach after reach, the same
double line of rich foliage is presented, varying only in the
description of trees and bushes as the water becomes more fresh; now and
then a small canoe may be seen rounding a point, or you may pass the
stakes which denote that formerly there had been a fishing station. At
last a hut appears on the bank, probably flanked with one or two Banana
trees. You turn into the next reach and suddenly find yourself close to
one or more populous and fortified towns. As you ascend higher the
scenery becomes much more interesting and varied from the mangroves
disappearing. Few of the rivers of Borneo are more than eighty miles in
extent. The two rivers of Bruni and Coran are supposed to meet in the
centre of the island, although for many miles near their source they are
not much wider than a common ditch.

Before day-light of the following morning our slumbers were disturbed
by the crowing of a wh