rk. The species
is probably the _Pteropus edulis_; its expanded wings are near 5 ft.
across, and it flies with great ease and rapidity. Fruit seems so scarce
in these jungles that it is a mystery where they find enough to supply
such vast multitudes.

Our mode of life here is very simple--rather too much so, as we have a
continual struggle to get enough to eat. The Sarawak market is to a
great extent supplied with rice, fowls, and sweet potatoes from this
river, yet I have been obliged to send to Sarawak to purchase these very
articles. The reason is that the Dyaks are almost all in debt to the
Malay traders, and will therefore not sell anything, fearful of not
having sufficient to satisfy their creditors. They have now just got in
their rice harvest, and though it is not a very abundant one there is no
immediate pressure of hunger to induce them to earn anything by hunting
or snaring birds, etc. This also prevents them from being very
industrious in seeking for the "mias," though I have offered a high
price for full-grown animals. The old men here relate with pride how
many heads they have taken in their youth, and though they all
acknowledge the goodness of the present Rajah's government, yet they
think that if they could still take a few heads they would have better
harvests. The more I see of uncivilised people, the better I think of
human nature on the whole, and the essential differences between
so-called civilised and savage man seem to disappear. Here are we, two
Europeans surrounded by a population of Chinese, Malays, and Dyaks. The
Chinese are generally considered, and with some truth, to be thieves,
liars, and careless of human life, and these Chinese are coolies of the
very lowest and least educated class. The Malays are invariably
characterised as treacherous and bloodthirsty, and the Dyaks have only
recently ceased to think head-taking an absolute necessity. We are two
days' journey from Sarawak, where, though the Government is European,
yet it only exists by the consent and support of the native population.
Now I can safely say that in any part of Europe, if the same facilities
for crime and disturbance existed, things would not go on so smoothly
as they do here. We sleep with open doors and go about constantly
unarmed; one or two petty robberies and a little private fighting have
taken place among the Chinese, but the great proportion of them are
quiet, honest, decent sort of men. They did not at first l