npunished to this day, and are
at present numbered among the subjects of the British North Borneo
Company. I have been since told that I have more than once unwittingly
shaken hands and had friendly intercourse with some of them. In fairness
to them I should add that it is more than probable that they mistook the
_Friederich_ for a vessel belonging to Spain, with whom their sovereign,
the Sultan of Sulu, was at that time at war. After this incident, and by
order of his Government, Baron OESTERREICHER visited Sandakan Bay and, I
believe, reported that he could discover no population there other than
monkeys. Altogether, he could not have carried away with him a very
favourable impression of Northern Borneo. On the West Coast, gambling
and cattle-lifting are the main pursuits of the gentlemanly Bajow,
pursuits which soon brought him into close and very uncomfortable
relations with the new Government, for which he entertains anything but
feelings of affection. One of the principal independent rivers on the
West Coast--_i. e._, rivers which have not yet been ceded to the
Company--is the Mengkabong, the majority of the inhabitants of which are
Bajows, so that it has become a sort of river of refuge for the bad
characters on the coast, as well as an entrepot for the smuggling of
gunpowder for sale to the head-hunting tribes of the interior. The
existence of these independent and intermediate rivers on their West
Coast is a serious difficulty for the Company in its efforts to
establish good government and put down lawlessness, and every one having
at heart the true interests of the natives of Borneo must hope that the
Company will soon be successful in the negotiations which they have
opened for the acquisition of these rivers. The Kawang was an important
river, inhabited by a small number of Bajows, acquired by the Company in
1884, and the conduct of these people on one occasion affords a good
idea of their treachery and their hostility towards good government. An
interior tribe had made itself famous for its head-hunting proclivities,
and the Kawang was selected as the best route by which to reach their
district and inflict punishment upon them. The selection of this route
was not a politic one, seeing that the inhabitants _were_ Bajows, and
that they had but recently come under the Company's rule. The expedition
was detained a day or two at the Bajow village, as the full number of
Dusun baggage-carriers had not arrived, and t