tinct and
distant races met on this lonely and lovely spot--English, Chinese,
Malays, and Dyaks! What a scope for poetry and reflection--the time,
the clime, the spot, and the company!

"_26th._--After our morning meal and bath, entered the small river
Stabad, which, according to report, runs from a source two or
three days' journey further into the interior. At present it is so
obstructed by fallen trees, that we were forced to return, after
ascending about four miles. We left our boats near its entrance,
and walked to the small but steep mountain, Tubbang. Its length may
be about 400 feet. After mounting, by a winding path, about half-way
up toward the top, we arrived at the entrance of a cave, into which
we descended through a hole. It is fifty or sixty feet long, and the
far end is supported on a colonnade of stalactites, and opens on a
sheer precipice of 100 or 150 feet. Hence the spectator can overlook
the distant scene; the forest lies at his feet, and only a few trees
growing from the rock reach nearly to the level of the grotto. The
effect is striking and panoramic; the grotto cheerful; floored with
fine sand; the roof groined like Gothic, whence the few clear drops
which filter through form here and there the fantastic stalactites
common to such localities. The natives report the cave to be the
residence of a fairy queen; and they show her bed, pillow, and other
of her household furniture. Within the cave we found a few remnants
of human bones; probably some poor Dyak who had crawled there to die.

"Having finished our survey of the place, and wandered sufficiently
about the mount, we reembarked, and dropped a short way down the
river, and started again into the jungle to look for antimony ore,
but without success, our guide having forgotten the road. After a
couple of hours' wandering, the latter part in a heavy storm of rain,
we reached the boats; and I thence ascended to Suntah, where we were
all glad to house ourselves, as the deluge continued.

"_27th._--I will say nothing of my works at Suntah, except that they
run away with my money, are badly conducted by my Chinese hadji,
and, above all, that I have great reason to suspect the integrity
and steadiness of this said hadji. I must therefore make up my mind
either to change him when the business is finished, or to watch him
very narrowly; for the honesty of a diamond-worker, like the virtue of
Caesar's wife, must be above suspicion, or he must be watch