number of these kind savages voluntarily shouldered our
provisions, beds, bags, and baggage, and we proceeded on our march. We
did not expect to find quite a turnpike-road; but, at the same time,
I, for one, was not prepared for the dance led us by our wild cat-like
guides through thick jungle, and alternately over rocky hills, or up
to our middles in the soft marshes we had to cross. Our only means of
doing so was by feeling on the surface of the mud (it being covered
in most places about a foot deep with grass or discolored water)
for light spars thrown along lengthwise and quite unconnected, while
our only support was an occasional stake at irregular distances,
at which we used to rest, as the spars invariably sunk into the mud
if we attempted to stop; and there being a long string of us, many
a fall and flounder in the mud (gun and all) was the consequence.

The ascent of the hill, although as steep as the side of a house,
was strikingly beautiful. Our resting-places, unluckily, were but few;
but when we did reach one, the cool, fresh breeze, and the increasing
extent and variety of scene--our view embracing, as it did, all the
varieties of river, mountain, wood, and sea--amply repaid us for the
exertion of the lower walk; and, on either hand, we were sure to have a
pure cool rivulet tumbling over the rocks. While going up, however, our
whole care and attention were requisite to secure our own safety; for
it is not only one continued climb up ladders, but such ladders! They
are made of the single trunk of a tree in its rough and rounded state,
with notches, not cut at the reasonable distance apart of the ratlins
of our rigging, but requiring the knee to be brought up to the level
of the chin before the feet are sufficiently parted to reach from
one step to another; and that, when the muscles of the thigh begin
to ache, and the wind is pumped out of the body, is distressing work.

We mounted, in this manner, some 500 feet; and it was up this steep
that Mr. Brooke had ascended only a few months before, with two hundred
followers, to attack the Singe Dyaks. He has already described the
circular halls of these Dyaks, in one of which we were received,
hung round, as the interior of it is, with hundreds of human heads,
most of them dried with the skin and hair on; and to give them, if
possible, a more ghastly appearance, small shells (the cowry) are
inserted where the eyes once were, and tufts of dried grass protrude
fr