. At the moment of his joining
us, our second mishap occurred. The night, as previously mentioned,
was pitch dark, and a rapid current running, when the cry of "a man
overboard" caused a sensation difficult to describe. All available
boats were immediately dispatched in search; and soon afterward we
were cheered by the sound of "all right." It appears that the news
of the arrival of the mail was not long in spreading throughout our
little fleet, when Mr. D'Aeth, leaving the first cutter in a small
sampan, capsized in coming alongside the steamer; the man in the bow
(who composed the crew) saved himself by catching hold of the nearest
boat; Mr. D'Aeth would have been drowned had he not been an excellent
swimmer. This was not the last of our mishaps; for we had no sooner
arranged ourselves and newly-arrived visitors from the Samarang
comfortably on board the steamer from the pelting rain, than the
accustomed and quick ear of Mr. Brooke heard the cry of natives in
distress. Jumping into his Singapore sampan, he pushed off to their
assistance, and returned shortly afterward, having picked up three,
half drowned, of our Dyak followers, whom he had found clinging
to the floating trunk of a tree. They too had been capsized by the
bore; when, out of eleven composing the crew, only these three were
saved--although the Dyaks are invariably expert swimmers.

On the 23d, after waiting to obtain meridian observations, we moved
down as far as the mouth of the river Linga, and then dispatched one
of our Malay chiefs to the town of Bunting to summon Seriff Jaffer
to a conference. This, however, he declined on a plea of ill health,
sending assurance, at the same time, of his goodwill and inclination
to assist us in our endeavors to suppress piracy.

On the night of the 24th, we once again reached Sarawak, where the
rejoicings of the previous year, when we returned from a successful
expedition, were repeated. On the third evening after our return,
we were just settling down to enjoy a little rest, having got our
sick and wounded into comfortable quarters, and were beginning
heartily to indulge in the comforts of a bed after our fatigue and
harassing duties in open boats during the previous three weeks, when
information arrived that Seriff Sahib had taken refuge in the Linga
river, where, assisted by Seriff Jaffer, he was again collecting his
followers. No time was to be lost; and on the 28th, with the addition
of the Samarang's boats,