The Voyage of the Vega round Asia and Europe, Volume I and Volume II

by A. E. Nordenskiöld

"We steamed about ten or twelve English miles up one of the many winding river arms, when the limited depth compelled us to turn. The vegetation on the mainland, as on the shores of the islands lying near the river-mouth, was everywhere so close that it was nearly impossible to find a place where we could land; everywhere there was the impenetrable primeval forest. Next the mouth of the river this consisted of tall, shady broad-leaved trees, which all had dark green, lustrous, large leaves. Some were in flower, others bore fruit. The greater number consisted of fig trees, whose numerous air-roots twining close on each other formed an impenetrable fence at the river bank. These air-root-bearing trees play an important rôle in increasing the area of the land and diminishing that of the water. They send their strong air-roots from the branches and stem far out into the water, and when the roots have reached the bottom, and pushed their way into the mud, they make, by the close basket-work they form, an excellent binding medium for all the new mud which the river carries with it from the higher ground in the interior. It has struck me that the air-root-bearing trees form one of the most important means for the rapid increase of the alluvial land on Borneo. Farther up the river there commenced large stretches of a species of palm, which with its somewhat lighter green and its long sheath-formed leaves was sharply distinguished from the rest of the forest. Sometimes the banks on one side were covered with palms only, on the other with fig-trees only. The palm jungles were not so impenetrable as the fig-tree thickets, the latter preferred the more swampy hollows, while the palms on the other hand grew on the more sandy and less marshy places. Of herbs and underwood there was nowhere any trace.

"During the river voyage we saw now and then single green-coloured kingfishers flying about, and a honeysucker or two, but they were not nearly so numerous as might have been expected in this purely tropical zone. We saw some apes leaping in pairs among the trees, and Palander succeeded in shooting a male. Alligators from one to one and a half metre in length, frightened by the noise of the propeller, throw themselves suddenly into the water. Small land lizards with web-feet jumped forward with surprising rapidity on the water near the banks. This was all we saw of the higher animals.

"After a run of two hours, during which we examined the banks carefully in order to find a landing place, we lay to at the best possible place for seeing what the lower fauna had to offer. It was no easy matter to get to land. The ground was so muddy that we sank to the knees, and could make our way through the wood only by walking on an intermediate layer of palm leaves and fallen branches. The search for evertebrates did not yield very much. A half-score mollusca, among them a very remarkable naked leech of quite the same colour-marking and raggedness as the bark of tree on which it lived, was all that we could find here. It struck me as very peculiar not to find a single insect group represented. The remarkable poverty in animals must be ascribed, I believe, to the complete absence of herbs and underwood. Animal life was as poor as vegetation was luxuriant and various in different places. Over the landscape a peculiar quietness and stillness rested.

"During our return we visited one of the two Malay villages mentioned above. It consisted of ten different houses, which were built on tall and stout poles out in the water at the mouth of the river, about six to ten metres from the shore. All the houses were built on a common large platform of thick bamboo, which was about a man's height above the water. At right angles to the beach there floated long beams, one end being connected with the land, while the other was anchored close to the platform. From this anchored end a plank rose at a steep angle to the platform. Communication with land was kept up in this way. The houses were nearly all quadrangular, and contained a single room, had raised, not flat roofs, and were provided at one of the shorter sides, near one corner, with a high rectangular door opening, which certainly was not intended to be closed, and on one of the long sides with a square window-opening. The building material was bamboo, from eight to eleven centimetres in thickness, mostly whole, but sometimes cleft. The roof had a thin layer of palm leaves upon it to keep out the rain. The house in its entirety resembled a cage of spills to which the least puff of wind had always free entrance. The floor bent and yielded much, and at the same time was so weak that one could not walk upon it without being afraid of falling through. One half, right opposite the door opening, was overlaid with a thin mat of some plant; it was evidently the sleeping place of the family. Some pieces of cloth was all the clothing we could discover. Of household articles there was scarcely any trace. Nor were there any weapons, arrows, or bows. The fireplace was in one corner of the room; it consisted of an immense ash-heap on some low stones. Beside it stood a rather dirty iron pot. All refuse from meals, bones and mollusc-shells, had been thrown into the water under the floor; there lay now a regular culture-layer, a couple of feet higher than the surrounding sea-bottom, consisting for the most part of mussel shells. The floor of the room was very dirty and black; it looked as if it had never been in contact with a drop of water. The interior of the whole house struck one as being as poor and wretched as that of a Chukch tent. Its inhabitants appeared scarcely to own more than they stood or walked in, i.e. for every person a large piece of cloth round the waist. Small boats lay moored to the platform. They were nothing else than tree-stems hollowed out, without any separate planks at the sides, at most two to two and a half metres long, and capable of carrying only two men. We had met such a boat a little way up the river, rowed by two youths, and laden with palm-leaves, it was not more than five to eight centimetres above the water, and appeared as if it would capsize with the least indiscreet movement on the part of the boatmen. Some dogs of middle size went about loose on the platform; they were at first shy and suspicious of us, and growled a little, but soon allowed themselves to be caressed.

"Of the natives, the Malays, unfortunately we saw at close quarters only some middle-aged men. When we approached the long floating beams which led to the platform, the women and children fled precipitately out of the nearest houses, and by the time we got to the platform, they had fortified themselves in a distant house, where they sat motionless and cast curious glances at us through a hole. The children showed their fear of us by loud crying, kept up the whole time. When we attempted to approach the fugitives, they hastened farther away. We won their favour with some cigarettes, which Palander distributed among them, and with which they were evidently delighted. They had a serious, reserved, perhaps rather indifferent appearance. A physiognomist would perhaps have had difficulty in saying whether their countenances expressed ferocity, determination, or indifference. It appeared as if it would not be easy to bring forth a look of mirth or gladness on their faces.

"At the Malay villages which we visited, some Chinese had a sago plantation. With some Malays as workmen in their service, they were now employed in loading a vessel of light draught with sago meal, of which they appeared to have a large quantity in store. Another vessel had just taken on board its cargo and was starting. The Chinese here made the same favourable impression on me as their countrymen, whom I had seen before in Japan and Hong Kong, and whom I was afterwards to see at Singapore—the impression of an exceedingly industrious, thriving, contented, and cleanly race."

Labuan strikes me as a very suitable starting-point for a naturalist who may wish to explore Borneo. Surrounded by Europeans, but undisturbed by the distractions of a large city, he would have an opportunity of accustoming himself to the climate, which, though rather warm for a dweller in the North, is by no means unhealthy, to get acquainted with the manners and customs of the natives, to acquire a knowledge of the commonest forms of the luxuriant nature, which would otherwise be apt to overwhelm the northern naturalist, in a word, to make such preparations for the journey as are necessary to secure its success. This region of Borneo appears to be one of the least known parts of the Indian Archipelago, and one need not go far from the coast to come to places which are never visited by Europeans. Labuan itself and its immediate neighbourhood have much that is interesting to offer to the observer, and from thence short excursions may be made with ease and without excessive cost to the territory of the Sultan of Bruni, who is favourable to foreigners, and to the mountain Kini Balu, near the northern extremity of Borneo, which is 4,175 metres high, and visible from Labuan. When, before our arrival at Japan, I arranged the plan of our voyage home, I included in it a visit to this mountain, at whose summit a comparatively severe climate must prevail, and whose flora and fauna, therefore, notwithstanding its equatorial position, must offer many points of comparison with those of the lands of the north. But when I was told that the excursion would require weeks, I had to give it up.

On the 12th November, the Vega again weighed anchor to continue her voyage by Singapore to Point de Galle in Ceylon. Between Labuan and Singapore our progress was but slow, in consequence of the calm which, as might have been foreseen, prevailed in the sea west of Borneo.

Singapore is situated exactly halfway, when a vessel, starting from Sweden, circumnavigates Asia and Europe. We staid here from the 28th November to the 4th December, very hospitably received by the citizens of the town, both European and Asiatic, who seemed to vie with the inhabitants of Hong Kong in enthusiasm for the voyage of the Vega. A Babel-like confusion of speech prevails in the town from the men of so many different nationalities who live here: Chinese, Malays, Klings, Bengalees, Parsees, Singhalese, Negroes, Arabs, &c. But our stay was all too short for independent studies of the customs and mode of life of these different races, or of the rich vegetable and animal worlds in the neighbourhood of the town. I must refer those who are interested in these subjects to previous descriptions of that region, and to the abundant contributions to a knowledge of it which have been published by the Straits Branch of the Asiatic Society, which was founded here on the 4th November, 1877.