Several minutes were passed in the examination of the map, and the youths confessed their surprise at the information it gave them. They had no idea Borneo was so large, or, as Fred expressed it, that Great Britain was so small. The Doctor set them laughing with the story of the American who visited England and said he liked the country very much, but was afraid to go out in the evening through fear that he would walk off into the sea.
It was a voyage of little more than two days from Batavia to Sarawak, the port in Borneo to which the Osprey was bound. The time was passed by our friends in conversation concerning the curious land they were about to visit, and certain features of its history. About noon of the third day from Singapore they were off the entrance of the Sarawak River, and, as the steamer was small, and of light draught, they were not delayed in passing the bar. Several native craft were on the stream, but they did not see a single foreign-rigged vessel until they entered the river and were well on their way to the town.
ASCENDING THE RIVER.
Here is what Frank wrote in his note-book:
"The town of Sarawak is about eighteen miles from the sea, and the voyage up from the bar reminded us of the voyage from the mouth of the Menam to Bangkok. The banks are lined with tropical trees of all kinds, and sometimes the foliage is so dense that it would be next to impossible to go through it without a hatchet. The houses are built over the water in many instances, and they have platforms in front where you can land from small boats just as you land at a wharf from a ship. By this arrangement the people are under no expense for drainage, as the water carries everything away as soon as it is thrown overboard. But the Doctor says the river abounds in snakes, just as the Menam does; and they come into the houses without waiting to be invited.
"The town contains about 25,000 inhabitants. They are mostly Malays and Chinese; the former have come from other parts of the archipelago, and the latter from the southern provinces of China, like their countrymen in Siam. The original inhabitants of the country do not get along very well with the Chinese and Malays, and the most of them prefer to live farther in the interior. There is nothing very remarkable about the place, and you can see the most of it without going on shore, as it stands on the bank of the river, and none of the houses are very far from the water. We went ashore in a small boat rowed by Malays, and they made it go very fast with their strong arms at the oars: these Malays are excellent sailors and boatmen, and are preferred to any other nationality of the East, with the exception of the Chinese. Some of the ship captains say they would rather have a Malay crew than a Chinese one, as the Malays are less likely to become scared in a storm, and forget how to do their work.
