The capital and stronghold of the pirates was some seventy miles up, where they had gone to receive us; and with our large following of natives with stores and provisions, there was no hurry. Wherever we landed we appeared to be welcome. We brought up for the night off a creek which led to a Chinese settlement. The chief of the Kongsee came off to do homage to “Datu Brooke.” A different tribe of Dyaks inhabit the Sarebas Mountain, gorgeous in feathers and scarlet. We did not expect a road, but a number of these natives kindly shouldered our small bags and provisions. 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 and the thick marshes we had to cross. If we attempted to stop, many a fall and flounder in the mud was the consequence. The ascent of the hill, although steep, was strikingly beautiful. Our resting-places few; but when we did reach one, the cool, fresh breeze, and the increasing extent and variety of scene, embracing as it did river, mountain, wood, and sea, amply repaid the exertion of the climb. On either hand we were sure of a cool rivulet tumbling over the rocks. While going up, our care and attention was requisite to secure our safety; for it is not only one continued climb up ladders, but _such_ ladders!--made of the single trunk of a tree in its rough and rounded state, with notches, not cut with the reasonable distance of the ratlines of our rigging, but requiring the knee to be brought level with 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. We mounted in this manner some 500 feet. We were received in one of the circular halls of these Dyaks, hung round with hundreds of human heads, most of them dried with the skin and hair on. To give them, if possible, a more ghastly appearance, small shells (the cowry) are inserted where the eyes once were. Tufts of dry grass protruded from the ears. But my eyes soon got accustomed to the sight, and by the time our meal was ready we did not mind dining in the scullery. Of course the natives crowded round us; with these people it was as with the more civilised--curiosity was strongest in the gentler sex. [Sidenote: May 25.] Having returned to our boats, moved up another branch of the river, and, with the chance of some deer-shooting, landed under a group of shady trees. The distance we had to walk to our game our guides considered nothing: some five miles through jungle. Just before sunset we came to a jungle which opened on a swamp of long rank grass. Leeches abounded, getting up one’s legs and down one’s socks. They caused no pain when they caught on, but on taking off our shoes we frequently found them saturated with blood.