8 A.M.--Came to in Victoria Harbour, Labuan. Several old friends came on board--Hugh Low, Acting-Governor; Claude de Crespigny, Harbour Master, formerly a lieutenant with me; and Dr. Treacher, one of the Rajah’s earliest followers. Each of them I had known some twenty years before. All the troops, part of a Sepoy regiment, formed a guard to receive me on landing, when I became the guest of my friend Low. His daughter has just come out from home, a nice-looking girl, not quite seventeen. Her mother was a daughter of “Billy” Napier, and came out with me in the _Mæander_. I was present at her wedding with Low. The poor girl died at Labuan when her daughter, who is very like her, was but two years old. Mrs. Low’s grave is in one of the loveliest spots of Low’s beautiful garden, hidden from view by a grove of orange trees. The boy, Brooke Low, is still in England. Low and De Crespigny kindly added to my collection of shells. Harry Stephenson and self were put up at Government House. W. H. Read and Goodlake, he being the bearer of a letter from Yelverton, were received elsewhere. _Salamis_ proceeded in the afternoon to Coal Point. The island of Labuan having been ceded by the Sultan of Brunei, was taken possession of in the name of the Government by Captain Rodney Mundy under Sir Thomas Cochrane, on account of the coal mines. These mines, owing to bad management and a jobbing company, have not succeeded as they might have done, but the island has been useful in other ways. Our occupation has driven piracy from the N.W. Coast, though it is still rife to the eastward of Borneo. The slave trade has likewise had a check, and their treatment on the opposite coast has been ameliorated, as it is known that slaves have only to escape to British territory to be free. Power has passed from the Sultan and his chiefs. We had a Consul at Brunei once, but he has been replaced by a native agent. The United States are represented by a disagreeable scamp named Moss, who has hitherto lived by his wits. He persuaded the Sultan to cede to him a portion of the north-eastern coast, as well as some of the adjacent islands, to none of which had the Sultan any just claim; fortunately no valid agreement was drawn up. When Mr. Moss had to make a first deposit, no money was forthcoming; he enlisted a countryman, by name Terrie, who was to find the needful and go partners on condition that the property ceded was to be placed in his name.[4] The title-deeds were returned to the Sultan to be altered. In the meantime they fell out. No money was forthcoming, and the Sultan retained the title-deeds, which Mr. Moss wished to have returned to him. [4] This portion of the island was ceded to the British North Borneo Company by Royal Charter in 1881.