Far Off; Or, Asia and Australia Described: With Anecdotes and IllustrationsMortimer, Favell Lee
Religion
Far Off; Or, Asia and Australia Described: With Anecdotes and Illustrations
Mortimer, Favell Lee
Asia -- Description and travel; Australia -- Description and travel
They say they live like monkeys. But why do they behave like tigers?
An English gentleman, named Sir James Brooke, has settled in Borneo, and
has become a chief of a large tract of land. His house is near the river
Sarawak. He has persuaded the Sultan of Borneo, to give the English a
VERY LITTLE island called the Isle of Labuan. It is a desert island. Of
what use can this small island be to England? English soldiers may live
there, and try to prevent pirates infesting the seas. If it were not for
the pirates, Borneo would be able to send many treasures to foreign
countries. It is but a little way from Borneo to Singapore, and there are
many English merchants at Singapore, ready to buy the precious things of
Borneo. Gold is found in Borneo, mixed with the earth. But I don't know
who would dig it up, if it were not for the industrious Chinese, who come
over in great numbers to get money in this island. Diamonds are found
there, and a valuable metal called antimony.
The sago-tree, the pepper plant, and the sugar-cane, and the cocoa-nut
tree are abundant.
The greatest curiosity that Borneo possesses are the eatable nests. These
white and transparent nests are found in the caves by the sea-shore, and
they are the work of a little swallow. The Chinese give a high price for
these nests, that they may make soup for their feasts.
ANIMALS.--Borneo has very few large animals. There are, indeed, enormous
alligators in the rivers, but there are no lions or tigers; and even the
bears are small, and content to climb the trees for fruit and honey. The
majestic animal which is the pride of Ceylon, is not found in Borneo: I
mean the elephant.
Yet the woods are filled with living creatures. Squirrels and monkeys
sport among the trees. The leaps of the monkeys are amazing; hundreds
will jump one after the other, from a tree as high as a house, and not
one will miss his footing; yet now and then a monkey has a fall. The
most curious kind of monkey is found in Borneo--the Ourang-outang; but it
is one of the least active; it climbs carefully from branch to branch,
always holding by its hands before it makes a spring. These
Ourang-outangs are not as large as a man, yet they are much stronger. All
the monkeys sleep in the trees; in a minute a monkey makes its bed by
twisting a few branches together.
Beneath the trees--two sorts of animals, very unlike each other, roam
about,--the clumsy hog, and the graceful deer. As the _largest_ sort of
_monkeys_ is found in Borneo, so is the _smallest_ sort of _deer_. There
is a deer that has legs only eight inches long. There is no more elegant
creature in the world than this bright-eyed, swift-footed little deer.
JAPAN.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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