LIFE IN THE FORESTS OF THE FAR EAST. [Illustration: F. Jones, lith. Day & Son, Lith^{rs}. to the Queen Published by Smith, Elder & C^o. 65 Cornhill, London. KINA BALU FROM THE LOWER TAMPASUK.] LIFE IN THE FORESTS OF THE FAR EAST. BY SPENSER ST. JOHN, F.R.G.S., F.E.S., FORMERLY H.M.’S CONSUL-GENERAL IN THE GREAT ISLAND OF BORNEO, AND NOW H.M.’S CHARGÉ D’AFFAIRES TO THE REPUBLIC OF HAYTI. _WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS._ IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I. LONDON: SMITH, ELDER AND CO., 65, CORNHILL. M.DCCC.LXII. [_The right of Translation is reserved._] PREFACE. I have explained in a short introduction the object and plan of the present volumes, and have little more to say, beyond a reference to the assistance I have received, and the plates and maps which accompany and illustrate them. In order to prevent mistakes, and correct my own impressions, I submitted a series of questions to four gentlemen who were intimately acquainted with the Dayak tribes, and they gave me most useful information in reply. To Mr. Charles Johnson and the Rev. William Chalmers I am indebted for very copious and valuable notes on the Sea and Land Dayaks; and to the Rev. Walter Chambers and the Rev. William Gomez for more concise, yet still interesting accounts of the tribes with whom they live. To Mr. Hugh Low, the Colonial Treasurer of Labuan, I am under special obligations, as he freely placed at my disposal the journals he had kept during our joint expeditions, as well as those relating to some districts which I have not visited. It is to be regretted that he has not himself prepared a work on the North-West Coast, as no man possesses more varied experience or a more intimate knowledge of the people. With regard to the plates contained in this work, I am indebted to the courtesy of George Bentham, Esq., the President of the Linnean Society, for permission to engrave the figures of the Nepenthes from the admirable ones published in Vol. XXII. of that Society’s Transactions, and which being of the size of life are the more valuable. I have inserted, with Dr. Hooker’s permission, his description of the Bornean Nepenthes; and it will always be a subject of regret that the British Government did not carry out their original intention of sending this able botanist to investigate the Flora of Borneo, which is perhaps as extraordinary as any in the world.