That day it blew heavily, and much depended whether it were good holding ground, but our principal fear was that another water-washed rock might be astern, on which if our vessel bumped she must go to pieces. The villagers from the neighbouring coast saw our danger and thronged to the beach: but we paid little attention to them, as we kept our eyes on two points to watch if the pinnace drifted. The sea as far as the eye could reach was one sheet of curling waves, crested with foam, which broke upon our bows and washed our decks; but as the wind became stronger, we veered out cable, though cautiously, as we were uncertain what hidden dangers there might be astern of us. It was an anxious time, as the squall lasted two hours without abatement; but even storms must have an end, and half an hour before sunset the wind lessened, as it often does about that time, and we sent out our boat to sound, and were soon able to have the pinnace towed clear of the water-washed rock, and setting sail we stood out to sea in a north-westerly direction to give us a good offing. We sat up by turns all that night, and amused ourselves by watching the hundreds of stars that fell or shot across the heavens, as is usual in the month of August; and I saw a brilliant meteor of a bluish colour, which appeared in the east, and flashed across the dark sky to disappear almost in a moment. We reached Labuan by daylight the following morning. I am sorry to say that we did not fulfil our promise to the Kiaus, to go and explore the lake. I fully intended doing so during my last visit to Borneo, but was prevented by my return home. I had not forgotten their commissions, and had provided myself with a large store of needles and thread, which were, however, equally prized by the ladies of Brunei. I must add a few remarks respecting the plates of the _Nepenthes_ which appear in this volume; they are copied, as I have before observed, from the magnificent plates published in the fourth part of the _Transactions of the Linnean Society of London_. It is impossible to obtain a complete idea of these astonishing pitchers from the plates I have inserted, as I have been obliged to reduce them to the size of my work; but I the less regret this, as they have been drawn the size of life in the _Transactions_. With regard to the colouring, I obtained the assistance of Mr. Low, who first saw the plants, and has studied their appearance and growth; and many of the apparent contradictions in describing their appearance arise from the change which takes place in their tints at different ages. CHAPTER XI. THE PHYSICAL AND POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE DISTRICTS LYING BETWEEN GAYA BAY AND THE TAMPASUK RIVER;[21] WITH A GEOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF MALUDU BAY AND THE NORTH-EAST COAST OF BORNEO.