First Visit--Appearance of the Country--Scenery--Lovely Isles--Turtle--Method of Securing their Eggs--Their Enemies--Fish--The Dugong--Method of Capturing them--Graves of Englishmen at Po Point--First Evening in Borneo--A Welcome to the Rajah--Boats--Salute and Manning Yards--The Muaratabas Entrance--The River--The Town of Kuching--Sunset--Arrival--A noisy Procession--Extent of Sarawak--A well-watered Country--The Rejang--Extent of fertile Soil adapted to Sugar--Its Inhabitants--Different Races and Tribes--Population--Kuching, the Capital--Increase--Trade--Sago districts--Cotton--Seed sent by the Cotton Supply Association--Imported Labour required--Increased Production--Inferior Cultivation--Soil adapted to most Tropical Productions--Water communication--Minerals--Coal, Antimony, and Gold--Indications of other Minerals--Former Condition of the Country--Difficulties of Management--Forced Trade--Comfortable Position of the Dayaks--Influence of New System on the Malays--Distant Voyages--Remarkable Honesty--Anecdote--System of Government--An Unteachable Chief--Sons of Patinggi Ali--Their Good Conduct--Effect of Associating the Natives in the Government--The System introduced into all the Dependencies--Effect of Sir James Brooke’s Government--Anecdote of an old Chief--Gradual Development--Necessity for Support--The Chinese an Industrious and Saving Nation--Soundness in the System of Government--England with a Chinese Colony--Future of Borneo--Chinese amalgamate with Native Population--Female Emigration from China--Administration of Justice--The Sarawak Courts--Character of the Malays. [Illustration: T. Picken, lith. Published by Smith, Elder & C^o. 65, Cornhill, London. Day & Son, Lith^{rs} to the Queen. GOVERNMENT HOUSE __ SARAWAK 1860.] Sarawak and its dependencies next claim my attention, and I will give an account of my first visit to that place, as the notes I then made are more likely to present a true picture than any written subsequently. On August 31, 1848, we came in sight of Borneo; it was a dull and misty day, and the shores were not clearly visible, but the next morning it was bright and showed us in all its perfection the lovely country that skirts the shore between Datu and Sipang points. At first it appeared a confused mass of mountains, but the eye soon began to distinguish its varied features. The massive and lofty range of Poé bounded the scene to the westward, while the Matang occupied the centre of the picture, and the peak of Santubong and the Sipang hills completed it to the eastward. Between these are many lower ranges, and beyond could be seen various ridges and single mountains forming a background.