Just at the entrance of the Madalam, opposite the site of the China fort before mentioned, we once had what I thought might have proved a serious adventure. We had built a small hut, and our whole party consisting of but fifteen, we kept a good watch. Towards four in the morning, the sentinel touched me quietly, I got up, and found old Japer watching with a musket in his hand, who beckoned me to him; then I distinctly heard footsteps in the jungle. I told the sentinel to wake the men quietly, and when all were prepared, I shouted out in Malay, “Who goes there?” No answer, but perfect stillness. I then made Japer hail in the Kayan and also in the Murut languages, and as again no answer was returned, I fired a miniè rifle over the spot from whence the noise of footsteps had proceeded. The crash of the conical ball in the trees made the intruders rush back. In about a quarter of an hour we heard steps on the pebbly flat below us. We again hailed, but obtaining no answer, we fired a volley. There was much movement, as of footsteps in rapid retreat. I thought at first it might be a pig or a tambadau; but on examining the jungle near the hut, we found the footprints of several men who had crawled up very near to us. They may have been only wax hunters, but they ought to have answered the hail: my men, however, insisted that they were Kayans. After leaving the Madalam on our right, we entered a perfectly new country. We saw a range of hills, said to be Sertab, to the eastward. We stopped at two p.m. below an extensive pebbly flat. It shortly afterwards commenced raining, and is now pouring heavily, though as the clouds are coming from the north, there is some hope of the weather clearing up. Just below Tambadau Island we had a view of the Molu range, and I was somewhat puzzled by it. There appear to be two peaks, the westernmost much lower than that to the east, which is considerably loftier. When we were at the foot of the range, we noticed that there was a peak to the westward, but not much separated from the mountain we attempted to ascend.[7]