The Sea Road to the East, Gibraltar to Wei-hai-wei: Six Lectures Prepared for the Visual Instruction Committee of the Colonial OfficeSargent, A. J. (Arthur John)
History
The Sea Road to the East, Gibraltar to Wei-hai-wei: Six Lectures Prepared for the Visual Instruction Committee of the Colonial Office
Sargent, A. J. (Arthur John)
Travel -- Guidebooks
The Company’s territory is in the form of a rough quadrilateral, 50
with a coastline irregular and deeply indented by the sea.
Inland, but nearer to the west coast than the east, stretches a
long backbone of mountains; so that the rivers on the east side
are longer and the lowlands broader and flatter than on the west.
The Equator cuts Borneo almost in the middle, and the whole
island is truly tropical, though there are great differences
between the highlands and the lowlands. The lowlands are hot
all the year round, though the temperature is modified by the
rain and dense vegetation and the nearness of the sea; so that
the climate does not show the extremes of heat and the great
variation which we find in the dry region of Northwest India,
much further away from the Equator. Again, there are not two
strongly marked wet and dry seasons; rain falls more or less
in every month of the year, though spring and autumn are as a
rule the wettest seasons. A total annual fall of from ninety
to two hundred inches reminds us of the wetter parts of India
and the Malay Peninsula, and combined with unvarying heat does
not suggest a climate particularly adapted to occupation by the
white man. In spite of this drawback the country is in course of
development by British capital and under British direction. As an
estate it is increasing in value every year. We will now try to
see something of its products and people.
Seventy or eighty miles north of Labuan we enter another great
bay, with a small island at the entrance; the bay and island of
Gaya. On the south side of this bay is the town of Jesselton,
the western capital of the Territory and the terminus of the
only existing railway. Behind the town is hilly country, and as
we approach we may see in the distance, so far as clouds permit,
the great bulk of Mount Kinabalu, the highest part of the long
mountain chain of the interior. At Jesselton we find European
sports in progress and a mixed crowd is gathered: natives of
the coast region, largely of Malay blood, Sikhs and Pathans of
the Constabulary, with a few Chinese and the white officials.
In the town are the Malay houses built over the water, and near
them a row of Chinese shops; on the slopes above we see the 51
barracks, with the Constabulary at drill, and a few European
residences, with Government House overlooking all. At Jesselton
we have a picture in little of the conditions of the coast
districts.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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