^ILIBRARYOc, ^IIIBRARYQ^ A'rtEUNIVER^/A •< ^-tfOJIlVOJO'^ %a3AIN{13WV AWEUNIVERi-ZA -^^llIBRARYQr "^/saaAiNfi-avJ^^ '^&Aavaaiiii^ ^^Aavaani^'*' .^WEUNIVERS/A '^nvmm^ A>:lOSANCElf/^ %a3AINn-3WV ^^V\EUNIVERS/^ ^lOS-ANCElfj-^ ^l-UBRARYd?/^ ^tllBRARYO^ &Aavjiaii-J^ ^c ^lOSANCElfj^ ^lUBRARYQc. § 1 • ^ yH. "^J^JDNVSOl^ v^lOSANCElfj^. o '/5a3AINfl3Wv ^^.OFCAllFOfiUA, ^^ornrn^ ^OFCAUF0%, S3 a-L^ A s "^(^iwvaan^^ .^WE•UNIVER5•/A ^ ^ -5^1UBRARYQ<- ^lUBRARYQ^. ■^/ia3AINn3WV^ '^iSOdllVDJO^ %0dllV3J0^ ,^WEUNIVER% ^ ,. tncAwrnrr. .OFrAIIPHDi. , aFfAiiFnOi, > " of the Dusun chief To face page the last expedition To face p)cige inhabitants of Sanda- To face page PAGE 162 1G4 167 170 180 181 188 196 204 221 238 253 272 287 . 296 To face page 305 „ „ 307 312 323 325 326 327 328 329 330 To face page 332 [The illustrations marked [1] are from an article entitled "Frank Hatton in Borneo " in The Century Magazine ; those marked [2] are from a paper on Frank Hatton's diaries entitled " Adventures on the Equator," in The English Illustrated Magazine ; and those marked [3 j are from Burbidge's Gardens of the Su7i, published by Mr. Murray. The biographer tenders his best thanks to the editors of the above magazines and to Mr. John Murray for the use of these interesting engravings.] ^part I. FRANK HATTON'S LIFE AND WORK AT HOME AND IN NORTH BORNEO. NOETH BOENEO. EXPLORATIONS AND ADYENTUUES ON THE EQUATOR. I. PERSONAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL. Introductory — The epilogue, sunshine — Childhood — School life — At the College of Marcq, Lille — Master of French — Enters at King's College School — Oxford and Cambridge Examinations — The Eoyal School of Mines — Admiration for Darwin and Huxley — " Life is but a geological second " — Duty — A painless death — Favourite authors — A sad story — The prologue, shadow. I. NY more for the Continental ex- press ? ' "The electric Limps ' flashed into a sud- den radiance ' as the sun is said to do at daybreak in the tropics. " For a few minutes previously to the simultaneous leap of light that trans- formed a dozen opaque globes into mimic suns, Charing Cross railway station had been in semi-darkness. K ■: B 2 N^ortk Borneo. " There was much bustle of departing travellers. Parliament was up ; for even the longest and most obstructed session comes to an end. Jaded legis- lators, men of fashion, ladies of society, were among the crowd bound for foreign shores. Lon- don was emptying itself from all its avenues of transit. " ' Any more for the Continental express ? ' shouted the platform inspector. " A banging of doors, a shrill whistle, a last pressure of hands through carriage-windows, and the red lamps of the express for a moment challenged the white sentinels of Electra, only to leave the spectators gazing at the glistening track of steel along which the train vanished into the outer darkness. " They were no mere holiday travellers, the two young men whose latest adieux were made to me. Their guns were not to be loaded for sport on Scotch moors. They were pioneers bound for the Eastern seas. Adventurers had gone before, and smoothed the rugged way for the allied aid of science, which London and Edinburgh now contributed to North Borneo, the one a chemist, metallurgical and otherwise, the other a doctor of medicine. Ahead of them were a respected Governor, a staff of officials and four years of diplomatic history, with a royal charter of her Gracious Majesty Queen Victoria to follow. " It was, as I have already intimated, the autumn time of the year, when the aspect of empty houses falls with strange impressiveness upon the West-End streets. The dull windows shed no illumination upon the languid traffic of the finished season. There is nothing more cheerless than an empty house, more Persofial and Biographical. 3 especially that which has been tenanted by your own family circle. Run uyf to town from your vacation retreat and note the pathetic dumbness of your ' household gods.' It is an experience in sen- sations. And how terribly empty is a familiar room when the familiar friend has left it, not to return for years ! " Such a room stands wide open, near the desk upon which I am writing. It contains a chest of empty pigeon-holes, each docketed with scientific titles ; a nest of shelves crowded with the transactions of learned societies and technical works on mineralogy, metallurgy, and geology ; a desk stained with many acids ; a broken blowpipe ; a pair of foils ; a photo- graph of Professor Huxley ; a kindly letter from Dr. Frankland ; a cabinet of minerals in the rough ; a barometer; and in one dark corner a package of miscellaneous books, papers, and manuscripts, relating to the sun-lands above which tower the sacred heights of Kina Balu. In that empty room (the relics of the former occupation of which are so eloquent to me, and may be to some of my readers) a student of the Royal School of Mines burnt the midnight oil. Recent investigations into the influence of bacteria on gases and kindred subjects gained for him considerable distinction at the Institute of Chemistry and the Chemical Society of London, and were recognized in the scientific organs of Germany and America. These labours may be said to have closed his student career. Endorsed by the best authorities, he was selected by the Governors of the new colony to explore its mineral resources. ** We had studied these books and papers together, B 2 4 North Borneo. lie and I, and had thus been enabled to see, through the eyes of many travellers, those almost unknown lands of tropical splendour to which the pioneers have gone. Since then a further collection of private letters and explorers' reports have been lent to me — official documents, and lettersof interesting experiences. It is believed by certain friends of mine that, with this exceptional material at my disposal, I may compile and write a book of practical value (a pioneer volume, let me call it) upon the new colony and the newest British charter. The Directors have given me access to their correspondence upon the subject. In addition to this epistolary history, I shall avail myself of the best- written sources of information that bear upon the plan and object of the work in hand, the intention of which is to set forth the position and prospects of the new colony, and to tell the story of the East India Company's nineteenth-century successor.' ' Until thirty years ago the story of Borneo was that of an un- civilized country, the possession of Avhich was a bone of contention between the Dutch and the English. Oliver Van Noort visited the island in 1598. A few years later his countrymen began to trade with it. In 1609 they concluded a commercial treaty with the rulers of the Sambas, and built a factory. After about twenty years of effort they abandoned the idea of establishing a settlement, n 1707 the English appeared on the Bomean coast. They built factories, but with no permanent success. In 1763 they take possession of Balan- bangan, and in 1774 the garrison is successfully assaulted by pirates. A year later the Dutch establish a factory at Pontianak, and in 1780 the reigning powers cede part of the west coast to the Dutch. In alliance with the Sultan of Pontianak, they destroy Succadana, and in 1787 are granted portions of the south coast. In 1812 an English expedition goes out against Sambar and fails ; to succeed, however, in 1813. In 1818 the Dutch, who during this war had been expelled by the English, return, and their Bomean colonies are now formed into a special government. Sir James Brooke visited Borneo in 1839, to Personal and DiograpJiical. 5 *' While I sit before that pile of books and papers, from which the romantic story of the tropical island and its northern colony is to be extracted, the Continental exj)ress has transferred its travellers to foreign boat and train. Before I have analyzed half of my collection of letterpress and manuscript, the former occupant of the empty room will have stood face to face with Nature in her most lovely and yet most strange and startling forms. Sabah has been described as ' an earthly paradise.' The simile may hold good, from a British point of view, when the owners have built piers and roads and villages there on approved models ; when the planter is on the spot and the new colonist is sowing his rice ; when the cooling breezes of Kina Balu waft the punkahs of hill residences, and the wild ' gardens of the sun ' are cultivated tracts of fruits and flowers.^ This time may succeed in carrying out, by his own personal energy, what the great East India Company had failed to accomplish. He founded Sarawak. With the aid of Admiral Keppell he anniliilated the dangerous hordes of pirates that infested the western coasts. He successfully stamped out a rising of Chinese, in which operation the native tribes loyally came to his assistance ; and he has demonstrated, financially and politically, the wisdom of those early Dutch and British adventurers who saw a splendid property in the island of Borneo. In 1848 tlie English Government, seeing the importance of a station in this lati- tude, purchased Labuan, an island off the coast of Borneo, and made it an English colony, with a governor and all the necessary officers and appliances of an efficient administration. Such is the brief history of Burneo, possession of which is now divided between the Dutch Government, the Sultan of Brunei, Rajah Brooke, and the Britislx North Borneo Company, the latter endorsed in its undertaking by royal charter. 2 This is only the suggestion of a possibility. The idea is conceived in a more rosy vein of imagination than the reality may have war- ranted. There are spots in North Borndo that might be described as " earthly paradises," rich in natural beauties, blessed with pure water. 6 North Borneo. come ; and then the pioneers can rest, and we will talk no more of empty rooms." *