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348 NOTICES OF BOOKS.
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Life Formerl H.M In . Tli 'S E Y Charge ...
Borneo . But too often with books of travel , a clumsy and monotonous style renders the inquiring * reader's task far from pleasant and easy .
He has to cull flowers of information in a thorny wilderness , and needs iron resolution to succeed . Our author , on the contrary , has
determined to demonstrate that a good traveller can be a good writer . His perfect success should encourage some of those
indefatigable individuals who , in the wilds of Africa , or the northern regions , may even now be contemplating a presentation of the fruits
of their labor to the public . Mr . St . John does not aim at a showy , meretricious , and flimsy stylenow so much in voguenor do his
chapters abound in would-be , poetical descriptions of , mountain scenery , golden sunsets , strange tints , and the thousand and one
tricks of ornamentation practised by scores of our modern travellers and tourists . What he has to say is said simply and truthfully ;
ids descriptions are natural and telling ; whilst a slight dash here and there of humor lends a pleasant tone to the whole .
Mr . St . John informs us in his introduction that no one who has travelled for the last fourteen years in Borneo has been wise or
generous enough to spread abroad his knowledge of the island . Our author ' s natural fondness for explorationcombined with the
important oflicial position he held , enabled him , to penetrate farther , and study more completely , the manners of the _peojDle than any of
his predecessors . A copious journal , kept on some of the river _exjoeditions , is given , with _yexy slight alteration , as it was jotted
down night after night by the camp-fire , in the boat , or on the mountain . The first volume opens with a carefully finished
acedunt of a tour amongst the tribes in the neighbourhood of Sarawakfollowed by narratives of two ascents of Kina Baluthe
highest mountain , of the Asiatic Islands , closing with a journalistic , narration of travel in the interior of the country lying to the
southeast of Brunei , the capital of Borneo Proper . It will be scarcely possible in our limited space to make extracts of sufficient length or
number to convey an adequate idea to our readers of the embarras des richessesthe actual luxury of anecdote and amusing incidents
prepared for , them . , "We cannot neglect directing attention to the chapters on the
social life of sea and land Dayaks . The former are possessed of great energy , and qualities which , under sound government ,
promise much ; the latter do not display the same encouraging signs , but under good discipline wonders could be accomplished in
time . Sir James Brooke ' s able and beneficent administration over Sarawak , which he holds under cession from the Sultan of Brunei ,
affords a remarkable instance of the magical effect created by the mind of one able European . The Kajah of Sarawak , backed by no
military force , has for some ten or twelve years civilized and kept in order his land and peopleruling purely and simply by moral
power . The enemies of Sir , James in this country , who have so
pertinaciously attacked him for the very necessary steps which were
348 Notices Of Books.
348 _NOTICES OF BOOKS .
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), July 1, 1862, page 348, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01071862/page/60/
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