The sultan appeared to enter into his guest’s character at once, and neither overloaded him with attentions, nor failed to treat him as a person to whom much respect was due.  I heard Sir Samuel say afterwards, that he was particularly struck with the sultan’s good breeding, in not offering to assist him in cutting his meat.  The sultan merely remarked that few people were so expert as his guest even with both hands; adding, neatly enough, that on this account the distinction which his wound had gained for him was more cheaply purchased than people supposed.  While the Admiral was hunting for some reply to this novel compliment, his host remarked, that in Borneo it was considered fashionable to eat with the left hand.

The supper, which soon followed the tea, consisted of about a dozen dishes of curry, all different from one another, and a whole poultry yard of grilled and boiled chickens, many different sorts of salt fish, with great basins of rice at intervals, jars of pickles, piles of sliced pine-apple, sweetmeats, and cakes.  Four male attendants stood by with goblets of cool sherbet, from which, ever and anon, they replenished our glasses; besides whom, a number of young Malay girls waited at a distance from the table, and ran about nimbly with the plates and dishes.

After a great deal of ceremonious rigmarole, in which the Admiral was asked for his autograph, and it was wonderful how well the shrewd little Malay interpreter expressed to the Admiral, who cheerfully agreed to the proposal, and desired me to send for his writing-case.  As I rose, the Admiral whispered to me, “I wish you would contrive, at the same time, to see what the boat’s crew are about.  Try, also, if you can get them something to eat; the fellows must be hungry enough by this time—­but mind they don’t get too much toddy.”

I found the crew seated on the mud floor of a large room close to the beach, and open on all sides, like a tent without walls.  The Johnnies were in such high glee, that I feared they had already trespassed too deeply on the toddy pot; but I was glad to find that their satisfaction arose from a safer source, namely, a glorious hot supper, which Jack was tucking in to the great delight and astonishment of the natives, who had been ordered by the sultan to supply them with as much curry and rice as they chose to eat.

Very early in the morning, long before there was the least peep of dawn, the Admiral roused us all out of bed, ordered the boat to be manned, and declared his intention of dropping down the river while it was yet cool, so as to reach the ship before the fierce heat of the sun had set in.  I suspect, also, that he wished to escape the salutes for which he had seen some preparations over night.  But scarcely had we gained the distance of two or three hundred yards from the shore when the heavy guns of the batteries began to fire a royal salute.  The night was uncommonly dark and still, and the successive flashes and reports