MALAYA : AN ACCOUNT OF ITS PEOPLE, FLORA, AND FAUNA.
By Major C. M. Enriquez. (Hurit and BLackett. 21s.)—This is a succinct and most competent geo- graphical; botanical, zoological, and ethnical survey of the Malay Peninsula and Archipelago, by an expert already well known for his works on Burma. It -is illustrated by photo- graphs, has appendices containing lists of butterflies, lepidop- tem and insects collected in Malaya during two years, and there is a serviceable index. Not the least interesting section of the history is the impartial account of the feats, conquests, and final settlement in power of the Rajahs of Sarawak. The attack by the first Rajah Brooke on the fleet of slave-hunting pirates who were the pest of Borneo, and their extermination, became the subject of fierce animadversion at the time in England, and the agitation deprived him of official help for some critical years, during which his rule was nearly broken by interior tribes and by Chinese secret societies, who burned his capital for him under the impression, we are told, that England had deserted him. All came right in the end, but the story is luminous on the possibility of Western mis- understanding of Eastern dilemmas and processes of correction. The gradual extinction of slavery is an object-lesson of how to effect a reform in the right way. This book is a real con- tribution to the knowledge of an outlying part of the British Empire.
Previous page
