Travel Reference
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body and a huge black face gazing down from a great height, as if wanting to know what
was making such a disturbance below. I instantly fired, and he made off at once, so that I
could not then tell whether I had hit him.
He now moved very rapidly and very noiselessly for so large an animal, so I told the
Dyaks to follow and keep him in sight while I loaded. The jungle was here full of large an-
gular fragments of rock from the mountain above, and thick with hanging and twisted creep-
ers. Running, climbing, and creeping among these, we came up with the creature on the top
of a high tree near the road, where the Chinamen had discovered him, and were shouting
their astonishment with open mouth: 'Ya Ya, Tuan; Orang-utan, Tuan.' Seeing that he could
not pass here without descending, he turned up again towards the hill, and I got two shots,
and following quickly had two more by the time he had again reached the path; but he was
always more or less concealed by foliage, and protected by the large branch on which he
was walking. Once while loading I had a splendid view of him, moving along a large limb
of a tree in a semi-erect posture, and showing him to be an animal of the largest size. At the
path he got on to one of the loftiest trees in the forest, and we could see one leg hanging
down useless, having been broken by a ball. He now fixed himself in a fork, where he was
hidden by thick foliage, and seemed disinclined to move. I was afraid he would remain and
die in this position, and as it was nearly evening I could not have got the tree cut down that
day. I therefore fired again, and he then moved off, and going up the hill was obliged to get
on to some lower trees, on the branches of one of which he fixed himself in such a position
that he could not fall, and lay all in a heap as if dead, or dying.
I now wanted the Dyaks to go up and cut off the branch he was resting on, but they were
afraid, saying he was not dead, and would come and attack them. We then shook the adjoin-
ing tree, pulled the hanging creepers, and did all we could to disturb him, but without effect,
so I thought it best to send for two Chinamen with axes to cut down the tree. While the mes-
senger was gone, however, one of the Dyaks took courage and climbed towards him, but the
Mias did not wait for him to get near, moving off to another tree, where he got on to a dense
mass of branches and creepers which almost completely hid him from our view. The tree
was luckily a small one, so when the axes came we soon had it cut through; but it was so
held up by jungle ropes and climbers to adjoining trees that it only fell into a sloping posi-
tion. The Mias did not move, and I began to fear that after all we should not get him, as it
was near evening, and half a dozen more trees would have to be cut down before the one he
was on would fall. As a last resource we all began pulling at the creepers, which shook the
tree very much, and, after a few minutes, when we had almost given up all hopes, down he
came with a crash and a thud like the fall of a giant. And he was a giant, his head and body
