On waves and hedges still they burn.

These the fates of men forecast,
Of better men than live to-day;
If who can read them comes at last,
He will spell in the sculpture, "Stay."

* * * * *

BORNEO AND RAJAH BROOKE.


Off the southeastern extremity of Asia, and separated from it by the
Chinese Sea, lies a cluster of great islands, comprising that portion of
Oceanica commonly called Malaysia. Of these islands Borneo is the most
extensive, and, if you call Australia a continent, it is by far the
largest island in the world. Situated on the equator, stretching from 7°
of north to 4° of south latitude, and from 108° to 119° of east
longitude, its extreme length is 800 miles, its breadth 700, and it
contains 320,000 square miles,--an area seven times as great as that of
the populous State of New York.

But though its size and importance are so great, though it was
discovered by the Portuguese as early as 1518, though several European
nations have at various times had settlements on its coasts, though it
is rich in all the products of a tropical clime, and in base and
precious metals, diamonds and stones, and though its climate, contrary
to what might have been expected, is in many localities salubrious even
to an American or European constitution, yet until recently almost
nothing was known by the world of its surface, its products, or its