Inscribed by the artist, as title, this is mounted with ZBA4905 on page 26 (recto) in Fanshawe's West Indies, North American and Borneo scrapbook (ZBA4855) and is the basis of a lithograph which is also present (ZBA4909). The drawing was made on a trip into Dyak country with James Brooke (1803-68) first English Rajah of Sarawak, starting from Kuching (Sarawak town) on Saturday 13 September 1845, while Fanshawe was commanding the 'Cruizer': the ship had remained in mouth of the Sarawak river. Boats took them down from Kuching to the junction with the Quop river, up which they went as far as navigable. They then trekked about six miles to the village of the Sintah tribe on the Quop mountain; another four to the Stang village on Sunday; about twelve to the Sigu village on Monday and a final four the next day to the San Pro village back on the Sarawak river above Kuching, where boats collected them. Fanshawe's journal gives a full account (Fanshawe [1904] pp.131-40) using the tribal spellings given here rather than Segu and Sunta on image captions: these probably follow the usage in Brooke's published journal, which the memoir quotes. The party included Williams (a geologist) and Hugh Low (later Sir Hugh, a botanist).

'The houses or huts of a Dyak village are built...under one or two long roofs which are thatched with nepa-palm leaves. At intervals parts of the roof are made to lift, like the lid of a corn bin, as in the sketch, to admit air, and also as a means of passing in and out. Under these parts a corridor runs the whole length, from which each hut is entered by a door of bark. Upon the side of the corridor the rafters upon which the whole is built are made to project some yards, forming....a platform or terrace which, like the corridor inside, is common to all....The whole is always mounted upon poles to a height of six or eight feet.... Except in the villages of the poorest tribes, there is [also] a Head-house, which is a round building without terrace or corridor, but otherwise built in the same manner.... Here are deposited the skulls of enemies killed in war. They are strung up in a row, the teeth having previously been extracted, and smeared with red... This is the lodging appropriated for all strangers, and as the sleeping apartment for all boys and young men of the village after a certain age until they marry.' (p.134). At the Sigu village they lodged in the Head-house shown here on the right: there are also two longhouses shown, one low in the centre as well as that on the left. Fanshawe adds 'This was the finest tribe we saw...[and] one of the most ancient in this part of the country.' (p.137).

This drawing was apparently done on the morning of Tuesday 16 September 1845, before they continued to the San Pro village. It is part of a group recording Fanshawe's brief visit to Dyak villages: chronologically they are ZBA4905, ZBA4901 (and the lithograph from it, ZBA4908), ZBA4904 (and its related lithograph, ZBA4908). [PvdM 2/11]