Second, revised and enlarged edition (first 1862) of this well written and beautiful illustrated travel account.
Spencer St. John (1825-1910) was appointed private secretary to Sir James Brooke in 1848, who was at the time commissioner and governor of Labuan. For a few years he acted temporarily as commissioner for Brooke and in 1856 he became British Consul in Brunei. St. John explored the country extensively and travelled to remote areas.

In 1847 St John's father, the journalist James Augustus St John, introduced him to James Brooke. He went out to Sarawak the following year to become Brooke's private secretary and thus began his diplomatic career. He was British Consul General in Brunei from 1856 and in 1858 made two ascents of Mount Kinabalu with Hugh Low. One of the peaks of Mount Kinabalu, "St John's Peak" (4,091 m – 4 metres shorter than the summit, "Low's Peak"), is named in his honour. He wrote also two biographies of James Brooke (1879 and 1899).

In 'Life in the Forests'he describes extensively various Dayak-tribes: Land- & Sea-Dayaks, Kayan of Baram, their social life, manners & customs, life-cycles, various ascents of Mount Kinabalu; with also extensive notes on the Chinese in various parts of North Borneo, various Chinese insurrections, Secret Society, with in particular a description of the TIEN TI Secret Society.
Desirable copy in original bindings, in good condition (free endpapers browning, inner hinge vol I nearly loose, spine ends with minor imperfections). Church plate vol II is missing.