Transcribe Hornaday, W. T. Letter to Ward, Henry A. (1878-09-14)

ybg </u No.25 > [Headquarters of this "Horn- [aday Expeditio, Sadong River [N. Borneo, Sept 14th 1878. Dear Professor Ward:

    The work goes bravely on, and 'The

cry is, </u still> they come!" I arrived here , in the mias country just a month ago today, and whether you believe it or not we have got 31 Orangs, not counting babies! An average of one Orang every day for a month, and ^yet^ they tell me it is not the proper season for orangs. But I don't believe we can make as good a showing at the end of the next 30 days, for I don't ^think^ the Orangs will hold out forever. We shall not stop short of a good round 50 at all events. We are religiously taking both skin & skeleton of every individual except babies, of which we have two or three, As a rule very few bones are broken and the majority of the large skeletons are almost absolutely perfect. The skins cure beautifully, and the skeleton also for that matter.

    We made another trip up the Simujan since my pre-

vious letter, and on the way up we shot two fine </u ones > mias. We me <./s a > t a Malay man who was also hunting mias, for a gentleman in Sarawak & Just a half mile beyond where we met him we shot a perfect giant Orang. It was our </.u luck > to do it, the man said. I killed him in 3 shots. The man at once declared he was the "Rajah mias" of all that country, & they called him "Rajah Padang" then & ever after. by which name he will go down to posterity - and Ward's Museum. The above caricature is intended to represent him. He meas- ured as follows. Height, head to heel, 4 ft 5 1/2 in. Spread of arms 7 ft 10 3/4 in. Length of arm, from armpit to finger tips 3 ft 3 in. circumference of neck 2 ft 3 3/4, ditto chest 3 ft 5 1/2, &e, &e. People who saw him (natives) said he was the largest ever killed in this country (i.e. Sadong valley). Two days after that I shot.