ABSTRACT
At the end of “A Passion for Maps,” I called attention to a series of maps included in one of the “dull, wise books” Conrad drew on for his Malay fiction, Henry Keppel’s The Expedition to Borneo of HMS Dido for the Suppression of Piracy (1846) (Letters 2: 129-130). These maps included a plan of the River Sarebus, marked with soundings of the channel and notes about the nature of the banks: “Mangrove;” “Thick Jungle;” “Cleared Land.” The map’s legend shows the usefulness (and use) of this knowledge: “taken on Board the Boats of the H.M.S. Dido when employed destroying the nests of the pirates at Rembos, Pakoo & Paddi. June 1843.” The next map is a plan of the Batang Lupar River. It gives channel soundings, and again the legend is revealing: “laid off from Compass bearings etc. taken on board the Boats of H.M.S. Dido when in pursuit of the Piratical Chief Seriff Sahib, August 1844.” After this comes a plan of the “Forts & Villages of Patusan,” with indications of the channel and the nature of the banks, and, again, a revealing legend: “stormed and taken by the boats of H.M.S. Dido . . . Aug.1844.” In other words, Patusan was mapped at the moment of its destruction.
