2023, book 7: My life in Sarawak, Margaret Brooke

Margaret Brooke was the Rani of Sarawak in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. She reminds me a lot of Elizabeth Peters's Amelia Peabody: a similar sense of Victorian, British supremacy combined with a sympathetic view of "the natives" and a healthy sense of adventure. Regarding an attack on a government fort, by a group of Dayak (p. 37):

The account which Mr. Skelton gave me when I saw him aftwards of the manner in which the friendly Dyak chiefs behaved during the skirmish amused me very much, for they did nothing but peer through the lattice-work, and shout Dyak insults at the attacking party, most of whom they knew very well. They made unpleasant remarks about the enemy's mothers, and inquired whether the men themselves belonged to the female sex, as their efforts were so feeble, etc.

On being seasick (p. 42):

[...] I went into the cabin and took my usual position on such occasions—a mattress laid on the floor, a bucket by my side, and a bottle of champagne to ward off the sea-sickness.

On using tuba root to poison (and then catch) fish (p. 48):

These little creeks were barred across from bank to bank with bamboo palisades to prevent the egress of fish into the main river, for the streams had been poisoned with a root called tuba, a method of fishing prevalent all over Borneo. This root is pounded with pestles, its juice extracted, and thrown into the river at low tide, when the fishes become stupefied, and rise to the surface, so that the natives find no difficulty in netting or spearing them.

Some interesting descriptions of wildlife (geckos ("chichak"), crocodiles, rats that migrate by the thousands through houses, etc.). And I learned a coxcomb is a plant—I only knew it as a knave.