Perspective

The author of Into the Heart of Borneo is Redmond O'Hanlon, a journalist and naturalist writer who travels to Sarawak on the island of Borneo in order to see rare species of plants and animals and to seek, in particular, the sight of the Borneo rhinoceros, a legendary, several endangered species of rhinoceros with two horns. O'Hanlon brings with him the perspective of a late twentieth century resident of Oxford College. He is a deeply committed naturalist and humanitarian but is also an atheist who nonetheless tolerates the tribal religions of the Sarawak tribes and their combining their traditional faiths with those Christian missionaries imparted to them.

O'Hanlon is also a great lover of animal and plant life and an admirer of those that share his interest and that went long before. The book is filled with references to earlier travelers and naturalists who went to Sarawak and...