The book is about the three personal diaries of Alexander Rankin Johnstone Dunlop kept in The Sabah State Archives, and then some. Dunlop was a British North Borneo Company Officer from 1885-1915. The diaries which were bequeathed in 1987 to Sabah spanned the years 1897-1901, that is the early pioneering years of Company rule. The four-year time period of the diaries focused mainly on the pursuit of the infamous rebel Mat Salleh who led a serious uprising against the Company (1894-1900). The diary begins with Dunlop's return from England in December 1897 and he was immediately sent for another punitive expedition against Mat Salleh at Ranau in 1898, then Tambunan, 1899-1900. His diaries provide stark details of the extensive and tremendously difficult operations of the expeditions carried out in harzardous, punishing and often frustrating circumstances over Sabah's mountainous terrain and impenetrable jungle. (Historical Biography/Diaries)