British Borneo

line of the history of that State under its European rulers up to the present time. The territory acquired by Sir James Brooke in 1841 and known as Saraw

me to the enlarged territory, and the present area of Raja Brooke's possessions is stated to be about 40,000 square miles, supporting a population of 280,000 souls, and possessing a coast line of 380 miles. The most recent acquisition o

per, as it is styled by the old geographers, is altogether swallowed up by its offspring, which, under its white

of the capital, having been warned by their own Government to leave the country because of its disturbed condition, and having further been warned also by the Sultan not to enter the Trusan, could not refrain from visiting that river on their homeward journey, in order to collect some outstanding trade debts. They were received is so friendly a manner, that their suspicions were not in the slightest degree aroused, and they took no precautions, believing themselves to be amongst friends. Suddenly in the night they were attacked while asleep in their boats, and the whole party, numbering about seventeen, massacred, with the exception of one man who, though wounded, managed to effect his escape and ultimately found his way to Labuan, where he was treated in the Government Hospital and made a recovery. The heads of the murdered men were, as is customary, taken by the murderers. No very distinct reason can be given for the attack, except that the Trusan p

nduced him to listen to Mr. Maxwell's proposals for the cession to Sarawak of a still more important river-the Limbang-one on which the existence of Brunai itself as an independent State may be said to depend. But the then reigning Sultan and the other Ministers of State refused their sanction, and the Tumonggong, since his accession to the throne, has also very decidedly changed his point of view, and is now in accord with the large majority of his Brunai subjects to whom such a cession would be most distasteful. It should be explained that the Limbang is an important sago-producing river, close to the capital and forming an actual portion of the Brunai river itself, with the waters of which it mingles; indeed, the Brunai river is probably the former mouth of the Limbang, and is itself but a salt-water inlet, producing nothing but fish and prawns. As the Brunais themselves put it, the Limbang is their priuk nasi, their rice pot, an expression which gains the greater force when it is remembered that rice is the chief food with this eastern people, in a more emphatic sense even than bread is with us. This question of the Limbang river will afford a good instance and sp

rett, the Resident of the new district, who thus found his little launch on one occasion decorated in an unu

of the people is kept by the people themselves, a state of things which makes for the stability and popularity of the Government, besides enabling it to provide for the defence of the country and the preservation of internal order at a lower relative cost than probably any other Asiatic country the Government of which is in the hand of Europeans. Sir James Brooke did not marry, and died in 1868, having appointed as his successor the present Raja Charles Johnson, who has taken the name of Brooke, and has proclaimed his eldest son, a youth of sixteen, heir apparent, with the title of Raja Muda. The form of Government is that of an absolute monarchy, but the Raja

possible the Indian Criminal Code. Much is left to the common sense of the Judicial Officers, native customs and religious prejudices receive due consideration, and there is a right of a

, not, as a rule, a very hard one in these countries, and to gradually aboli

d the monopoly is termed the "Opium Farm." These expressions have occasionally given rise to the notion that the opium-producing poppy is cultivated locally under Government supervision, and I have seen it included among the list of Borneo products in a rece

y to check the contraband importation of so easily smuggled an article as prepare

racted by liberal concessions of land and monetary assistance in the first instance from the Government. The present Raja has himself said that "without the Chinese we can do nothing," and we have only to turn to the British possession in the far East-the Straits Settlements, the Malay Peninsula, and Hongkong-to see that this is the case. For instance, the revenue of the Straits Settlements in 1887 was $3,847,475, of which the opium farm alone-that is a tax practically speaking borne by the Chinese population-contributed $1,779,600, or not very short of one half of the whole, and they of course contribute in many other ways as well. The frugal, patient, industrious, go-ahead, money-making Chinaman is undoubtedly the colonist for the sparsely inhabited islands of the Malay archipelago. Where, as in Java, there is a large native population and the struggle for existence has compelled the natives to adopt habits of industry, the presence of the Chinaman is not a necessity, but in a country like Borneo, where the inhabitants, from time immemorial, except during unusual periods of drought or epidemic sickness, have never found the problem of existence bear hard upon them, it is impossible to impress upon the natives that they ought to have "wants," whether they feel them or not, and that the pursuit of the dollar for the sake of mere possession is an ennobling object, differentiating the simple sava

nces, between the inhabitants of which there has always been rivalry, and the languages of which are so entirely different that it is a usual thing to find Chinese of different provinces compelled to carry on their conversation in Malay or "pidgeon" English, and finally, as though the elements of danger were not already sufficient, they are pressed on their arrival to join rival secret societies, between which the utmost enmity and hatred exists. Taking all these things into consideration, I maintain that the Chinaman is a good and orderly citizen and that his good qualities, especially as a revenue-payer in the Far East, much more than counterbalance his bad ones. The secret societies, whose organization permeates Chinese society from the top to the bottom, are the worst feature in the social condition of the Chinese colonists, and in Sarawak a summary meth

led themselves of the terms offered "since coolies have the protection of the Sarawak Government, which further grants them free passages from Singapore, whilst the climate is a healthy one, and there are no dangers to be feared from wild animals, tigers bei

he sago it exported in 1885 is returned at ￡35,953. Of the purely uncultivated jungle pro

for shipment, are reduced locally, and the regulus exported to London. Coal is abundant, but is not yet worked on any considerable scale.[11] The Borneo Company excepted, all the trade of the country is in the hands of Chinese and Natives, nor has the Government hitherto taken steps to attract European capital for planting, but experiments are being made with the public funds under European supervision in the planting of cinchona, coffee, and tobacco. The capital of Sarawak is Kuching, which in Malay signifies a "cat." It is situated about fifteen miles up the Sarawak river and, when Sir James first arrive

d rendering the seas and rivers safe for the passage of the peaceful trader, by the British men-of-war on the China St

for pirates destroyed, amounted in these expeditions to the large total of ￡20,000, the awarding of which sum occasioned a great stir at the time and led to the abolition of this system of "payment by result

t it was not deemed advisable that Sir James should continue to act as the British representative in Borneo and as Governor of the Colony of Labuan, positions which were indeed incompatible with that of the independent ruler of Sarawak. Sarawak independence was first recognised by the Americans, and the British followed suit in 1863, when a Vice-Consulate was establishe

the State. The virulently hostile and ignorant criticisms to which Sir James Brooke was subjected in England, and the financial difficulties of this little kingdom, coupled with a serious dispute with a nephew whom he had appointed his successor, but whom he was compelled to depose, embittered the last years of his life. To the end he fought his foes in his old, plucky, honest, vigorous and straightforward style. He died in June, 1868, from a paralytic stro

in the last few years, been established a Roman Catholic Miss

inhabitants, do not make any concerted effor

h is the official title of his extensive See which includes the Colony of the Straits Settlements-Penang, Province Wellesley, Malacca and Singapore-and its Dependencies, the Protected Stat

first Bishop. His name was once well known, owing to a wrong construction put upon his action, on one occasion, in making use of fire arms when a vessel, on which he was aboard, came across a fleet of pirates. He was a gifted, practical and energetic man and had the interest of his Mission at heart, and, in addition to other qualifications, added the very useful one, in his posi

The influence of the Missionaries has spread over the Skerang, Balau and Sibuyan tribes of Sea-Dyaks, and also among

ous and educational works, in Malay and in two Dyak dialects, which latter have only become written languages since the establishment of the Mission. In their Boys' School, at Kuching, over a hundred boys are under instruction by an English Master, assisted by a staff of N

ak there are six or eight European priests and schoolmasters and a sisterhood of four or five nuns. In Kuching they have a Chapel and School and a station among the Land-Dyaks in the vicinity. They have recently established a

t Father Quarteron's labours had left scarcely any impression, their efforts up to present have met with little success, and experiments in several rivers have had to be abandoned, owing to the utter carelessness of the Pagan natives as to matters relating to religion. When I left North Borneo in 1887, their only station

indeed it would, at present, be perfectly useless to do so and, fr

tno

ang River was forcibly annexed by Sar

oal concessions at Muara, at the mouth of the Brunai river, and the developm

ince been forma