BORNEO, one of the largest islands of the world, is situated about the middle of the East Indian Archipelago, and lies immediately under the equator, between 7° N. and 4° 20' S. lat., and between 109° and 118° E. long. It forms a kind of irregular hexagon, and its area is estimated by Engelhardt at 289,000 Eng. square miles (more than double the area of the United Kingdom). Its coast-line is much less broken than that of most of the neighbouring islands; and though there are some extensive bays, such as Maludu in the north and Sarawak in the west, none of them are so deep as greatly to interfere with the regularity of its côntour. A large proportion of the seaboard is of alluvial formation; and in various districts the deposition of new land is very perceptibly going on. The whole of the ground, for example, to the west of the Kandang Mountains in the kingdom of Landak ha3 been gained from the sea during the last four centuries, and it is evident that many smaller islands which fringed the coast in former times have been incorporated with the mainland. This process of extension goes on all the more rapidly, because the neighbouring sea is very shallow, except on the eastern side.
Of the interior of the island a considerable part has been only partially explored, so that the physical features can hardly be given with sufficient precision and detail. The general character of the country is mountainous, though none of the ranges and few of the individual peaks attain to any great elevation The centre of the island seems to be occupied by a kind of table-land, with which the principal chains connect themselves more or less directly. Of these the most extensive may be traced from Cape Dattb on the west coast, in 2° 5' 24" N. lat., northwards through the length of the island, which it divides as watershed into two portions, a north-western of comparatively narrow dimensions, and a south-eastern comprising the rest of the island. The different parts of the chain are known by various local names, as the Krimbang or Bayang-Miut, the Batang-Lupar, the Madi, and the Anga-Anga Mountains. Tn the north-west corner of the island it attains its highest elevation in Kini-balu, or St Pietersberg, which is generally supposed to be the highest peak in the whole island. According to the trigonometrical measurement of Capt. Belcher the summit is 13,G98 feet above the level of the sea, but this was in 1851 reduced to 9500 by Messrs Low and St John, who were the first to ascend the mountain. A second great chain, known as the Kaminting Mountains, stretches south-west from the Anga-Anga, and fills the south-west corner of the island with numerous offshoots and underfalls; and a third starting from the same quarter strikes first south-east and then south along the southern part of the eastern coast, and is known as the Meratu Mountains. A fourth chain, of which the most important part bears the name of Sakuru, runs almost due east to Cape Kamiungun.
U alike the most of the larger islands of the archipelago, and in remarkable contrast with Java, Borneo seems to possess no active volcanoes. Many of the peaks, however, bear distinct evidence of former activity in regular craters, now in some cases forming lakes of salt water. The prevailing rocks are limestone, slate, sandstones, conglomerates, and on the mountain tops syenitic granite. The limestone hills are remarkable for the number of their caves, many of which, such as those of Kumbary, are a source of wealth to the natives, as they afford shelter to swallows that build edible nests.
The island, which is abundantly supplied with rivers and streams, may be hydrographically divided into five principal versants Of these the shortest lies along the northwestern slope of the Krimbang and Kini-balu range, and discharges its waters into the Chinese Sea. The most important of its rivers are the Sarawak, the Batang-Lupar, the Seribas, the Rejang (which is navigable for 140 miles), the Baram (about half a mile wide at its mouth), the Limbang or Bruni River, the Tewaran, the Bintulu, and the Tampasuk, the last two having their sources in Mount Kini-balu itself. In the south-western versant the largest river is the Kapuas, which, rising towards the centre of the island, in about 114° E. long., falls, after a long and winding course, into the sea between Mempawa and Sukkadana. It has eight navigable mouths, and at Sintang, where it receives the Melawi, its principal tributary, it has a breadth of 1072 feet and a varying depth of 6 to 11 fathoms. The Banjermassin or Barito, which is the master stream of the southern versant, rises in the Kuti-Lama Lake, and reaches the Sea of Java in 114° 30' E. long. Its upper channel is greatly interrupted by rocks and waterfalls, but the lower part of its course is wide and navigable, and traverses a rich alluvial district. Cross branches unite it with two rivers of considerable size towards the west, the Little Dayak or Murung and the Great Dayak or Kahayan, and still further west are the independent rivers Mendawi, Sampit, Pembuang or Surian, and Kota-Waringin. Passing over the south-east corner of the island, which is watered by a large number of short mountain streams, we reach the one great river of the eastern versant, the Kuti (Coti) or Mahakkan, which, rising in Mount Lassan-Tula, flows east, with a rapid and sinuous course, and falls by numerous mouths into the Strait of Macassar. Most of the rivers of the northern versant are comparatively small, as the island narrows iuto a kind of promontory. Besides the Sebuku, which rises in Mount Pentyieangan and falls into the sea at Temelingan, the Berou, the Gunong-Tebur, and the Bulungan arc all worthy of mention.
Among the lakes of Borneo that of Kini-balu, near the mountain of the same name, is regarded as the largest, but many others are of considerable size. The Danau Sriang, for example, on the Kapuas River, is, according to Dr E. van Martens, larger than the Lake of Constance. In the valley of the Banjermassin are the Babi and the Pamingir (or Telaga) Jakes, the latter of which supplies nearly all the inhabitants of the kiugdom with fish; and in the district of Sintang there is an extensive sheet of water, on the Kapuas-Tawang, which was discovered in 1825, and is known by the various names of the Luar, Sumbah, Malayu, or van Capellan Lake.
In spite of the equatorial position of the island its climate is nowhere oppressive, and in many places might almost be called temperate. At Pontianak, for example, which is almost under the equator, the mean reading of the thermometer is 82°, while it varies from 76° to 79° at sunrise, and hardly ever, even at noon, exceeds 92°. The difference between the rainy season and the dry is not rigidly marked; the atmosphere is moist all the year round, and while, on the one hand, there is hardly a day of continuous downpour, there is hardly, on the other hand, a day without a shower. During the rainy season, which extends from November to May inclusive, the torrents, while they last, are tremendous, and the wind is frequently violent. Over such an extensive area there is, of course, great variety in the climatic character of different districts, especially when viewed in relation to health. Some places, as Bidi, for example, are notoriously unhealthy; but from the statistics of the Dutch Government it appears that the European has in general no more to fear in Borneo than in the island of Java. Among the native races the prevailing diseases are principally those that arise from bad food or want of cleanliness. Scrofula is common throughout the country, and elephantiasis is frequently met with on the coast. Small-pox, dysentery, and fevers are the usual epidemics; and ophthalmia sometimes attacks whole tribes. About a sixth of the native population in some quarters suffer from a kind of ringworm, called kurab, which is identified with herpes farinosus. Consumption is not uncommon.
The mineral wealth of Borneo is great and varied, including diamonds, gold, platina, quicksilver, cinnabar, copper, iron, tin, antimony, petroleum, sulphur, rock-salt, marble, and coal. Landak and Pontianak arc the best diamond districts, and Sambas, Landak, Montrado, and Borneo Proper furnish the greatest quantity of gold. The annual amount of gold collected in the island cannot be ascertained; but the amount exported from Bruni in 1870 was 5789 dollars. Coal of excellent quality is found in the valleys of the Banjermassin, the Kuti, the Gunong-Tebur, and the Melawi, as well as in Sarawak, and in the island of Labuan. The Kuti deposit was discovered in 1845 or 1846 above Samarinda, and has since been struck in a number of places along the main river and several of the tributaries. A mine was opened at Pelarang, but does not seem to be at present worked. Another, however, at Pengaron, on the Riam Kiva, yields annually about 9000 or 10,000 tons. The coal-fields in Borneo Proper were conceded to Sir James Brooke in 1846, and since 1868 have been in the hands of the Oriental Coal Company, which has as yet taken no advantage of its rights. Antimony was discovered to be a Bornean product by Mr J. Craufurd, the well-known geographer, who, in 1825, learned that a quantity had been brought to Singapore by a native trader as ballast. The supply is practically unlimited, and the chief mine is at Bidi in Sarawak.
The fauna of Borneo comprises a large variety of species, many of which are numerically of great importance. Among the Quadrumana, which are very well represented, the most remarkable is the orang-outan (or mias, as it is called by the natives), an animal only to be found elsewhere in the Island of Sumatra. It frequents the low-lying districts, especially in the neighbourhood of the Dyak plantations. The wawah, a kind of gibbon, several Semnopitheci (as the longnosed ape and the golden-black or chrysomelas), and the large-eyed Stenops tardigradus are also worthy of mention. The larger beasts of prey seem to be altogether wanting, so that little check is put on the natural fecundity of the graminivorous species. A small panther and the Felis macrocelis are the largest animals of the cat-kind known; for though the tiger has sometimes been reported to occur in the mountains, its presence has never been verified. The Malay or honey bear is very common. The rhinoceros is found on the north-west coast, and the elephant, introduced by the Chinese or Portuguese, in the neighbourhood of Cape Unsang. Wild oxen of the Sunda race are not uncommon; and the whole island swarms with droves of wild pigs, which are distinguished by a curious protuberance of hair on each side of the head. These furnish food not only to the Dyaks, who are very fond of the flesh, but also to the crocodiles that abound in the principal rivers. Three or four species of deer are enumerated, one of which, the pelandok of the Malays, is remarkable for its smallness and beauty. Squirrels, porcupines, civet-cats, rats, bats, and lizards are well represented, and snakes of various kinds, from the boa constrictor downwards, are abundant, while the marshy districts swarm with frogs and leeches. The latter attach themselves in a most troublesome manner to the passing traveller. A remarkable flying-frog was discovered by Mr Wallace. Birds are comparatively rare in many quarters; the most important being eagles, vultures, falcons, owls, horn-bills, cranes, pheasants,—notably the Argus-pheasant, —partridges, ravens, crows, parrots,woodpeckers, doves, and swallows. The Cypselus esculentus, or edible-nest swallow, is very common. Mosquitoes and sandflies are the chief insect pests, and in some districts are very troublesome. There is also a kind of ant called the sumpitrapi or fire-ant, the sting of which is very painful. The lepidopterous insects are remarkable for their number, variety, beauty, and size. In one favourable situation Mr Wallace caught 120 different species of moths in one night. The Coleoptera are no less numerously represented, as, indeed, might be expected in so richly-wooded a region. The lakes and rivers, as well as the surrounding sea, abound with fish. Dr Bleeker in his “Bijdragen tot de Kennis der Ichthyologische Fauna van Borneo," in the Natuurkundig Tijdschrift van Nederl. Ind., describes 176 species which he obtained during his residence in the island.
The domestic animals of Borneo are few both in number of species and for the most part in number of individuals. The character of the country has prevented the development of pastoral modes of life. In some districts, as in the neighbourhood of Ambong, there are bullocks of the Brahmin breed, about thirteen hands high; the buffalo is sometimes employed in agriculture; and sheep and goats occur. The cat and dog are both domesticated. A few horses, introduced by Europeans, and only possessed by the wealthier classes, are found in Banjermassin and Sarawak.
The flora of Borneo is very rich, the whole surface of the island being clothed in luxuriant vegetation. The king of the forest is the tappan, which, rising to a great height with a single branchless stem, is crowned with a splendid dome of foliage. From the wood of this tree the chiefs construct their official seats. The iron-wood, so remarkable for the durability of its timber, is abundant; it is used by the natives for the pillars of their houses, and forms an article of export to China. It is almost rivalled by the kayu temesu in hardness. In all about sixty kinds of timber are furnished in more or less profusion. Palm-trees are abundant in great variety, including the nipa, cabbage, fan, cocoa-nut, and sago palms; the two last afford large supplies of food to the natives. Gutta-percha, camphor, cinnamon, cloves, nutmegs, gambir, and betel-nuts are all produced in the island; most of the tropical fruits flourish, such as the mangosteen, the lansat, rambutan, jack, jambon, and blimbang; nor must the wonderful durian be forgotten, of which Mr Wallace enthusiastically declares that it is worth a voyage from Europe to taste it. It is a large fruit with an exceedingly strong spiked outer covering, and not unfrequently inflicts severe wounds by falling on the passers by. Yams, potatoes (an indigenous sort), melons, pumpkins, cucumbers, pine-apples, and bananas, sugar, pepper, cotton, and tobacco are cultivated, though not as yet on a very extensive scale. In the south-eastern division of the Dutch territory the export of cotton was in 1854 1795 picols. The product of the wild plant is very good, and is exported from Borneo Proper. Among the more beautiful of the flowering plants are rhododendrons, orchids, and pitcher-plants,—the last reaching a most extraordinary development, especially in the northern districts about Kini-balu. Epiphytous plants are very common, many that are usually independent assuming here the parasitic character. The Vanda Lowιi, for example, “grows on the lower branches of trees, and its strange pendent flower-stalks often hang down so as almost to reach the ground.” Ferns are abundant, but are not so varied as in Java; Mr Wallace collected fifty species.
The population of Borneo consists of a considerable variety of races, of very different-origin, and of different degrees of civilization. The most important numerically are the Dyaks, the Malays, the Chinese, and the Buginese; and, from their political influence, the Arabs and the Dutch.
The Dyaks, Dayaks, or Dayakkers are generally regarded as the most aboriginal. For themselves they have no general designation; but, broken as they are into numerous tribes, they are distinguished by separate tribal names, many of which seem to be merely the names of the rivers on which their settlements are situated. Though regarded by the Malays as aliens, and looked down upon as almost beneath humanity, they belong to the same race. Separation, however, must have taken place at a very early date. Kessel, who has attempted to form a classification of the Dyaks according to their ethnographical affinity, divides them into five principal branches. The first of these, which he calls the north-western, includes the natives of Sadong, Sarawak, Sambas, Landak, Tayan, Melionøw, and Sangow. They all speak the same language, and are remärkable for their dependence on the Malay princes. The second branch, which is called emphatically the Malayan from its greater retention of Malay characteristics, occupies the north coast in Banting, Batang-Lupar, Rejang, and part of the valley of the Kapuas. To the third or Parian branch belong the Dyaks of the rivers Kuti and Passir, who are said to speak a language like that of Macassar. The fourth consists of the Beyadjoes, who are settled in the valley of the Banjermassin; and the fifth and lowest comprises thé Manketans and Punans, who are still nomadic and ignorant of agriculture. In stature the Dyak is rather above the Malay, while still considerably shorter than the average European. He is rather slightly built, but is active and capable of eħduring great fatigue. His features are distinctly marked and often well-formed, though the cheekbones are higher and the nose more retrousse than agrees with the European standard. The forehead is generally high, and the eyes are dark; the hair is black, and the colour of the skin a pure reddish brown, that frequently, in the female, approaches to a Chinese complexion. In general neither beard nor whiskers are present, but this does not hold of all the tribes. In dress there is considerable variety, great alterations having resulted from foreign influence. The original and still prevailing style is very simple, consisting of a mere chawat or waistcloth, generally of blue cotton, for the men, and a tight-fitting petticoat for the women, who acquire a peculiar mincing gait from its interference with their walking. The favourite ornaments of both sexes are brass rings for the legs and arms, hoops of rattan decorated in various ways, necklaces of white and black beads, and crescent-shaped ear-rings of a large size. Tattooing is commonly practised by most of the tribes. The men usually go bare-headed, ot wear a bright-coloured kerchief. The custom of betel-chewing being almost universal, the betel-pouch worn at the side is a necessary part of the equipment. The weapons in use are a klewary or curved sword and a long spear. The bow is unknown, but its place among some tribes is partly supplied by the sumpitan, or blowpipe, in the boring of which they show great skill. When going to war the Dyak invests himself with a strong padded jacket, which proves no bad defence. Not only is it a custom with many tribes to preserve the skulls of their slaughtered enemies as trophies of their success in war; but, as the possession of a certain number of human heads is necessary before a man can be admitted to some of the most important of his social privileges, it is usual for the young men to go out on private head-hunting excursions. The custom, however, is dying out before the influence of civilization.
The Dyak is decidedly intelligent; his memory is tenacious, and his powers of observation good. Unacquainted in his natural state with both reading and writing, his aptitude for acquiring these arts is greatly praised by missionaries. In moral character he is far superior to the civilized Malay, being unsuspicious and hospitable, and honest and truthful in a striking degree. The various tribes differ greatly in religious ceremonies and beliefs, and it is hard to give a satisfactory idea of them. They have no temples, priests, or regular recurrence of worship; but the father of each family performs such rites as the exigencies of each day demand. A supreme god seems generally acknowledged, but subordinate deities are supposed to watch over special departments of the world and human affairs. Sacrifices both of animals and fruits—and in some cases even of human beings—are offered to appease or invoke the gods; divination of various kinds is resorted to for the purpose of deciding the course to be pursued in any emergency; and criminals are subjected to the ordeal by poison or otherwise. There is a very strong belief in the existence of evil spirits, and all kinds of calamities and diseases are ascribed to their malignity. Thus almost the whole medical system of the Dyaks consists in the application of appropriate charms or the offering of conciliatory sacrifices. Many of those natives who have had much intercourse with the Malays have adopted a kind of mongrel Mahometanism, with a mixture of Hindu elements. The transmigration of souls seems to be believed in by some tribes; and some have a system of successive heavens rising one above the other very much in the style of the Hindu cosmogony. In the treatment of their dead the same variety prevails as in other things—they are sometimes buried, sometimes burned, and sometimes elevated on lofty framework. The Dyaks have no exact calculation of the year, and simply name the months first month, second month, and so on. They calculate the time of day by the height of the sun, and if asked how far distant a place is can only reply by showing how high the sun would be when you reached it if you set out in the morning. In agriculture, navigation, and manufactures they have made some progress. In a few districts a slight sort of plough is used, but the usual instrument of tillage is a kind of cleaver. Two crops, one of rice and the other of maize or vegetables, arc taken, and then the ground is allowed to fallow for eight or ten years. They spin and weave their own cotton, and dye the cloth with indigo of their own growing. Their iron and steel instruments are excellent, the latter far surpassing European wares in strength and fineness of edge. Their houses are neatly built of bamboos, and raised on piles a considerable height from the ground; but perhaps their most remarkable constructive effort is the erection of suspension bridges and paths over rivers and along the front of precipices, in which they display a boldness and ingenuity that surprise the European traveller.
The Dyaks speak a variety of dialects, most of which are still very slightly known. The tribes on the coast have adopted a great number of pure Malay words into common use, and it is often hard to ascertain their own proper synonyms. The American missionaries have investigated the dialects of the west coast (Landak, &c.), and their Rhenish brethren have devoted their attention to those of the south, into one of which (that of Pulu Petak) a complete translation of the Bible has been made. Air Hardeland, the translator, has also published a Dyak-German dictionary. (See Vocabularies in St John’s Life in the Forests.) On the authority of the sultan of Bruni, who in 1824 visited Singapore, Crawfurd asserts that of the forty wild tribes that inhabit Bruni, eight had completely, and five partially, adopted the Malay speech. The dialect of the Kayans seems to be one of the purest,—nine-tenths of its words having no cognates in the other languages of the archipelago.
For an account of the Malays the reader must be referred to a separate article, but the Chinese require more particular notice. They seem to have been the first civilized people who had dealings with Borneo: their own annals speak of tribute paid to the pmpire by Pha-la o∏ the north-east coast of the island as early as the 7th century, and later documents mention a Chinese colonization in the 15th. The traditions of the Malays and Dyaks support these statements,—the people of Bruni regarding themselves as partly of Chinese descent, and the annals of Sulu recording an extensive Chinese immigration about 1575. Be this as it may, the flourishing condition of Borneo in the 16 th and 17th centuries was largely due to trade with China. The Chinese founded in the 18th century an important colony in Bruni; but their numbers were lessened by the bad treatment of the princes. The Malay chiefs of other districts invited them to come and develop the mineral wealth of the country, and before long they were to be found in considerable numbers in Saιnbas, Montrado, Pontianak, and elsewhere. They were at first forbidden to engage in commerce or agriculture, and prevented from wearing fire-arms or possessing gunpowder. About i779 the Dutch acquired immediate authority over all strangers, and thus had the means of controlling the new colonists, who soon proved themselves rather troublesome. Their numbers continually increased, and they pushed inland to new mineral districts, forming friendships and contracting marriages with the Dyaks. For the better management of their affairs they entered into extensive associations, which gradually assumed more and more of a political character until they were almost regular confederacies. This rendered them at once more disposed and more able to assert their claims to independence; and it cost both the Dutch Government and the Rajah of Sarawak several severe contests to bring them to terms. They form at the same time one of the most valuable elements in Bornean civilization, and are an industrious, intelligent, and well-educated race, It would be hard to find a man among them who cannot read and write; and their first care in a new settlement is to found a school. The greater part of those on the west coast are emigrants, originally from the northern boundaries of Quang-tung and Quang-si. They are rough, stern, and quarrelsome. A more polished class come from the coast district of Amoy, and look down on their ruder fellow-countrymen, from whom they keep themselves markedly distinct. The former class are called Kehs by the Borneans, and the latter Ollohs.
In regard to the number of the population of Borneo it is difficult to arrive at anything like a satisfactory estimate. The inland districts seem to be very thinly inhabited; and the Dyaks increase in numbers at a very slow rate, in spite of their being both a healthy and moral people. This is attributed by Mr Wallace mainly to infecundity on the part of the women brought on by the excessive labour to which they are subjected from early girlhood. The population of the Dutch territory was stated in 1871 at 335,677 natives and 131 Europeans in the western division, and at 847,846 natives and 320 Europeans in the south-eastern, making a total of 700,386; but the statements rest on little better than conjecture. If they approximate to the truth, the population of the whole island may be set down at between 1,000,000 and 2,000,000. Earlier estimates carried the total as high as 3,000,000.
Borneo is politically divided into Borneo Proper or Bruni (inclusive of Sarawak), the territory of the sultan of Sulu, and the Dutch possessions and protectorate. Bruni is an independent cquntry, governed by a sultan, who is nominally absolute; but the real power is distributed among the subordinate chiefs, who act each as much as possible as his own master. The inhabitants are all serfs of the sultan or the chiefs, who may dispose of their property, their wives, or their children in the most arbitrary manner. Mahometanism is the state religion. The capital, also called Bruni, is a large and flourishing city. The estimates of its population have all along greatly varied. Among the mos∣, recent is one which makes it 30,000 or 40,000, while the population of the whole kingdom is given at 225,000. A considerable traffic is carried on with Malacca, Singapore, China, Rio, Sambas, Pontianak, and other places in the Dutch possessions. There is an extensive fishing in the river, the produce of which furnishes the people with a large proportion of their food. The fishermen form a distinct caste, and the same is the case with the workers in brass, the blacksmiths, the goldsmiths, the matmakers, &c. The manufacture of goldlace and silk embroidery is carried to great perfection. For accounts of Sarawak and the Sulu territory the reader is referred to separate articles.
The Dutch territory forms two great divisions, the western and the south-eastern. The western, governed by a resident, is subdivided into two parts, Pontianak and Sambas, the former administered by the resident himself and the latter by an assistant-resident and the sultan of Sambas. Pontianak includes Landak, Tajan, Mampawa, Sintang, Selimbou, Upper-Kapuas, and Montrado, while to Sambas belong the districts of Pamangkut and Seminis. The south-eastern division is subdivided into an eastern and a southern part. Under the southern are Kota-Waringin, Pembuang, Sampitite, Great and Little Dyak, Bekompai, Duson, Banjermassin, and Tanah-Laut; and under the eastern are Tanah-Bumbu, Kusan, Passir, Kuti, Sambi-liung, Gunong-Tebur, Bulungan (the three last being also known as Berou), and the Tidung lands. The east coast, from Sebamban in Tanah Bumbu to Kaniungan in l 0 3' N. 1st., belongs immediately to the Dutch Government. In the western division several important military roads have been constructed, and the resources of the country are being opened up.
Borneo has never, as far as we have information, formed a political unity; and even its physical unity as an island is so little known or considered by its native inhabitants that it possesses in their languages no general designation. As a natural consequence Borneo has no proper history. The island was first discovered by European navigators in the beginning of the 16th century, according to one account by Lorenzo de Gomez, a Portuguese, in 1518, and according to another by Don Jorge de Menezes in 1526. Before long commercial relations were formed with the natives by the Portuguese traders, at first in the city of Bruni itself, and then in various other maritime states. In 1573 their Spanish rivals tried to open a connection with Bruni, but their attempts were without success till the sultan being dethroned appealed to them for assistance, and was restored in 1580. From that time they kept up intercourse with the country, but it was not unfrequently interrupted by war. In 1645 an expedition was sent to punish the inhabitants of the capital for their piratical excursions. The real influence exerted by the Portuguese and Spaniards on the condition of the country was very slight; and the only effort at proselytizing of which we have record came to an untimely end in the death of the Theatine monk, Antonio Ventimiglia, who had been its originator. Meanwhile the Dutch and English had been gaining a footing in the island. In 1604 Waerwijck began to trade on the west coast, and in 1608 Samuel Blommaert was appointed Dutch resident in Landak and Sukkedana. The English appeared for the first time about 1609, and by 1698 had an important settlement at Banjermassin, from which, however, they were expelled by the influence of the Dutch, who about 1733 obtained from the sultan a monopoly of the trade. The Dutch, in fact, became paramount all round the west and south coasts, and the king of Bantam ceded his rights of suzerainty to the company. The attention of the English was meantime turned to the north of the island, which was subject to the sultan of Sulu, from whom, in 1756, Alexander Dalrymple obtained possession of the island of Balambangan, and all the north-eastern promontory. A military post was established, but in 1775 it was surprised and destroyed by the natives under the dutus or subordinate chiefs, who were dissatisfied with the cession of their territory. This disaster rendered a treaty, which had just been concluded (in 1774) with the sultan of Bruni, in great measure a dead letter, and before the end of the century English influence in Borneo was practically at an end. The Dutch, too, were overtaken, in spite of apparent success, with a succession of misfortunes, through their own mismanagement; and in 1809 their settlements were all abandoned by order of Marshal Daendels. The natives along the coast, assisted and stimulated by immigrants from the neighbouring islands to the north, gave themselves more and more to piracy, and rendered the trade of civilized nations almost an impossibility.
In 1811, however, an embassy was sent to the British Government in Java by the sultan of Banjermassin to crave their assistance, and in reply Alexander Hare was despatched as commissioner and resident. He not only formed an advantageous treaty with the sultan, but got for himself a grant of a district of country which he proceeded to colonize and cultivate. An expedition was also sent against Sambas, and a post established at Pontianak. On the restoration of the Dutch possessions in 1818 all these arrangements were cancelled, and a free field was left to the enterprise of the Dutch Government. A succession of active commissioners—Boekholtz, Tobias, Halewijn, &c.— soon laid the foundations of an extensive supremacy. About half of the kingdom of Banjermassin was surrendered by the sultan in 1823, and further concessions were granted by his son in 1825. Meanwhile, George Muller was exploring the east coast, and obtained from the sultan of Kuti an acknowledgment of the Dutch authority—a concession which seems to have been immediately regretted, as the enterprising traveller was shortly afterwards killed. The outbreak of a war in Java turned the attention of the Dutch in some measure from Borneo, and nothing was done by them to check the piracy which was growing more and more unendurable. On the rise of Singapore direct trade had been opened with Sarawak and Bruni, and it was a matter of moment to the English merchants that their traffic should be safe. In 1838 Sir James Brooke, an Englishman, whose attention had been turned to the state of affairs in the Eastern Archipelago, set out for Borneo, determined, if possible, to remedy the evil. By 1841 he had obtained from the sultan of Bruni the highest authority in Sarawak, and before many years were over he succeeded in restoring order and peace to the district, and, with the assistance of the English Government, in repressing piracy. (See Brooke and Sarawak.) In 1847 the sultan of Bruni agreed to make no cession of territory to any nation or individual without the consent of Her British Majesty. The Dutch hopes of gradually incorporating the whole island were thus frustrated, but this served only to increase their activity in other directions. In 1844 the sultan of Kuti had acknowledged their protectorate, and about the same time a treaty of similar character was formed with Passir. Since 1834, when Gunong-Tebur, Tanjong, and Bulungan are said to have made a nominal submission, the boundaries of their authority have undergone no change to the north; and in general their political power has been rather rising in level, so to speak, over the southern part of the island than seeking to spread over a wider area,
Of the works on Borneo, which are very numerous, the following may be named :— Blommaert’s Discours ende ghelegentheyt van het eylandt Borneo int Jear 1609; Hachelyke reystogt van Jacob Jansz. de Roy na Borneo en Atchin in het jaar 1691; Beeckman, Visit to Borneo, 1718; Valentijn’s description in his great work, 1726; Berigt van een reiziger over Borneo Propre in P. P. Roorda van Eysinga’s Verschill. reizen en lotgevallen, vol. iv.; G. W. Earl, Eastern Seas, 1837; W. L. Bitter, Indische Herinneringen, &c., 1843; S. Muller, Reizen in den Ind. Archip.; Keppel, Expedition of the Dido, 1846; Mundy, Narrative of events in Borneo and Celebes, 1848; Belcher, Voy. of the Samarang, 1840; H. Low, Sarawak, 1848; F. S. Marryat, Borneo, &c., 1848; Keppel, Visit to Ind. Archipel. by the M ae ander, 1853; J. C. Temple, Private Letters of Sir J. Brooke, 1853; H. St John, The Indian Archip., 1853; C. A. L. Μ. Schwaner, Borneo, Beschr. van het stromgebied van den Barito, etc., in den jaar en 1843-47, 1853-4; P. J. Veth, Borneo's Westerafdeeling, 1854, 1856 (a work which has been largely used in the preparation of the present article); E. Francis, Herinneringen nit het leven van een Indisch. ambtenaar, 1856; J. J. Rochussen, Toelichting, etc. van eenige daden van mijn bestuur, 1853; W. A. van Rees, Montrado, &c., 1858; C. J. Temminck, Coup d'oeil sur les poss. Neêrland. dans l’ Inde Archipel., 1846-50; Ida Pfeiffer, Zweite Weltreise, 1856; MacDougall, Letters from Sarawak, addressed to a Child, 1854; Crawfurd, Descriptive Dictionary, art. Borneo; W. E. Kroesen and F. H. van Vlissingen, Cultuur- en Industrie-ondememingen van Borneo, 1859; J. Hasselman and F. H. van Vlissingen, Beschouwingen over de exploitatie van Borneo, 1859; Tracy, History of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, 1842; Spenser St John, Life in the Forests of the Far East, 1862; F. Boyle, Adventures among the Dyaks of Borneo, 1865; A. R. Wallace, The Malay Archipel., 1869; P. J. Veth, Woordenboek van Nederl. Indie, 1869; (in this work the reader will find a long list of articles on Borneo that have appeared in Dutch and other periodicals); “Contribuzioni geografiche italiane a Borneo” in the Cosmos of Guido Cora, 1874.
