Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 4.djvu/69

Rh first civilized people who had dealings with Borneo : their own annals speak of tribute paid to the empire by Pha-la ou the north-east coast of the island as early as the 7th century, and later documents mention a Chinese coloniza tion 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 16th 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 Sambas, Montrado, Pontianak, and elsewhere. They were at first forbidck ii to engage in commerce or agriculture, and pre vented from wearing fire-arms or possessing gunpowder. About 1779 the Dutch acquired immediate authority over all strangers, and thus had the means of controlling the new colonists, who soon proved themselves rather trouble some. Their numbers continually increased, and they pushed inland to new mineral districts, forming friend ships and contracting marriages with the Dyaks. For the better management of their affairs they entered into ex tensive 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 popula tion 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 nom inally 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 most recent is one which makes it 30,000 or 40,000, while the population of the whole king dom is given at 225,000. A considerable traffic is carried on with Malacca, Singapore, China, Rio, Sambas, Ponti anak, 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 gold smiths, 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 him self 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 1 3 N. lat., 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 in habitants 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 &quot;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 