■303 Ah Account of Bar rtco. 



Spanish dollars ; which, when allowing for the profits or! 

 their congoncs, is not more than 4,250 Spanish dollars. 



From hence it mav be inllrred, that should it ever be the 

 company's intentions to e&tai)lish in these parts a marine 

 wherein small craft might be wanted, they could be built 

 on easy and advantageous terms ; as I have found, on in- 

 quiry of the nouqwedahs, there would be no difficulty in 

 procuring artificers from China, by the junks, on very 

 moderate encouragement. 



The river of Borneo is navigable far above the town for 

 ships of a very considerable' l)urthen ; and the only difficulty 

 lies at the mouth of it, where the channel is very narrow 

 for about a quarter of a mile in length, through which there 

 is not above sevcntecri feet at high water : however, the bot- 

 tom is soft mud, and the place so completely land-locked 

 there never can be any surf, and consequently a ship taking 

 the ground can be attended with no bad consequences. 



My non-acquaintance with marine matters disenables me 

 from judging with precision as to the expediency of making 

 docks here ; but from the temporary ones made by the Chi- 

 nese, wherein they build their junks, and out of which they 

 are floated, I should imagine they might be made with con- 

 vcniency for vessels of 400 ton? : and I am rather encou- 

 raged in this opinion from the b.^nks of the rivfer being a 

 touo'h clav, and thereff're a good foun<.lation, in which it 

 has the preference above Laboan, the shores there being 

 only a quicksand. The water here iiows from eight to nine 

 feet spring tides. 



Chimerical are the expectations of finding in these coun- 

 tries any people so disinterestd as not to be ready to take an 

 advantage which chance may throw in their way, where reso- 

 lutions are not more biassed by dread than attae]\ment ; and 

 how unreasonable it is to expect any success in these parts, 

 unless where there is a force sufficient to awe as well as to 

 protect ! for although the chief and council here seem to 

 think the Bornevans have inf.inged their agreement by not 

 giving us the whole of the pepper, yet ncitlier have we, on our 

 parts, been able to fulfil that of atibrcHng them protection, 

 which they have experienced by the loss of their boats, 

 seized by om* mutual enemy the Sooloos, to the amount of 

 20,000 Spanish dollars. This will occasion surprise, as 

 •there were not only several \\:sscls on the Balambangan 

 •establishme.it, but likawisc two small cruizcrs, sent from 

 Bombay, properly adapted to that purpose : of these, one 

 was upset, being ordered out in tempestuous weather to 



cruize 



