194 Defcnption of the IJland of Borneo. 



they njade an attempt to form a fcttlement in the ifland ot 

 Balambangan, at the northern extremity of Borneo, which 

 was given up to them by the king of Solon. They had in it 

 a. few Europeans for the fake of trade, and a garrifon of three 

 hundred foldiers, Europeans and blacks. Their view was 

 to eftablifh here a factory, where they might exchange the 

 produftioas of Europe and Hindoftan for thofe brought 

 hither from China and the Indian iflands; but in the year 

 1772, after a part of their troops had been fwept off bv con- 

 tagious difeafes, the fort they had conllrufted, being badly 

 fortified, was fuddenly attacked, and the whole eftablilhment 

 deflroyed. The Englifh are Hill ignorant who were the au- 

 thors of this violence ; and they do not know whether they 

 ought to afcribe it to the Dutch, jealous of their trade in 

 that neighbourhood, or to the Spaniards, afraid of their pof- 

 feffions in the Philippines. 



Various accounts of Borneo may be found in the works of 

 different authors ; fuch as Valentyn's General Defcription of 

 India, Salmon's Prefent State of all Nations, the General 

 Hiflory of Voyages by Prevofl, and the paltry compilation 

 of the abbe de la Porte. But as this large ifland is as yet 

 little known even in India, and as no European has been 

 able to penetrate to the interior part of it, all thefe defcrip- 

 tions are erroneous and imperfe6f:. That I may therefore 

 give the public the lateft and moft authentic information 

 refpefting this ifland, I fhall confine myfelf chiefly to the 

 account of it publifhed in the Tranfadlions of the Society for 

 promoting the Sciences at Batavia, in the ifland of Java. 

 The ifland of Borneo extends from the fourth degree of 

 fouthern latitude to the eighth of northern, and from the 

 hundred and fiftieth to the hundred and fifty-eighth of lon- 

 gitude. It is about 780 miles in length and 720 in 

 breadth. Its climate is almofl the fame as that of Java; but 

 Borneo is lefs mountainous, and the land, for twelve or fif- 

 teen miles, and fometimes more, from the coafl, is almoft 

 every where marfhy. The remaining part of the ifland is 

 fnfHciently fertile, and would be produftive were not the 

 rjaitives too indolent to cultivate the foil, and fonder of fearch- 

 ing for gold and diamonds, which they barter with the Ja- 



vanefe 



