v.] FORMATION OF THE COMPANY. 85 



under the authority of the Sultan of Brunei, — the former name 

 being merely a corruption of the latter. At the present time his 

 possessions have waned to almost infinitesimal proportions. 

 Brunei is now no longer synonymous with Borneo. The Dutch 

 own the southern three-fourths of the island, and of the remainder 

 the larger portion to the west is under the rule of the Eajah of 

 Sarawak, who has now extended liis dominions as far eastwards as 

 Barram Point. The British North Borneo Company occupy the 

 extreme north-east, and the Sultan's country is thus sandwiched 

 between two English states, with one of which it will doubtless 

 before long become amalgamated. 



In December, 1877, a Mr. Alfred Dent, in conjunction with 

 a certain Baron von Overbeck, concluded negotiations with the 

 Sultan of Brunei for the transfer of the latter's right of possession 

 of the district from Papar on the north-west coast to the eastern 

 limit of the island, together with certain islands adjacent. On the 

 same day a similar agreement was entered into with the Pangerang 

 Tumonggong — the Sultan's heir — for the cession of the districts of 

 the Kimanis and Benoni Pavers, which formed his own private 

 estate. It was not the first time that such a grant had been 

 made. Twelve years before, in 1865, the American Consul in 

 Brunei obtained certain land concessions from the Sultan, which, 

 if not actually co-extensive with the territory acquired by Mr. 

 Dent, at least comprised a very large portion of it. The result 

 was the formation of the American Trading Company of Borneo, 

 and a large number of Chinese having been imported, a settlement 

 was founded on the Kimanis Eivei'. The venture was a failure ; 

 the Chinese settlement was not long afterwards abandoned, and 

 in 1877 the Americans formally ceded their rights to the new 

 Company. 



Much of the land thus granted, however, was also claimed by 

 the Sultan of Sulu. It would have been difficult, if not impossible, 

 to settle the validity of the title of each claimant, and hence an 

 agreement of a similar cliaracter to that made with the Brunei Sultan 



