XXII GOVERNMENT 309 



Portuguese from Bruni and Sambas. But It was not 

 until 1785 that they came into possession of any- 

 considerable territory, namely, the Sultanate of 

 Banjermasin, and not till after the return to them of 

 their East Indian rights in 18 16 that they extended 

 their territorial possessions to their present large 

 proportions. 



The Dutch settlement and possessions in Borneo 

 were for many years administered by traders and a 

 trading company whose prime object was, of course, 

 profitable trade. The problems of native administra- 

 tion no doubt seemed to them at first of minor 

 importance and interest, and they made many 

 mistakes.^ But, as with our own great company in 

 India, it became increasingly necessary, if only for 

 the sake of trade, to study the art and policy of 

 administering the affairs of the native population. 

 This has now been done to good effect, and, 

 stimulated possibly by the example of wise paternal 

 government afforded by the Rajahs of Sarawak, the 

 Dutch have established a system of Residents or 

 district officers who have successfully invoked the 

 co-operation of the native chiefs in a manner very 

 similar to that practised in the neighbouring state. 

 And the Dutch officers have of late years shown 

 themselves willing and able effectively to co-operate 

 with those of Sarawak in all matters of common 

 interest, especially in the settlement of troubles 

 on the boundary between their territories. The 

 enlightened interest of the Dutch Government in the 

 welfare of the tribes of the far interior and in the 

 promotion of ethnographical knowledge has been 



^ Crawford, a leading authority on the history of the East Indian Islands, 

 wrote of the Dutch in Borneo of the early times — " Their sole object, according 

 to the commercial principles of the time, was to obtain, through arrangements 

 with the native prince, the staple products of the country at prices below their 

 natural cost, and to sell them above it. . . . The result of these (arrangements) 

 was the decline of the trade of Banjermasin ; its staple product, pepper, which 

 had at one time been considerable, having become nearly extinct " (Dictionary 

 of the Indian Islands, Lond., 1865, p. 65). 



