BOR 



728 



BOR 



Borneo. Born was of the middle size," says Mr Town* 

 v ' son, " and delicate constitution, dark complexion, 

 black hair, and long black eye-brows. Wit and sa- 

 tire, and a quick comprehension, were marked in his 

 eyes, and his lively and penetrating genius appeared 

 in his countenance. Besides being a good Latin 

 classic, he was master of most European languages 

 of note, and possessed a deal of general information 

 no ways connected with those branches of science re- 

 quired in his profession. He was a great wit and 

 satirist, and a good companion even under the suffer- 

 ings of bodily pain. His house was always open to 

 the travelling literati who visited Vienna ; and unpro- 

 tected genius wa3 always sure to find in him a friend 

 and patron. He carried this perhaps too far, so far 

 as to ruin his estate : Probably the expectations of re- 

 ceiving a large income from the amalgamation, made 

 him less attentive to economy in his domestic con- 

 cerns, though I believe his insolvency was chiefly 

 owing to usurers and money-lenders, to whom he 

 was obliged to have recourse to carry on his expen- 

 sive projects. Thus, though his patrimony was very 

 considerable, he died greatly in debt. This is the 

 more to be lamented, as he left a wife and two daugh- 

 ters." See Dr Townson's Travels in Hungary in 

 1793, p. 410. Lond. 1797; and Bom's Travels 

 through the Bannat of Tetnesxvar, Transylvania, ami 

 Hungary, in 1770. Lond. 1787. (w) 



BORNEO, known likewise by the name of Bona 

 Fortuna, the greatest and most important of the 

 Sunda islands, which are Borneo, Sumatra, and Java, 

 was supposed, before the discovery of New Holland, 

 to be the largest island in the world. It has the 

 Philippine islands on the north ; Java on the south ; 

 Sumatra on the west ; and Celebes on the east. 

 It extends from the fourth degree of south latitude 

 to the eighth degree of north latitude, and from 109 

 to 119 E. Long. It is about 780 miles in length ; 

 and its breadth, which is nearly equal throughout, 

 except towards the north, is about 720 miles. 



The climate of this island is nearly the same as that 

 of Ceylon. Its extensive forests, and the deep ver- 

 dure of its fields, preserves a perpetual freshness in 

 the atmosphere ; it is exposed neither to hot land ' 

 winds, as the coast of Coromandel, nor to such vio- 

 lent heats as prevail in Calcutta and Bengal. Here 

 the land and sea breezes are always fresh ; or if there 

 be any variation from this general rule, it is occasion- 

 ed only by particular circumstances which affect the 

 atmosphere in all countries, such as the vicinity of 

 marshes, or the free circulation of the air being pre- 

 vented by the thickness of the forests. 



Few countries can boast of a more fertile soil than 

 that of Borneo ; yet such is the indolence and depra- 

 vity of the inhabitants, that, in spite of the bounty 

 of nature, they live in the most abject poverty. The 

 air of Borneo is the best in all Asia ; all the tropical 

 fruits grow here in perfection, besides several other 

 species scarcely known any where else, except at 

 Sooloo, particularly the madang, which resembles a 

 large apple, and the balono, which is not unlike a 

 large mango. The northern part of Borneo is co- 

 vered with forests of beautiful and very lofty trees, 

 quite free of brushwood. These forests furnish the 

 hnest building wood in the world ; a black wood, 



S 



the root of which is very precious ; a fragrant wood Borneo, 

 such as eagle-wood, ebony, and sandal-wood; besides /" 



trees which yield a great quantity of pitch and rosin. 

 Several kinds of pepper are reared in this island, the 

 most remarkable of which is the vatian, whose medi- 

 cinal virtues are mucli celebrated. The plantation* 

 of pepper belong to the Chinese established in Bor- 

 neo. They do not, according to the practice of the 

 Sumatrans, conduct the pepper plant around the 

 chinkareen tree ; but they lix in the ground a large 

 6take, which supports the plant, without robbing it 

 of its proper nourishment. The Chinese keep the 

 ground between the rows of plants extremely clear ; 

 and they often thin the leaves, that the clusters of 

 pepper may be the more exposed to the rays of the 

 sun. A single plant sometimes bears seventy or even 

 seventy-five clusters, which is much more than is ever 

 seen on the pepper plants of Sumatra; a fact which 

 proves incontestibly, what indeed might be naturally 

 supposed, that the chinkareen is extremely hurtful to 

 the pepper tree. Borneo produces likewise abundance 

 of aromatic plants, cassia, camphiros, benjamin, and 

 wax. It is thought that spiceries would succeed there 

 well ; and, indeed, there are several places in the 

 island where the clove and nutmeg attain all their re 

 quisite flavour. 



Among the animal productions of Borneo several 

 are peculiar and extraordinary, particularly the oncas, 

 a species of apes, whose body is white and black, 

 and from whose entrails is extracted the most per- 

 fect bezoar. The orang-outang is common in the 

 forests of this island; and in some of them there 

 are whole families, or rather flocks of red apes. 

 There is likewise an animal sometimes to be seen here, 

 the fur of which is almost the same as that of the bea- 

 ver. With the exception of the sparrow hawk, there 

 is no bird in Borneo which resembles those of Eu- 

 rope. The plumage of many of its birds is beauti- 

 ful beyond description ; its parroquets, in particu- 

 lar, have attracted the admiration of every traveller 

 who has visited the country. Goats, swine, cows, 

 horse, and buffaloes, are exceedingly common. 



Borneo is scarcely less fortunate in its mineral 

 productions than in the bounty of its soil. Its dia- 

 monds have been thought by some persons preferable 

 even to those of Hindostan ; though others main- 

 tain, that they are smaller than those of Golconda, 

 and that any which are found of a large size, are 

 yellow, and very imperfect. The most productive 

 diamond mines of Borneo are at Ambauwang, beyond 

 Molucco, in the district of Banjar-massin, and at 

 Landac and Pontiana. Diamonds are likewise found 

 in several of the rivers, and are fished up by divers 

 in the same manner as pearls. This fishery is carried 

 on chiefly in the months of January, April, July, 

 and October. Four kinds of diamonds are distin- 

 guished by the natives ; the white diamonds, which 

 they call verna ambon, or white water; the green, 

 which are called verna loud; the yellow, named ver- 

 na sakkar ; and a kind between the yellow and the 

 green, which bear the name of verna bessi. Many 

 of these diamonds are found from four to twenty-four 

 carats, and sometimes even thirty or forty carats. 

 The total amount of diamonds found in a year sel- 

 dom exceeds COO carats. In this island there are 



