BORNEO. 



731 



Borneo. 



Landac. 



Kingdom 

 f Borneo. 



Portuguese 

 ettle- 



parates into two branches. It has about twelve feet 

 of water at its mouth, and at high water sixteen ; so 

 that small vessv-'s can proceed, with great ease, up to 

 the Company's factory. 



On the northern arm of the Pontiana lies the king. 

 dom of Landac, in north latitude 35'. Here the 

 Dutch had a factory about a century and a half ago ; 

 but they were soon after completely driven out of 

 their possessions, which they never recovered till the 

 year 1778, when the king of Bantam, to whom Lan- 

 dac and Succatana then belonged, made a grant of 

 these kingdoms to the Company. The Dutch had 

 no sooner obtained possession of them, than they 

 built a fort at Pontiana, between Landac and Succa- 

 tana, and appointed Pangarang Saidja Nata regent of 

 the whole district. From that time they have ac- 

 counted these lands their own property, and the 

 princes who govern them as their vassals. The ca- 

 pital of Landac, which is the residence of the prince, 

 is situated on the projecting point of a mountain, to 

 which there is an ascent by 118 steps. On the right 

 and left of this mountain flow two rivers, so full of 

 rocks as to be totally unnavigable, so that the place 

 is, by nature, impregnable ; and, to give it addition- 

 al security, it is well furnished with artillery. Be- 

 tween Landac and Borneo there are several smaller 

 kingdoms, as yet but little known ; the petty sove- 

 reigns of which are vassals of the sultan of Borneo. 



The civil government of the kingdom of Borneo 

 is exercised by a sultan, and a superior council, com- 

 posed of those pangarangs who are invested with the 

 high offices of state : such as the bandahara, who is 

 entrusted with the executive power ; the degadong, 

 or chamberlain of the sultan's palace ; the tomongong, 

 or general in chief of the armies ; the pamancha, or 

 judge in law pleas ; and the shabander. The govern- 

 ment of Borneo bears a very striking resemblance to 

 the ancient feudal system which prevailed in Europe. 

 The prerogative which the sultan enjoys, of naming, 

 in his own right, all the great officers of state, will 

 always, indeed, make his authority respected, and 

 give him a great influence in the councils ; yet every 

 pangarang exerci;es an absolute power over his par- 

 ticular vassals, who never fail to espouse his cause, 

 even though he should happen to oppose his sove- 

 reign. They have no particular laws against treason. 

 Murder is punished with death, except in the case of 

 a master killing his' slave. Theft, according to the 

 enormity of the offence, is either punished capitally, 

 or by the amputation of the right hand. They have 

 no positive laws relative to commerce ; a defect 

 which must be ascribed to their want of communica- 

 tion with any other nations except the Chinese, who 

 pay to the chiefs of Borneo presents, which appear 

 to be a kind of tribute. The Chinese who are set- 

 tled here enjoy tranquilly the fruits of their industry; 

 but those who carry on an occasional traffic are ex- 

 posed to many hardships, from the want of laws to 

 compel the debtor to discharge his debts, and from 

 the necessity of yielding to the most unreasonable 

 demands of those who are invested with authority. 



The Portuguese, who first discovered Borneo in 

 1526, wished to form a settlement on its coasts. As 

 their military force was too insignificant to inspire 

 terror into the natives, they endeavoured to secure 



Borneo. 



the good will of one of the sovereigns of the country, 

 by presenting him with some beautiful pieces of """"" v~~' 

 tapestry, on which human figures were very curious- 

 ly wrought. The sovereign, conceiving these figures 

 to be enchanted men, who might have some fatal de- 

 signs against him, sent them back with horror, and 

 expelled the Portuguese from the country. They 

 soon after effected a settlement there, but were all 

 massacred by the suspicious inhabitants. In the 

 course of the 17th century, their merchants from 

 Macao carried on a pretty free commerce to Banjar- 

 massin ; and even obtained permission, about the 

 year 1690, to establish there a factory. Their 

 counting-house was scarcely built, however, when it 

 was pillaged by the Moors, who murdered the director 

 and the commissaries, took their vessels of Macao in 

 the harbour, and butchered the crews. This disaster 

 effectually deterred the Portuguese from all further 

 attempts to establish a commercial connection with 

 Borneo. 



The Spaniards, established in the Philippine Spanish 

 islands, were no less eager than the Portuguese to settle- 

 engross the commerce of Borneo. The port of Bor- meats, 

 neo, the ancient capital of the island, was for several 

 years in their possession. They had concluded an 

 advantageous treaty with the sultan of that kingdom ; 

 who engaged himself to shut the ports under his con- 

 troul against all other European nations, and to make 

 war against all the enemies of Spain. They found it 

 expedient, however, to abandon that establishment, 

 either because it was too distant from the Philippines, 

 or on account of the rude treatment which they re- 

 ceived from the Moors, who were no less cruel and 

 suspicious than those of Banjar-massin. 



The bad success of the Spaniards and Portuguese, Dutch set- 

 did not deter the Dutch from attempting to form tlemtnts. 

 settlements on an island which seemed to combine so 

 many commercial advantages. They, at first, suc- 

 ceeded in establishing factories at Borneo, Sambas, 

 and Succatana. But the persecutions of the Moors 

 forced them likewise to abandon these inhospitable 

 coasts ; nor do they seem to have ever revisited them 

 till the year 1748, when they appeared off Banjar- 

 massin with a squadron, which, though feeble, so 

 overawed the sultan, that he granted them the exclu- 

 sive commerce of pepper, with this single exception, 

 that he should be permitted to deliver 500,000 

 pounds of that commodity to the Chinese who fre- 

 quented his harbours. The advantages which the 

 Dutch derived from this commerce scarcely counter- 

 balanced the expense of the establishment. 



The English, like the- Dutch, were tempted-, by Englishset- 

 the advantages which Borneo held out, to brave all tlements. 

 the dangers which other Europeans had experienced' 

 in endeavouring to' settle on its coasts. They, ac- 

 cordingly, began by establishing a colony at Succata- 

 na j which, like all their predecessors who had made 

 the same attempt, was compelled to leave the island 

 in 1694-. A short time after that, however, they 

 were received at Banjar-massin ; where, with the as- 

 sistance of two hundred Indian families, who placed 

 themselves under their protection, they rapidly form- 

 ed a very flourishing colony. The Moors, envious 

 or afraid of the growing prosperity of this factory, 

 were approaching one day to plunder and destroy it, 



