122 TRADING ADVANTAGES. [1846. 



of Balungan, as well as at Gunung Taboor, that their 

 profits were enormous, charging for the quantity of rice, 

 valued at about one dollar at Sooloo, about forty dollars 

 here. With regard to handkerchiefs, valued at two 

 dollars, Sooloo, we could not make a comparison, as 

 those from Celebes passed through Dutch channels ; but 

 the intrinsic value at which the Sultan reckoned them 

 was ten dollars each, being five hundred per cent, on the 

 Manila prices, and if exchanged for Bird's nests, some- 

 times reaching the value of twenty. 



These remarks are intended to apply chiefly to the 

 supposed sources of trade arising from Maludu Bay with 

 Balambangan. Of the value of this trade I am informed 

 that nothing but Camphor-Barns, Seed-Pearls, Shells, 

 Tripang, and a small quantity of Tortoise Shell, may be 

 expected from this source ; and this not offering sufficient 

 profit to an Arab merchant to repeat the venture at the 

 risk of his property, as well as life. We may safely in- 

 quire then, would an English trader, differing so totally in 

 religion, enter these haunts of what are designated, at the 

 present day, " pirate dens ", to seek for goods where one 

 of their own tribe is scarcely safe ? It is only necessary 

 to turn our attention to the river Kotai. Have the Dutch, 

 or English, after repeated attempts for a series of years, 

 succeeded in opening trade, by the intervention of Euro- 

 peans, with the Ruling Powers in that river? It is 

 monopolized by the Bugis traders of Celebes, and so 

 great is their influence there, that it is supposed to be 

 their object to exclude even their own allies, the Dutch. 

 This feeling prevails throughout Borneo, but at Gunung 

 Taboor, as well as at Balungan, the Sultans have been 



