BRITISH ENTERPRISE. 347 



been urivisited by Europeans, excepting at their mouths, 

 and then only on one occasion. We shall not long 

 provided the settlement of Labuh-an flourish remain 

 in our present ignorance regarding this and the other 

 inhabitants of the western and eastern coast. At 

 present, even the outline of the latter is incorrectly 

 laid down, and the mouths of its numerous and very 

 large rivers are not inserted on our charts. The 

 Government have recently done much towards our 

 better geographical acquaintance with the island, and 

 the yet unpublished surveys of its coasts by Sir 

 Edward Belcher, and the continuation of them by 

 the talented and industrious officer who has succeeded 

 him as the surveying officer of the station (Lieut. D. 

 Gordon, H.M. surveying ship ' Royalist,') will not 

 suffer the coasts of the island much longer to remain 

 the disgrace to our admiralty charts, which they have 

 hitherto been. 



Of all nations, the Dutch have, perhaps, with the 

 exception of the English East India Company, acquired 

 the best information regarding their colonies ; and their 

 many expeditions into the interior of Borneo, up the 

 Pontianak, the Banjar, and the Coti rivers, must have 

 put them in possession of facts relative to the interior 

 of the island, which it will be years before our own 

 Government can obtain. The museums of Holland team 

 with collections of all kinds from their possessions in 

 the east ; but hitherto that Government has guarded 

 with jealous care all the information, on whatever 

 subject, which its servants and scientific expeditions 



