BOENEO. 121 



distinguished the various provinces alone by particular appellations, to which a 

 more general meaning- was afterwards given by foreigners. Excluding the con- 

 tinental and polar regions, this island is in fact exceeded in size by New Guinea 

 alone ; but thanks to its more compact triangular foim, it presents far more the 

 appearance of a continent than does that elongated and deeply indented region. 



Borneo evidently constitutes the central nucleus of the former Austral- Indian 

 land, which comprised Java and Sumatra besides the Malay peninsula and inter- 

 vening shallow waters. The basin of these waters has, so to say, scarcely yet been 

 excavated by the geological agencies, and still reveals the old form of the continent, 

 over one- third of which is represented by its largest fragment, Borneo. With the 

 adjacent islets, such as Maijang and the Karimata group, near the south-west coast, 

 Pulo Laut and Seboku at the south-east corner, and a few others, it has a total 

 area of nearly 300,000 square miles; or about two and a half times that of the 

 British Isles. Excluding minor indentations, the coastline has a development of 

 not less than 3,800 miles. 



This central region of Indonesia, although one of the most fertile, and 

 abounding in all kinds of tropical produce, is nevertheless almost a wilderness, so 

 slight is the population compared to its superficial extent. Java, seven or eight 

 times smaller, exceeds it ten or twelve times in the number of its inhabitants ; even 

 the thinly peopled island of Sumatra is more than twice as populous, at least, if any 

 confidence can be placed in the summary estimates and conjectures of travellers. 

 This relative and absolute disproportion must be attributed to the zone of swampy 

 and malarious forests which encircles nearly the whole of the coastlands. Village 

 communities could scarcely be developed in these insalubrious regions, where most 

 centres of population have remained in a rudimentary state, lacking the elements 

 of progress which are acquired by mutual intercourse and commercial relations. 

 The riverain populations have risen little above the primitive social condition of 

 fishers and hunters. The period of agriculture, properly so called, has begun only 

 in a limited number of clearings, and in many districts such is the savage state of 

 the natives, that the various tribal groups still regard each other simplj' as so much 

 game. Head-hunting is the only object with which many tribes approach their 

 neighbours. 



Exploration of Borneo. — Political Divisions. 



The social state of the people has naturally been a great impediment to the 

 exploration of the country, of which down to the beginning of the present century 

 little was known beyond the seaboard. Sighted by the Portuguese probably in the 

 first years of the sixteenth century, Borneo remained unknown to history till 1521, 

 when the survivors of Magellan's expedition round the globe presented themselves 

 before Brunei. Soon after this event, Jorge de Menezes established a factory on the 

 west coast; the Dutch made their appearance in 1598, and they were soon followed 

 by the English. But all attempts at exploration were successively abandoned 

 either for lack of means or owing to the opposition of the natives and Chinese 

 immigrants. 



