xxiv] AGRICULTURE 



cultivation does not pay, at all events not sufficiently to compensate 

 the expense of outlay and of European supervision and adminstra- 

 tion. The natives, and better still the Chinese, for whom a minimum 

 outlay of capital is sufficient, who are good field-labourers, and to 

 whom their own manual labour is money, can obtain paying 

 returns from various kinds of cultivation in Sarawak, foremost 

 amongst which are pepper and gambir. 



Were it not dangerous for a small State with a limited military 

 force, perhaps the best way of improving the agricultural output 

 of Sarawak would be to encourage Chinese immigration as much as 

 possible, for the Chinese do not suffer from the climate, 1 are good 

 agriculturists, and can make the land pay where it would give little 

 or no profit to the European capitalist. Borneo, like most tropical 

 countries, is a region where the European labourer cannot work 

 his own land, thus prosperity deriving from agriculture can only 

 be obtained by an adequate development of Asiatic labour. 



The efforts of H.H. Rajah Sir Charles Brooke to introduce 

 new agricultural resources in Sarawak have been unceasing, and 

 he has spared neither time nor money. Certainly it was neither 

 owing to want of energy on his part nor of the active co-operation 

 of the persons he employed, if success did not always crown his 

 efforts. When I was first in Borneo attempts at rearing the silk- 

 worm were made, and in this I helped to the best of my ability, 

 having been familiar with the industry in Italy. I have still a 

 skein of silk spun from cocoons produced in Sarawak in 1867, 

 which in quality is all that could be desired. But the want of well- 

 defined seasons, and especially the all-prevailing dampness, rendered 

 the results very uncertain, the silkworms being often and easily 

 decimated by the various maladies to which they are liable. The 

 mulberry-tree grows well, especiallv at Lundu, hence there would 

 be no lack of the leaves for feeding the worms. 



Coffee-planting, as I have said in the beginning of my narrative, 

 was first attempted whilst I was in Sarawak on the Mattang 

 mountain, around my hut " Vallombrosa," and was a failure as 

 regards the ordinary species, C. Arabica, which produced no berries. 

 It was, however, the beginning of a sort of experimental plantation 

 on a large scale, where, from what I hear, Liberian coffee, cinchona, 

 and tea plants, thrive and produce well. No less than 650 acres 

 are now cultivated with Liberian coffee, which, from the prosperous 

 condition of the young plants, promises to be highly successful. 

 Another extensive coffee plantation, also belonging to the Govern- 

 ment, is now thriving at Satop. At " Vallombrosa " an elegant 

 bungalow now occupies the old site of my hut in the midst of 

 extensive plantations, and on the grounds which for centuries were 



1 This is not invariably the case. The Chinese working in the planta- 

 tions of Borneo have always suffered considerably from beri-beri. — [Ed.] 



369 B B 



