BRITISH BORNEO. 17 
the Government should be vested in “a chief and two other 
persons of Council,” and that the earliest proceedings extant 
emdared soul, 1773, and relate to:a ‘broil im the streets 
between Mr. ALCOCK, the second in the Council, and the 
Surgeon of the Britannia. 
This was a somewhat unpropitious commencement, and in 
1774 the Court are found writing to Madras, to which Balam- 
bangan was subordinate, complaining of the “imprudent 
management and profuse conduct” of the Chief and Council. 
In February, 1775, Sulu pirates surprised the stockade, and 
drove out the settlers, capturing booty valued at about a mil- 
lion dollars. The Company’s officials then proceeded to the 
island of Labuan, now a British Crown Colony, and established 
a factory, which was maintained but for a short time, at Bru- 
nai itself. In 1803 Balambangan was again occupied, but 
as no commercial advantage accrued, it was abandoned in the 
following year, and so ended all attempts on the part of the 
East India Company to establish a Colony in Borneo. 
While at Balambangan, the officers, in 1774, entered into 
negotiations with the Sultan of Brunai, and, on undertaking 
to protect him against Sulu and Mindanau pirates, acquired 
the exclusive trade in all the pepper grown in his country. 
The settlement of Singapore, the present capital of the 
Straits Settlements, by Sir STAMFORD RAFFLES, under the 
orders of the East India Company in 1819, again drew atten- 
tion to Borneo, for that judiciously selected and free port 
soon attracted to itself the trade of the Celebes, Borneo and 
the surrounding countries, which was brought to it by 
numerous fleets of small native boats. These fleets were 
constantly harassed and attacked and their crews carried 
off into slavery by the Balinini, Hlanun, and Dyak pirates 
infesting the Borneo and Celebes coasts, and the inter- 
ference of the British Cruisers was urgently called for and at 
length granted, and was followed, in the natural course of 
events, by political intervention, resulting in the brilliant and 
exciting episode whereby the modern successor of the olden 
heroes—Sir JAMES BROOKE—obtained for his family, in 1840, 
the kingdom of Sarawak, on the west coast of the island, 
