68 BRITISH BORNEO. 
from Brunai to Balambangan. 
The station at this latter island, as already mentioned, was 
abandoned in 1775, andthe English trade with Brunai appears 
soon afterwards to have come to an end. 
From extracts from the Journal of the Batavia Society of 
Arts and Sciences published in Zhe British North Borneo 
Herald of the 1st October, 1886, the first mention of Brunai 
in Chinese history appears to be in the year 669, when the 
King of Polo, which is stated to be another name for 
Bunlai (corruption of “ Brunai’’), sent an envoy to Pekin, 
who came to Court with the envoy of Siam. Again, in the 
year 1406, another Brunai envoy was appointed, who took 
with him a tribute of the products of the country, and the 
chronicle goes on to say that it is reported “that the present 
“ King is a man from Fukien, who followed CHENG HO when 
‘he went to this country and who settled there.” 
This account was written in 1618 and alludes to the Chinese 
shipping then frequenting Brunai. It is by some supposed 
that the northern portion of Borneo was the destination of 
the unsuccessful expedition which KUBLAI KHAN sent out in 
the year 1292. 
Towards the close of the eighteenth century a Government 
seems to have arisen in Brunai which knew not ONG SuM 
PING and, in 1809, Mr. HUNT reported that Chinese junks 
had ceased visiting Brunai and, owing no doubt to the 
rapacious and piratical character of the native Government, 
the pepper gardens were gradually deserted and the Chinese 
left the country. A few of the natives had, however, acquired 
the art of pepper cultivation, especially the Dusuns of Pappar, 
Kimanis and Bundu and when the Colony of Labuan was 
founded, 1846, there was still a small trade in pepper with 
those rivers. The Brunai Rdajas, however, received their 
revenues and taxes in this commodity and their exhorbitant 
demands gradually led to the abandonment of its cultivation. 
These rivers have since passed under the Government of 
the British North Borneo Company, and in Bundu, owing 
partly to the security now afforded to life and property and 
partly to the very high price which pepper at present realizes 
