BRITISH BORNEO. 43 
In the following year, Sir JAMES BROOKE was appointed 
the first Governor of the new Colony, retaining his position 
as the British representative in Brunal, and being also the 
tuler of Sarawak, the independence of which was not form- 
ally recognised by the English Government until the year 
1863. Sir JAMES was assisted at Labuan bya Lieutenant- 
Governor and staff of European Officers, who on their way 
through Singapore are said to have somewhat offended the 
susceptibilities of the Officials of that Settlement by pointing 
to the fact that they were Queen’s Officers, whereas the 
Straits Settlements were at that time still under the Govern- 
ment of the East India Company. Sir JAMES BROOKE held 
the position of Governor until 1851, and the post has since 
been filled by such well-known administrators as Sir HUGH 
Low, Sir JOHN POPE HENNESSY, Sir HENRY E. BULWER and 
Sir CHARLES LEES, but the expectations formed at its foun- 
dation have never been realized and the little Colony appears 
to be in a moribund condition, the Governorship having been 
left unfilled since 1881. Onthe 27th May, 1847, Sir JAMES 
BROOKE concluded the Treaty with the Sultan of Brunai 
which is still in force. Labuan is situated off the mouth of 
the Brunai River and has an area of thirty square miles. 
It was uninhabited when we took it, being only occasionally 
visited by fishermen. It was: then covered, like all tropi- 
cal countries, whether the soil is rich or poor, with dense 
forest, some of the trees being valuable as timber, but 
most of this has since been destroyed, partly by the succes- 
sive coal companies, who required large quantities of timber 
for their mines, but chiefly by the destructive mode of cultiva- 
tion practised by the Kadyans and other squatters from Borneo, 
who were allowed to destroy the forest for a crop or two of 
rice, the soil, except in the flooded plains, being not rich 
enough to carry more than one or two such harvests under 
such primitive methods of agriculture as only are known to 
the natives. The lands socleared were deserted and were soon 
covered witb a strong growth of fern and coarse useless /alang 
grass, difficult to eradicate, andit is well known that, when a 
tropical forest is once destroyed and the land left to itself, the 
new jungle which may in time spring up rarely contains any 
