BRITISH BORNEO. 49 
lowing manner. In 1865 Mr. MOsEs, the unpaid Consul for 
the United Sates in Brunai, to whom reference has been made 
before, acquired with his friends from the Sultan of Brunai 
some concessions of territory with the right to govern 
and collect revenues, their idea being to introduce Chinese 
and establish a-Colony. This they attempted to carry out on 
a small scale in the Kimanis River, on the West Coast, but 
not having sufficient capital the scheme collapsed, but the 
concession was retained. Mr. MOSES subsequently lost his 
life at sea, and a Colonel TORREY became the chief repre- 
sentative of the American syndicate. He was engaged in 
business in China, where he met Baron VON OVERBECK, a 
merchant of Hongkong and Austrian Consul-General, and 
interested him in the scheme. In 1875 the Baron visited 
Borneo in company with the Colonel, interviewed the Sultan 
of Brunai, and made enquiries as to the validity of the con- 
cessions, with apparently satisfactory results. Mr. ALFRED 
DENT * was also a China merchant well known in Shanghai, 
and he in turn was interested in the idea by Baron OVERBECK. 
Thinking there might be something in the scheme, he pro- 
vided the required capital, chartered a steamer, the America, 
and authorised Baron OVERBECK to proceed to Brunai to en- 
deavour, with Colonel TORREY’S assistance, to induce the 
Sultan and his Ministers to transfer the American cessions 
to himself and the Baron, or rather to cancel the previous 
ones and make out new ones in their favour and that of their 
heirs, associates, successors and assigns for so long as they 
should choose or desire to hold them. Baron VON OVERBECK 
was accompanied by Colonel TORREY and a staff of three 
Europeans, and, on settling some arrears due by the Ameri- 
can Company, succeeded in accomplishing the objects of his 
mission, after protracted and tedious negotiations, and obtain- 
eda ‘‘chop” from the Sultan nominating and appointing him 
supreme ruler, “with the title of Maharaja of Sabah (North 
Borneo) and Raja of Gaya and Sandakan, with power of life 
and death over the inhahitants, with all the absolute rights of 
* Now Sir ALFRRD DENT, K.C.M.G. 
