BRITISH BORNEO. 51 
the term, there is always some idea of a Northerly direction ; 
for instance, | have hearda Brunai man who was passing from 
the South to the Northern side of his river, say he was going 
Saba. When the Company’s Government was first inaugu- 
rated, the territory was, in official documents, mentioned as 
Sabah, a name which is still current amongst the natives, to 
whom the now officially accepted designation of North Borneo 
is meaningless and difficult of pronunciation. 
Having settled with the Brunai authorities, Baron VON 
OVERBECK next proceeded to Sulu, and found the Sultan dri- 
ven out of his capital, Sugh or Jolo, by the Spaniards, with 
whom he was still at war, and residing at Maibun, in the prin- 
cipal island of the Sulu Archipelago. After brief negotiations, 
the Sultan made to Baron VON OVERBECK and Mr. ALFRED 
DENT a grant of his rights and powers over the territories 
and lands tributary to him on the mainland of the island of 
Borneo, from the Pandassan River on the North West Coast 
to the Sibuko River on the East, and further invested the 
Baron, or his duly appointed successor in the office of su- 
preme ruler of the Company's territories in Borneo, with the 
high sounding titles of Datu Bandahara and Raja of San- 
dakan. 
On a company being formed to work the concessions, 
Baron VON OVERBECK resigned these titles from the Brunai and 
Sulu Potentates and they have not since been made use of, 
and the Baron himself terminated his connection with the 
country. 
The grant from the Sultan of Sulu bears date the 22nd 
January, 1878, and on the 22nd July of the same year he 
signed a treaty, or act of re-submission to Spain. The Span- 
ish Government claimed that, by previous treaties with 
Sulu, the suzerainty of Spain over Sulu and its dependencies 
in Borneo had been recognised and that consequently the 
grant to Mr. DENT was void. The British Government did not, 
however, fall in with this view, and in the early part of 1879, 
being then Acting Consul-General in Borneo, I was des- 
patched to Sulu and to different points in North Borneo to pub- 
lish, on behalf of our Government, a protest against the claim 
of Spain to any portion of the country. In March, 1885, a 
