62 BRITISH BORNEO. 
Sandakan is the principal trading station in the Company’s 
territory, but with Hongkong only 1,200 miles distant in one 
direction, Manila 600 miles in another, and Singapore 1,000 
miles in a third, North Borneo can never become an empo- 
rium for the trade of the surrounding countries and islands, 
and the Court of Directors must rest content with developing 
their own local trade and pushing forward, by wise and en- 
couraging regulations, the planting interest, which seems to 
have already taken firm root in the country and which will 
prove to be the foundation of its future prosperity. Gold and 
other minerals, including coal, are known to exist, but the 
mineralogical exploration of a country covered with forest and 
destitute of roads is a work requiring time, and we are not yet 
in a position to pronounce on North Borneo’s expectations in 
regard to its mineral wealth. 
The gold on the Segama River, on the East coast, has been 
several times reported on, and has been proved to exist in 
sufficient quantities to, at any rate, well repay the labours of 
Chinese gold diggers, but the district is difficult of access by 
water, and the Chinese are deferring operations on a large scale 
until the Government has constructed a road into the district. 
A European Company has obtained mineral concessions on 
the river, but has not yet decided on its mode of operation, 
and individual European diggers have tried their luck on the 
fields, hitherto without meeting with much success, owing to 
heavy rains, sickness and the difficulty of getting up stores. 
The Company will probably find that Chinese diggers will not 
only stand the climate better, but will be more easily governed, 
be satisfied with smaller returns, and contribute as much or 
more than the Europeans to the Government Treasury, by 
their consumption of opium, tobacco and other excisable arti- 
cles, by fees for gold licenses, and so forth. 
Another source of natural wealth lies in the virgin forest 
with which the greater portion of the country is clothed, down 
to the water's edge. Many of the trees are valuable as 
timber, especially the &z//zan, or Borneo iron-wood tree, which 
is impervious to the attacks of white-ants ashore and almost 
equally soto those of the teredo navalis afloat, and is wonder- 
fully enduring of exposure to the tropical sun and the tropical 
