8 
VIL HISTORICAL. 
In the History of the Ming Dynasty (1358—1043), Book mention is 
made of birdfi' uesU among the products of Johorc: they probably came from the 
islands off the east coast of that State. An old register kept at Batavia and dated 
16(38 also refers to the transport of consignments of nests, Eesearch would almost 
certainly produce earlier references. 
" Hiniitdo esctilenfa'' was of course known to Linnc and Bufi'on cites a 
correspondent who, embarking for a voyage to China in 1741, visited some nesting 
plixces of !a silangane " near Java. An early and full account of the important 
caves at Karangbolong in Java is to be found in Crawford's History of the Indian 
Archiijelago, III, 1820, p. 430 et seq. 
The author gives some interesting figtu'es concerning the annual export 
of nests: he attributes to Java *200 piculs or 27,000 lbs. but remarks that the 
greatest quantity comes from the " Sukik Archipelago" which ts credited with 530 
piculs : 30 picuts are also attributed to " Maccasar 
Crawford naively remarks " how the latter (i. c, the Chinese) first acquired a 
taste for this foreign commodity is only less singular than their persevering in it. 
Among the western nations there is nothing parallel to it unless we except the 
whimsical estimation in which tlie Romans held some articles of IuxluTj remarkable 
for their scarcity rather than for any quaUties ascribed to them. " 
The earliest mention I can find to the North Borneo caves is the indirect 
reference to the nests from the " Buluk Archipelago " made by Crawford in 1820 : 
this may include the Gomantong caves. 
Concerning the Gomantong caves the first name to occur in the days of the 
Chartered Company is that of Pengeran di Gadong Samah just as often referred 
to in olficial documents as Panglima di Gadong. He is sometimes stated to have 
been the original owner of the caves, in possession when the Govern ment took 
over, but from an unsigned article in the '* North Borneo Herald" II, Ko« 1, March 
1884, p. 3, we learn that the grandfather of Pangeran Samah ", the latter an 
intiuentiai Chief of the Kinabatangan district, was the first to work the rich birds' 
nest caves of Gomantong, This ancestor was executed by his sovereign, then 
Sultan of Sulu, whose authority he had slighted. Of the Pangeran's father nothing 
is said but we learn that Pangeran Samah himself had the collection of the birds' 
nest of the Gomantong caves " virtually in his hands The Government had 
acquired from the Sultan of Sulu his large share in the caves, so that it had a 
principal interest in seeing that the nests were properly collected at the due times 
and seasons. The Pangeran seems to have performed his duties in such an 
unsatisfactory manner that as a last resort the Government decided to take over 
the collection of the nests into its own hands and to pay to the rightful .owners 
their due shares of the amounts realized. The Pangeran was subsequently killed 
offering armed resistance to the Chartered Company which granted an annuity to 
his daughters. The present Government iVgent for the caves is Guliga who is a 
son of one of the daughters : Guliga married a daughter of the brother-in-law 
(Dyte) who was with Pangeran di Gadong when he was killed but having been 
