6] 
SECTION II 
BORNEO. 
CHAPTER V. 
GENERAL DESCRIPTION. 
Borneo, so called by the early Europeans, and probably by 
their predecessors the Mahomedan navigators, from the name 
of Brunei its best known principality in the China Sea, 
occupies nearly the centre of the Eastern Archipelago, and is 
almost bisected by the Equator, It lies between latitude 4^ S. 
and 7*^ N., and longitude 109^ and 1 19° E., having to the North 
and West the China Sea j to the East the Straits of Macassar ; 
and to the South the Java Sea. A name by which the Malays 
of the Archipelago sometimes call it is Tanah Kiihnantan 
f Mango Land), but among the indigenous people of Borneo, 
it possesses no g^eral name. 
Its greatest length lies in 115° East longitude, and follows 
almost exactly the line of North and Soiith, from Point Sampan- 
Mangi^ at Mar6du Bay to Tanjong Sel^tan (South Point) near 
the River Banjer in the Residency of Banjer-Massin : this distance 
is just under 700 miles. Its greatest breadth lies in latitude 
North and follows precisely the line of East and West, from Point 
Kanyungan in Macassar Straits to the mouth of the River 
SambaSj between Sarawak and Pontiinak: this distance is just 
over 600 miles. The shape of this great island is, therefore, 
almost square, and entirely unlike that of the other large islands 
of the world, and more especially of those in its neighbourhood. 
This, together with the fact of its being, next to Australia and 
