MISCELLANEOUS NOTICES, CONTRIBUTIONS 
AND CORRESPONDENCE. 
Letters from the Interior of Borneo (West Coast) 
No. IY. 
Ponlianak . 
From a place such as Pontianak vow is only small items of news could be 
given in ordinary times ; now and then an auction, or a thief stabbed, &c., 
but its business usually gees on with little other noise than that of the“ Pa* 
sar.” The Dutch portion, backed by what is called “ Darat China.” is 
pretty and pleasant in a tolerably dry season—the remainder presents a 
medley of a few very good homes, a few others that are good, and a multi* 
tude that call literally for retormation. 1 he number of passage-boats, to 
ferry us from one bank of the liver to another (boats generally good, and 
always propelled by one person) is, I am told, nearly 200: and he who earns 
25 cents per diem is accounted as doiug well. Indeed, 15 cents will secure 
a man’s best work at the paddle, and, if ycu would start after breakfast for 
an excursion with seven stout active feliows to go 25 miles and back, a dollar 
will pay ihem, to their hearts content: and if a gentleman be in the habit 
of paying a man the enormous sum of an English six ptnee tor perhaps a 
half hour’s work and two or three hours’ wailing' for him, there will be an 
ambition to carry him whenever he is seen. Never, however, do men. in 
any degree, shout and gesticulate as at the waterside steps ot Singapore : 
the ferrymen here are Eugis or Malays, and uniformly quiet and polite. 
We must acknowledge that Dutch Police answer letter than such as you 
used to have: how you fare now, I do not feel qualified to judge.—A young, 
intelligent man has repeatedly besought me, of late, to redeem him trom a 
debt of 70 rupees, entailed upon him at his father’s death, and I have no 
doubt that, giving him his food and clothing, I might have his services for 
tw r o years, and he would account so easy a release great gain. The sum is 
the precise equivalent of only twenty dollars, and yet perhaps it will make 
him a bondsman, a very slave, for the next ten years, or possibly for life : 
it certainly will, unless seme white man receive him. So many Dyaks alrea* 
dy look lo us as their chief earthly stay that I cannot think of preferring 
him, to their exclusion, our work being but slight: and, besides, I would 
not, for appearance sake, pay the debt and consider the man mine, though 
becoming less and less mine as monthly deductions should gradually free him. 
The system has intrinsic difficulties, and some excessively tender consciences 
would whisper, or loudly utter, “ Slavery !”: if I covld take him at all, I 
should free him within a year: poor fellow! it was affecting to hear him 
depict the evds of falling upon the “ tender mercies” of a Malay master, 
should such an one pay his debt. He says, in reference to their talk, “ if 
they would abuse me angrily and coarsely 1 should not mind it so mucb,butthe 
sting ot such a position is that they take delight in deriding us upon cur mis¬ 
fortune and its issue.” b . 
This place, as every white man would pronounce, on a moment's ob¬ 
servation, is to be one of immense business when cur island shall have 
taken her place in the industrial world. Two noble rivers, forming bv 
ie ir confluence the Ponlianak River, place ibis point beyond all doubt : 
either the Landak or the Kayuas atone would bring a tide of wealth 
when the ulu iolk* should have become enteiprising and possessed of funds 
—but two such streams are a fortune tor the happy future. Thirty years 
hence, it is probable, ships will come directly hither from Europe and Arne* 
Ulu, the interior, from CJlu Sungi the head or upper portion of a river. 
Vol t III. No, I. January, J849, 
