THE GEOGRAPHICAL GROUP OK BORNEO, 
4*29 
laiioii with which we are occupied. Restricting ourselves, then to 
those parts of Borneo on which we can found an estimate of the po¬ 
pulation : in the first place the towns and villages in the possessions 
of the state and in those of the dependent princes lying on the three 
sides above mentioned; secondly the possessions upon all the northern 
coast such as we find divided between the Sultans of Brum or Bor¬ 
neo proper and of Sulu, as well as the state of Sarawak; thirdly, the 
borders of the very numerous streams, rivers and lakes, as well as 
the countries of the interior still unknown ; fourthly, the inhabited 
tracts along the coast. But, if we allow this circuit to embrace the 
approximative number of three millions of inhabitants, we can on¬ 
ly do so by attributing a very large population to the northern parts 
of the island, which is not probable nor even adinissable, because of 
the small number of inhabitants which a more exact calculation, based 
on the consumption of salt, appears to yield in the possessions of the 
state and dependent princes ; countries of which the superficies occu¬ 
pies two thirds of the island, and of which the population neverthe¬ 
less will not reach the number of 1,350,000 souls; leaving thus 
1,650,000 souls for the population of the remaining third of Borneo, 
which does not appear very probable. 
We find in the memoirs of the commissioner Tobias, under date 
i 
the 30th of November 1825, that the approximate population of the 
residency of the west coast, exclusive of Europeans whose number is 
not given, was as follows : 
Malays and Arabs. 134,940 souls 
Bugis. 
Dependent Dayaks.. 
Chinese. 
Independent Dayaks 
Total 590,100 souls 
In 1836 the single principal district of Pontianak, a dependent 
portion and chief place of the above residency, w r as reckoned to con¬ 
tain; 
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