440 THE GEOGRAPHICAL GROUP OF BORNEO. 
the western parts of Borneo to the immediate power of Government 
and to introduce a regular fiscal system have not led to a satisfacto¬ 
ry result, chiefly owing to the opposition of the Chinese who obsti¬ 
nately refused to submit to our laws. 
Since that period Governor General van den Bosch, guided by a 
system different from that of his predecessors, believed that it was 
the more prudent course of action to avoid mixing himself up in the 
commercial affairs of the Chinese, at least with respect to those of 
the interior. The future will teach, us whether this system of lais- 
ser falre will be salutary or pernicious in its consequences, for the 
maintenance of our political injiuence and our commercial rela¬ 
tions in Borneo f 
To prevent the landing of Chinese, of whom the greater number 
consist of adventurers and bad subjects who annually come to seek 
their fortune in the Archipelego, it will be necessary to apply to 
Borneo the laws and regulations followed in Java. There only a 
limited number of the newly arrived are permitted to land in the is¬ 
land and establish themselves; if such measures had not been taken 
to repress the too numerous immigration of those strangers, no 
doubt Java would have suffered the same fate as Formosa, and that 
it would now have been subject to Chinese. Under the protection 
of these ordinances we should see in time a remarkable diminution 
in the too great Chinese population of the western districts of Bor¬ 
neo ; this result would be obtained by the return of those who had 
acquired riches to their native country, as well as by deaths in the 
existing population, and these two causes would suffice to decimate 
their numerical force. The Dayaks whom we would seek to accus¬ 
tom by degrees and insensibly to the labours of the soil, would suc¬ 
ceed to as great an extent as the Javanese; they would devote them¬ 
selves to it on their interests being stimulated, and easy and certain 
markets being offered for their products. These peaceable D&y&ks 
would become habituated to labours which would enable them to sa¬ 
tisfy a great number of their wants; they would become industrious 
and take a part in the mining of the precious metals; the direction 
of these labours being confided to Europeans, provided with all the 
