495 
BORNEO. 
Several works relating to Borneo have recently been published 
in Europe. With the exception of Temminck’s volume, from which 
we have already given some extracts, and Mr. Low’s able description 
of Sarawak,* none of these are of a systematic nature, and the in¬ 
formation which they contain, while always valuable and often new, 
is generally incomplete. The public attention having been thorough¬ 
ly roused to the importance of Sir James Brooke’s purposes and 
measures, and the British government having adopted them as their 
own by establishing the colony of Labuan, and investing the gover¬ 
nor with political functions embracing the adjacent countries, cor¬ 
rect statistical information respecting their population, industry, 
products, capacity of production, and commerce, is now required. 
How little this has hitherto been sought may be inferred from the fact 
that, although the capital of Borneo proper has been of late repeated¬ 
ly visited by naval officers impressed, as they assure us, with the 
paramount importance of commerce, none of them have furnished 
us with any details respecting the present trade of Brime. This 
is an omission the more to be regretted since the speculations in 
which they indulge as to the future commercial prosperity of La¬ 
buan, would have risen in trustworthiness in proportion as they were 
based on data derived from the actual trade of the neighbouring 
town. I his and all other deficiencies in our knowledge of the north¬ 
ern part of Borneo, we may expect to see soon remedied through 
the enquiries of Sir James Brooke, and the intelligent gentlemen 
Mr. Low s work is emphatically a satisfactory one. There is a care- 
fullncss in his descriptions, and a justness and absence of prejudice in his 
opinions and estimates of native manners and character, which are not fre¬ 
quently met with. We expect much from his researches. He will pardon 
our rein a i Idn g that the value ofhis labours would have been greatly in¬ 
creased, by giving the authorities on which statements relating to matters 
not falling within his own observation are made. An able original obser¬ 
ver like Mr. Low' impairs the value of his own contributions to knowledge 
by mixing them up with other facts which the reader may not he disposed 
to take on trust, and the authors of w hich, if given, he might consider not 
entitled to implicit confidence. This remark is made with reference to the 
vague, and careless assertions that we frequently find in writings touching 
on the Archipelago, and to the uncertainty in which much of its currently 
received history is still involved. 
