NOTICES OP TIIE CHINESE INTERCOURSE WITH BORNEO, 613 
having been agreed that all the pepper should be delivered to them, 
ships were despatched, but on arriving at Banjermassing they learn¬ 
ed that some Chinese junks had been before them and carried away 
all the pepper.* Roggewein in 1721 mentions the large fleets of 
China junks, laden with the commodities of that empire, which an¬ 
nually arrive in Borneo, and observes that as the Chinese were in 
possession of all the trade of this island before the Portuguese dis¬ 
covered a passage to India by the Cape, so it had in a great measure 
fallen into their hands since the Europeans had declined settling there. 
From Valentyii’s great work published in 1726, we learn that the 
commerce of Borneo in the earlier part of the century was extensive, 
and that the Chinese took an active part in it. He gives few par¬ 
ticulars respecting Brun<$, because his countrymen appear to have 
disliked and avoided the port from the time of their first visit to it, 
but he tells us that the people were considered to be the wealthiest 
of the whole island, on account of the superiority of the gold and 
camphor obtained there in exchange for cloths.f When the Dutch 
in 1748 compelled the king of Banjermassing to give them a mono¬ 
poly of his trade, he reserved the liberty of allowing the Chinese to 
take 500,000 pounds of pepper.J 
We may pass over intermediate notices and extract that of Forrest 
which relates to Brunts. ec Considerable”, says that very observing 
and careful writer, “ is the commerce between China and Borneo, 
somewhat like the trade between Europe and America. Seven junks 
were at Borneo in 1775. They carry to China great quantities of 
black wood, which is worked up there into furniture, &c.; it is bought 
for about two dollars a picul and sold for five or six: also ratans, 
daramer, a kind of resin, clove bark, swallo, tortoiseshell, birds nests, 
&c. articles such as are carried from Sooloo to China. The best na¬ 
tive eamplure is exported hence; superior, I have been told, to the 
Barroos eampnire on Sumatra. It looks no better, but is much 
dearer, selling for ten or twelve Spanish dollars the Chinese catty; 
Barroos eamplure, looking as well, being worth no more than seven 
and eight dollars a catty. The Chinese are good judges of camphire. 
A great deal of this valuable drug comes from those parts of the is¬ 
land Borneo, that weie ceded to us by the Sooloos. At Borneo town, 
the Chinese sometimes build junks, which they load with the rough 
produce of the island Borneo, and send thence to China. I have 
* lb. p. 247-8. T Vol. III. p. 242. * 
f JVlalte Brim’s Geography vol. Ill p. 481. 
