302 
THE GEOGRAPHICAL GROUP OF BORNE0,* 
CHAP. I. 
general considerations on the island. 
The exaggerated relations which were promulgated during the 
first years of the 16th century respecting the immense richness of the 
soil of Borneo, attracted to this country the attention of easily ex¬ 
citable imaginations ; they pleased themselves in prognosticating to 
enterprizing men that this el dorado of Malaga would speedily 
enrich the nation which should have the good fortune to establish 
itself on this island. The adventurous navigators of the time pro¬ 
mised themselves the most splendid success, and foresaw already 
the most beautiful prospects of amassing in a little time a bril¬ 
liant fortune; they presumed that to attain it the crews of their 
ships had only to lay them alongside of the coasts famous for the 
richness of their products; that gold and diamonds were found al¬ 
most at the surface of the ground ; and that the natives offered a 
rich prey from the quantity of ornaments of this precious metal with 
which they supposed them to be abundantly provided. It was the 
office of time to render ail these fine projects abortive. These 
dreams of an ardent imagination only issued in grave mistakes. 
Thus were seen to disappear from these seas, the flags of nations 
■which had tried to fix themselves on Borneo, or in some of the is¬ 
lands in the neighbourhood of this great country. Holland, and, af¬ 
ter her, England, guided by a commercial principle less adventurous 
and more solid, found the means of forming establishments on the 
principal island and took possession of surrounding islands ; there 
they founded factories to serve as points of reunion, at wffiich their 
ships of commerce could find protection and succour in their navi¬ 
gation of the seas of China and Japan, then very uncertain and ex¬ 
posed to many dangers. The Company of the Dutch Indies owed 
* From Temminck’s Coup-d’Oeil General sur les Possessions Neertan- 
daises dans Vlnde ArchipelagiguOi uol. II, See yqI. I. p. 129 of this Jour¬ 
nal. , 
