216 
COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL 
was a few years later by the English, so that in the 
middle of the seventeenth century three European nations 
were busily engaged in trying to supplant each other at 
the various ports. For more than half a century, how¬ 
ever—from 1670 to 1733—the Dutch left the field, and 
w^ere followed by the Portuguese, and in 1707 the 
English, who had a settlement at Banjarmasin, then a 
place of considerable trade, were driven out by the 
natives. In 1733 the Dutch returned, and fifty-two 
years later a civil war placed them in possession of the 
large territory belonging to the Sultan of Banjarmasin. 
The country nevertheless remained undeveloped, and it 
was only subsequent to the restoration to the Dutch in 
1816 of their Malayan dominion that anything was done 
in the way of settlement. Since that time considerable 
additions have been made to their possessions, and the 
entire island, with the exception of the Brunei, Sarawak, 
and British North Borneo Company’s territories, now be¬ 
longs to Holland. The history of the English occupation 
of these latter countries will be separately considered on 
a later page. 
The medieval history of the island is chiefly con¬ 
jectural, and we have even less knowledge of it than of 
that of Java and Sumatra. Numerous ruins of Hindu 
temples in various parts of the island, as for example at 
Pontianak on the west, Sangkulirang on the east, and 
400 miles in the interior on the Koti river, prove that 
the Borneans must in bygone ages have come under a 
western influence if not an actual dominion, but it is 
probable that the immigration took place largely from Java. 
Borneo, however, could at no time have been a political 
unit. Later, Malays from the Peninsula or from 
Sumatra invaded the island, and, settling on the coasts, 
drove the aborigines inland; but although they brought 
