ion, the story assumes quite a different colour; and it
would rather appear, that, instead of assisting to put down piracy in
the Bornean waters, the first act of the philanthropic Englishman was to
assist the Malay Sultan in enslaving several tribes of inoffensive
Dyaks, and forcing them to work without pay in the mines of antimony!
This appears to have been the nature of the services that purchased
Sarawak. It was, in fact, aiding the pirates, instead of putting them
down: since the Bornean Sultan was himself the actual patron and
protector of these sea robbers, instead of being their enemy!

The patriot and statesman Hume endeavoured to procure an inquiry into
these acts of Oriental _filibusterism_; but the underhand influence of
an unprincipled Administration, backed by an interested commercial
clamour, was too strong for him; and the shameful usurpation has been
justified.

Notwithstanding that Europeans have been settled for hundreds of years
in the islands of the Indian Archipelago--ruling them, as we may almost
say--it is astonishing how little is yet known of the great island of
Borneo. Only its coasts have been traced, and these very imperfectly.
The Dutch have made one or two expeditions into the interior; but much
knowledge need not be expected from such trading hucksters as they.
Their energies in the East have been expended throughout a period of two
centuries, with no other apparent object than to promote dissension,
wherever it was possible; and to annihilate every spark of freedom or
nobility among the races who have had the misfortune to come in contact
with them.

Notwithstanding their opportunities, they have done little to add to our
knowledge of Borneo--which was about as well-known a hundred years ago
as it is at the present hour.--Never was a subject more ripe for
illustration than this magnificent island. It courts a monograph--such
as has been given to Sumatra by Marsden, by Tennant to Ceylon, and to
Java by Sir Stamford Raffles. Perhaps some one of my young readers may
become the author of that monograph?

Teeming with the most gorgeous forms of tropical life--so rich in
_fauna_ and _flora_, that it might be almost regarded as a great
zoological and botanical garden combined--it will well repay the
scientific explorer, who may scarce find such another field on the face
of the earth.

Our young hunters, in contemplating the grand tropical scenery of
Borneo, were filled with admiration