arge crops of all tropical
products. Its forests are filled with trees fit for shipbuilding, and
abound in that variety from which is obtained the gutta percha of
commerce. The hills are rich in iron and tin of the best quality. The
mountain streams wash down gold. In the beds of smaller rivers are found
diamonds, in such profusion that most of the Malays wear them set in
rings and other ornaments. From this single province comes nearly the
whole supply of antimony in the world. "I do not believe," says a
resident, "that in the same given space there can be found so great
mineral and vegetable wealth in any land in the whole world."

* * * * *

With what sentiments the new Rajah entered upon his duties can be best
understood by a perusal of his familiar letters. He writes to his
mother: "Do not start when I say that I am going to settle in Borneo,
that I am about to endeavor to plant there a mixed colony amid a wild
but not unvirtuous race, and to become the pioneer of European knowledge
and improvement. The diffusion of civilization, commerce, and religion
through so vast an island as Borneo, I call a grand object,--so grand
that self is quite lost when I consider it; and even failure would be
much better than the non-attempt." "A few days ago I was up a high
mountain and looked over the country. It is a prospect which I have
rarely seen equalled; and sitting there, lazily smoking a cigar, I
called into existence the coffee plantations, the sugar plantations, the
nutmeg plantations, and pretty white villages and tiny steeples, and
dreamed that I heard the buzz of life and the clang of industry amid the
jungles, and that the China Colins whistled as they went, for want of
thought, as they homeward bent."

The first duty which claimed attention was the relief of the native
Dyaks. A shrewd Dyak once defined the Malay government as "a plantain in
the mouth and a thorn in the back." A plantain giving to their poor
subjects a little to keep life in them; a thorn stripping them to the
skin and piercing them to the bone. The description is pithy, and it is
true. The exactions of the Malay chiefs were almost beyond belief.
Seizing and monopolizing some article of prime necessity,--salt
perhaps,--they would force the natives to buy at the rate of fifty
dollars' worth of rice for a teacup of salt; until the wretched
cultivator, who had raised a plentiful crop, was brought to the verge of
starvati