himself
appropriates the revenue of the office leaving the duties to take care
of themselves.

To look after trade and commerce there is, in theory, an inferior
Minister, the Pangeran Shabander.

There is another class of Ministers--_Mantri_--who are selected by the
Sultan from among the people, and are chosen for their intelligence and
for the influence and following they have amongst the citizens. They
possess very considerable political power, their opinions being asked on
important matters. Such are the two Juwatans and the Orang Kaya di
Gadong, who may be looked upon as the principal officers of the Sultan
and the Wazirs.

The State officials are paid by the revenues of certain districts which
are assigned, as will be seen below, to the different offices.

The Mahomedan Malays, it has already been explained, were an invading
and conquering race in Borneo, and their chiefs would seem to have
divided the country, or, rather, the inhabitants, amongst themselves,
in much the same way as England was parcelled out among the followers of
WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. The people of all the rivers[5] and of the
interior, up to the limits where the Brunai Malays can enforce their
authority, own as their feudal lord and pay taxes to either the Sultan,
in his unofficial capacity, or to one of the nobles, or else they are
attached to the office of Sultan or one of the great Ministers of State,
and, again theoretically speaking, all the districts in the Sultanate
are known, from the fact of the people on them belonging to a noble, or
to the reigning Sultan for the time being, or to one of the Ministers of
State, as either:--

1. Ka-rajahan--belonging to the Sultan or Raja.

or 2. Kouripan--belonging to certain public officials during
their term of office.

or 3. Pusaka or Tulin--belonging to the Sultan or any of the
nobles in their unofficial capacity.

The crown and the feudal chiefs did not assert any claim to the land;
there are, for instance, no "crown lands," and, in the case of land not
owned or occupied, any native could settle upon and cultivate it without
payment of any rent or land tax, either to the Sultan or to the feudal
chief of the district; consequently, land was comparatively little
regarded, and what the feudal chief claimed was the people and not the
land, so much so that, as pointed out by Mr. P. LEYS in a Consular
report, in the case of the people removing from one river to anoth