neral-bearing areas, they contracted frequent intermarriages with the
Dyaks and other non-Mahommedan natives. They brought with them from
China their aptitude for the organization of secret societies which,
almost from the first, assumed the guise of political associations.
These secret societies furnished them with a machinery whereby
collective action was rendered easy, and under astute leaders they
offered a formidable opposition to the Dutch government. Later, when
driven into the interior and eventually out of Dutch territory, they
cost the first raja of Sarawak some severe contests before they were at
last reduced to obedience. Serious disturbances among the Chinese are
now in Borneo matters of ancient history, and to-day the Chinaman forms
perhaps the most valuable element in the civilization and development of
the island, just as does his fellow in the mining states of the Malayan
Peninsula. They are industrious, frugal and intelligent; the richer
among them are excellent men of business and are peculiarly equitable in
their dealings; the majority of all classes can read and write their own
script, and the second generation acquires an education of an European
type with great facility. The bulk of the shopkeeping, trading and
mining industries, so long as the mining is of an alluvial character, is
in Chinese hands. The greater part of the Chinese on the west coast are
originally drawn from the boundaries of Kwang-tung and Kwang-si. They
are called Kehs by the Malays, and are of the same tribes as those which
furnish the bulk of the workers to the tin mines of the Malay Peninsula.
They are a rough and hardy people, and are apt at times to be
turbulent. The shopkeeping class comes mostly from Fuh-kien and the
coast districts of Amoy. They are known to the Borneans as Ollohs.

_History._--As far as is known, Borneo never formed a political unity,
and even its geographical unity as an island is a fact unappreciated by
the vast majority of its native inhabitants. The name of Kalamantan has
been given by some Europeans (on what original authority it is not
possible now to ascertain) as the native name for the island of Borneo
considered as a whole; but it is safe to aver that among the natives of
the island itself Borneo has never borne any general designation. To
this day, among the natives of the Malayan Archipelago, men speak of
going to Pontianak, to Sambas or to Brunei, as the case may be, but make
use of no term