The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1847-12-07 00:00:00

THE BORNEO MISSION.

In the Indian Ocean is situated an island of remarkable
beauty, five times the size of Great Britain, and the lar-
gest in the known world except New Holland. It is called
Borneo, (the name also of the capital), and is inhabited
chiefly by two races of men, the Malays and the Dyaks.
Many years ago a young Englishman, Mr. Brooke, of
Widcombe-crescent, Bath, was inflamed, like Muugo
Park, with the desire of visiting distant countries, and
chance, or rather, the Providence of God, ultimately di-
rected his course to this vast, and, to Europeans, unex-
plored region. Without any aid from Government that
gentleman, about nine years ago, arrived at Borneo in his
own yacht, armed with only six guns, and with but four
European sailors. Such, however, is the moral progress
that he has made, that he returns to England with the
native honour of Rajah of Sarawak, a town containing a
population of ten thousand inhabitants, and with the title,
at the hands of his Sovereign, of her Majesty's Commis-
sioner for the Island of Borneo. The pirates of the
Sooloo sea, we may add, have been punished and dispersed,
and all things being favourable, Mr. Brooke wishes to sig-
nalise his return to the land of his adoption by the crown..!
ing mercy of the introduction of the Gospel. In this'
work he is encouraged and supported by the Archbishop of
Canterbury, the Bishop of London, and many of the
clergy and laity. Mr. M'Dougal and two other gentlemen
had undertaken the important and arduous work of mis-
sionaries, but one of them, whose heart was in the work,
has been suddenly called away to a still brighter country,
and scenes of unfading enjoyment. Still the effort goes on.
Perhaps the following particulars of the interesting re-
gion, which may prove valuable as a point to which to
direct the stream of emigration, may not be uninteresting:
Borneo, discovered by the Portuguese in 1521, lies
between the latitude 4.10 S., and 7 N., and 109.15 to 119.
25 W. longitude, being in its extreme length 775 miles,
and in breadth 650, comprising a surface of 360,000 square
miles. Its capital, Borneo, is close upon the coast of the
Chinese sea, and the houses are built upon piles driven
into the swamps, the place being inundated at high water.
Trade is carried on by means of boats and wherries. Al-
though the country is at the equator of the globe, the air
is not so excessively hot as might be expected, being fre-
quently refreshed with showers and cool breezes. the ther-
mometer varying from 82 to 94 of Farenheit. In the mon-
soon, from April to September, the wind is westerly, and
the rains are constant and heavy, attended with violent
storms of thunder and lightning. The rainy season con-
tinues for eight months, and during that time all the flat

I country, froM ten to twenty miles from the coast, is over-
flowed, and the air rendered very unhealthy. For this
reason the inhabitants build their houses on floats, which
they make fast to trees. They have but one floor, with
partitions made with canes ; and the roofs are covered
with palmeetto-leaves, the eaves of which reach within four
or five feet of the bottom. Some of their houses are built
upon pillars, a sufficient height from the surface not to be
deluged. The countries on the coast are inhabited by a
mixture of Malays, Javanese, and Macassars. It seems
to be here where Nature has united the chain of
animated creation, and placed the ourang-outang as
the connecting link between the articulating, modulating,
and assigning, and instinctive; or, in other words,
between the biped and the quadruped race of animals.
On one side of the ourang-outang, which seems to be
a native of the son of Borneo, the apes, monkeys, bears,
goats, deer, horses, buffaloes, and other horned cattle,
tigers, and the elephant ; whilst on the other side is a
class of beings with apparently no other claim to the
character of man but that of the power of articulation ;
and yet, amidst this unsocial and unappreciating race of
beings, Nature seems to have bestowed in lavish profusion
all her most delectable gifts ; with iron, tin, and various
other metals for purposes of utility, gold, diamonds, and
various other precious gems for ornament, abound. It is
here that the salangane, a species of swallow, constructs
its edible nest, which is exchanged, to gratify the luxu-
rious palates of the Chinese, at a rate double its weight
in silver. In the vegetable kingdom, in addition to rice
and maize for substantial subsistence, the sensations of
taste and smell are here to be gratified in the highest pos-
sible degree. Cassia, cinnamon, frankincense, and myrrh,
are indigenous productions of the country. The laurtts
camphoratus yields an endless abundance of its fragrant
and inflammable substance; whilst agaric, musk, aloes,
and various other substances and plants, are dispersed
over the country in endless profusion, to aid the social
and domestic economy of man, and to serve as alterna-
tives in case of accident or disease. On the other hand,
the pernicious and poisonous class of plants and reptiles
are also common, and the natives appear equally adept at
applying them in revenge against their enemies, as in the
application of alternatives to avoid their consequences.
Thus, whilst the soil of Borneo appears susceptible, by
social arrangements and due cultivation, to subsist, in a
high degree of comfort and enjoyment, a fourth of the
whole population of the globe, the total number of inha-
bitants are supposed not to exceed 3,000,000, divided into
numerous petty sovereignties. The English East India
Company formed some settlements upon the coast towards
the close of the 17th century ; but, in 1706, the Dutch,
in the heyday of their valour, drove the English entirely
from the country, and for more than a century were the
only European nation that maintained any direct inter-
course with the island ; and their grovelling policy has
ever been to preclude the world from all knowledge of
the position, people, condition, and resources of the coun-
tries with which they trade, as it is possible for them
to do so. During the war, subsequently to the peace of
Amiens, in 1802, when in their turn the Dutch were
driven from all their positionsln Asia, the English again
established themselves on the coast of Borneo. There
are several fine harbours and roadsteads round the coast ;
the principal is Bandarmassing, at the mouth of Banjar ;
Sambar, at the south-west point; Sambas, on the west
coast ; Borneo, at the north-west ; and Passir, at the
south-east.