The National tribune., 1903-07-23

head hunting proclivities, and n mans sta
ton in society is determined by the num-
ber of skulls with which he can ornament
his hut. For centuries it has been the
practice of the people to make raids on
their neighbors for the purpose of acquir-
ing these.
There are many Chinese and their half
breed descendants in the towns along the
coast. The people are mainly Mohametan,
tive way by a number Of Sultans, among
them being the Sultan of Sulu in the
Philippines, who exercises certain
amount of both temporal and spiritual
sovereignty over them.
The Portuguese first settled in Borneo,
but they were expelled, and the Dutch
succeeded them and acquired more or less
control of the south and west of the Is
land There are about 1,000. 600 under the
Dutch sovereignty and much more than
half the entire territory.
Sometime after our war Of the rebellion,
an American who had become unsettled
by the disturbances in this country. went
to BOrneo, ingratiated himself with the
people in the northern part, and obtained
from them quite valuable charter, grant
ing him large portion of one of the little
kingdoms. In 1881 he transferred this
with his other concessions to the British
been actively developing their purchases
and gathering in whatever adjacent land
they consider valuable, so that they now
have about as much territory as is in the
State of Indiana, with a population of
100000.
The company has its headquarters in
London, and in 1888 got the British Gov
ernment to proclaim a formal protectorate
over the "State of North Borneo." The
tl,. H.. =.
to be apprOved-by the British Secretary
of State. The company has so far leased
something over 100000 acres of land for
tobacco planting, pepper, coffee, and other
tropical products, and n large trade has
sprung up in exchanging manufactured
goods with the natives for timber, sago,
rice, gums. coffee, gambler, gutta percha,
tapioco, india rubber, cocoanuts, etc, etc.
The chief town is Sandakan, on the
northeast coast, which is completely com
manded by some of the little islands, over
which our captains are said to have raised
the American flag. These islands are all
uninhab bited and of no consequence, except
strategetically. Whether we are right in
raising our flag over them is nice ques-
tion of law, and will be decided independ-
ent of the protests of the British North
BOrneo Company.
The treaty of Paris was intended to give
us coHtToi VI ili tHe S)iiliSH pOSSeSSlpIS III
that section of the world, but upon more
careful examination later there were
doubts as to its sufIiciency, and another
treaty was concluded with an additional
payment of money, by which a clean sweep
was made of everything to which Spain
could lay claim. These claims are in some
instances quite indefinite. but so have orig
inal claims always been in the worlds his
tory, but they have usually, in default of
anything better, been regarded as suffi-
cient to determine sovereignty.
SPANS sovereignty over the Sultan of
Sulu and his tributaries was acknowledged
by them, and therefore conclusive that far.
The Sultan of Sulu claimed and exercised
authority not only to the coasts of BOrneO,
but over the coasts themselves. and we
have certainly succeeded to all the au-
thority that he had.
The claim of the British North Borneo
Company is not on so secure n foundation.
1t succeeded to the rights of some small
subordinate sultans and made the most of
them, which, however, must be subject to
the review of the paramount authority,
that of the Sultan of Suu, and his imme-
date superior is the King of Spain, to
whose rights we succeeded.
1t makes n very pretty international
question, which will require argument and
the production of much evidence to deter
mine it.
z. SIT is understood that Secretary
Hay has decided that we own every thing
to within marine league-three miles-of
the Bornean coast, which, of course, gives
US full possession of the Islands.