icy
of the Commercial Companies then holding sway in the East, the trade and
agriculture of this and other islands of the Malay Archipelago received
a blow from which at any rate that of Borneo is only now recovering. By
the terms of its Charter, the British North Borneo Company is prohibited
from creating trade monopolies, and of its own accord it has decided not
to engage itself in trading transactions at all, and as Raja BROOKE'S
Government is similar to that of a British Crown Colony, and the Dutch
Government no longer encourage monopolies, there is good ground for
believing that the wrong done is being righted, and that a brighter page
than ever is now being opened for Borneo and its natives.

Before finishing with this part of the subject, I may mention that the
United States Government had entered into a treaty with the Sultan of
Brunai, in almost exactly the same words as the English one, including
the clause prohibiting cessions of territory without the consent of the
other party to the treaty, and, in 1878, Commodore SCHUFELDT was ordered
by his Government to visit Borneo and report on the cessions obtained by
Mr. DENT. I was Acting British Consul-General at the time, and before
leaving the Commodore informed me emphatically that he could discover no
American interests in Borneo, "neither white nor black."

The native population of Borneo is given in books of reference as
between 1,750,000 and 2,500,000. The aborigines are of the Malay race,
which itself is a variety of the Mongolian and indeed, when inspecting
prisoners, I have often been puzzled to distinguish the Chinese from the
Malay, they being dressed alike and the distinctive _pig-tail_ having
been shaved off the former as part of the prison discipline.

These Mongolian Malays from High Asia, who presumably migrated to the
Archipelago _via_ the Malay Peninsula and Sumatra, must, however, have
found Borneo and other of the islands partially occupied by a Caucasic
race, as amongst the aborigines are still found individuals of
distinctive Caucasic type, as has been pointed out to be the case with
the Buludupih tribe of British North Borneo, by Dr. MONTANO, whom I had
the pleasure of meeting in Borneo in 1878-9. To these the name of
pre-Malays has been given, but Professor KEANE, to whom I beg to
acknowledge my indebtedness on these points, prefers the title of
Indonesians. The scientific descriptions of a typical Malay is as
follows:--"Stature little ov