try, and they will afterward be the
more easily brought into subjection.

"From Borneo we have news, but as uncertain as everything else
regarding the capital. A hundred vessels, it is reported, are coming
to attack them; and they, in consequence, are building _a fort_. The
Royalist had been there and departed.

"Pangeran Usop, it is said, was about to come here, when the arrival
of the Royalist induced him to postpone his design.

"There is every reason to believe that the Chinese of Sambas,
particularly those of Montrado, are extremely dissatisfied; and a
report yesterday states that a man sent by the sultan to demand gold
had been killed by them, and that the sultan's letter to the Kunsi,
after being defiled, was publicly burned. Our own Chinese of Sipang are
certainly intriguing with Sambas; and, as the rajah well expresses it,
'their clothes-box is here, but their treasure-chest is at Sambas.'

"It is impossible to say what quantity of gold the Kunsi may get;
but their pretence that they _get none_ must be false, when every
common Malay obtains from half to one bunkal per month.

"To counteract the chance of evil, I have intimated that the Simbock
Kunsi are to come here; and on the whole, they (of Sipang) have taken
it more quietly than I expected. They are not in a state for war;
but they have vague notions and intentions provided they can keep out
opposition, to make this place subservient to them, as it would indeed
be, provided they were allowed to strengthen themselves while the other
parties remained stationary. But 'divide and rule' is a good motto in
my case; and the Chinese have overlooked the difference between this
country and Sambas. There they have numerous rivers in the vicinity
of their settlements--here but one; and, the Dyak population being
against them, starvation would soon reduce them to terms. The Royalist
arrived about the end of March, and sailed again on the 9th April.

"I have before mentioned the difficulty of administering justice;
and experience teaches me that the risk to myself, on this score,
is more to be apprehended than on any other. The forms I have not
much alluded to; and the following is as nearly as possible the Malay
custom:--The rajah's brothers and myself sit at one end of the long
room in my house; at the sides are the Patingis and Tumangong, and
other respectable people; in the center the parties concerned; and,
behind them, anybody who wishes to be present. We hea