n; and if they be protected and
enabled to live in quiet security, I cannot entertain a doubt of the
country's becoming a highly productive one, eminently calculated as
a field for British enterprise and capital.

"If the development of the resources of the country can be effected by
its native rulers it will be a noble task performed; but if it fail,
the people of the coast will still advance and form governments for
themselves under British influence.

"In concluding this hasty and general view of the subject, I may remark
that commerce might be extended and capital laid out on the northwest
coast of Borneo, to an amount to which it is difficult to fix limits,
as the country is capable of producing most articles of commerce
in demand from this quarter of the world, and the natives (who, as
far as we know them, are an unwarlike, mild, and industrious race)
would receive our manufactures, from which they are now in a great
measure debarred. I have not alluded to any other countries of the
Archipelago: for we must first become acquainted with them; we must
become intimate, cultivate an English party, and accustom them to our
manners; and probably the same conciliatory policy, the same freedom
from design, which has succeeded in Borneo, will succeed elsewhere,
if pushed with temper and patience.

"The general principle ought to be--to encourage established
governments, such as those of Borneo and Sooloo, provided they will
with all sincerity abandon piracy, and assist in its suppression;
but at the same time, by supervision to convince ourselves of the
fact, and keep them in the right path; for all treaties with these
native states (and we have had several) are but so much waste paper,
unless we see them carried into execution.

"I have now only to mention the third means for the extension of
commerce. Our intercourse with the natives of the interior should be
frequent and intimate: these people (beyond where I am acquainted with
them) are represented as very numerous, hospitable, and industrious;
and a friendly intercourse would develop the resources of their
country, draw its produce to our markets, and give the natives a taste
for British manufactures. This intercourse, however, must be prudently
introduced and carefully advanced; for to bring these wild people into
contact with ignorant and arrogant Europeans would produce bloodshed
and confusion in a month. In Borneo, it is an advantage that the two
races can no