specially coals, are
inferior to the portions of the same veins or beds more deep-seated.

"Nearly as early as the British flag is erected, and, at all events,
as soon as it is permanently known to be so, there may be reckoned
upon with certainty a large influx of settlers. The best and most
numerous of these will be the Chinese. They were settled on the Borneo
river when the Borneo government, never very good, or otherwise than
comparatively violent and disorderly, was most endurable.

"Borneo is, of all the great islands of the western portion of the
Archipelago, the nearest to China, and Labuan and its neighborhood the
nearest point of this island. The distance of Hong Kong is about 1000
miles, and that of the island of Hainan, a great place for emigration,
not above 800; distances which to the Chinese junks--fast sailers
before the strong and favorable winds of the monsoons--do not make
voyages exceeding four or five days. The coasts of the provinces
of Canton and Fokien have hitherto been the great hives from which
Chinese emigration has proceeded; and even Fokien is not above 1400
miles from Labuan, a voyage of seven or eight days. Chinese trade
and immigration will come together. The northwest coast of Borneo
produces an unusual supply of those raw articles for which there
is always a demand in the markets of China; and Labuan, it may be
reckoned upon with certainty, will soon become the seat of a larger
trade with China than the river of Borneo ever possessed.

"I by no means anticipate the same amount of rapid advance in
population, commerce, or financial resources for Labuan, that has
distinguished the history of Singapore, a far more centrical position
for general commerce; still I think its prospect of success undoubted;
while it will have some advantages which Singapore cannot, from its
nature, possess. Its coal-mines, and the command of the coal-fields
on the river of Borneo, are the most remarkable of these; and its
superiority as a post-office [30] station necessarily follows. Then
it is far more convenient as a port of refuge; and, as far as our
present knowledge will enable us to judge, infinitely more valuable
for military purposes, more especially for affording protection to the
commerce which passes through the Chinese Sea, amounting at present
to probably not less than 300,000 tons of shipping, carrying cargoes
certainly not under the value of 15,000,000_l_. sterling.

"Labuan ought, like Singa