man; but I should always
hail with pleasure any scientific person who joined me abroad, or who
happened to be in the countries at the time; and I may venture to
promise him every encouragement and facility in the prosecution of
his pursuits. I embark upon the expedition with great cheerfulness,
with a stout vessel, a good crew, and the ingredients of success as
far as the limited scale of the undertaking will permit; and I cast
myself upon the waters--like Mr. Southey's little book--but whether
the world will know me after many days, is a question which, hoping
the best, I cannot answer with any positive degree of assurance.

No. IV.

_Sketch of Borneo, or Pulo Kalamantan, by J. Hunt_, Esq.

(Communicated, in 1812, to the Honourable Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles,
late Lieutenant-Governor of Java.)

The island of Borneo extends from 7 deg. 7' north to 4 deg. 12' south latitude,
and from 108 deg. 45' to 119 deg. 25' east longitude; measuring at its extreme
length nine hundred miles, at its greatest breadth seven hundred,
and in circumference three thousand. It is bounded on the north by the
Solo seas, on the east by the Straits of Macassar, on the south by the
Java, and on the west by the China seas. Situated in the track of the
most extensive and valuable commerce, intersected on all sides with
deep and navigable rivers, indented with safe and capacious harbors,
possessing one of the richest soils on the globe, abounding in all
the necessaries of human life, and boasting commercial products that
have in all ages excited the avarice and stimulated the desires of
mankind,--with the exception of New Holland, it is the largest island
known. Of the existence of this extensive territory, so highly favored
by Providence, and enriched by the choicest productions of nature,
there remains scarce a vestige in the geographical descriptions of
the day; and its rich products and fertile shores, by one tacit and
universal consent, appear abandoned by all the European nations of
the present age, and handed over to the ravages of extensive hordes
of piratical banditti, solely intent on plunder and desolation.

The natives and the Malays, formerly, and even at this day, call
this large island by the exclusive name of Pulo Kalamantan, from
a sour and indigenous fruit so called. Borneo was the name only
of a city, the capital of one of the three distinct kingdoms on the
island. When Magalhaens visited it in the year 1520, he