of thus keeping up the prosperity of the country in the tillage of
the ground, as well as in the commerce of her ports. The old Chinese
settlers by degrees deserted these shores; and to fill up the chasms
in their revenues by so fatal a change, the rajahs have been tempted
to turn their views to predatory habits, and have permitted their
lands to run to jungle, by dragging their wretched laborers from
agricultural employments to maritime and piratical enterprises.

The first material alteration in the sovereignty of the territorial
possession took place in the kingdom of Borneo Proper, when her rajah
was obliged to call in the aid of the Solos to defend him against
an insurrection of the Maruts and Chinese. In consideration of this
important aid, the Rajah of Borneo Proper ceded to the Sultan of Solo
all that portion of Borneo then belonging to him, from Kimanis, in
latitude 5 deg. 30' north, to Tapean-durian, in the Straits of Macassar,
which includes the whole north of Borneo. After this period, the power
and fortunes of the Sultan of Solo rapidly declined. The Spaniards
succeeded in conquering all their islands. Solo, the capital, was
taken and fortified; the sultan and his court made prisoners. When the
English captured Manilla, they found this sultan incarcerated. They
agreed to relieve him from prison, and reinstate him on the musnud of
his forefathers under the express stipulation that the whole of the
aforesaid territory of Borneo, ceded to Solo by the rajah of that
kingdom, should be transferred to the English East India Company,
together with the south of Palawan, and the intermediate islands. These
terms were joyfully acceded to by the Sultan of Solo, and signed,
sealed, and delivered by him to the late Alexander Dalrymple, in the
year 1763.

The kingdom of Sukadana was ceded by the Rajah of Bantam (in what year
I know not) to the Dutch East India Company. Whether the kingdom of
Benjarmasing was ever actually ceded to the Dutch or not, I have not
been able to learn. But the occupancy of her capital, the military
government of the country, by the erection of forts, and a permanent
standing force, since transferred to the English arms, give to the
East India Company, actually or virtually, the entire sovereignty
and rule over the whole of this large island, with the exception of
the piratical port of Borneo Proper, and the portion of territory
yet annexed thereto.

The Portuguese, at a very early period, es