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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 March 2011
The voyage from which I have just returned was undertaken with the view of opening a trade with the Chinese colonies on the island of Borneo; and, that my narrative may be the better understood, I shall first give a short sketch of the situation of those colonies.
page 6 note 1 I was informed by one of the pangeran9 of Sambass, that the river was navigable by canoe? to within two days' walk of Borneo Proper; but the Malays are not always to be credited.
page 9 note 1 I have remarked a custom something like this among the natives of New Holland; who, on the death of a male belonging to their tribe, will kill another belonging to an adjacent one, which, they say, preserves the balance of power between them.
page 11 note 1 I have remarked here, as well as at many other Malay places that I have visited, that the rájás are much inferior, both in size and intellect, to the poorer classes; which, I think, may be attributed to an immoderate use of opium for several generations.
page 23 note 1 This was written soon after my departure thence, so that I have, perhaps, used stronger terms than I should when coolly looking back to the transaction. The governor of the colony is, I have no doubt, an honest man, and, I think, was not aware of the petty exactions of the cuensi of Sinkawan; who, besides refusing to pay me the five hundred reals above mentioned, imposed a duty on the tea and blue-cotton cloth, although I had been given to understand by the governor, when at Montradok, that they should be imported duty free. The secretary of Sinkawan, with whom I had every reason to be greatly displeased, was aware that I was in a great hurry to get away, and that I could not send a messenger to the governor at Montradok without his knowledge and permission; and, with a grasping selfishness, preferred extortion to liberality, although perfectly aware that it would throw a damp on a trade in its infancy, which would be of the greatest importance and advantage to the country to which he belonged. I have, perhaps, been hasty in accusing him of a design to rob me; but, from his suspicions conduct, I am certain that some mischief was intended, though what it was I shall most likely never know.