Volume 14 Australasia - dana ward's homepage

120 AUSTRALASIA.same geological formation as its neighbour, and, like it, possesses tin-bearingalluvial deposits. Its culminating point, the twin-crested Tajem, has an altitudeof 3,100 feet.Owing to the numerous corsairs infesting the surrounding waters, Billiton wastill recently destitute of trade, and almost of inhabitants ; even in 1856 the populationstill numbered less than twelve thousand, or scarcely six persons to the squaremile. But since the development of its tin mines, this number has been tripled,and the port of Tanjoiig Pcuidang, converging point of all the main routes, is nowthe centre of a considerable local trade, largely in the hands of the Chinese, whoform about a fourth of the whole population. The output of tin, which in 1853scarcely exceeded forty tons, has since then increased a hundredfold, and yieldsenormous profits to the chartered company. As in Bangka, the miners work on theirown account ; but they are obliged to sell the tin at a price fixed beforehand, andto purchase their supplies in the company's stores. Owing to this oppressivetruck system, most of them are burdened with heavy debts to the end of their days.Since the formation of this company, Billiton has been an administrative provinceindependent of Bangka, with an " assistant resident " stationed at TanjongPandang.Islands in the Boeneo Sea.The Sea of Borneo, commimicating northwards with the China Sea, is sttiddedwith small archipelagoes, each comprising numerous islets, for the most partuninhabited. Such are Tamhclan, midway between Lingga and Borneo ; Anamhm,off the Malay peninsula ; Nafuna, in more open waters, equidistant from the Malaypeninsula and Borneo ; Serasan, west of the principality of Sarawak, in Borneo.This last group is also known as the Pirates' Archipelago, although the people ofthe only inhabited island are now exclusively occupied with the preparation ofcocoanut oil.Of all these islands the largest is Buiiguven, called also Great Natuna, whichhas an area of 640 square miles, and in Mount Ranay attains an altitude of 3,380feet. The inhabitants of the cultivated islands, estimated by Hollander in 1878at twelve thousand souls, are exclusively Malays, who trade with Singapore andRiouw, taking rice, hardware, and Eurojjean textiles in exchange for their fish,sago, and cocoanut oil. The people of Great Natuna build praus described byLaf)lace as of admirable workmanship. This group depends politically on Riouwand is administered by members of the sultan's family, vassals of Holland.Borneo.The formerly powerfid kingdom of Brunei gives its name in a somewhatmodified form to the great island of which it occupies the north-west coast.Kalamantin, or Klematan, is a native term current in some districts, andoccasionally applied to the whole island. But Borneo is of such vast extentcompared with all the surrounding lauds, that to its inhabitants it seemed almostboundless, and far too largo to be designated by any special name. Hence they