The tobacco cultivated in Sumatra and British North Borneo is used chiefly for wrappers for cigars, for which purpose a very fine, thin, elastic leaf is required and one that has a good colour and will burn well and evenly, with a fine white ash. This quality of leaf commands a much higher price than ordinary kinds, and, as stated, Count GELOES'trial crop, from the Ranan Estate in Marudu Bay, averaged 1.83 guilders, or about $1 (3/2) per lb. It is said that 2 lbs. or 2-1/2 lbs. weight of Bornean tobacco will cover 1,000 cigars. Tobacco is not a new culture in Borneo, as some of the hill natives on the West Coast of North Borneo have grown it in a rough and ready way for years past, supplying the population of Brunai and surrounding districts with a sun-dried article, which used to be preferred to that produced in Java. The Malay name for tobacco is _tambako_, a corruption of the Spanish and Portuguese term, but the Brunai people also know it as _sigup_. It was probably introduced into Malay countries by the Portuguese, who conquered Malacca in 1511, and by the Spanish, who settled in the Philippines in 1565. Its use has become universal with men, women and children, of all tribes and of all ranks. The native mode of using tobacco has been referred to in my description of Brunai. Fibre-yielding plants are also now attracting attention in North Borneo, especially the Manila hemp (_Musa textilis_) a species of banana, and pine-apples, both of which grow freely. The British Borneo Trading and Planting Company have acquired the patent for Borneo of DEATH'S fibre-cleaning machines, and are experimenting with these products on a considerable scale and, apparently, with good prospects of success.[22] For a long time past, beautiful cloths have been manufactured of pine-apple fibre in the Philippines, and as it is said that orders have been received from France for Borneo pine-apple fibre, we shall perhaps soon see it used in England under the name of French _silk_. In the Government Experimental Garden at Silam, in Darvel Bay, cocoa, cinnamon and Liberian coffee have been found to do remarkably well. Sappan-wood and _kapok_ or cotton flock also grow freely. Footnotes: [Footnote 19: Governor CREAGH tells me 600,000 acres have now been taken up.] [Footnote 20: For the native derivation of this appellation see page 54.] [Footnote 21: Raised in 1890 to $6 an acre.] [Footnote 22: The anticipated success has not been achieved as yet.] CHAPTER X.