The sultan, in a moment of enlightenment, determined to encourage planters, and actually sent for a dozen from Singapore, paid their expenses to Brunei, and promised a monthly allowance till the produce of their vegetable-gardens enabled the Chinese to support themselves. These regular payments, however, soon became very distasteful to him, and every month be gave them less, till at last from want of food they all dispersed, and the experiment has not been tried again. The Brunei government makes every effort to prevent the Chinese mixing with the aborigines, as it tends to destroy the monopoly of trade they seek to establish, and they fear also the teaching of the Chinese, who would never counsel submission to oppressive rulers, though when employed by the nobles as agents, they can be more systematically grinding than the Malays. It is evident that the intercourse between Borneo and China, which undoubtedly was once very active, has been decreasing for above a hundred years, and the cause was doubtless the anarchy into which the country fell and the consequent want of protection. Fifty years ago, the junk trade appears entirely to have ceased; and even in 1775 it had been reduced to about seven a year, although they continued to build vessels at Brunei. With regard to the accounts of old travellers, that the north of Borneo was formerly peopled from Cochin China, I have heard nothing to support the theory, beyond the tradition that in ancient days a great trade was carried on between Annam and the north-west coast, when many Cochin Chinese settled in Borneo. In fact, in the Champa country, in the southern portion of the Kambodian peninsula, there is a people whose language contains a considerable number of Malay words; so that the effect on these two countries may have been mutual, though Champa, doubtless, was more influenced by settlers from the Malay peninsula.