I have considered with great attention the negotiations which took place between the directors of the British North Borneo Company and the present Rajah of Sarawak, Sir Charles Brooke, and I have come to the conclusion that the shareholders were perfectly right not to part with their territory or resign its management. The Rajah would have found this great increase of dominion very burdensome, and I should be inclined to doubt whether Sarawak possesses either the capital or the staff to enable her thus to increase her responsibilities. Sarawak, as I have observed, has generally failed to attract English capital, and although the Rajah has governed his own territories with eminent success, it does not follow that he would have succeeded in so developing North Borneo as ever to have been able to pay the shareholders a dividend. They have already waited seventeen years, with an occasional trifling return, and probably they may have to wait some time yet, as the country has been but very partially opened out, but that there is a great future before North Borneo, I have full confidence. When the State of North Borneo has advanced sufficiently, it might follow the example of the old East India Company—convert the capital of the association into stock at high interest to compensate for past losses, and then, under a Court of Directors, devote the whole of the revenue of the State to the advancement of the interests and welfare of the country. This solution would no doubt be satisfactory to everyone connected with the enterprise. APPENDIX _Mr Brooke’s Expedition to Borneo._[13] Borneo (in the language of the natives Bruni), Celebes, Sulu, the Moluccas, and the islands of the Straits of Sunda and Banca, compose what is commonly called the Malayan group, and the Malays located on the sea shores of these and other islands may with certainty be classed as belonging to one nation. It is well known, however, that the interior of these countries is inhabited by various tribes, differing from the Malays and each other, and presenting numerous gradations of imperfect civilisation. The Dyaks of Borneo, the Arafuras of New Guinea, and others, besides the black race scattered over the islands (objects here, as elsewhere, of traffic), present an interesting field of inquiry; and it is surprising, whilst our acquaintance with every other portion of the globe, from the passage of the Pole to the navigation of the Euphrates, has greatly extended, we know scarcely anything of these varieties of the human race beyond the bare fact of their existence, and remain extremely ignorant of the geographical features of the countries they inhabit.