I will now endeavor to make the reader better acquainted with the nature of a country and people so imperfectly known, by offering that general view of its past events and present condition which will make the information respecting them more intelligible, as well as applicable to new circumstances and future measures. By looking at the map, it will be seen that the island of Borneo extends over 11 degrees of latitude and as many of longitude, from 4 deg. N. to 7 deg. S., and 108 deg. to 119 deg. E. The N.W. coast is but thinly populated; and the natives who inhabit the banks of some of the beautiful rivers differ, as has been already stated, from each other in manners and customs, and have but little communication among themselves. The S., E., and N.E. coasts of Borneo are also but thinly inhabited, and very little known. There are various divisions of Malays, as well as different tribes of Dyaks, who live in an unsettled state, and occasionally make war on one another: their principal occupation, however, is piracy. The north part of the island was once in the possession of the East India Company, who had a settlement and factory on the island of Balambangan, which was attacked in 1775, when in a weak and unguarded state, by a powerful piratical tribe of Sooloos, who surprised the fort, put the sentries to death, and turned the guns on the troops, who were chiefly Buguese (or Bugis) Malays. Those who escaped got on board the vessels in the harbor, and reached the island of Labuan, near the mouth of the Borneo river; while the booty obtained by the pirates was estimated at 375,000_l._ From that time to this these atrocious pirates have never been punished, and still continue their depredations.