Sandakan will probably in the future become an important commercial seaport, especially in view of its position on the route between Australia and China. It already boasts a shipbuilding and engineering yard, and a cutch factory which sends its products for tanning all over the world. Here also we may notice timber being floated down in great rafts for export, especially to China. Not far away up the river is one of the oldest rubber estates on the island. Borneo produces many kinds of plants giving rubber or gutta, but it has been found that the Para rubber tree of Brazil grows well, and there is a great future for its cultivation here as in the Malay Peninsula. [Illustration: _Copyright._) (_See page 95._ SUMPITAN MATCH.] [Illustration: _Copyright._) (_See page 91._ MARKET BOATS, BRUNEI.] [Illustration: _Copyright._) (_See page 91._ A STREET IN BRUNEI.] The East India Company made many attempts to establish factories in Borneo and the neighbouring islands; but all came to nothing, so that the early history does not concern us here. One trace of former conditions remained in the nineteenth century, in the claims of Holland in the south of the island and of Spain in the north. These claims were revived at the time of our occupation and were not finally settled until the late eighties of the nineteenth century. The modern history of the region begins with the acquisition, by an American syndicate, of certain concessions in the north from the Sultans of Brunei and Sulu. Their rights were taken over ultimately by a British company which obtained a charter from the Crown, in 1881, under the title of the British North Borneo Company. The charter was a revival of the old plan for opening up new countries without the direct intervention or responsibility of the home Government. It was followed by other charters for African companies; but of these only one survives, and the North Borneo Company is at the present day the oldest remaining representative of the system. So we have a large piece of territory under British Protection but controlled by a private company. The Company does not trade, but confines itself to administration, and is supported like any other Government by duties and taxes of various kinds. It is largely independent, though the British Government can interfere if necessary in vital matters.