[220]
We have dwelt at some length on the government of the Rajah of Sarawak
in its relation with the pagan tribes, and, if we dismiss in a few
words the administrative labours of the Dutch and of the British North
Borneo Company in their respective territories, it is not because we
regard those labours as of less interest and importance or as less
successful, but because in the main they have run on similar lines and
have achieved similar results to those of the government of Sarawak, of
which alone we have intimate knowledge. Dutch Borneo comprises roughly
two-thirds of the whole island, a very large territory which comprises
the basins of the largest rivers and hence, the rivers being the only
highways, the most inaccessible parts of the island. The Kapuas River,
for example, is estimated to be nearly 700 miles in length; and the
necessity of ascending these hundreds of miles of river-way, much of
it difficult and dangerous, has rendered the process of establishing
control over the tribes of the interior slow and laborious. For this
reason the process is not yet completed; although the Dutch have had
stations in Borneo since the early years of the seventeenth century,
when they expelled the Portuguese from Bruni and Sambas.
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