BORNEO--CLIMATIC AND BIOLOGICAL CONDITIONS--NATURAL RESOURCES--POPULATION--
HISTORY--GOVERNMENT OF THE NATIVES--RACIAL PROBLEMS
Leaving Greenland out of consideration, Borneo is the second largest
island on the globe, the greater part of it, southern and eastern,
belonging to Holland. In a recent geological period this island as well as
Java and Sumatra formed part of Asia. A glance at the map shows that
Borneo is drained by rivers which originate in the central region near
each other, the greater by far being in Dutch territory, some of them
navigable to large steam launches for 500 or 600 kilometres. The principal
chain of mountains runs, roughly speaking, from northeast to southwest,
the average height being perhaps 1,000-1,500 metres, with higher peaks now
and then. There are also ranges from east and west. The remainder is
irregular hilly country, with low swampy coasts. The highest mountain is
Kinabalu, in the north, about 4,500 metres above the sea and composed of
"porphyritic granite and igneous rocks." There are no active volcanoes.
The whole island is covered with forest vegetation from the coasts to the
tops of the hills and ranges.
The climate is humid and warm and remarkably even, the thermometer in the
inland rarely reaching above 85° F. in the shade. Rain is copious most of
the year; at night it sometimes rains continuously; but a day of
uninterrupted downpour did not occur during my two years of travel. It
comes in showers, usually lasting an hour or two, when it clears as
suddenly as it began, and within half an hour all is dry again. In the
interior, on account of the vast jungles, except in case of thunderstorms,
which are rare, there is no wind, but on the coasts one may encounter
storms in the time of both the northeast and the southwest monsoons.
Though Borneo and the central mountains of New Guinea have the greatest
rainfall in the Malay Archipelago, there is a distinct dry season, which
is mostly felt during April, May, and June, but is less noticeable in the
central parts. As regards the distribution of rain and dry weather, some
difference was experienced as between the two years, and a planter of
several years' experience in the south told me that one year is not like
another. In spite of the general supposition to the contrary the climate
of Borneo is quite pleasant, and probably less unhealthful than most
equatorial regions, particularly in the central part where malaria is rare
and prickly heat does not occur.
Borneo has very many useful trees, notably hard woods. Rubber is still a
source of income to the Malays and Dayaks, and the rattan and bamboo, on
which the very existence of the natives depends, grow everywhere. The
sago-palm and a great number of valuable wild fruits are found, such as
the famous durian, mangosteen, lansat, rambutan, and others. The climate
seems to be specially suited to fruit, the pineapple and pomelo reaching
their highest perfection here. The coconut-palm thrives on the island.
Borneo is famous for its orchids and most of the species of pitcher-plants
(_nepenthes_) are found here, the largest of which will hold two "quarts"
of water.
The elephant, rhinoceros, tapir, wild cattle, and many other kinds of
smaller animals of Asia are found in Borneo. No Indian tigers are in the
country, though many varieties of the cat family are there, among them the
beautiful large _felis nebulosa_. Wild pigs of many species roam the jungle
in abundance. Several kinds of mammals are peculiar to the island, among
which may be mentioned the long-nosed monkey (_nasalis larvatus_). There
are over 550 species of birds, but the individuals of the species are not
numerous; the pheasant family is especially gorgeous in form and colour.
The rivers and the surrounding sea swarm with fish of many kinds,
furnishing an abundance of food, although generally not very palatable.
The djelavat, in flavour not unlike salmon, and the salap, both of which I
met in the upper courses of the rivers Samba, Barito, and Mahakam, are
notable exceptions.
The mineral resources of Borneo are very considerable; coal, gold, iron,
diamonds, tin, and antimony are among the most valuable. Anthracite coal
is not found in the country, that which is in evidence being from the
tertiary period. Gold is everywhere, but thus far is not found in
sufficient quantity to pay. Formerly the natives of the upper Kotawaringin
district had to pay the Sultan gold as a tax. A mining engineer told me
that in Martapura, the principal diamond-field, one may find gold,
platinum, and diamonds while washing one pan.
The total population of the island is probably 3,000,000. As regards the
South and Eastern Division of Dutch Borneo--roughly half of the island--to
which my travels were confined, the census returns of 1914 give in round
figures a total of 906,000 people, of whom 800 are Europeans (470 men and
330 women), 86,000 Chinese, 817,000 Dayaks and Malays, and 2,650 Arabs and
other aliens. Of these peoples no less than 600,000 live in a
comparatively small area of the southeast, the districts of Oeloe Soengei
and Bandjermasin. These are nearly all Malays, only 4,000 or 5,000 being
Dayaks, who probably do not form the majority of the 217,000 that make up
the remainder of the native population of the Division.
On account of the small white population and insufficient means of
communication, which is nearly all by river, the natural resources of
Dutch Borneo are still in the infancy of development. The petroleum
industry has reached important proportions, but development of the mineral
wealth has hardly begun. In 1917 a government commission, having the
location of iron and gold especially in view, was sent to explore the
mineral possibilities of the Schwaner Mountains. In the alluvial country
along the rivers are vast future possibilities for rational agriculture,
by clearing the jungle where at present the Malays and Dayaks pursue their
primitive operations of planting rice in holes made with a pointed stick.
The early history of Borneo is obscure. Nothing in that regard can be
learned from its present barbarous natives who have no written records,
and few of whom have any conception of the island as a geographical unit.
Although the Chinese had early knowledge of, and dealings with, Borneo,
there seems little doubt that the country was first colonised by Hindu
Javanese from Modjopahit, the most important of the several kingdoms which
Hindus began to found in the early centuries after Christ. Modjopahit
enclosed the region round the present Soerabaia in East Java, and it was
easy to reach Borneo from there, to-day distant only twenty-seven hours by
steamer. These first settlers in Borneo professed Hinduism and to some
extent Buddhism. They founded several small kingdoms, among them
Bandjermasin, Pasir, and Kutei, also Brunei on the north coast. But
another race came, the Malays, who with their roving disposition extended
their influence in the coast countries and began to form states. Then
Islamism appeared in the Orient and changed conditions. Arabs, sword in
hand, converted Java, and as far as they could, destroyed temples,
monuments, and statues. The Malays, too, became Mohammedans and the sway
of Islam spread more or less over the whole Malay Archipelago. With the
fall of Modjopahit in 1478 the last vestige of Hindu Javanese influence in
Borneo disappeared.
The Malays established sultanates with the same kind of government that is
habitual with Mohammedans, based on oppression of the natives by the
levying of tribute with the complement of strife, intrigue, and
non-progress. In the course of time the Malays have not only absorbed the
Hindu Javanese, but also largely the Bugis, who had founded a state on the
west coast, and in our time they are gradually pushing back the Dayaks and
slowly but surely absorbing them. The Chinese have also played a prominent
part in the colonisation of Borneo, having early developed gold and
diamond mines and established trade, and though at times they have been
unruly, they are today an element much appreciated by the Dutch in the
development of the country.
As regards the time when European influence appeared in Borneo, the small
sultanate of Brunei in the north was the first to come in contact with
Europeans. Pigafetta, with the survivors of Magellan's expedition, arrived
here from the Moluccas in 1521, and was the first to give an account of it
to the Western world. He calls it "Bornei," which later, with a slight
change, became the name of the whole island. The ever-present Portuguese
early established trade relations with the sultanate. Since the Napoleonic
wars, when the East Indian colonies were returned to Holland, the Dutch
have gradually extended their rule in Borneo to include two-thirds of the
island. In the remainder the British have consolidated their interests,
and in 1906, the European occupation of Borneo was completed. The
distribution of territory has roughly been placed thus: Dutch Borneo,
seventy per cent; Sarawak and Brunei, twenty per cent; British North
Borneo, ten per cent.
To the world at large Borneo is probably best known through the romance
surrounding the name of James Brooke, who became Raja of Sarawak, in 1841.
His story has often been told, but a brief account may not be out of
place. He had been to the Far East and its fascination, together with an
impulse to benefit the natives, drew him back again. After resigning his
commission in the army of the British East India Company, he built his own
yacht of 140 tons, practised his crew in the Mediterranean and then set
sail for the Malay Archipelago. In his _Proposed Exploring Expedition to
the Asiatic Archipelago_, 1838, are found these stirring words which strike
a responsive chord in the heart of every true explorer:
"Imagination whispers to ambition that there are yet lands unknown which
might be discovered. Tell me, would not a man's life be well spent--tell
me, would it not be well sacrificed in an endeavour to explore these
regions? When I think of dangers and death I think of them only because
they would remove me from such a field for ambition, for energy, and for
knowledge." [*]
[Footnote *: _The Expedition to Borneo of H.M.S. "Dido" for the Suppression
of Piracy_, by Captain H. Keppel, p. 374. Harper's, New York, 1846.]
Mr. Brooke arrived at Sarawak where he remained some time, surveying the
coast and studying the people. In those days Malay pirates rendered the
country dangerous to approach and several ships had been lost and their
crews murdered. One of the chronic rebellions against the Sultan of Brunei
was raging at the time, and Mr. Brooke was asked to suppress it, was made
Raja, and defeated the rebels, cleared the river of pirates and
established order.
Though Mohammedan laws were maintained in Sarawak, the worst abuses were
purged out, as for instance, the death penalty for conjugal infidelity,
and the sufficiency of a fine in extenuation of a murder. As for the
Dayaks who formerly were cheated by Malay traders and robbed by Malay
chiefs, they were permitted to enjoy absolute safety. Both Raja Brooke and
his nephew, who succeeded him in the same spirit, followed the policy of
making use of the natives themselves in governing, and Sarawak to-day
enjoys the distinction of being a country where the interests of the
natives are guarded with greater care than those of "the minority of
superior race." Resting on the good-will of the natives and their uplift,
the government of the two white Rajas has been remarkably successful.
The Dutch, with their much larger possessions, in a similar way have
invoked the co-operation of the native chiefs. Their government is also
largely paternal, which is the form best suited to the circumstances. The
Malay Sultans maintain power under Dutch control and receive their income
from the government, which has abolished many abuses. As for the pagan
tribes, they are treated with admirable justice.
Well administered by Europeans as Borneo undoubtedly is, the question may
well arise as to whether the natives are not becoming sufficiently
civilised to render purposeless expeditions to study them. To this may be
answered that in a country so vast, where white men are comparatively few
in number, the aborigines in the more remote part are still very little
affected by outside influence. The geographical features are an important
factor here. In the immense extent of forest vegetation which covers the
land from the sea to the tops of the mountains, the rivers are the only
highways, and in their upper courses, on account of rapids and waterfalls,
travel is difficult and often dangerous. Although in the last quarter of a
century much has been accomplished by ethnology, still for years to come
Borneo, especially the Dutch part of it, will remain a prolific field for
research. The tribes are difficult to classify, and in Dutch Borneo
undoubtedly additional groups are to be found. The Muruts in the north,
who use irrigation in their rice culture and show physical differences
from the others, are still little known. Many tribes in Dutch Borneo have
never been studied. So recently as 1913 Mr. Harry C. Raven, an American
zoological collector, in crossing the peninsula that springs forth on the
east coast about 1° N.L., came across natives, of the Basap tribe, who had
not before been in contact with whites. The problem of the Indonesians is
far from solved, nor is it known who the original inhabitants of Borneo
were, Negritos or others, and what role, if any, the ancestors of the
Polynesians played remains to be discovered.
The generally accepted idea has been that the Malays inhabit the coasts
and the Dayaks the interior. This is not strictly correct because the
racial problems of the island are much more complicated. Doctor A.C.
Haddon recognises five principal groups of people in Sarawak, Punan,
Kenyah-Kayan, Iban or Sea Dayak, Malay, and the remaining tribes he
comprehends under the noncommittal name Klemantan. He distinguishes two
main races, a dolichocephalic and a brachycephalic, terming the former
Indonesian, the latter Proto-Malay.
Doctor A.W. Nieuwenhuis, who about the end of the last century made
important researches in the upper parts of the Kapuas and Mahakam Rivers
and at Apo Kayan, found the Ot-Danum, Bahau-Kenyah, and Punan to be three
distinct groups of that region. Doctor Kohlbrugge and Doctor Haddon
consider the Ot-Danums as Indonesians, to whom the former also consigns
the Kayans and the Punans. [*] Doctors Hose and McDougall, who in their
_Pagan Tribes of Borneo_ have contributed much to the ethnology of the
island, have convincingly shown that the Ibans (Sea Dayaks) are recent
immigrants, probably of only two hundred years ago, from Sumatra, and are
Proto-Malays. They hold the view that the Kayans have imparted to the
Kenyahs and other tribes the "principal elements of the peculiar culture
which they now have in common."
[Footnote *: Quoted from _Pagan Tribes in Borneo,_ II, p. 316]
The Malays undoubtedly were the first to employ the word Dayak as a
designation for the native tribes except the nomadic, and in this they
have been followed by both the Dutch and the British. The word, which
makes its appearance in the latter part of the eighteenth century, is
derived from a Sarawak word, dayah, man, and is therefore, as Ling Roth
says, a generic term for man. The tribes do not call themselves Dayaks,
and to use the designation as an anthropological descriptive is an
inadmissible generalisation. Nevertheless, in the general conception the
word has come to mean all the natives of Borneo except the Malays and the
nomadic peoples, in the same way as American Indian stands for the
multitude of tribes distributed over a continent. In this sense, for the
sake of convenience, I shall myself use the word, but to apply it
indiscriminately to anthropological matters is as unsatisfactory as if one
should describe a certain tribe in the new world merely as American
Indian.