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HISTORY OF THE INDIAN NAVY. 253

In 1813, an expedition, in which the Bombay Marine partici-
pated, was undertaken against Pangeran Annam, the Sultan
of Sambas,* a town situated about forty miles up the river of
* Since the Dutch abandoned Sambas, about fifty years before, three Sultans
had reigned on the mu.mud. Mr. J. Hunt, ia a Eeport, communicated, in 1812,
to Sir Stamford Raffles, gives some interesting accounts of the pirate races of
Borneo at that date. When Magellan visited it in 1520, tlie island was called by
the natives Pulo Kalamantan, the name Borneo being applied only to the capital
at that time a ricli and populous city ; hence the Portuguese navigator, concluding
that the whole island belonged to this prince, gave it the name of Borneo, which,
the natives pronounce Bruni, meaning eoui'ageous. Like other places, as Ternate,
Malacca, Acheen, and Bantam, the population and wealth of Borneo rapidly
decreased, and from having, at the time of its discovery, according to Figofetta,
the companion of Magellan, twenty-five thousand houses, tlie city only numbered
three thousand inhabitants in 1809 ; a I'esult entirely due to the decay of com-
merce, caused by the depredations of tlie pirates who swarmed in those waters.
To the Portuguese conquerors succeeded the Dutch, and when the English cap-
tured the city, they found the Soloo Rajah in prison, and released him on the
stipulation that the whole north portion of Borneo, ceded to him by the Rajah
of Borneo Proper, should be transfei-red to the Company ; these terms were
signed and delivered to the Company's representative, Mr. A. Dalrvmple, in
1763. Among other places occupied by the Portuguese was Sambas, from which
they were driven by the Dutch in IG'JO, but the latter evacuated this place and
established themselves at Pontiana in 1786 ; they built a fortified wall round the
palace and factory, but were compelled to withdraw from it wlien the war broke
out with the English in 1796. The Hon. Company's ships had for a lengthened
period traded with the ports of Borneo prior to the year 1760 (Vide Hardy's
Shipping Register), and established a factory at the city of Borneo; twice also
they attempted to establish themselves on the unhealthy island of Balambangan,
lying north of Borneo, near Maludu, and, in 1775, tlie Company's sliip ' Bridg-
water ' was sent to Pasir for a similar purpose ; but these attempts at settlement
were chiefly frustrated by the soi'did jealousy of the Dutch, who instigated the
Soloos and other savages to cut off the British settlers at Balambangan and Pulo
Condore, and brought disgrace on themselves by their massacres at Amboyna,
Banda, and Bantam. In 1804, Mr. Farquhar recommended the reoccupation of
Balambangan, to which Lord Wellesley assented. The ' Mornington,' Captain
W. J. Hamilton, having Mr. Farquhar on board, accompanied by several store-
ships and transports, set sail from tlie Hooghly, but a few weeks served to dispel
the illusions by which he had been beguiled, and the settlement was finally
abandoned.
"In 1774," says Forrest, in his Voyage to New Guinea, " tlio British were
expelled from their infsxnt settlement of Balambangan by an insurrection of the
Soloos, who murdered the garrison and plundered the factory. Five years before
this the Sambas pii-ates massacred Captain Sadler with his boat's crew off Mom-
pava, and made off witli a large quantity of gold dust, though they did not
succeed in capturing his ship."
The pirates of Borneo Proper committed a base act of trcaclieryin 1788. The
Sultan invited Captain Dixon to come up to the town with his sliip, the May
'
of Calcutta; the captain acce]ited the in vital it)n, and wliilo he and his crew
were at dinner, the Sultan and his people fell upon them, murdered tlio captain,
three officers, and ten Europeans, retained the lascars as slaves, plundered the
cargo, and burnt the ship.
In 1800, Captain Pavin and a boat's crew were murdered in the palace of tlic
Sultan of Soloo whilst the Commander was taking a cup of cliocolate. In 1810,
the Soloos plundered the wreck of the sliip ' Harrier,' and carried olf several of
the crew, who were at tliis time retained as slaves at Bayagan Soloo. Among
other great princes with whom the Company's ships were brouglit into contact,
were the Sultan of Matan, an independent Rajah, who was formerly styled
Sultan of Sukadana, once the most celebrated city in Borneo, but which was
burnt down by the Dutch.
In the year 1812, the principal piratical ports iu Borneo were :—Sambas, the