BORNEO, known likewise by the name of Bona Fortuna, the greatest and most important of the Sunda islands, which are Borneo, Sumatra, and Java, was supposed, before the discovery of New Holland, to be the largest island in the world. It has the Philippine islands on the north ; Java on the south; Sumatra on the west ; and Celebes on the east. It extends from the fourth degree of south latitude to the eighth degree of north latitude, and from 109° to 119° E. Long. It is about 780 miles in length ; and its breadth, which is nearly equal throughout, except towards the north, is about 720 miles.
The climate of this island is nearly the same as that of Ceylon. Its extensive forests, and the deep.ver. dure of its fields, preserves a perpetual freshness in the atmosphere ; it is exposed neither to hot land • winds, as the coast of Coromandel, nor to such vio lent heats as prevail in Calcutta and Bengal. Here the land and sea breezes are always fresh ; or if there be any variation from this general rule, it is occasion. ed only by particular circumstances which affect the atmosphere in all countries, such as the vicinity of marshes, or the free circulation of the air being pre vented by the thickness of the forests.
Few countries can boast of a more fertile soil than that of Borneo ; yet such is the indolence and depra vity of the inhabitants, that, in spite of the bounty of nature, they live in the most abject poverty. The air of Borneo is the best in all Asia ; all the tropical fruits grow here in perfection, besides several other species scarcely known any where else, except at Sooloo, particularly the madang, which resembles a large apple, and the balono, which is not unlike a large mango. The northern part of Borneo is co vered with forests of beautiful and very lofty trees, quite free of brushwood. These forests furnish the finest building wood in the world ; a black wood, the root of which is very precious ; a fragrant wood such as eagle-wood, ebony, and sandal-wood; besides `• trees which yield a great quantity of pitch and rosin.
Several kinds of pepper are reared in this island, the most remarkable of which is the vatian, whose medi cinal virtues are much celebrated. The plantations of pepper belong to the Chinese established in Bor neo. They do not, according to the practice of the Sumatrans, conduct the pepper plant around the chinkareen tree ; but they fix in the ground a large stake, which supports the plant, without robbing it of its proper nourishment. The Chinese keep the ground between the rows of plants extremely clear ; and they often thin the leaves, that the clusters of pepper may be the more exposed to the rays of the sun. A single plant sometimes bears seventy or even seventy-five clusters, which is much more than is ever seen on the pepper plants of Sumatra; a fact which proves incontcstibly, what indeed might be naturally supposed, that the chinkareen is extremely hurtful to the pepper tree. Borneo produces likewise abundance of aromatic plants, cassia, camphires, benjamin, and wax. It is thought that spiceries would succeed there well ; and, indeed, there are several places in the island where the clove and nutmeg attain all their re quisite flavour.
Among the animal productions of Borneo several are peculiar and extraordinary, particularly the oncas, a species of apes, whose body is white and black, and from whose entrails is extracted the most per fect bezoar. The orang-outang is common in the forests of this island; and in some of them there arc whole families, or rather flocks of red apes. There is likewise an animal sometimes to be seen here, the fur of which is almost the same as that of the bea ver. With the exception of the sparrow hawk, there is no bird in Borneo which resembles those of EU rope. The plumage of many of its birds is beauti ful beyond description ; its parroquets, in particu lar, have attracted the admiration of every traveller who has visited the country. Goats, swine, cows, horse, and buffaloes, are exceedingly common.