| The home districts, as Lundu, Sarawak, Samarahan, Sadong, and Sibuynu, may be reckoned at | 80,000 |
| The Sea Dayak districts, including Batang Lupar, Seribas, Kalaka, and those on the left bank of the Rejang, at | 120,000 |
| The districts lying between Rejang Mouth and Bintulu | 40,000 |
| Total | 240,000 |
In stating these numbers I am convinced that I am very much underrating them, as the more inquiries we make the thicker appears the population of the Sea Dayak districts.
The capital of Sarawak is Kuching, and, considering the circumstances of the country, the rise of this free port has been rapid. When Sir James Brooke first reached the spot, there were few inhabitants except the Malay rajahs and their followers, who subsequently for the most part removed to Brunei, the residence of the sultan. I saw Kuching in the year 1848, when it was but a small place, with few Chinese or Kling shops, and perhaps not over 6,000 Malay inhabitants; there was little trade, the native prahus were small, and I saw some few of them. The jungle surrounded the town and hemmed in the houses, and the Chinese gardeners had scarcely made an impression on the place. As confidence was inspired, so the town increased, and now, including the outlying parishes, its population numbers not less than 15,000.
The commerce of the place has kept pace with it, and from a rare schooner finding its way over to return with a paltry cargo, the trade has risen till an examination of the books convinced me that it was in 1860 above 250,000l. of exports and imports.
The articles constituting the exports are for the most part the produce of the jungle; the principal exception is sago, which is imported from the districts to the east of Cape Sirik, to be manufactured at Kuching into the sago-pearl and flour of commerce. The trade in this article has for many years been injured by the constant disturbances, ending in a state of chronic civil war, which desolated the producing districts. Now, however, that they have been ceded to Sarawak, and a firm government established, a great development should take place in this branch of trade.
An article which might become of great value is cotton: it is cultivated among many of the tribes residing within the Sarawak territories, particularly by the Dayaks of Seribas and Sakarang, who manufacture from it a durable cloth. The Cotton Supply Association is sending out some Egyptian seed, which, if it arrive in good condition, may tend to increase the produce. I am convinced, however, that no cultivation will have great success in Borneo which does not at first depend on imported labour, and as China is near, the supply could be easily and regularly obtained.
The amount of rice produced will also greatly depend on imported labour; at present the natives but rarely export any, and during some seasons scarcely produce sufficient for the consumption of the people. There is one thing to be observed, however, that as the country is becoming year by year more settled, the inhabitants in the same ratio give greater attention to acquiring wealth. The Sea Dayaks are very acquisitive, and would soon imitate the Chinese methods of cultivation. I have elsewhere remarked that the agriculture to the north of the capital is far superior to anything found in Sarawak or its neighbourhood, and this has most probably arisen from the large number of Chinese who formerly inhabited that country.
The use of the plough, the harrow, or the buffalo in cultivation is, except by report, entirely unknown in Sarawak; the natives will, I believe, be much surprised at the results produced by a good English plough, which is about to be tried on some fields of sugar-cane in the neighbourhood of Kuching, and it may do much good by showing them the methods employed by other nations. At present the Malays and Dayaks use no other instruments than a long chopper, an axe, and a pointed stick.
The soil and the varied heights on the hill-sides, would render Sarawak a fine country for coffee; which grows freely, and so do pepper, tapioca, arrowroot, and almost every product cultivated in the neighbouring islands; but these things are not yet grown in sufficient quantities to render them worth mentioning as articles of export. Of the jungle produce I may name the principal: they are fine timber of many varieties, gutta-percha, india-rubber, wax, and rattans, and the last are to be obtained in the very greatest abundance and of the best quality in the districts lately ceded by the sultan to the government of Sarawak.
Sarawak has a very great advantage over many countries, having water communication from the far interior, down to her coasts, and inner channels communicating with many of the outlying districts.