The island of Sokotra off the coast of Africa is under British protection, and the Kuria Muria islands off the coast of Arabia, are attached to Aden. Area of former, 1,382 square miles. Population about 12,000, mostly pastoral and migratory inland, fishing on the coast. Religion, at one time Christian, Mohammedan since the end of the 17th century. The island came under British protection in 1876, by treaty with the Sultan. Chief products, dates and various gums; sheep, cattle, and goats are plentiful; butter is exported. The Kuria Muria Islands, five in number, were ceded by the Sultan of Muscat for the purpose of landing the Red Sea cable. The group is leased for the purpose of guano collection.

REFERENCES.-Foreign Office Reports. Annual Series. London.

Bent (J. Th.), Sokotra. In 'XIX Century' Magazine for June, 1897. London.
Ghika (Prince Nicolas de), Cinq Mois au Pays des Somalis. Geneva, 1898.

Pearce (F. B.), Rambles in Lion Land: Three Months in Somaliland. London, 1898.
Swayne (H. G. C.), Seventeen Trips through Somaliland. London, 1895.

BAHREIN ISLANDS.

Group of islands in the Persian Gulf, 20 miles off the coast of El Hasa, in Arabia. Bahrein, the largest, is 27 miles long by 10 wide. Moharek, on the north of Bahrein, 4 miles long, mile wide. There are about half-adozen others, mere rocks. Manameh, the commercial capital, extends 10 miles along the shore; 25,000 inhabitants. The population is Mohammedan of the Sunni and Shiite sects. The seat of government is Moharek on the island of that name; population about 22,000. There are about 50 villages in the islands.

The chief belongs to the ruling family of Al Kalifah; the present chief of Bahrein is Sheikh Esau, who owes the possession of his throne entirely to British protection, which was instituted in 1867. Sheikh Easu was again formally placed under British protection in 1870, when his rivals were deported to India.

The great industry is pearl fishery, in which 400 boats, of from 8 to 20 men each, are engaged. In 1897 the value and distribution of the trade, and the nationality of the shipping entered and cleared were as follows:

Of the imports in 1897, the chief were: pearls, 72,8127.; rice, 87,344; rifles, 25,1167.; coffee, 16,3417.; cottons, 40,1147.; dates, 17,2757.; cattle, 5,3227.; specie, 128,4077. Of the exports the chief were :-Pearls, 244, 4367. ;

rice, 37,0317.; rifles, 18,4887.; cottons, 23,2557.; dates, 10,5517.; cattle, 10,1797.; specie, 73,4367. The prohibition against the increasing trade in rifles and ammunition which was carried on with Persia has now been enforced by the Persian Government.

Political Resident.-Col. F. A. Wilson.

Foreign Office Reports. Annual series. No. 2,186. London, 1898.

Bent (J. Th.), The Bahrein Islands in the Persian Gulf. Proc. R. G. Soc. (N. S. xii. 1. 8. London, 1890.

BORNEO (BRITISH).

British North Borneo.-Governor. - Leicester Paul Beaufort; salary, 9,850 dollars. Richard B. Martin, M.P., is Chairman of the Court of Directors in London.

The territory of British North Borneo is a territory occupying the northern part of the island of Borneo, and situated nearly midway between Hong Kong and Port Darwin in Australia. The interior is mountainous, one point being 13,700 feet high, but most of the surface is jungle.

Area, 31,106 square miles, with a coast-line of over 900 miles. Population, 175,000, consisting mainly of Mohammedan settlers on the coast and aboriginal tribes inland, with some Chinese traders and artisans. Chief town, Sandakan, on the east coast.

The territory is under the jurisdiction of the British North Borneo Company, being held under grants from the Sultans of Brunei and Sulu. The cession was confirmed by Royal Charter in 1881, and the territory is administered by a Governor in Borneo and a Court of Directors in London, appointed under the Charter. On May 12, 1888, the British Government proclaimed a formal protectorate over the State of North Borneo. The appointment of the Governor is subject to the approval of the Secretary of State. For administrative purposes the whole district is divided into nine provinces.

In 1889 the colony of Labuan was placed under the government of the British North Borneo Company.

About 1,000,000 acres have been alienated by the Government on leases of 999 years for tobacco planting, pepper, coffee, and other jungle products. There are 13 estates planting tobacco, 27 planting coffee and coco-nuts, 1 planting india-rubber, and two ramie.

The laws are based on the Indian penal, criminal, and civil procedure codes, and local proclamations and ordinances. There is an Imaum's Court for Mohammedan law.

The expenditure in salaries in the colony is over 100,000 dollars. Sources of revenue Opium, spirit farms, birds'-nests, court fees, stamp duty, licences, import duties, royalties, land sales, &c. No public debt.

Most of the trade is carried on through Singapore with Great Britain and the colonies. The chief products are timber, sago, rice, gums, coffee, pepper, gambier, gutta-percha, tapioca, sweet potatoes, and tobacco, which is being planted on a large scale. Coal and gold have been found. The exports comprise mostly jungle and sea produce, wax, birds'-nests (edible), Coco-nuts, gutta-percha, sago, tobacco, rattans, india-rubber, seed pearls, bêche-de-mer, &c. A flourishing timber trade is stated to have been opened with China. Exports of leaf tobacco, 1896, 1,372,277 dollars; 1897, 1,686,173 dollars. Shipping entered, 1897, 95,300 tons; cleared, 94,168 tons, nearly all British.

The Government issues its own copper coinage (cents and half-cents); also notes of one, five, ten, and twenty-five dollars to the extent of 100,000 dollars, and have also arranged to issue notes of the value of 10, 25, and 50 cents. Accounts are kept in dollar currency.

Borneo is now connected by cable with the outer world by a branch of the cable between Labuan and Singapore. A telegraph line has been constructed from Menumbok, where the cable reaches land, to Sandakan. A railway is in course of construction from Brunei Bay into the interior.

Native military force of 350 men under European officers, with one machine and two mountain guns. There are two Missions, one Protestant and the other Roman Catholic; and the Protestant community has a church and school at Sandakan, with a branch at Kudat.

Brunei and Sarawak.-In 1888 the neighbouring territories on the north-west coast of Borneo, Brunei and Sarawak, were placed under British protection. The area of Brunei, which is under a Sultan, is about 3,000 square miles, and its products are of the same character as those of British North Borneo.

Sarawak has an area of about 50,000 square miles, with a coast line of about 400 miles. The government of part of the present territory was obtained in 1842 by Sir James Brooke from the Sultan of Brunei. Various accessions were made between 1861 and 1885, and the Limbang River district was annexed in 1890. The Rajah, H. H. Sir Charles Johnson Brooke, nephew of the late Rajah, born June 3, 1829, succeeded in 1868. The population is about 300,000, consisting of native races, Malays, Dyaks, Kayans, and Muruts, with Chinese and other settlers. The chief towns are the capital, Kuching, about 23 miles inland, on the Sarawak River, and Sibu, 90 miles up the Rejang River, which is navigable by large steamers. Timber trade is carried on from the river mouth with Hong Kong. Brooketon is a settlement in the coal district opposite Labuan. At Kuching are Church of England and Catholic missions with schools. The revenue for 1896 was 508,771 dollars, and expenditure 565,796 dollars. The revenue is derived chiefly from the opium, gambling, arrack and pawn farms, exemption tax payable by Malays, and from Dyak revenue. There are import duties on tobacco, salt, kerosine oil, wines (duty imposed July 1894), and spirits; export duties on sago, gambier, pepper, all jungle produce, dried fish, &c. The produce in general resembles that of North Borneo. Coal exists in large quantities, as well as gold, silver, diamonds, antimony, and quicksilver. Coal exported in 1896, 22,870 tons, valued at 114,347 dollars. In 1896 the imports amounted to 3,701,394 dollars (including 1,427,235 dollars, coasting trade); and the exports, 3,557,868 dollars (including 1,132,303 dollars, coasting trade). There are military and police forces, the former with 250

men.

British Consul at Brunei.-A. L. Keyser.

Books of Reference concerning Borneo.

Handbook to British North Borneo. London, 1890.

Colonial Office List. Annual. London.

Boyle (Frederick), Adventures among the Dyaks of Borneo. 8. London, 1865.
Clutterbuck (W. J.), About Ceylon and Borneo. 8. London, 1891.

Codrington (B. H.), The Melanesians, their Anthropology and Folklore. London, 1896.
Guillemard (F. H. H.), Australasia. Vol. II. 8. London, 1894.

Hatton (Frank), North Borneo. 8. London, 1886.

Hatton (Joseph), The New Ceylon, a Sketch of British North Borneo. 8. London, 1886. Jacob (Gertrude), The Rajah of Sarawak. London, 1876.

Low (Sir H.), Residence in Sarawak. London.

Posewitz (Th.), Borneo: Its Geology and Mineral Resources. [Translation.] 8. London, 1892. Pryer (Mrs. W. B.), A Decade in Borneo. 8. London. 1894.

Roth (H. Ling), The Natives of Sarawak and British North Borneo. 2 vols. London, 1896. St. John (Sir S.), Life in the Forests of the Far East. 2 vols. London, 1862: Life of Sir Charles Brooke, Rajah of Sarawak. S. London, 1879.

Wallace (A. R.), The Malay Archipelago. London, 1869.

Whitehead (J.), Exploration of Mount Kina Balu, North Borneo. London, 1893.

CEYLON.

Constitution and Government.

THE island of Ceylon was first settled in 1505 by the Portuguese, who established colonies in the west and south, which were taken from them about the middle of the next century by the Dutch. In 1795-96 the British Government took possession of the foreign settlements in the island, which were annexed to the Presidency of Madras; but in 1798 Ceylon was erected into a separate colony. In 1815 war was declared against the native Government of the interior, and the whole island fell under British rule.

The present form of government (representative) of Ceylon was established by Letters Patent of April 1831, and supplementary orders of March 1833. According to the terms of this Constitution, the administration is in the hands of a Governor, aided by an Executive Council of five members-viz. the Lieut.Governor and Colonial Secretary, the Officer commanding the Troops, the Attorney-General, the Auditor-General, and the Treasurer; and a Legislative Council of 17 members, including the members of the Executive Council, four other office-holders, and eight unofficial members, representative of different races and classes in the community.

Governor.-Right Hon. Sir Joseph West Ridgeway, K.C.B., K.C.S.I. ; born 1844; entered Indian Army, 1861; Under Foreign Secretary to Government of India, 1880-84; Assistant Commissioner for N. W. Afghan boundary demarcation, 1884, and Commissioner for Afghan frontier delimitation, 1885; Colonel, Indian Army, 1885; Under-Secretary at Dublin Castle, 1887; Minister and Envoy to Sultan of Morocco, 1892; Lieutenant-Governor of the Isle of Man, 1893. Appointed Governor of Ceylon, September 9, 1895.

The Governor has a salary of 80,000 rupees, and the Colonial Secretary, 24,000 rupees.

For purposes of general administration, the island is divided into nine provinces, presided over by Government Agents, who, with their assistants and subordinate headmen, are the channel of communication between the Government and the natives. There are three municipalities and fourteen local boards mainly for sanitary purposes.

Area and Population.

The following table gives the area and population (including the military) of the provinces of Ceylon, according to the census of 1891 :

The total population (including military) enumerated at the census of 1891 as 3,009,461, was estimated by the Registrar-General at the middle of 1897 to be 3,391,443, of which the race distribution was as follows:

The census returns showed 70 per cent. of the population to be engaged in agriculture, 16 per cent. to be industrial, 5 per cent. commercial.

The Registrar-General gives for 1897 the number of births as 369 per 1,000, and of deaths as 23.2. The highest death-rate (1892) was in the North-Central Province, being 56.3 per 1,000 per annum. The lowest deathrate was registered in the Western Province, viz. 19.2 per 1,000.

The immigration returns, dealing almost entirely with agricultural labourers employed on the tea and coffee plantations, and not including the very large number of traders and domestic servants, give, in 1897, 153,075 arrivals as against 109,213 departures. These are Tamil immigrants from South India and are the mainstay of the tea industry as they were of the coffee industry.