A NEW KINGDOM.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5343, 13 May 1878, Page 3

A NEW KINGDOM.

(From the Celestial Empire, March 14.) An expedition has lately been organised by a powerful company under the leadership :of Baron Overbeok, late of Dent and Co., Hongkong, for the purpose ot acquiring territory in the north of Borneo, . The chartered steamer America left Singapore on December 12 last with the first expedition, which, has been entirely successful. Baron Overbeok has obtained from the native rajahs acession of the whole of the north of . the island. The new territory will be known as Sabak, and is considerably larger than Great Britain. In Sabak there is land of every description, high mountains, level plains, fine rivers, several of them yet unexplored, and in fact every variety of country, suitable for mines, plantations, stockfarms, orchards, &c., &o. In the centre of the district is the mountain Kina Balu, nearly 14,000 feet in height. On one side of it, at an elevation of about 8000 feet, is'a'spur forming a large plateau, on which it is proposed to build a sanitarium for the residents ot China and the Straits. The territory contains; also an enormous lake, the precise situation of which is uncertain ; and now that the centre of Africa is no longer a sealed book, this becomes one of the most important questions of the day, • The shooting, particularly on the east coast, is first rate. Elephants, deer of several species, and tamhardeans (a large genus of buffalo), are found in profusion. A new field will he open to the oriental sportsman ns soon as the intended regular line of steamers between Singapore aud Sabak comes into operation. : : ■ • . ~ - 1 . ■