Sambas

Sambas stands among the rivers of western Borneo, with access to the sea and the forested interior. Its Malay court governed a sultanate whose connections reached across the waters to Brunei. River traffic joined the court to communities upstream, while coastal shipping brought merchants from other parts of the archipelago.

In the seventeenth century Raden Sulaiman established a Muslim ruling line at Sambas. Dutch and English traders visited the port in search of the products of western Borneo, including gold and diamonds. During the eighteenth century Chinese miners came to the sultanate's interior, where gold workings and mining associations grew in importance. Relations between the court and these communities became an important part of the political life of the region.