Sampit

Sampit stands on the Mentaya River in southern Borneo. The river connects the forested interior with the Java Sea, providing a route through country where wet ground and dense vegetation make overland travel difficult. Boats carried people and goods between communities upstream and the coast.

In the early sixteenth century, the wider Sampit region came within the Sultanate of Banjar. River trade linked inland communities with coastal and maritime networks: forest products moved downstream, while imported goods travelled inland. Local accounts also recall a Sampit River kingdom, although its history remains uncertain. The river's importance lay in the connections it offered between settlements, markets and the sea.