Word: borneo
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...cries and winds of empire roaring in blowzy sails. It was the last of the big chartered governing companies which carried the City of London to India, and the Crown to the Cape, which spanned -oceans and jungles for the greater glory of Queen and Commerce. The British North Borneo Company-a private corporation whose stock fetched 15s. 6d. on the open market -was still the sole ruler over a quarter of a million natives inhabiting a territory roughly the size of Ireland. But last week the Borneo Company's rule was ending...
...Wind Rises. The Company began in 1872 when a Scots engineer named William Clarke Cowie (who looked like a bartender in one of the very best hotels) ran a Spanish blockade to deliver his cargo of arms to the Sultan of Sulu, ruler of North Borneo. The grateful Sultan granted him shipping rights in his domain; later, at a resplendent dinner, he let Cowie persuade him to cede sovereignty over North Borneo to a British syndicate (in an expansive mood, the Sultan threw in the mother-of-pearl dessert plates on the table, along with his realm). Cowie...
...procrastinating shopper on Christmas Eve, he finally hit on the idea of bringing her a human head. His beloved tenderly declared that this was indeed a gift worthy of a Dyak maiden's heart, and consented to be his bride. Ever since then, the men of Borneo have been passionate headhunters...
When the Japs occupied North Borneo during the war, the natives remained fiercely loyal to the British, who had brought them these blessings. Some of the Company's officers were interned in a leper colony by the Japs. One day, a group of loyalist lepers came up to the Company's Governor to ask if they could bump off some other lepers (who had collaborated with the Japs) when & if the Company's rule was restored after the war. Asked the Governor: "Why don't you do it now?" Replied one of the lepers: "The Japs...
...hills and plains of central China, in the monsoon-soaked jungle of Burma, in the rain forests of Borneo, New Guinea, New Britain and Bougainville, Allied armies fought on, spurred by hope that the bypassed, cut-off Japs would soon get the word and lay down their arms...