Page 5 - Lithographed Stamps of North Borneo

THE EARLIEST RECORDED CORRESPONDENCE FROM NORTH BORNEO

These eovers with their enelosed letters are two of three recorded posted from North Bomeo prior to the issue
of the first stamp of North Bomeo in 1883. Overseas mail transited through Labuan was pre-paid using
Labuan stamps available at the residents offiee, the letter rate from Labuan to the UK was reduced to 1 Oe per
91
'12 oz from February 1 1880. William Pryer the resident of theEast Coast division of North Bomeo founded a
settlement at the mouth ofthe Kinabatangan River on the Sandakan Bay in 1879, initially named Elopura later renamed
Sandakan. Protected from piracy it grew rapidly by 1882 had a population of about 2000, in April of 1883 reached 5000.

Cover from the 'Po/lock' eorrespondenee with enelosed letter dated 'Sandakan MY 14 1882'
1882 (MY 25) eover to London correetly franked with a Labuan 1 Oe stamp for mail to the UK, stamp tied
with oval of9 bars (Proud K3, thirteen months earlier than reeorded plus Labuan e.d.s. (Proud D4).

Contents of enelosed letter, contains interesting details eoneeming local shipping

Sandakan May 14"' 1882
The Royalist came in on the 12th but did not bring me any /etters. I got two newspapers, one had been to
Sarawak by mistake. The Royalist will probably get back tomorrow night, and will leave this on the l 611r for
Labuan. She is only making a short trip to Si/am this time. There seems to be very litt/e news this time I
think some of my letters and papers must have got /eft somewhere, we shal/ not get another mail for a
fortnight unless The Royalist is very quick and tries to get here before the Hong a"ives. There is nothing like
a little competition. There are some weeds here that /ook just like that dried leaves and others that are like
little pieces of stick. I don't know how they wou/d keep best for they are apt to loose their co/our if they are
kept in the air. I have not seen many jish around here and I se/dom have time to go and look for them. You
may go a /ong way in the forest without seeing anything. Some of the insects make great noise very like a
penny trumpet, we don't have many of them in the town but there are plenty ofthem in the side ofthe bay. We
have only got the wild cat now, one of us had a monkey but as he had a tendency to try to pul/ the roof of the
house when he got a chance and to untie all the rattans within reach his owner gave him away.
With /ove to my father and all the others,
yours affectionately,
Barclay Po/lock.