ABSTRACT
Travellers to Borneo today arrive with certain expectations. There are certain sights they expect to see, certain experiences they expect to enjoy, certain activities they expect to undertake. The images associated with Borneo are very largely those created by the impact of European travellers. The first Englishman to leave an account of part of Borneo was Daniel Beeckman, who called at Banjarmasin in 1714 on a commercial venture. In the nineteenth century, the number of travellers visiting Borneo considerably increased, especially after the arrival of James Brooke and his acquisition of Sarawak. Early European travellers to Borneo thus had a profound if unintended impact upon Bornean society and upon later events. In the present context, what is fascinating in these travellers’ accounts of their journeys through Borneo is seeing how an image of Borneo gradually emerged and how the traveller was transformed eventually into the tourist.
