evidence: Note Rizal, Aguinaldo and North Borneo THE British North Borneo Company, chartered in 1881, controlled territory granted by the Sultans of Brunei and Sulu in 1877-78. The grant by the Sultan of Sulu had prompted protests from Spain, the ruling power in the Philippines, of which it claimed Sulu, and thus the Sulu dependencies in northern Borneo, were a part. A tripartite Anglo-Spanish-German agreement of 1885 was intended to settle the issue by defining the imperial frontiers in the area: Spain withdrew the claim to North Borneo, which subsequently became a British protectorate. These frontiers survived the Filipino revolution against Spain and the take-over by the Americans in 1898. They were to be challenged in the post-colonial era by the Philippines claim to Sabah. This context adds to the interest of an episode in the life of Jose Rizal, the polymath who inspired the Filipino nationalist movement.