EARLY HISTORY
[Illustration:
OLD JAR, "BENAGA."]
Borneo was known to the Arabs many centuries ago, and Sinbad the Sailor
was fabled to have visited the island. It was then imagined that a ship
might be freighted there with pearls, gold, camphor, gums, perfumed
oils, spices, and gems, and this was not far from the truth.
When Genghis Khan conquered China, and founded his mighty Mogul Empire
(1206-27), it is possible that he extended his rule over Borneo, where
Chinese had already settled. Kublai Khan is said to have invaded Borneo
with a large force in 1292; and that a Chinese province was subsequently
established in northern Borneo, in which the Sulu islands were included,
is evidenced by Bruni and Sulu traditions. The Celestials have left
their traces in the name of Kina Balu (the Chinese Widow) given to the
noble peak in the north of the island,[44] and of the rivers
Kina-batangan (the Chinese river) and Kina-bangun on the east coast of
Borneo, and certain jars, mentioned in chapter I. p. 26, ornamented with
the royal dragon of China, are treasured as heirlooms by the Dayaks. At
Santubong, at the mouth of the Sarawak river, Chinese coins dating back
to B.C. 600 and 112, and from A.D. 588 and onwards, have been found,
with many fragments of Chinese pottery. The name Santubong is itself
Chinese, San-tu-bong, meaning the "King of the Jungle" in the Kheh
dialect, and the "Mountain of wild pig" in the Hokien dialect.
Besides the antique jars, the art of making which appears to have been
lost, further evidence of an ancient Chinese trade may be found in the
old and peculiar beads so treasured by the Kayans and Kenyahs. These are
generally supposed to be Venetian, and to have been introduced by the
Portuguese. Beccari (_op. cit._ p. 263) mentions that he had heard or
read that the Malay word for a bead, _manit_ (pronounced _maneet_), was
a corruption of the Italian word _moneta_ (money), which was used for
glass beads at the time when the Venetians were the foremost traders in
the world. But he points out "that the Venetians made their beads in
imitation of the Chinese, who it appears had used them from the remotest
times in their commercial transactions with the less civilized tribes of
Southern Asia and the Malay islands." And it was by the Chinese these
beads were probably introduced into Borneo; _manit_ is but the Sanskrit
word _mani_, meaning a bead.[45]
From the Kina-batangan river came the Chinese wife of Akhmed, the second
Sultan of Bruni. She was the daughter of Ong Sum Ping, a Chinese envoy,
and from her and Sultan Akhmed the Bruni sultans down to the present
day, and for over twenty generations, trace their descent on the distaff
side, for their daughter married the Arab Sherip Ali, who became Sultan
in succession to his father-in-law, and they were the founders of the
present dynasty.[46] Sulu chronicles contain the same legend; and
according to these Ong Sum Ping, or Ong Ti Ping, settled in the
Kina-batangan A.D. 1375. He was probably a governor in succession to
others.
The Hindu-Javan empire of Majapahit in Java certainly extended over
Borneo, but it left there no such stately temples and palaces as those
that remain in Java, and the only reminiscences of the Hindu presence in
Sarawak are the name of a god, Jewata,[47] which lingers among the
Dayaks, a mutilated stone bull, two carved stones like the lingams of
the Hindus; and at Santubong, on a large immovable rock situated up a
small stream, is a rudely carved statue of a human figure nearly
life-size, with outstretched arms, lying flat, face downwards, in an
uncouth position, perhaps commemorative of some crime.[48]
Santubong is at the eastern mouth of the Sarawak river, and is prettily
situated just inside the entrance, and at the foot of the isolated peak
bearing the same name, which rises boldly out of the sea to a height of
some 3000 feet. This place, which apparently was once a Chinese, and
then a Hindu-Javan colony, is now a small fishing hamlet only, with a
few European bungalows, being the sea-side resort of Kuching; close by
are large cutch works. In ancient days, judging by the large quantity of
slag that is to be seen here, iron must have been extensively mined.
Recently some ancient and massive gold ornaments, seal rings, necklets,
etc., were exposed by a landslip at the Limbang station, which have been
pronounced to be of Hindu origin; and ancient Hindu gold ornaments have
been found at Santubong and up the Sarawak river.
[Illustration:
FIGURE ON ROCK—SANTUBONG.]
Bruni had been a powerful kingdom, and had conquered Luzon and the Sulu
islands before it became a dependency of Majapahit, but at the time of
the death of the last Batara[49] of that kingdom, Bruni ceased to send
tribute. The empire of Majapahit fell in 1478[50] before the Mussulman
Malays. The origin of the Malays is shrouded in obscurity; they are
first heard of in Sumatra, in Menangkabau,[51] from whence they
emigrated in A.D. 1160 to Singapura, "the Lion city." They were attacked
and expelled in 1252 by the princes of Majapahit, when they settled in
Malacca. There they throve, and embraced the religion of Islam in 1276.
From Sumatra and the Malay peninsula the Malays continued to spread, and
gradually to establish sultanates and states under them. The process by
which this was effected was seldom by conquest, but by the peaceful
immigration of a few families who settled on some unoccupied part of the
coast within the mouth of a river. Then, in the course of time, they
increased and spread to neighbouring rivers, and formed a state. By
subjecting the aboriginal tribes of the interior, and by compulsion or
consent, including weaker Malayan states of like origin, by degrees some
of these states expanded into powerful sultanates with feudal princes
under them.
So the Malayan kingdoms arose and gained power; and strengthened by the
spirit of cohesion which their religion gave them, they finally
overthrew the Hindu-Javan empire of Majapahit.
In Borneo there were sultans at Bruni, Sambas, Banjermasin, Koti,
Belungan, Pasir, Tanjong, Berau, and Pontianak, and other small states
under pangirans and sherips.
Exaggerated accounts of the "sweet riches of Borneo" had led the early
Portuguese, Dutch, and English voyagers to regard the island, the Insula
Bonæ Fortunæ of Ptolemy, as the _El Dorado_ of the Eastern Archipelago;
but these in turn found out their error, and, directing their attention
to the more profitable islands in its neighbourhood, almost forsook
Borneo until later years.
The Spaniards appear to have been the first Europeans to visit the
island, as they were the first to make the voyage round the world, and
to find the way to the Archipelago from the east, a feat which caused
the Portuguese much uneasiness. They touched at Bruni in 1521, and
Pigafetta says that there were then 25,000 families in the city, which
on a low computation would give the population at 100,000; and he gives
a glowing account of its prosperity. The Portuguese, under the infamous
Jorge de Menezes, followed in 1526, and they were there again in 1530.
They confirm Pigafetta as to the flourishing condition of the place.
From 1530 the Portuguese kept up a regular intercourse with Bruni from
Malacca, which the great Alfonso d'Albuquerque had conquered in 1511,
until they were expelled from that place by the Dutch in 1641. Then they
diverted the trade, which was chiefly in pepper, to their settlement at
Macao, where they had placed a Factory in 1557, and from whence a Roman
Catholic mission was established at Bruni by Fr. Antonio di Ventimiglia,
who died there in 1691. It seems certain they had a Factory at Bruni,
probably for a short time only, in the seventeenth century, though it is
impossible now to do more than conjecture the date; but that they
continued their trade with Bruni up to the close of the eighteenth
century appears to be without doubt; and also that they had a Factory at
Sambas out of which they were driven by the Dutch in 1609. On Mercator's
map, alluded to in the first footnote of this chapter, are the words
"Lave donde foÿ Don Manuel de Lima," or Lave where Don Manuel of
Lima[52] resided. Lave is Mempawa, sometimes spelt Mempava in recent
English maps, a place between Sambas and Pontianak—so the Portuguese
were even farther south than Sambas in the sixteenth century.
In 1565, the Spanish took possession of the Philippines, conquered
Manila in 1571, and, five years later, according to both Spanish and
Bruni records, were taking an active interest in Bruni affairs, which,
however, does not appear to have lasted for long. In 1576, Saif ul Rejal
was Sultan. In the Bruni records[53] it is stated that a noble named
Buong Manis, whose title was Pangiran Sri Lela (Sirela in the Spanish
records), was goaded into rebellion by the Sultan's brother, Rajah
Sakam, by the abduction of his daughter on the day of her wedding. To
gain a footing in Bruni the Spaniards took advantage of this, and Don
Francisco La Sande, the second Governor of the Philippines, conquered
Bruni, and set Sri Lela on the throne. Four years later the Spaniards
again had occasion to support their _protégé_ with an armed force; but
it ended in the rightful Sultan being restored through the efforts of
the Rajah Sakam, aided by a Portuguese, who had become a Bruni
pangiran,[54] and the usurper taking refuge in the Belait, where he was
slain. To close the history, so far as it is known to us, of the Spanish
connection with Bruni, in 1645, in retaliation for piracies committed on
the coasts of their colonies, the Spanish sent an expeditionary force to
punish Bruni, which it appears was very effectually done.
The first Dutchman to visit Bruni was Olivier Van Noort, in 1600. He
seems to have been impressed by the politeness and civility of the Bruni
nobles, but, fortunately for himself, not to the extent of trusting them
too much, for treachery was attempted. Nine years later, as we have
noticed, the Portuguese had to make room for the Dutch at Sambas, and
here the latter established a Factory, which was, however, abandoned in
1623. They returned to this part of Borneo in 1778, and established
Factories at Pontianak, Landak, Mempawa, and Sukadana, but these proving
unprofitable were abandoned in 1791. In 1818, an armed force was sent to
re-establish these Factories, two years after Java had been restored to
Holland by England, and from these, including Sambas, the Dutch
Residency of Western Borneo has arisen.
A certain Captain Cowley appears to have been the first Englishman, of
whom we know anything, to visit Borneo, or at least that part of it with
which this history deals, and in 1665 he spent some little time at "a
small island which lay near the north end of Borneo,"[55] but he did not
visit the mainland; perhaps, however, he may not have been the first. As
far back as 1612, Sir Henry Middleton projected a voyage to Borneo. He
died at Bantam in Java, where the East India Company had established a
Factory in 1603, but it was not until 1682 that the Dutch expelled the
English from that place, and from thence to Borneo is too simple an
adventure not to have been attempted and accomplished by the daring old
sea-dogs of those days. According to Dampier, a Captain Bowry was in
Borneo in 1686;[56] some English were captured by the Dutch when they
took Sukadana in 1687; and there were probably others there before, but
no settlement on the north and north-western shores was effected by the
English until 1773, when the East India Company formed a settlement at
Balambangan, an island north of Marudu Bay, the same probably as that on
which Captain Cowley had stayed. This settlement, however, was but short
lived, for in February 1775 it was attacked by a small force of Sulus
and Lanuns led by a cousin of the Sultan of Sulu, Datu Teting. The
garrison of English and Bugis was more than sufficient to have repelled
the attack, but they were taken completely by surprise; the Resident and
the few settlers managed to escape in what vessels they could find.[57]
A number of cannon and muskets, and considerable booty, fell into the
hands of the raiders. The motive for this act was revenge; the English
had behaved badly to the natives of the neighbouring islands, and Datu
Teting had himself suffered the indignity of being placed in the stocks
when on a visit to the settlement. The Company had established a Factory
at Bruni as well, having obtained from the Sultan the monopoly of the
pepper trade, and to this Factory the survivors retired, but some
settled on the island of Labuan, where they made a village. In 1803, the
Company again established themselves at Balambangan, but after a short
occupation abandoned the island, together with the Factory at Bruni. No
punishment followed Datu Teting's act, and British _prestige_ in
northern Borneo was destroyed.
This is briefly the whole history of British enterprise in that part of
Borneo lying north of the equator, and it reflects little credit on the
part played by our countrymen in Eastern affairs in those days.
We have shown that Bruni early in the fourteenth century possessed a
population of at least 100,000. According to Sir Hugh Low, two hundred
years after Pigafetta's visit, the population was estimated at 40,000,
with a Chinese population in its neighbourhood of 30,000, engaged in
planting pepper.[58] In 1809, the city had shrunk to 3000 houses with a
population of 15,000.[59] In 1847, Low placed the population at 12,000;
the Chinese had then disappeared, excepting a few who had been reduced
to slavery. The population, still diminishing, is now under 8000.
On the picturesque hills that surround the town are still to be found
traces of thriving plantations which formerly existed there, and which
extended for many miles into the interior. These have totally
disappeared, with the population which cultivated them. In 1291, two
centuries before the first European vessel rounded the Cape,[60] Ser
Marco Polo visited the Archipelago. He gives us the first narrative we
possess of the Chinese junk trade to the westward, and mentions a great
and profitable traffic carried on by the Chinese with Borneo,[61] and
this trade throve for many years afterwards; even in 1776 the commerce
with China was considerable,[62] though then it must have been
declining, for it had ceased before the close of that century. Hunt
records that in his time there were still to be seen at Bruni old docks
capable of berthing vessels of from 500-600 tons. Now the most striking
feature of the place is its profound poverty. Nothing remains of its
past glory and prosperity but its ancient dynasty.
Sir Hugh Low tells us that these old Malay kingdoms appear to have risen
to their zenith of power and prosperity two hundred years after their
conversion to Islam, and then their decline commenced, but he should
have added half a century to this epoch. The late Rajah was of opinion
that perhaps the introduction of Muhammadanism may have been the cause
of their deterioration. Two hundred and fifty years after the conversion
of the Malays to Muhammadanism, and under the ægis of this religion, all
the Malayan States attained their zenith. This period was coetaneous
with the appearance of what may fairly be described as their _white
peril_, and the introduction of Muhammadanism, a religion which
Christians, in their ignorance of its true precepts, are too apt wholly
to condemn, brought with it the pernicious sherips, the pests of the
Archipelago. The decay of the old Malayan kingdoms was due primarily to
the rapacious and oppressive policy adopted by Europeans in their early
dealings with these States, which was continued in a more modified form
until within recent times. How this was brought about, and how the
sherips contributed to it, is in the sequel.
Prior to the advent of the late Rajah in 1838, Sarawak appears to have
attracted no attention, except that Gonsavo Pereira, who made the second
Portuguese visit to Bruni in 1530, says that Lave (Mempawa), Tanjapura
(which cannot be identified), and Cerava (Sarawak) were the principal
ports, and contained many wealthy merchants; and Valentyn relates that
in 1609 the Dutch found that Calca (Kalaka), Saribas, and Melanugo had
fallen away from Borneo (Bruni) and placed themselves under the power of
the king of Johore.[63] Melanugo is also difficult to identify, but it
may be that a transcriptive error has crept in somewhere, and that it
refers to the Malanau districts beyond Kalaka.[64]
The Sarawak Malays claim their origin from the ancient Kingdom of
Menangkabau in Sumatra. Fifteen generations back, one Datu Undi, whose
title was Rajah Jarom, a prince of the royal house of Menangkabau,
emigrated with his people to Borneo, and settled on the Sarawak river.
This prince had seven children, the eldest being a daughter, the Datu
Permisuri.[65] She married a royal prince of Java (this was after the
downfall of Majapahit), and from them in a direct line came the Datu
Patinggi Ali, of whom more will be noticed in the sequel, and the
lineage is now represented by his grandson, the present Datu Bandar of
Sarawak.
The Datu Permisuri remained in Sarawak. Rajah Jarom's eldest son
established himself in the Saribas; his third son in the Samarahan; the
fourth in the Rejang;[66] and the fifth up the right-hand branch of the
Sarawak, from whence his people spread into the Sadong. These
settlements increased within their original limits, but were not
extended beyond the Rejang.
Beyond this the Malays of Sarawak know little; but that these
settlements must have early succumbed to the rising power of Bruni is
evident. But it is also evident that after that power had commenced to
wane, its hold over Sarawak gradually weakened until it became merely
nominal. In 1609, the year they established themselves at Sambas, the
Dutch found that these districts had fallen away from Bruni, as we have
noticed. There may have been, and probably were, spasmodic assertions of
authority on the part of Bruni, but it seems fairly evident that the
Sarawak Malays managed to maintain an independence more or less complete
for many years, up to within a very short period of the late Rajah's
arrival, and then they had placed themselves again under the sovereignty
of the Sultan, only to be almost immediately driven into rebellion by
Pangiran Makota, the Sultan's first and last governor of Sarawak.
Just a century after the Portuguese had shown the way, and had won for
their king the haughty title of "Lord of the Navigation and Commerce of
Ethiopia, Arabia, Persia, and India," the English and the Dutch appeared
in the Archipelago. The latter under Houtman, who had learnt the way
from the Portuguese under whom he had served, were the first, in 1595,
if we exclude Drake, 1578, and Cavendish, ten years later, and both
merely passed through the southern portion of the Archipelago on their
way home on their voyages round the world.
During the seventeenth century the English confined their energies to
buccaneering and trading, and established only two Factories, at Bantam
1603, and at Bencoolen 1685. The Dutch went in for conquest, established
themselves strongly at Jakatra, renamed by them Batavia, in 1611, and
then proceeded to drive the Portuguese out of their settlements. The
power of Portugal had been humbled by Spain, and the courageous spirit
of the old conquistadores had departed. One by one her settlements were
wrested from her, and by the end of the century Holland was paramount in
the Archipelago. Beyond one or two abortive descents upon Luzon, one,
probably the last, under the famous Tasman, the Dutch had left the
Spaniards undisturbed in the Philippines, but to the English was left
Bencoolen only, Bantam having been taken away from them in 1682, and to
the Portuguese a portion of the island of Timor.
During the latter half of the eighteenth century commenced the rise of
Great Britain as a political power in the Malayan Peninsula and
Archipelago. In 1760, her only settlements, those on the western coast
of Sumatra, had been destroyed by the French, but these were
re-established in 1763, and Bencoolen was fortified. In 1786, the colony
at Penang (Prince Edward's island) was established; and nine years later
Malacca was captured from the Dutch.
Early in the nineteenth century came the temporary downfall of Holland.
In 1811, Java was taken by the British, and the Dutch settlements and
dependencies passed into their hands, though these were soon to be
restored. After subjugating the independent princes of the interior and
introducing order throughout Java, which the Dutch had so far failed to
accomplish, all her possessions in the Archipelago were restored to
Holland in 1816; and in 1825 Bencoolen was exchanged for Malacca.
Singapore was founded in 1819.
In Borneo south of the equator, excepting Sukadana, which has already
been mentioned, Banjermasin had been the only country to attract
attention, and in this formerly rich pepper country the Dutch and
English were alternately established. As early as 1606, the former, with
disastrous results, attempted to establish a Factory there, and after
that experience they appear to have left the place severely alone, and
the Banjers were free of the _white peril_ for another century. Then, in
1702, the East India Company established a Factory there. As this
venture is an interesting illustration of the methods adopted by the
English, and an example of their common misconduct and mismanagement, we
give a few particulars. The old Dutch chronicler, Valentyn, tells us how
the Factor, Captain Moor, who lived in a house constructed on a raft,
with only a wretched earth rampart ashore, and a handful of English and
Bugis (of the Celebes) soldiers, laid a heavy hand on the people, but
managed to hold his own, until in 1706 a Captain Barry commenced
building a proper fort, but he died before it was completed. Then a
surgeon, who was more interested in natural history than anything else,
became Factor. The aggression of the English increased, and the Sultan
drove them out with the loss of many men and two ships. Captain
Beeckman, of the H.E.I. Company's service, who was there in 1713,
ascertained that Captain Barry had been poisoned, and he tells us so
hateful had their servants rendered the name of the Company to the
Banjereens that he had to pretend his ships were private traders. They
had promised the Sultan to build no forts nor make soldiers. They
grossly ill-treated, and even murdered the natives, imposed duties, and
finally insulted the Sultan, and attempted to capture the queen-mother.
The English, taken by the natives, including a Captain Cockburn, were
put to a cruel death.[67]
Then came the Dutch once more, in 1747. They left in 1810, and the
Sultan then petitioned the English to settle there again. This was done,
but, simultaneously with their evacuation of Java, the English retired
from Banjermasin, and it was transferred to the Dutch, who shortly
afterwards re-established their old stations in western Borneo up to
Sambas.
The Dutch continued to extend their influence, till, in process of time,
they had acquired control over two-thirds of the island.
Necessarily this is but a brief summary of the political history of
Borneo, and of the countries adjacent to it up to the time when
commences our story of the north-western portion of the island, but it
may be deemed sufficient to afford the reader a clearer insight into the
narrative that follows.
The system of trade adopted by the Dutch, following in the footsteps of
the Portuguese, was bad. Each in turn made of trade a monopoly,
excluding the vessels of every other nation. Such produce of the country
as was suitable for the Chinese market had to be sent first to one of
their own depôts, thence to be transhipped to China, and all direct
intercourse with China was checked. This cessation of direct trade
affected the prosperity of the ports, among others Bruni, in a variety
of ways. First, by the circuitous direction of the trade the exports
became too expensive to fetch the cost of the double carriage, and in
course of time dwindled to nothing. In the next place, the cessation of
immediate intercourse with China arrested the flow of immigrants,
hard-working and frugal men, who would have exploited the industries and
natural products of the island. A third, and that the most serious
effect of all, as a result of the extinction of honest trade and
internal development, was the encouragement given to piracy. The sultans
and rajahs were unable to maintain their state, and the people to
satisfy their requirements by just means, and so commenced to live by
piracy. So long as immediate requirements were satisfied by this means,
they gave no thought to the morrow; it did not occur to them, or they
were too ignorant to consider, that they were pulling up by the roots
that on which the future prosperity of their countries depended.
"The Dutch had no sooner established themselves at Batavia than, not
satisfied with transferring to it the emporium of Bantam, they conceived
the idea of making it the sole and only depôt of the commerce of the
Archipelago.... The destruction of the native trade of the Archipelago
by this withering policy may be considered as the origin of many of the
evils and of all the piracies of which we now complain. A maritime and
commercial people, suddenly deprived of all honest employment, or the
means of respectable subsistence, either sunk into apathy and indolence,
or expended their natural energies in piratical attempts to recover by
force and plunder what they had been deprived of by policy and fraud."
So wrote Sir Stamford Raffles in 1821.
That bold, old west-country buccaneer, and erstwhile captain of the
King's Navy, William Dampier, who besides being a shrewd fighter and
trader, appears to have been equally as shrewd an observer, draws a sad
picture of the degradation of flourishing states under the grinding
power of the Dutch. He relates that the natives had ever been willing to
trade with all nations, but the Dutch East India Company not only
monopolised all the trade of those countries under their immediate
control, but by means of their guard-ships prevented the adjacent
countries trading with others than themselves, even with those of their
own countrymen who were not connected with the Company, though they were
not in a position to supply these countries with all the commodities
their inhabitants needed, or to purchase or load all their produce.[68]
The cultivation of pepper naturally declined,[69] and in some places the
natives were prevented planting more than the Company would require. So
it was with spices. In October every year the Dutch would send a large
force throughout the spice islands to destroy trees, so as to keep the
production down, and small garrisons were scattered about, whose sole
duty appears to have been to see that the cultivation of spices was
restricted to the requirements of the Dutch alone.[70]
"The people, though they are Malayans, yet they are civil enough,
engaged thereto by trade; for the more trade the more civility; and, on
the contrary, the less trade the more barbarity and inhumanity. For
trade has a strong influence upon all people, who have found the sweet
of it, bringing with it so many conveniences of life as it does. I find
the Malayans in general are implacable enemies to the Dutch; and all
seems to spring from an earnest desire they have of a free trade, which
is restrained by them where they have any power. But 'tis freedom only
must be the means to encourage any of these remote people to trade,—
especially such of them as are industrious, and whose inclinations are
bent this way, as most of the Malayans are.
"Where there is any trade to be had, yet not sufficient to maintain a
Factory, or where there may not be a convenient place to build a fort,
so as to secure the whole trade to themselves, they (the Dutch) send
their guard-ships, which, lying at the mouth of the rivers, deter
strangers from coming thither, and keep the petty princes in awe of
them. This probably causes so many petty robberies and piracies as are
committed by the Malayans.
"Being thus provoked by the Dutch, and hindered of a free trade by their
guard-ships, it is probable they therefore commit piracies themselves,
or connive at and encourage those who do. So that the pirates seem to do
it as much to revenge themselves on the Dutch for restraining their
trade, as to gain this way what they cannot obtain in way of traffic."
So wrote Dampier, and if we go on to seventy years ago, when Sir James
Brooke commenced, unaided, that counter-move which resulted in the
salvation of the northern part of Borneo from the then hurtful and
narrow-minded rule of the Dutch, and to its being opened to British
trade and influence, we learn from his own words "how the policy of the
Dutch has at the present day reduced this 'Eden of the Eastern Wave' to
a state of anarchy and confusion, as repugnant to humanity as it is to
commercial prosperity.... It is the direct influence which it exerts
that has proved baneful to the Archipelago under the assumed
jurisdiction of this European power. Her unceasing interference in the
concerns of the Malay governments and the watchful fomenting of their
internal dissensions have gradually and effectually destroyed all
rightful authority, and given rise to a number of petty states which
thrive on piracy and fatten on the slave trade. The consequent
disorganisation of society arising from these causes has placed a bar to
commercial enterprise and personal adventure, and has probably acted on
the interior tribes much in the same way as this fatal policy has
affected the Malays. As far as can be ascertained, the financial and
commercial concerns of the Dutch have not been prosperous; it is easy to
conceive such to be the case, as it will be conceded that oppression and
prosperity cannot co-exist. In short, with the smallest amount of
advantage, the Dutch Government has all along endeavoured to perpetuate
an exclusive system, aiming more at injury to others than any advantage
to themselves or to the nations under their sway; for where an
enlightened administration might have produced the most beneficial
results, we are forced to deplore not only the mischief done and the
mass of good neglected, but the misery and suffering inflicted on
unhappy races, capable, as has been proved, of favourable development
under other circumstances."
In Borneo, as elsewhere, the Malays had for long been notorious pirates,
but the Sea-Dayaks, only so far as consisted in spasmodic raids for the
acquisition of heads.
The Malay governors, now under the influence of the Arab pseudo-sherips,
diverted whole tribes of Dayaks from their peaceable avocations, and
converted them into sea-robbers. The cultivation of their lands to
produce saleable goods, for which there was now no sale, was abandoned,
and fertile districts that had grown abundant crops were reduced to
unprofitable jungle.
But it was not only on trading vessels in the China seas that they were
taught to prey. The Malay princes and nobles sent those tribes whom they
had demoralised to ascend the rivers and plunder and exterminate the
peaceful tribes in the interior.
Among the tribes thus changed from an agricultural people into pirates
were the Sekrang and the Saribas. When the Malay Muhammadan princes
wanted slaves they summoned their Dayak nominal subjects to follow them,
and led them against other tribes, either to harry the coasts or to
penetrate up the rivers ravaging; and then, from this first stage to a
second, converted them into pirates who swept the seas, falling on
trading vessels, murdering the crews, and appropriating the plunder.
According to agreement the Malay princes received two-thirds of the
spoil, and their Dayak subjects, whom they had trained to be pirates,
were granted one-third of the plunder and all the heads they could take.
About this head-hunting something has been said already, more will be
said presently. As a Dayak said to a European, "You like books, we like
heads."
In the latter half of the seventeenth century, the Sultan of Bruni,
Muadin, was constrained to call in the aid of his neighbour, the Sultan
of Sulu, to quell an insurrection, and in consideration of this
assistance ceded to him the land from the north as far as the Kimanis
river.
Sultan Abdul Mubin had murdered his uncle, Sultan Muhammad Ali, and
usurped the throne. Pangiran Bongsu, under the title of Sultan Muadin,
with the assistance of the Sulus, defeated Abdul Mubin, who was
executed. Muhammad Ali was murdered in 1662, and a war ensued that
lasted about twelve years.[71]
The Spaniards attacked Sulu, captured the capital, and carried off the
Sultan to Manila. When the English took Manila, under Sir William Draper
in 1762, they released the Sultan Mumin, and he ceded the territory that
had been granted to his predecessors by the Sultan of Bruni in or about
1674 to the East India Company, by deed signed in 1763, in consideration
of an engagement entered into by the Company to protect him from the
Spaniards.
Sultan Jemal ul Alam, of Bruni, who died in 1796, married Rajah Nur
Alam, daughter of his uncle Sultan Khan Zul Alam, 21st Sultan of Bruni,
by his first wife. By her he had one legitimate son, Omar Ali Saif Udin.
The wife of Sultan Jemal had a full brother, Sri Banun Muda (usually
called Rajah Api), and also half-brothers Hasim and Muhammad, sons of
Khan Zul Alam by his second wife, and Bedrudin and two other sons by his
third wife, a Lanun lady of rank.
On the death of his grand-uncle, also grandfather, and predecessor, Khan
Zul Alam, Omar Ali was but a child, and Rajah Api claimed the throne,
under the title of Sultan Muhammad Alam, and there were years of trouble
in Bruni. Sir Hugh Low describes him as a madman with the most cruel
propensities, whence probably his nickname Api, which signifies "Fire."
He treated his nephew with great roughness, and often threatened him
with a drawn sword, and Omar ran whimpering to his mother to complain.
The prince's mother had long been jealous of the assumption of the
sultanate by her brother, and, her son being almost imbecile, she hoped,
by getting rid of Api, to exercise great power in the state.
Accordingly, about the year 1828, she summoned those of her party and
surrounded the residence of the Sultan Muhammad Alam, or Api, who
finding himself deserted escaped in a boat. His sister sent after him a
pangiran, or noble, with professions of friendship, and this pangiran
persuaded him to assume the disguise of a woman to facilitate his
escape. Then he got him into a little skiff, and led him into an ambush,
where he was ordered to be put to death. He received the intimation with
firmness. "Observe," said he, "when you strangle me, on which side my
body shall fall—if to the right it prognosticates good for Bruni, if to
the left it foretells evil." The bow-string was twisted, and Api sank on
his left side. As we shall see that omen proved true.
Api's brother, Rajah Muda Hasim, an amiable, courteous, feeble man, was
installed as Regent; and some time later was sent to Sarawak, where a
rebellion had broken out, caused by the exactions and cruelty of the
Pangiran Makota, who had been appointed governor of Sarawak by the
Sultan. Hasim found the whole district a prey to anarchy, and those who
should have reduced it to order were incompetent and too cowardly to
fight. All he was able to do was to maintain a nominal sovereignty in
the capital, Kuching.
The Malays and Arabs being Muhammadans, looked down on the pagan
Land-Dayaks, subject to their domination, as mere bondsmen, to be
slaughtered, fleeced, or enslaved—to be treated, in a word, as their
caprice dictated, without being taken to task for their misdeeds. The
limit of their exactions was fixed by necessity. The point beyond which
oppression ceased was that where nothing was left to be extorted. But
over the Sea-Dayaks of Sekrang, Saribas, and Kanowit they had no power.
These tribes were far too independent in character and powerful to
submit to oppression. These Sea-Dayaks would follow their so-called
masters on a piratical expedition, and would obey them only so far as it
pleased themselves to do so. As to the Kayans, they were too greatly
feared to be molested. The late Mr. H. B. Low[72] in 1879 was refused
permission by the Sultan to cross into the Baram by the Limbang, for
fear lest this should show the Kayans a way into Bruni. The Malay rulers
oppressed their own people and the Melanaus almost as badly as they did
the Land-Dayaks, murdering, robbing, and enslaving them.
The Land-Dayaks in Sarawak were governed by local Malay datus called
Patinggi, Bandar, and Temanggong. These officers monopolised the trade.
When the Dayaks had collected rice, edible birds' nests, wax, etc., the
Patinggi claimed the right to buy the produce at a price fixed by
himself, and one that barely allowed the seller enough to pay for his
own necessaries. And not only did the Patinggi claim the right of
pre-emption, but so did all his relatives, and in the end so did every
Bornean Malay of any position. If the poor Dayak did not produce
sufficient to satisfy the Patinggi, girls and children were taken to
make up the deficit and sold into slavery.[73]
He would sometimes send a bar of iron to a headman of a tribe, whether
the latter wanted it or not, and require him to purchase it at an
exorbitant price fixed by the sender. The man dared not refuse; then
another bar was sent, and again another, till the Dayak chief was
reduced to poverty.
If a Malay met a Dayak in his boat, and the boat pleased him, he would
cut a notch in the gunwale in token that he appropriated it to his own
use. Possibly enough some other Bornean Malay might fancy the same boat
and cut another notch. This might occur several times. Then the Dayak
was required to hand over his boat to the first who had marked it, and
to indemnify the other claimants to the value of the vessel.
Any injury done, or pretended to have been done, however accidentally,
by a Dayak to a Malay, had to be paid for by a ruinous fine. There was
no court of appeal, no possibility of redress. A Malay could always, and
at any time, enter the house of a Dayak, and live there in free quarters
as long as he pleased, insult or maltreat the wife and children of his
unwilling host with impunity, and on leaving carry away with him any of
the Dayak's property to which he had taken a fancy; and, when the
novelty of the possession wore off, force his late host to buy it back
again at an extravagant price. But this was not all. When antimony was
found, the unfortunate Land-Dayaks were driven to mine it at no wage at
all, and their hard taskmasters did not even trouble themselves to
provide them with food.[74] The consequence was that many of them died,
and others fled to the jungle. As one of them pathetically said, "We do
not live like men; we are like monkeys; we are hunted from place to
place. We have no houses, and when we light a fire we are in fear lest
the smoke should betray to our enemies where we are."
Of Dayaks there are, as already stated, two sorts, the Land-Dayak and
the Sea-Dayak, the first of Indonesian, the second of proto-Malay stock.
The former are a quiet, timid, industrious people, honest, and by no
means lacking in intelligence, living on hill-tops to which they have
fled from their oppressors; the latter throve on piracy, having been
brought to this by the Muhammadan Malays and the half-bred Arabs. But
even among the Sea-Dayaks a few tribes had not been thus vitiated, and
upon these the late Rajah could always rely for support.
Their Malay masters furnished the Sea-Dayaks, whom they had converted
into predatory savages, with ammunition and guns, and sent them either
to sea to attack merchant vessels, or up the rivers to fall upon
villages of peaceful tribes; then the men were slaughtered, the women
and children carried off into slavery. The villages were burnt, and by a
refinement of cruelty the fruit trees cut down and standing crops
destroyed, from which the principal provision of the natives was
gathered, so as to reduce to starvation those who had escaped into the
jungle. Land-Dayak tribes that formerly had been numerous and prosperous
were reduced to small numbers and to poverty. One that reckoned 230
families dwindled to 50. Three whole tribes were completely
exterminated. One of 120 families was brought down to two, that is to
say, of 960 persons only 16 were left. The population that had consisted
of 1795 families, or, reckoning eight persons to each family, 14,360
souls, in ten years was reduced to 6792 souls showing a decrease in
these ten years of 946 families, or of 7568 persons. On Sir James (then
Mr.) Brooke's visit to the country in 1840, in converse with the chief
of one of the native tribes, the man told him, "The Rajah takes from us
whatever he wants, at whatever price he pleases, and the pangirans take
whatever they can get for no price at all." "At first," says Mr. Brooke,
"the Dayak paid a small stated sum as an acknowledgment of vassalage, by
degrees this became an arbitrary and unlimited taxation, and now, to
consummate the iniquity, the entire tribes are pronounced slaves and
liable to be disposed of."
The natural result of such treatment was that those natives who escaped
spoilation and slaughter fled up the country beyond reach of their
persecutors. The depopulation from the same cause went on in the
neighbourhood of Bruni as well as in Sarawak. Mr. Spenser St. John says
in 1858: "It is melancholy to see this fine district (Limbang), once
well cultivated, now returning to jungle; formerly where the population
extended a hundred miles beyond the last village at present inhabited,
the supply of provisions was ample at Bruni. Now that the natives are
decreasing, while Bruni is perhaps as numerous as ever, the demands made
by the nobles are too great even for the natives' forbearance, and in
disgust they are gradually abandoning all garden cultivation. Already
brushwood is taking the place of bananas and yams, so that few of either
are to be had. The people say it is useless for them to plant for others
to eat the whole produce. Then as the natives cannot furnish the
supplies exacted of them by the pangirans, these latter take from them
their children; the lads are circumcised and made Mahomedans and slaves,
and the girls are drafted into the already crowded harems of the
rajahs." The same writer gives an instance or two of the manner in which
the subject natives were treated. In 1855, the warlike Kayans of the
interior descended the Limbang river and threatened a tribe of Muruts.
The Pangiran Makota,[75] virtual governor of Bruni, met them and
arranged with the chiefs that for the sum of £700 they should spare
these Muruts. Then he set those who were menaced to collect the money.
When they had done this and placed the sum in his hands, he pocketed it
and returned to Bruni, leaving the Kayans to deal with the tribe after
their own sweet will.
Again, in 1857, the same head-hunters threatened another Murut village.
Makota had a secret interview with the Kayan chiefs, and then gave out
that peace had been concluded. What he had actually done was to deliver
over to them to pillage and exterminate the Murut village of Balal Ikan,
against which he bore a grudge for having resisted his exactions.
The whole of the north and west of Borneo was in a condition of
indescribable wretchedness and hopelessness when Mr. James Brooke
appeared on the scene. Oppression the most cruel and grinding,
encouragement of piracy and head-hunting by the selfish, unscrupulous
pangirans sent from Bruni, were depopulating the fair land. Sarawak,
then a very small province, was, as we shall see, in insurrection.
Single-handed, with but a comparatively small capital, the whole of
which he sank in the country, with no support from the British
Government, with no Chartered Company at his back, he devoted his life
to transform what had become a hell into what it has become, a peaceful
and happy country.
APPENDIX TO CHAPTER II
LIST OF THE MAHOMEDAN SULTANS OF BRUNI
Taken from the _Selesilah_ (Book of the Descent), preserved in Bruni, by
the late Sir Hugh Low, G.C.M.G. Published in the Journal No. 5 of the
Straits Branch R.A.S.
1. Sultan Mahomed, who introduced the religion of Islam.
2. Sultan Akhmed, brother of above, married to the daughter of Ong
Sum Ping, Chinese Raja of Kina-batangan. No sons, but one daughter
married to—
3. Sultan Berkat, from Taif in Arabia. A descendant of the prophet
through his grandson Husin. Berkat, the blessed. His real name was
Sherif Ali.
4. Sultan Suleiman, son of above, who was succeeded by his son—
5. Sultan Bulkeiah;[76] towards the end of his reign Pigafetta's
first visit to Bruni in 1521 probably took place.
6. Sultan Abdul Kahar, son of above. Had forty-two sons, of whom—
7. Saif-ul-Rejal succeeded him. During his reign the Spaniards
attacked Bruni in 1576 and 1580, taking it on the second occasion.
8. Sultan Shah Bruni, son of above. Having no children he abdicated
in favour of his brother—
9. Sultan Hasan, succeeded by his son.
10. Sultan Abdul-Jalil-ul-Akbar, succeeded by his son.
11. Sultan Abdul-Jalil-ul-Jehar, who was succeeded by his uncle—
12. Sultan Mahomet Ali, son of Sultan Hasan.
13. Sultan Abdul Mubin. Son of Sultan Mahomet Ali's sister. He
murdered his uncle and usurped the throne. He was worsted in a
revolution that lasted twelve years, and was executed.
14. Sultan Muaddim, fourth son of Sultan Jalil-ul-Akbar, nephew and
son-in-law of Sultan Mahomet Ali. Succeeded by his nephew
(half-brother's son)—
15. Sultan Nasr Addin, grandson of Sultan Jalil-ul-Akbar.
16. Sultan Kemal-Addin, son of Sultan Mahomet Ali, who abdicated in
favour of his son-in-law—
17. Sultan Mahomet Ali-Udin—on his father's side grandson of Sultan
Muaddin, on his mother's side great-great-grandson of Sultan
Jalil-ul-Akbar. He died before his father-in-law and great uncle,
Sultan Kemal-Addin, who again ascended the throne and was
succeeded by his son—
18. Sultan Omar Ali Saif-udin. Died 1795. Succeeded by his son—
19. Sultan Tej-Walden. Died 1807. He abdicated in favour of his son—
20. Sultan Jemal-ul-Alam, who reigned for a few months only, and
died in 1796, when his father reascended the throne and was
succeeded in 1809 by his half-brother—
21. Sultan Khan Zul-Alam, succeeded by his great-nephew and
grandson—
22. Sultan Omar Ali Saif-udin, second son of Sultan Mahomed
Jemal-ul-Alam. Died 1852. He left the throne, by will and general
consent of the people, to
23. Sultan Abdul Mumin, who was descended from Sultan Kemal-Addin.
Died 1885, succeeded by
24. Sultan Hasim-Jalilal Alam Akamaddin, son of Sultan Omar Ali
Saif-udin. Died 1906.
25. Sultan Mahomet Jemal-ul-Alam, son of above.
The above are abridged extracts. The last two sultans were not included
in Low's list, which was made in 1893. Low's spelling of the names is
followed.
Forrest, _op. cit._, who obtained his information from Mindanau records,
states that about 1475 a Sherip Ali and his two brothers came from
Mecca. Ali became the first Muhammadan prince in Mindanau; one brother
became King of Borneo (Bruni) and the other King of the Moluccas. As
regards the date this agrees with the Bruni records, and the brothers
might have borne the same name. (See Mahomet Ali, Omar Ali above.)
According to Chinese records, a Chinese is said to have been King of
Bruni in the beginning of the 15th century.[77] This would have been in
Ong Sum Ping's time, and it probably refers to him.
-----
Footnote 44:
Named by the Spaniards Mount St. Paul according to Pigafetta. J. Hunt
gives St. Peter's Mount in his _Sketch of Borneo_, 1812, and a map by
Mercator published in about 1595 gives St. Pedro, and old maps of
subsequent dates also give the latter name.
Footnote 45:
But Mr. C. Vernon-Collins, of the Sarawak Civil Service, recently
found a bead which has been pronounced at the British Museum to have
been made in Venice prior to A.D. 1100. A similar one of the same date
was presented by H.H. the Ranee to the British Museum some years ago.
It is a bead highly esteemed by the Kayans.
Footnote 46:
"Book of the Descent," Sir Hugh Low.—_Journal of the Straits Branch of
the R.A.S._, No. 5.
Footnote 47:
Jewata is the Land-Dayak name of a god from the Sanskrit word
_dewata_, divinity, deity, gods. The Sea-Dyaks also have Jewata in
their mythology, likewise Batara, from the Sanskrit _bhatar_, holy;
neither means God, as some writers appear to think. The Dayaks have no
idea of theism.
Footnote 48:
The late Rajah has recorded a tradition of several of the Land-Dayak
tribes that in the old times they were under the government of Java,
and their tribute was regularly sent there.
Footnote 49:
The title assumed by the rulers of Majapahit, from "Bhatara," noted
above.
Footnote 50:
According to Crawfurd. Sir Stamford Raffles gives 1475.
Footnote 51:
Formerly a monarchy whose jurisdiction comprehended all Sumatra, and
whose sovereign was talked of with respect in the farthest parts of
the East.—Marsden's _History of Sumatra_.
Footnote 52:
Lima is a small town on the north coast of Portugal.
Footnote 53:
Sir Hugh Low, _Book of the Descent_, _op. cit._
Footnote 54:
See note 2, p. 45.
Footnote 55:
_A Collection of Voyages_, 1729, Dampier.
Footnote 56:
_Idem._
Footnote 57:
Forrest's _Voyage to New Guinea_, 1779.
Footnote 58:
_Sarawak_, Hugh Low, 1848.
Footnote 59:
Hunt, _op. cit._
Footnote 60:
Dias, in 1487.
Footnote 61:
"Antiquity of Chinese Trade," J. R. Logan in the _Journal of the
Indian Archipelago_, 1848.
Footnote 62:
Forrest, _op. cit._
Footnote 63:
Logan, _op. cit._
Footnote 64:
Mercator's map gives Melano, which confirms this supposition. Other
places on the Sarawak coast mentioned in this map are Tamaio-baio,
Barulo (Bintulu), Puchavarao (Muka), Tamenacrim, and Tamaratos. The
first and two last cannot be identified. Tama is of course for
_tanah_, land, and the last name simply means in Malay, the land of
hundreds—of many people, which the first name may also imply. _Varao_
being man in Spanish and Portuguese, Puchavarao means the place of the
Pucha (Muka) people—Pucha also being a transcriber's error for Puka.
It was near this place that the Portuguese captain, who afterwards
became a Bruni pangiran (p. 42) was wrecked, and also near this place
on Cape Sirik, a point which is continually advancing seaward, that
some forty to fifty years ago the remains of a wreck were discovered a
considerable distance from the sea, and so must have belonged to a
ship wrecked many years before. When Rentap's stronghold in the
Saribas was captured by the present Rajah in 1861, an old iron cannon
dated 1515 was found there. Traditions exist pointing to wrecks and to
the existence of hidden treasure at two or three places along the
coast.
Footnote 65:
Meaning queen-consort.
Footnote 66:
Probably the Kalaka; the Malays in the Rejang came from that river.
Footnote 67:
_A Voyage to and from the Island of Borneo_, 1718.
Footnote 68:
The Dutch confiscated all foreign ships they could seize found trading
in the Archipelago without permission from them to do so.
Footnote 69:
Borneo and Sumatra were then the great pepper producing countries.
Footnote 70:
Forrest, _op. cit._, confirms this, and adds "the Dutch forbid the
natives to manufacture cloth."
Footnote 71:
Sir Hugh Low, _op. cit._
Footnote 72:
Son of the late Sir Hugh Low, G.C.M.G. He served in the Sarawak Civil
Service from 1869 to 1887, in which year he died. His knowledge of the
natives, their languages, and customs, was unsurpassed. The notes he
left formed the basis of Ling Roth's work, _The Natives of Borneo_,
1896.
Footnote 73:
This was the _serah_, or forced trade formerly in force in all Malayan
countries; and it appears to be still so, in a modified form, in
Sumatra.
Footnote 74:
The Sarawak Malays were also so forced to mine by Pangiran Makota, and
this forced labour was one of the principal causes of the rebellion of
1836-40 against the Sultan's Government.
Footnote 75:
This happened after this man had been banished by the late Rajah from
Sarawak. See Chap. III. p. 87, for the fate he met and so richly
merited.
Footnote 76:
Famous in Malay legends throughout the East as Nakoda Ragam, a
renowned sea rover and conqueror.
Footnote 77:
W. P. Groeneveldt, _Essays relating to Indo-China_, 1887.
[Illustration:
KUCHING IN 1840.
(The picture at the end of this chapter is taken from exactly the same
point of view.)]