personal reasons, the wish to see his relations and friends, and to
obtain change and rest, he also felt that he could effect more than by
correspondence were he personally to interest Ministers in Bornean
affairs and urge on them the necessity of a decided course for the
suppression of piracy, which could be put down were a steady course
pursued instead of mere convulsive efforts, and Sulu he wished to see
crushed.[150] Sarawak, where all was peaceful, would be safe under the
administration of his connection, Mr. A. C. Crookshank.[151] Labuan was
established as a naval station under naval administration. Bruni had
been reduced to subjection, and was powerless to give further trouble,
and the coast was generally quiet; so, there being nothing requiring
attention in the immediate future, he sailed from Singapore in July, and
arrived in England early in October.
And now honours rained on him. He was presented with the freedom of the
City of London; Oxford University conferred upon him the degree of
LL.D.; he was graciously received at Windsor by the Queen and the Prince
Consort; was appointed Governor of Labuan, and Commissioner and
Consul-General in Borneo, and made a K.C.B.[152] The United Service, the
Army and Navy, the Athenæum, Travellers, and other Clubs elected him an
honorary member. He was lionised and fêted, and was received with marked
distinction by every one, including Ministers.
He sailed from England on February 1, 1848, with his Labuan staff, in
the _Mæander_, commanded by his old friend and ally, Captain Keppel, and
having the present Rajah on board as sub-lieutenant.[153] After spending
a few months in Singapore making preparations for the establishment of
his new colony, he arrived at the Muaratebas entrance of the Sarawak
river in September; here he left the _Mæander_, and was triumphantly
escorted up-river by the whole Kuching population amidst general
rejoicings.
He found affairs in his little raj had not been conducted quite so well
as he could have wished, and that there were evidences of renewed
activity on the part of the pirates. Pangiran Makota was in power at
Bruni, and that was a menace to the good conduct of both the external
and internal affairs of the Sultanate. The Sultan had been in direct
communication with the Sekrang Dayaks, amongst whom both Sherip Mular
and Sherip Ahmit were busy intriguing, and collecting the dissatisfied
party which had been scattered. Hostile operations on the part of the
Saribas were only checked by the arrival of the _Mæander_.
On September 14, the Rajah was joined by his nephew, Captain James
Brooke-Johnson,[154] of the Connaught Rangers, as his official A.D.C. He
assumed the surname of his uncle, and was given the title of Tuan Besar.
Although he was always looked upon as the heir-presumptive, the title of
Rajah Muda was only conferred upon him when he was officially and
publicly recognised by the Rajah as his heir in 1861.
"To give a spirit of national pride to the natives," the Rajah now
granted the country a flag,[155] and this was hoisted with due ceremony
on September 21. Viscount Palmerston, in a despatch dated June 20, 1849,
subsequently conveyed the approval of H.M.'s Government of the flag
having been hoisted, in order, with the sanction of the British
Government, to afford a recognised permanency to the country.
The Rajah then sailed in the _Mæander_ to Labuan, where he was busy for
some time arranging and organising the colony, but, falling a victim,
with many others, to the insalubrity of the climate, he took a sea
voyage in the _Mæander_, visiting several places on the north-west coast
and passing on to Sulu, where he established friendly relations with the
Sultan, and paved the way to a treaty being effected, by which Sulu
would be placed within the sphere of British influence. He returned to
Labuan in January, 1849, nearly recovered, and the next month was back
in Sarawak again, to face an anxious time, a year of trouble and strife.
The Rajah had done all he could in England to move the British
Government to take energetic action effectually to stamp out piracy,
especially in regard to the Saribas and Sekrang, amongst whom the
peaceable party had now been completely overborne by the piratical
faction, and this would have been prevented had the British Government
sanctioned the Rajah's scheme of building a fort in the disturbed
district. Alone, he was powerless to effect much, if anything. The
_Mæander_ had been specially fitted for taking action against these
pirates, and her captain specially appointed on account of the
experience he had already gained in dealing with them, as it was
intended that the frigate should be detailed for this service; but
trouble having occurred in China, she was recalled by the Admiral, and
the Rajah was left with the H.E.I.C. _Nemesis_ only, a steamer quite
inadequate for the purpose; and, being required to keep up communication
between Labuan and Singapore, her station being at the latter place, she
could be only occasionally placed at his disposal.
The departure of the _Mæander_, and the Rajah's long absence in the
north, had emboldened the Saribas and Sekrangs to prepare for fresh
atrocities. Their insolence had, moreover, so increased that they went
so far as to send the Rajah a message of defiance, daring him to come
out against them, taunting him with cowardice, and comparing him to a
woman.[156]
On March 2nd, the Rajah received news that a large pirate fleet of one
hundred prahus had put to sea, and, after having captured several
trading vessels, the crews of which they had put to death, had proceeded
up the Sadong river, where they had killed upwards of one hundred or
more Malay men, women, and children, and had carried others into
slavery. Within the three previous months they had killed three hundred
persons, burnt several villages, and captured numerous prahus.[157] This
expedition was led by the Laksamana, the Malay chief of the
Saribas;[158] it was checked at the town of Gedong, which was well
prepared for defence, and too much on the alert to be taken by surprise.
An artifice of these pirates, and they never attempted by force what
could be acquired by stratagem, was this: some of the party remained
behind and assumed the clothes of their victims, and the umbrella-shaped
hats of palm leaf commonly used by those harvesting in the sun, which
would completely conceal their features; thus disguised they paddled
down stream, and called in Malay to the women to issue from their
hiding-places, as they had come to convey them to a place of safety. The
poor creatures, supposing that these were of their own tribe, ran down
with their children in their arms only to be speared and their heads
hacked off by these wolves in sheep's clothing.[159] On the last day of
February, a numerous and industrious population was gathering in the
harvest, and on March the 1st every house was plundered, and scattered
about the fields were the mangled bodies of the reapers, and in the
villages lay the headless trunks of men, aged women, and children too
young for captivity.
Not a day passed without news reaching Kuching of some village burned or
of some trading vessel captured. After the attack on Sadong, while the
Saribas hovered along the coast, crowds of refugees arrived in Kuching.
From all parts they came; from the river of Matu alone twenty prahus
full of men, women, and children, and from Kalaka many hundreds. They
said that they could endure life no longer in their own country,
continually engaged in resisting these murderous attacks, and losing
numbers of their people at the hands of the Sekrangs and Saribas.
"No news except of Dayaks, and rumours of Dayaks. Dayaks here, Dayaks
there, and Dayaks everywhere," so wrote the Rajah.
The Kalaka river had also been laid waste. Hunt in 1812 described Kalaka
as being one of the principal ports of trade on the north-west
coast,[160] and the country as producing large quantities of grain. But
this was before the Sea-Dayaks had become pirates. In 1849, the river
had been so devastated by piratical attacks that all cultivation had
been abandoned, and its once flourishing town and villages deserted,
with the exception of two that were small. "Never before had I been so
struck with the irreparable mischief done by the piratical tribes, as
when I saw this lovely country so completely deserted," so wrote Mr. S.
St. John in 1849.
The ravages of these murderous Dayaks had been peculiarly destructive in
the delta of the Rejang, once well populated by the quiet and
industrious Melanaus, the producers of the Bornean sago brought to the
market of Singapore. The pirates not only destroyed the villages and
plantations, but captured many richly laden prahus, freighted with the
produce of this district on their way to dispose of their lading in the
British Settlement of Singapore, and in Sambas and Pontianak. Like the
Malays of Kalaka, nearly all the inhabitants had fled, most to Sarawak,
some to other places.
During the first six months of 1849, some 600 persons fell victims to
these savages; it must be borne in mind that the districts inhabited by
these people and those attacked by them were then in Bruni territory,
and outside the raj of Sarawak.
In 1849, it was reckoned that the Saribas had 6000 fighting men, the
Sekrangs an equal number, and those Sekrangs and Saribas who had moved
across to the Kanowit, Katibas, and Poi, affluents of the Rejang river,
could muster 8000 warriors,[161] making, with their Malay allies, a
total of 25,000 men living on piracy and murder. Secure on their rivers,
in their stockades, in their jungles, in their large and
well-constructed boats, and in their numbers, they scoffed at warnings,
and proceeded from crime to crime until the whole country from Bruni to
Sarawak was nearly their own.
In desperation, and with the hope of checking these outrages, the Rajah
at once started against the pirates with his own little flotilla of some
twenty-four war prahus manned by 800 Malays, but he was driven back by
the north-east monsoon, perhaps fortunately, as his force was totally
inadequate. Then the _Nemesis_, under Commander Wallage, arrived, and
the Rajah, feeling he was now strong enough to effect something, sallied
forth again on March 25, with the same native force and four of the
boats of the _Nemesis_. The bala[162] was augmented by eighty-four
native prahus with over 2000 friendlies, all thirsting for revenge. Both
branches of the Kalaka were ascended, and from the left-hand branch the
native levies crossed over into the Rembas, a large affluent of the
Saribas, and here several strongholds were destroyed, with large
quantities of rice and salt; the enemy were, however, absent on an
expedition, and but few fighting men were left behind. The Rajah then
proceeded up the Saribas, the entrance of which the _Nemesis_ had been
sent on to guard, and at the mouth of the Rembas branch met a large
force of Saribas Dayaks which hurriedly retreated. These were on their
way to effect a junction with the Sekrangs, the Malay town of Banting up
the Lingga being the objective. Ten prahus of Sadong friendlies on their
way home were met and attacked at night by these Sekrangs, who had a
force of 150 bangkongs, but, the Balau Dayaks opportunely coming to the
assistance of the former, the Sekrangs were defeated and driven back to
their own country. This well-contrived expedition then terminated in a
return to Sarawak, and though the pirates had not suffered any great
loss, especially in lives, a severe check had been administered, and by
preventing a junction between the Saribas and Sekrangs their piratical
venture for that occasion had been spoiled.
After his return from this expedition the Rajah took advantage of the
lull that was certain to follow, for the Dayaks would lie low for a time
fully expecting to be again attacked, and proceeded to visit his little
colony at Labuan. From thence he passed on to Sulu, where he concluded a
commercial treaty with the Sultan, returning to Kuching at the end of
May. In the meantime Admiral Sir Francis Collier had despatched the
_Albatross_, Commander Farquhar,[163] to Sarawak, to take the
_Mæander's_ place, and she had arrived at Kuching before the Rajah's
return in the _Nemesis_, and had there been joined by the _Royalist_,
Lieutenant Everest. Preparations were pushed forward to deliver a final
blow to the Saribas and Sekrang pirates, who, now the Ramathan, or fast
month, had commenced, considered themselves safe, under the firm
persuasion that the Rajah would not move against them so long as it
lasted, out of regard for the religious scruples of the Malays.
The expedition started on July 24. It comprised the _Nemesis_, the
_Royalist_, and the _Ranee_ (the _Mæander's_ little steam tender), seven
men-of-war boats, and the Rajah's Malay force of eighteen war prahus
manned by 640 Malays. At the mouth detachments of Lundu and Balau
Sea-Dayaks, and Malays from Samarahan and Sadong joined, which brought
the native force up to a total of seventy prahus with 2500 men. The
_Royalist_ was towed by the _Nemesis_ into the Batang Lupar, and left to
guard that river off the mouth of the Lingga, and the latter went on to
the entrance of the Saribas, where, with the ships' boats, she took up
her position. The main force joined her on the 28th, and the same
evening information was received that a large piratical bala, under the
command of the Datu Patinggi of Saribas and the principal Malays, had
left the Saribas two days previously and had gone northwards. The Rajah
and Captain Farquhar immediately determined to intercept them on their
return. With twelve war prahus and two men-of-war cutters the Rajah took
up a position across the mouth of the Kalaka, to prevent the pirates
gaining their way home by that river. The _Nemesis_, with the rest of
the force, blocked the Saribas, and the only other route open to them
_via_ the Batang Lupar was guarded by the _Royalist_. There was an
alternative way back, a long one, up the Rejang and Kanowit, but they
were not likely to take this. On the evening of the 31st, a rocket sent
up from the _Rajah Singha_,[164] the Rajah's war prahu, announced the
approach of the enemy. They came on boldly, and, perceiving the force at
the entrance of the Kalaka, but not the more formidable one hidden by
the long promontory separating the mouths of the two rivers, dashed on
for the Saribas with defiant yells, to encounter in the growing darkness
greater peril, and thus commenced the most famous fight in the Sarawak
annals, which brought a just retribution on these savage pirates and for
ever broke their power, the battle of Beting Maru.[165] Met with showers
of grape, cannister, rockets, and musketry from the _Nemesis_ and the
boats, and the savage onslaughts of the native levies mad for revenge,
well led by the Rajah's English and Malay officers, and with their
retreat intercepted by the Rajah's division, the pirates were soon
thrown into confusion, and thought only of escape. But cut off in all
directions, for five hours, in bright moonlight, they had to sustain a
series of encounters extending over a distance of ten miles. At midnight
all was over. About a dozen bangkongs escaped, whilst over a hundred
were destroyed, and the enemy had lost about 300 killed. This loss would
have been far heavier had the Rajah allowed his native forces to
intercept the retreat of the great numbers who had landed and escaped
into the jungle, and this could have easily been effected; as it was,
500 died of wounds, exposure, and starvation, or were cut off before
they could reach their homes. Of those who succeeded in escaping up the
Saribas that night was the famous Dayak chief Linggir, who, with
seventeen war-boats, had made a desperate attack on the _Nemesis_, which
resulted in the destruction of all the boats with their crews except
his.[166]
Had this expedition started but a few days earlier, the mischief that
had been done would have been prevented, though that mischief was far
less than it would have been had not the pirates been forced to beat a
hasty retreat on receiving news that so powerful a force was out against
them. They had attacked Matu, but that town was found to be too well
prepared to be carried without considerable loss, and, their aim being
not glory but to procure heads, captives, and plunder, with the least
possible risk to themselves, they retreated in search of easier prey
after sustaining a loss of ten killed, but not before they had taken a
detached house in which they obtained seven heads and captured four
girls. Palo they had plundered, and had there seized three girls;[167]
they spared the place as being the main source of their salt supply. Two
vessels trading to Singapore were captured, and the crew of one were all
killed. Serikei proved too strong for them. A detachment had gone
westward, and off Sambas they killed some Chinese fishermen and took
their heads. At Sirhasan, one of the Natuna islands, they captured a
trading vessel, and on their way back to join the main fleet attacked
the Malays living at the mouth of Muaratebas, but were repulsed after a
desperate fight. A trading prahu was there seized, the owner and five of
the crew being killed. Coming across Abang Husin, a nephew of the Datu
Temanggong, they killed him and his boat's crew of six, after a gallant
defence.
A couple of days having been spent in destroying the captured bangkongs
and securing prisoners, the expedition proceeded up the Saribas river.
After some exciting episodes and hard work in cutting their way through
innumerable trees, which had been felled across the river to impede
their progress, the force reached Paku, which was taken and burnt for
the second time. The expedition then proceeded up the Rejang, to punish
the Sekrang Dayaks living in the Kanowit. Eighteen villages were
destroyed, and the country laid waste for a hundred miles. This done,
the Rajah returned to Kuching with the whole force, arriving there on
August the 24th. With him came many Serikei people, who wished to escape
from the tyranny of Sherip Masahor,[168] an infamous and intriguing
half-bred Arab chief, who appears to have but lately settled in the
Rejang as the Bruni governor, and who in the near future was to cause
the Sarawak Government considerable trouble.
After the battle of Beting Maru, the well-inclined Malay and Dayak
chiefs of the Sekrang were once more raised to power, and the Rajah
built a fort at Sekrang, of which Sherip Matusain, who has been before
mentioned as having taken a prominent part on the side of the Sarawak
Malays in the rebellion against Bruni, was placed in charge. The fort
was built to uphold the friendly and non-piratical party against the
interior piratical tribes, to prevent the latter passing down to the
sea, and as a position for the advancement of commerce. It was built
entirely by Sekrang Malays and Dayaks under the supervision of Mr.
Crookshank, and when Mr. Brereton[169] went there shortly afterwards to
take charge, at the request of the natives that a European might be
placed over them, he was entirely dependent on their goodwill, having no
force of any sort, to support his authority.
The Saribas and the Sekrangs now submitted, the former too utterly
broken to do further mischief by sea, and the latter frightened by the
lesson that had been administered to their allies and themselves,[170]
and by the establishment of a Government station in their district. Such
was the effect of this chastisement that piracy was almost completely
put an end to in these turbulent tribes; then had the land rest to
recover, the waste places to revive, the towns to be rebuilt, and the
population to increase. In but a very few years the bulk of these very
tribes which had been the scourge of the country were reduced to
peaceable and industrious citizens.
But trouble far-reaching, on which he had not calculated, was in store
for the Rajah through this expedition. It came at a time when he was
weakened in health from continuous exposure and the severe strain he had
undergone, which had brought him near death's door, and it came from a
quarter the least expected. He "had risked life, given money, and
sacrificed health to effect a great object;"[171] and had made the coast
from cape Datu to Marudu bay as safe as the English Channel to vessels
of all flags and all sizes, and now he had to bear with the malicious
tongues and persecutions of the humanity-mongers of England, who were
first prompted to attack the Rajah by his discarded agent, Mr. Wise.
This man was embittered against the Rajah for his refusal to sell
Sarawak to a company; by being called to account for a loss he had
caused the Rajah of some thousands of pounds; and by some unfavourable
comments the Rajah had made on his actions, which had come to his
knowledge owing to certain private letters of the Rajah not intended for
his eyes having fallen into his hands. Wise had offered to make the
Rajah "one of the richest commoners in England," and presumedly saw his
way to becoming one too, but the Rajah preferred "the real interests of
Sarawak and the plain dictates of duty to the golden baited hook."[172]
Cobden, Hume, Sidney Herbert, and afterwards Gladstone, as well as
others of that faction, took up the cause of the pirates, and the Rajah
and the naval officers who had been engaged since 1843 in suppressing
the Saribas and Sekrangs were attacked with acrimony as butchers of
peaceful and harmless natives—and all for the sake of extending the
Sarawak raj. The _Spectator_ and the _Daily News_ bitterly assailed the
Rajah, relying upon information supplied through the medium of a
Singapore newspaper; and the Peace Society and the Aborigines Protection
Society, laid on a false scent by those whom they should not have
trusted, became scurrilous in their advocacy of cold-blooded murderers
and pirates.
After having brought the "_cruel butchery_" of Beting Maru to the
attention of the House of Commons on three occasions, Joseph Hume, on
July 12, 1850, moved an address to her Majesty, bringing to the notice
of the House "one of the most atrocious massacres that had ever taken
place in his time." He supported the motion with glaring and wilful
mis-statements, and brought disgraceful charges against the Rajah, whom
he branded as "the promoter of deeds of bloodshed and cruelty." The Navy
he charged with wholesale murder, and the poor victims of the massacre
he described as a harmless and timid people.[173]
Cobden, who supported the motion, called the battle of Beting Maru a
human battue, than which there was never anything more unprovoked. He
could not do homage to the Rajah as a great philanthropist seeing that
he had no other argument for the savages than extermination.
The Rajah was ably defended by Mr. Henry Drummond, who exposed Wise's
conduct; and the motion was lost by a majority of 140 in a House of 198.
At Birmingham, Cobden asserted that the Rajah, "who had gone out to the
Eastern Archipelago as a private adventurer, had seized upon a territory
as large as Yorkshire, and then drove out the natives; and who, under
the pretence that they were pirates, subsequently sent for our fleet and
men to massacre them ... the atrocities perpetrated by Sir James Brooke
in Borneo had been continually quoted in the Austrian newspapers as
something which threw into the shade the horrible atrocities of Haynau
himself."
The following year, on July 10, Hume moved for a Royal Commission to
enquire into the proceedings of Sir James Brooke, but this was negatived
by 230 votes to 19. He went a little further this time, and drew
harrowing pictures of "cruel butcheries, and brutal murders of the
helpless and defenceless." Sir James Brooke, he said, attacked none but
the poor Dayaks, and even their wives and children were destroyed. He
even went so far as to deny that the Saribas were head-hunters.
Gladstone bore high testimony to the Rajah's character and motives. His
entire confidence in the Rajah's honour and integrity led him to accept
his statements with unqualified and unreserved belief. He adjudged the
Dayaks of being addicted to barbarous warfare and piracy, and maintained
that there were not sufficient grounds for the motion, against which he
voted. He, however, contended that most of the pirates were killed when
not resisting, and had been deliberately sacrificed in the act of
fleeing. This unhappily gave rise to doubts, which subsequently caused
him to entirely change his opinions, and to completely veer round to the
other side.
Lord Palmerston denounced the charges against the Rajah "as malignant
and persevering persecution of an honourable man," and Mr. Drummond
rightly denied "that, from beginning to end, this motion had any other
foundation than a personal determination to ruin Sir James Brooke." "The
whole of this transaction from first to last was a very discreditable
affair," he said. "The gentlemen of England echoed him,"[174] and the
nation too, judging by the tone of the press, which (with the exception
of one or two papers), from _The Times_ downwards, supported the
Rajah.[175]
Her Majesty's Government had notified the Rajah of their approval of all
he had done, and he was instructed to follow the same course should a
similar necessity arise.
But Wise, Hume, Cobden, and their adherents were only checked, and,
huffed by their defeats, continued their efforts to ruin the Rajah's
character and administration with increased bitterness, unfortunately in
the end to obtain a partial success; but we will leave this subject for
a while, to turn briefly to events in Sarawak.
As a commentary on Mr. Cobden's assertion that the natives were being
driven out of Sarawak, the population of the raj in 1850 had increased
to 50,000 from 8000 in 1840, and this increase was due to immigration
from the neighbouring countries, where the people had been the constant
prey of pirates, head-hunters, and their own oppressive rulers, and for
these over-burdened people the Rajah had supplied a haven. The Chinese
colony in upper Sarawak was augmented by the arrival of five thousand
Chinese refugees from Pemangkat in Dutch territory, who had come to
Sarawak to escape the tyranny of their more powerful neighbours and
rivals, the Chinese of Montrado. These latter had successfully rebelled
against the authority of the Dutch, and were now oppressing their weaker
neighbours, both Chinese and Dayak. The Kayan and Kenyahs of the Baram,
who had been in rebellion against the Sultan, had sent messages offering
to accept the Rajah as their chief, and those of the Rejang assisted in
building the new fort at the mouth of the Kanowit. This fort was erected
by the Rajah to protect the inhabitants of the Rejang delta, and of Oya
and Muka, by blocking the egress by the Kanowit river to the Sekrang and
Saribas Dayaks. All these countries, including the Sekrang, where a
station had already been established, were under the _de jure_ rule of
the Sultan, but the inhabitants now looked upon the Rajah as their
ruler. The Sultan had long been helpless to govern the disturbed
districts; his authority was not recognised by the population, and the
chiefs appointed by him acted to gain their own ends, the enriching of
themselves at the expense of the people. The Sultan had placed himself
in the Rajah's hands, and was well pleased that he should pacify and
introduce order into these districts, more perhaps in his own interests
than in those of his own people, for whose welfare he cared little; they
paid him no revenue, and that he hoped the Rajah would secure for him.
Bandar Kasim, in spite of warnings, was again oppressing his people in
the Sadong. The Rajah had deposed him in 1848, and had appointed his
brother, Abang Leman,[176] in his place, but the change brought no
benefit to the people, it gave them but an additional tyrant, for both
were now behaving badly, and the Bandar had to be removed.
After visiting Labuan, the Rajah went to Penang for a much-needed
change, and there received instructions from the Foreign Office to
proceed to Siam on a diplomatic mission. He left for Bangkok in August.
To quote his own words: "The mission was a dead failure, as the Siamese
are as hostile and opposed to Europeans as any people can well be. I had
a very trying time of it, and altogether got rid of an unpleasant and
critical position without loss of national and individual credit." A
short time before an American mission had also been similarly repulsed.
During the Rajah's absence, an envoy from the United States had arrived
at Kuching bearing a letter from the President addressed to him as
Sovereign Prince of Sarawak, and expressing a desire to enter into
friendly relations. The envoy informed the Rajah by letter that having
been entrusted with full powers he was ready to sign a treaty with
Sarawak, and that he was to thank the Rajah "in the name of the American
nation for his exertions in the suppression of piracy," and to
compliment him on his noble and "humane endeavours to bring his subjects
and the neighbouring tribes of Malays into a condition of civilisation."
Lord Palmerston saw no objection to the Rajah entering into diplomatic
relations as Rajah of Sarawak with the United States.[177]
In January, 1851, the Rajah, leaving Captain Brooke in charge, again
left for England on account of the bad state of his health. He came home
for rest and quiet, but this was denied him, and he had to sum up all
his energies, and expend time and money to contend against the active
and bitter hostility of his Radical opponents in England, who in spite
of adverse majorities in the House of Commons and the opposition of some
of the most prominent politicians in both Houses, continued their
malignant persecution with great persistency both in and out of
Parliament.
In 1853, the Aberdeen coalition Ministry came into power, which, like
all coalitions, was feeble and lived by compromise. This Ministry agreed
to give what Hume and his faction asked, and had thrice been refused by
the House by large majorities,[178] a commission of enquiry into the
conduct of the Rajah, before which he was to be called upon to defend
himself against allegations scouted by the House, the incorrectness of
which could be proved by the leading statesmen of the day, including
such men as the Earl of Derby, Earl Grey, Viscount Palmerston, and Lord
John Russell.[179] The Ministry most disingenuously kept their decision
a secret from the Rajah until after he had left England, though not from
Hume, who was able to send information to his coadjutors in Singapore
that it was granted. They had got up an address to him, by the most
unscrupulous devices, expressing disapproval of all that he had done,
and urging that an enquiry might be instituted into the conduct of the
Rajah by a Commission sent from England. This address was purported to
have been signed by fifty-three merchants of Singapore. Afterwards, when
the Commission sat in Singapore, only twenty-seven merchant firms were
found to exist there, and of these twenty-two had signed an address of
confidence in the Rajah. Some of those who had signed the address to
Hume, and who put in an appearance before the Commission, exposed the
way in which their signatures had been obtained by misrepresentations.
On April 30th, 1852, a great dinner was given to the Rajah at the London
Tavern, to mark the sense entertained of the eminent services rendered
by him in the interests of commerce and humanity, by his endeavours to
put down the evils of piracy in the Eastern Archipelago, and by his
labours to advance civilisation in that part of the world. The company,
which numbered two hundred, included members of Parliament, Governors of
the Bank of England, East India Company Directors, officers in the Army
and Navy, and many others.
The Rajah delivered a speech, which, for truth and feeling, language
and action, will never be forgotten by those who had the privilege
of hearing him; ... and the feeling was current that should a crisis
ever arise in the fortunes of this country, he would be the man of
action, who ought forthwith to be called to the councils of the
nation.[180]
Only the opening passages of this speech can be given, made in response
to the toast of his health:—
I will not pretend, gentlemen, to that species of pride which apes
humility. I will not say that I am wholly unworthy of your regard,
but I will tell you something of the position I hold in the East.
Your approval of my conduct is no light condemnation of the conduct
of those who have sought by every means, fair or unfair, to blast my
reputation, even at the risk of injuring their own; who under the
pretence of humanity have screened injustice, and on the plea of
enquiry, have been unscrupulous enough to charge murder. It is now
but a little more than five years since I was the idol of a spurious
popularity; it is more than three years that I have been the object,
but happily not the victim, of an unprecedented persecution, and it
will afford me no light satisfaction if this night a fair and
moderate estimate can be formed of my motives and conduct. Praise
and blame have been lavished upon me with no sparing hand. I have
been accused of every crime from murder to merchandise. I have been
held up as a prodigy of perfection, and I have been cast down as a
monster of iniquity. These, gentlemen, are the extremes which human
folly delights in; these are the distortions which the tribunes of
the people represent as Bible truths to the multitude, these the
delusions which a hackneyed politician uses lightly, to wound
feelings he has long outlived, and to cast a slur upon Her Majesty's
servants. The evil, I fear, is inevitable, but it is no less an
evil, that public morals, in such hands, should sink like water to
its lowest and dirtiest level.
In replying for the Bench, the Hon. Baron Alderson said:—
I am sorry to say that in one respect I differ from Sir James Brooke
and the Chairman, in that they expressed something of regret that
our distinguished guest had not the approbation of all mankind. I do
not think Sir James Brooke would deserve it if he had it; for I have
always observed—and I believe history will confirm me—that the
greatest benefactors of the human race have been the most abused in
their own time, and I therefore think Sir James Brooke ought to be
congratulated _because_ he is abused.
In England, especially, it is the case that the little men who bray
their philanthropic sentiments on platforms are almost always found in
opposition to and decrying those men who are doing mighty deeds for the
advancement and happiness of mankind. There exists in narrow minds a
mean pleasure in decrying those who tower above them intellectually and
morally. They do not blow themselves up to equal the ox, but they spit
their poison at him in hopes of bringing him down to their level. And
the unfortunate result of the weakness of party government is that the
party which is in power is always, or almost always, ready to throw over
a great public servant to silence the yelping of the pack that snarl
about his heels. It was so with Governor Eyre, it was so with Sir Bartle
Frere, it was so with General Gordon, and it was so with Sir Bampfylde
Fuller. "The time will come in our country when no gentleman will serve
the public, and your blackguards and your imbeciles may have a monopoly
of appointments," so in indignant sorrow wrote the Rajah. Though
surprised and hurt at what had been said and done, he was not disturbed,
and he treated his defamers with contempt and indifference, "conscious
of right motives, and firm in right action."[181]
The Rajah left England in April, 1853. On his arrival in Sarawak he was
attacked by small-pox. There was no doctor in Kuching at the time, but
he was successfully nursed through his illness by his devoted officers,
both English and native, amongst the latter being Sherip Matusain, who
had lately been recalled from Sekrang in disgrace, and who now became
one of his doctors. Prayers for his recovery were nightly offered in the
mosque, and Malay houses. Offerings for his recovery were made in the
shape of alms by the Indians; and votive oblations were made in their
temples by the Chinese. The Rev. A. Horsburgh, who did so much to pull
him through his illness, wrote:—
The joy in Sarawak when all danger was over was very great, for all
had been equally distressed, and many fervent prayers in church,
mosque, and temple, were offered for his recovery.
But we will here briefly interrupt the sequence of events to give in
unbroken record the sequel that happily terminated the unprecedented
persecutions which the Rajah was subjected to for over five years, for
the miserable fiasco of the Commission, the direct result of these
persecutions, left the Rajah's defamers powerless and humiliated, and
the Government in a disgraceful dilemma.
The Commission sat in Singapore during the months of September and
October, 1854. It consisted of two gentlemen, Mr. C. R. Prinsep,
Advocate-General at Calcutta, already afflicted with the mental malady
to which he soon after succumbed, and the Hon. Humphrey B. Devereaux, of
the Bengal Civil Service. At the first and second meetings, of which due
notice had been given, to the surprise of the Commissioners no one
appeared to support the charges contained in the address to Mr. Hume,
and subpœnas had to be served on several of the subscribers to that
address. As a result, sixteen witnesses were produced in support of
these charges, and not one of them deposed to any acts within his own
knowledge which negatived the practice of piracy by the Saribas and
Sekrangs; three deposed to specific piratical acts of those tribes; and
one rather established than controverted their piratical character. On
the other hand, twenty-four witnesses called by the Commissioners, with
Mr. J. Bondriot,[182] late Resident of Sambas, Dutch Borneo (who
volunteered his evidence) deposed expressly to acts of piracy on the
part of these people. Traders and nakodas from Borneo, who were present
in Singapore, were deterred from coming forward to give evidence by
reports disseminated amongst them by the personal opponents of the Rajah
that their attendance would lead to detention and inconvenience. The
contention that the attacks of the Saribas and Sekrang Dayaks were
merely acts of intertribal hostility was not upheld. The charge of
wrongful and causeless attack and massacre wholly failed of proof, and
was sufficiently negatived.[183] This was the judgment of Mr. Prinseps,
and so far his brother Commissioner was with him, for, after dealing
with their general character, Mr. Devereaux sums up by saying that the
Saribas and Sekrang were piratical, and deserved the punishment they
received, and that in conflicts with such men atrocities, in the
ordinary sense of the term, are not easily committed.[184] These were
the main points which mostly concerned the public, and upon which were
based the grave accusations that it had been the pleasure of Mr. Hume
and his adherents to formulate upon totally inadequate and most
unreliable evidence. The other points brought by their instructions to
the notice of the Commissioners were matters more between the Crown and
the Rajah than of general interest to the public. Whether the position
of Sir James Brooke as Rajah of Sarawak was compatible with his duties
as British Consul General and Commissioner, and with his character as a
British subject; was the Rajah engaged in trade? and whether the Rajah
should be entrusted with a discretion to determine which tribes are
piratical, and to call for the aid of her Majesty's Naval forces for the
punishment of such tribes, were points upon which the Commissioners had
to decide, and upon which they differed. They, however, agreed that the
Rajah was not engaged in trade, and the other questions, except the
involved one of the independence of Sarawak, had been solved by the
Rajah's resignation of his appointments under the Crown, which was,
however, only accepted late in 1855, long after he had in weariness of
spirit ceased to exercise the functions of those offices.
"Upon the question of the independence of Sarawak, Mr. Prinseps found
the Rajah's position to be no other than that of a vassal of the Sultan,
holding indeed by a tenure very bare, and easy to be thrown off
altogether." Mr. Devereaux could give no definite opinion; but it was a
question to be submitted only to the highest legal authorities, and the
Rajah justly protested against the Commissioners dealing with it; and it
is a question that has long since been settled.
One result of this senseless outcry in England against the Rajah was
that no help was thenceforth accorded him by the fleet in the China and
Straits waters. Were an insurrection to take place; were the Sekrangs
and Saribas to send round the calling-out spear and muster their clans,
not a marine, not a gun would have been afforded him by her Majesty's
Government for his protection, and such was the case during the Chinese
insurrection.
An evidence of the confidence felt after the quelling of the pirates was
the increase in trade, the tonnage of merchant vessels in 1852 having
risen to 25,000 tons, whereas in 1842 the whole trade was carried on by
a few native prahus. Traders were secure along the coast, and, as was
testified to before the Commission, the people of Sambas and Pontianak
blessed the Rajah for the protection he had given them against the
depredations of the piratical Dayaks; and those of Muka and Oya were
thankful that he had settled near them—a little later they had more
reason to be thankful, when he relieved them of their oppressive rulers.
The Singapore _Free Press_ in February, 1850, said:—
A few, a very few years ago, no European merchant vessels ventured
on the north-west coast of Borneo; now they are numerous and safe.
Formerly shipwrecked crews were attacked, robbed, and enslaved; now
they are protected, fed, and forwarded to a place of safety. The
native trade now passes with careless indifference over the same
track between Marudu and Singapore where, but a little while ago, it
was liable to the peril of capture; the crews of hundreds of prahus
are no longer exposed to the loss of life and the loss of property.
The recent successful proceedings on the coast of Borneo have been
followed by the submission of the pirate hordes of Saribas and
Sekrang.
So late as June, 1877, when the Rajah had long been dead, Mr. Gladstone
in addressing the House on the question of Turkey and Bulgarian
atrocities, and probably as a comparison, said, "I cannot recollect a
more shameful proceeding on the part of any country than the slaughter
of the Dayaks by Her Majesty's forces and by Sir James Brooke."
Earl Grey and Admiral Farquhar published indignant replies. Mr.
Bailie-Cochrane[185] took Mr. Gladstone to task in the House, whereupon
the latter shuffled out of what he had said with less than his usual
ingenuity, by saying that he never meant to blame the Rajah personally,
but only the Government. The following is from Earl Grey's reply:—
The additional information respecting him which I have since gained
has only tended to confirm the impression I then received that his
character was a truly noble one, and I am sanguine enough to believe
that it would be regarded in the same light by yourself if you would
be induced to read the letters he addressed to his mother in the
early part of his career as Rajah of Sarawak. These, to my mind,
most beautiful letters are to be found in the very interesting life
of Sir James Brooke published some months ago by Miss Jacob. They
were written while the events they describe were going on, to a
mother whom he passionately loved, obviously without the remotest
idea that they would ever be published, and contain an account,
bearing the clearest impress of truth and sincerity of all that he
did, and of the feelings and motives by which he was guided. We find
in them a touching record of his pity for the oppressed Dayaks,[186]
of his righteous indignation against the oppressors, of his noble
self-devotion, and of his fixed determination to hazard, and if
necessary to sacrifice for their welfare, not only the whole of his
moderate fortune, but ease, health, and life itself, while he
steadily refused to listen to all attempts that were made to induce
him to use the position he had acquired for his own personal
advantage.
[Illustration:
ATTACK ON S. USMAN'S STRONGHOLD.]
The Commission had done no serious harm with his own loyal people. They
heard with bewilderment that the man on whom their prosperity, and
indeed their security, depended, had been maligned in England, and was
to be tried as a malefactor in Singapore, and their dread was lest he
should be taken from their head, or should throw up his task in disgust,
and the country be allowed to relapse into oppression and anarchy; for
so surely as the Rajah left, would the pangirans return and resume their
blood-sucking operations on one side, and on the other the pirates
recover from their humiliation and recommence their depredations, and so
they would perish between the upper and nether millstone.
The Ministry made no attempt to remove the harmful impressions caused by
the false step they had so weakly been induced to take; they but
confirmed these by making no _amende_, and by withdrawing all support,
and as the sequel will show, the Commission paved the way for the
rebellion of the Chinese, and for the outbreak of disaffected Malays and
other natives, aided and incited by intriguing Brunis, which were to
follow, and which cost the lives of many Europeans, and great numbers of
Chinese and natives, and nearly resulted in the extinction of the raj.
With justice the Rajah wrote: "It is a sad thing to say, but true as
sad, that England has been the worst opponent of the progress of
Sarawak, and is now the worst enemy of her liberty."
-----
Footnote 108:
The Governor-General of Netherlands East Indies in a rescript, dated
January 23, 1846, acknowledged that the exertions during the past
twenty-five years effectually to suppress piracy on the coasts of
Borneo had not been successful for want of combination, and for having
been limited to the western coast.
Footnote 109:
_A Collection of Voyages_, 1729.
Footnote 110:
Sulu was the principal market for the disposal of captives and
plunder.
Footnote 111:
A son of Captain Francis Light, who founded Penang in 1786, was named
Lanoon, he having been born on the island at the time it was being
blockaded by Lanun pirates.
Footnote 112:
Dayak war-boats, some having as many as 75 to the crew.
Footnote 113:
_Expedition to Borneo of H.M.S. Dido_, 1847.
Footnote 114:
On behalf of the Sultan, Saribas and Sekrang being beyond Rajah
Brooke's jurisdiction.
Footnote 115:
Keppel, _op. cit._
Footnote 116:
These Sea-Dayaks, together with those of the Undup, also an affluent
of the Batang Lupar, subsequently became the mainstay of the
Government against the Saribas and Sekrangs.
Footnote 117:
_Life of Sir James Brooke_, p. 84.
Footnote 118:
Sir Edward's report upon Sarawak appears to have been favourable; he
pronounced the coal at Bruni, which he never examined, to be
unworkable, and the Sultan to be a savage.
Footnote 119:
Pronounced by the natives _Achi_.
Footnote 120:
More correctly Putusan, or Pemutus. We retain the old spelling.
Footnote 121:
These guns realised £900 at public auction in Singapore.
Footnote 122:
The Patinggi was always ready and ever to the fore where tough work
and hard knocks were going, and he was the guiding and leading spirit
in such expeditions as was this. "Three fingered Jack" the _Dido's_
crew had dubbed him, having that strong regard for him that brave men
bear towards another though his skin be of a different complexion—for
he had lost two fingers in a former encounter. The type has since
changed, and the courtly, intrepid, and determined fighting Malay
chief has gone—and he is missed. "I sigh for some of the old hands
that could not read or write, but _could_ work, and had more sound
wisdom in their little fingers than many popinjay gentlemen of the
present day carry in their heads," so wrote the present Rajah ten
years ago.
Footnote 123:
Mr. George Steward, formerly of the H.E.I.C.'s maritime service, had
been sent out by the Rajah's agent, Mr. Wise, on a trading venture. He
joined the expedition as a volunteer, and had concealed himself in
Patinggi Ali's boat, where he should not have been.
Footnote 124:
Keppel, _op. cit._ We have taken our account of the expedition up the
Batang Lupar mainly from Keppel's narrative, the only original history
of these operations hitherto published.
Footnote 125:
He was afterwards pardoned and permitted to reside at Sekrang town,
where he died.
Footnote 126:
Labuan, however, proved a failure as a trading centre, and in that
respect has taken a very secondary position to Kuching.
Footnote 127:
Journals, Keppel, _op. cit._
Footnote 128:
The pirates and their supporters, however, preyed upon Islams as well
as infidels, and religion was a dead letter to them in this respect.
Quite contrary to the tenets of their faith, true believers who were
captured were sold into slavery.
Footnote 129:
The son of Sherip Japar. S. Japar died the following year.
Footnote 130:
He was married to a niece of Datu Patinggi Gapur.
Footnote 131:
His son Haji Usup joined the Government service in 1862, and was
afterwards appointed Datu Bandar in the Rejang. He died April 1st,
1905, after having served the Government faithfully and with
distinction for over forty years. As a magistrate he bore a high
reputation.
Footnote 132:
The ring Bedrudin sent had been given him before he left Sarawak by
the Rajah, who told Bedrudin to send it to him when he had need of
him; it was seized by the Sultan before Japar escaped from Bruni.
Footnote 133:
He meant Bruni, which he had hoped to have restored to its former
state of prosperity.
Footnote 134:
Reports had been published that the Rajah was closely besieged in
Kuching by the Sultan's forces.
Footnote 135:
The foregoing details are mainly taken from Mundy's _Rajah Brooke's
Journals_. The captured cannon were sent to England. St. John says
some were melted up to construct cannon for the Crimea.—_Forests of
the Far East_ Brunis were famous brass-founders, and many of these
guns must have been very old.
Footnote 136:
_Private Letters of the Rajah._
Footnote 137:
His son, the Pangiran Muda, is still alive in Bruni.
Footnote 138:
The tribute was cancelled by the release of a debt due to the Rajah by
the Sultan, the interest upon which was equivalent to the yearly
tribute.
Footnote 139:
Though this deed bore the seal of Pangiran Abdul Mumin, he confirmed
it by another granted in 1853, after he had become Sultan. Only
copies, attested by H.M.'s Consul-General, exist now, the originals,
together with the two previous grants, having been burnt during the
Chinese rebellion of 1857.
Footnote 140:
Letter to the Earl of Clarendon, September 27, 1853.
Footnote 141:
Captain Mundy said truly of the Rajah that he was the _de facto_
sovereign of the whole coast of Borneo from point Api (he should have
said Cape Datu) to Marudu, 700 miles in extent.
Footnote 142:
The territory of Sarawak then extended to Cape Kedurong.
Footnote 143:
Mundy, _op. cit._
Footnote 144:
From _Blue Book_, March 2, 1854.
Footnote 145:
_Private Letters._
Footnote 146:
Letter from the Rajah to the Tuan Muda, 1864.
Footnote 147:
From Mundy, _op. cit._
Footnote 148:
Of these, three foundered from injuries received during the
engagement, so that few returned home to tell the tale. It took the
Balenini about fifteen years to forget the lesson.—_Sir James Brooke_,
St. John.
Footnote 149:
Mundy, _op. cit._
Footnote 150:
_Private Letters._
Footnote 151:
He joined the Rajah in March, 1843, having previously served in the
H.E.I. Co.'s Navy, and became Police Magistrate and Government
Secretary. In 1863 he was appointed Resident of Sarawak. He frequently
administered the Government during the absences of the late and the
present Rajah. He retired in 1873, and died in 1891.
Footnote 152:
The warrant of investiture was issued by her Majesty on May 22, 1848.
Footnote 153:
Amongst others who came out with the Rajah in the _Mæander_ were Mr.
Spenser St. John, afterwards Sir Spenser St. John, G.C.M.G., the
Rajah's Secretary; and Mr. Hugh Low, afterwards Sir Hugh Low,
G.C.M.G., Colonial Secretary at Labuan. Mr. St. John was
Consul-General at Bruni from 1853-1861; he left Borneo the latter year
upon promotion. Mr. Low had before spent some three years in Sarawak
botanising. He left Labuan in 1877, when he was appointed Resident of
Perak.
Footnote 154:
The eldest son of the Rev. Francis Charles Johnson, Vicar of White
Lackington, Somersetshire, by Emma, the Rajah's second sister.
Footnote 155:
Yellow ground, with black and red cross, as shown in illustration—the
arms of the Brookes. The Government flag is distinguished by a crown
in the centre; the Rajah's flag is a burgee, or swallow-tailed flag.
Footnote 156:
Keppel, _Voyage to the Indian Archipelago_.
Footnote 157:
_Private Letters._
Footnote 158:
Of his fifteen sons, Abangs Apong, Chek, Tek, and Bunsu all served the
Government afterwards; they were distinguished more for bravery than
for rectitude, but they were faithful and useful servants. Another son
was killed during the operations up the Saribas subsequent to the
action of Beting Maru. The Laksamana lived for years after these
events, and was about ninety when he died.
Footnote 159:
Keppel, _op. cit._
Footnote 160:
The plains on both banks of the river evidence a former cultivation on
an extensive scale.
Footnote 161:
St. John, _Life of Sir James Brooke_.
Footnote 162:
An army in Malay and Dayak.
Footnote 163:
Afterwards Admiral Sir Arthur Farquhar, K. C. B. He died in 1908, aged
ninety-three.
Footnote 164:
Anglice, King Lion.
Footnote 165:
Beting Maru is the name of a long sand-spit running into the sea
between the Kalaka and Saribas rivers off the Maru river.
Footnote 166:
This same Linggir in 1845 attempted to murder the Rajah and his
officers and other English guests whilst at dinner in the Rajah's
house at Kuching. He marched into the dining-room with eighty armed
men, pretending to pay a friendly visit. The Rajah and his guests
adopted the only policy open to them, and pretended as well to be
friendly, for they were completely at the mercy of the Dayaks. They
entertained their unwelcome guests with wine and cigars whilst waiting
for the Datus, to whom the Rajah had contrived covertly to send a
message. The Datu Temanggong arrived first with thirty men, and then
came the Datu Bandar with fifty men. The Datus wished to kill Linggir
for his intended treachery, the Rajah, however, spared him, perhaps
unwisely, but he had to slink away to his boat with a flea in his ear.
He had actually brought with him a basket to contain the Rajah's head.
He afterwards became a peaceable citizen, and very friendly to the
white men.
Footnote 167:
These unfortunate girls, and those taken at Matu, were barbarously
murdered by the pirates to prevent their being rescued.
Footnote 168:
Or better, Mashhor, an Arabic word meaning illustrious.
Footnote 169:
Mr. W. Brereton first came to Sarawak in the _Samarang_, as a
midshipman, in 1843. In 1848 he left the Navy and joined the Rajah. He
was first stationed at Labuan. He was only twenty years of age when
appointed to take charge of Sekrang.
Footnote 170:
The Sekrangs lost heavily at the battle of Beting Maru.
Footnote 171:
_Private Letters._
Footnote 172:
_Private Letters._
Footnote 173:
To show how these charges were supported by wilful and gross
exaggerations, that could only have been made for the express purpose
of deceiving the public, and which were as ridiculous as they were
mischievous, Hume stated that it was doubtful whether a portion of the
Royal Navy of China, which was reported to be off the coast at the
time for the purpose of making peace with these people (the Saribas
and Sekrangs), had not been destroyed by the expedition!
Footnote 174:
Keppel, _Voyage to the Indian Archipelago_.
Footnote 175:
The important fact that in all their marauding expeditions the Saribas
and Sekrang Dayaks were mixed up with the Malays of the Saribas and
Batang Lupar, who not only commanded and led them, but accompanied
them in large numbers seems to have been quite overlooked by both the
Rajah's accusers and his supporters. This in itself is a sufficient
indication of the piratical nature of these expeditions. The character
of these Malays as pirates was at least beyond question, and to assert
that they went with these poor "harmless and timid" Dayaks to assist
them in their intertribal feuds would be a very wide stretch of
imagination. We have shown that the force routed on Beting Maru was
led by Malays.
Footnote 176:
Married to a daughter of the Datu Patinggi Gapur. He was afterwards
selected by Sherip Masahor's party to murder the present Rajah, but
the task was not to his liking.
Footnote 177:
From _Life of Sir James Brooke_, St. John.
Footnote 178:
May 1850, 145 to 20; June 1850, 169 to 29; July 1851, 230 to 19.
Footnote 179:
The Rajah to Lord Clarendon, December 25, 1853.
Footnote 180:
John C. Templar, _Private Letters of the Rajah_, v. iii. p. 117.
Footnote 181:
_Private Letters._
Footnote 182:
The Dutch Resident of Western Borneo, not of Sambas only. He certified
that on one raid the Saribas and Sekrangs killed four hundred people
on the Dutch coast. Referred to by Earl in his _Eastern Seas_; he
relates that the Dayaks swept the whole coast from Sekrang to Sambas,
killing the entire population of Selakau. As far back as 1825, the
Resident of Sambas (Van Grave) and his secretary were killed on their
way to Pontianak in a small vessel. Keppel tells us the Saribas once
laid in wait for "the (Dutch) man-of-war schooner _Haai_, and in one
engagement killed thirty-seven of the Dutch, losing eighty of their
own force." Keppel's book, _A Voyage to the Eastern Archipelago in
1850_, contains an able refutation of the charges made by Hume and
Cobden.
Footnote 183:
The foregoing particulars are taken from Mr. Prinseps' report, dated
January 6, 1855.
Footnote 184:
From Mr. Devereaux's report.
Footnote 185:
Son of the late Admiral Sir Thomas Cochrane.
Footnote 186:
The Land-Dayaks.
[Illustration:
THE TUAN MUDA'S FORT AT SEKRANG.]