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BRITISH BORNEO:
Sketches of Brunai, Sarawak, Labuan, and North Borneo.
by
W. H. TREACHER, C.M.G., M.A. OXON.,
Secretary to the Government of Perak,
Formerly Administrator of Labuan and
H.B.M. Acting Consul-General in Borneo,
First Governor of British North Borneo.
Reprinted from the Journal of the Straits Settlements Branch
of the Royal Asiatic Society.
Singapore:
Printed at the Government Printing Department.
1891.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I. PAGES 1-11.
THE Hudson's Bay Company's Charter, 1670. British North Borneo
Company's Charter, November 1881, as a territorial power. The
example followed by Germany. Borneo the second largest island in
the world. Visited by Friar Odoric, 1322, by Berthema, 1503; but
not generally known until, in 1518 Portuguese, and in 1521
Spanish, expeditions touched there. Report of Pigafetta, the
companion of Magellan, who found there a Chinese trading
community. Origin of the name Borneo; sometimes known as
Kalamantan. Spanish attack on Brunai, 1573. First Dutch
connection, 1600; first British connection, 1609. Diamonds.
Factory established by East India Company at Banjermassin, 1702,
expelled by natives. British capture of Manila, 1762, and
acquisition of Balambangan, followed by cession of Northern Borneo
and part of Palawan. Spanish claims to Borneo abandoned by
Protocol, 1885. Factory established at Balambangan, 1771, expelled
by Sulus, 1775; re-opened 1803 and abandoned the following year.
Temporary factory at Brunai. Pepper trade. Settlement of
Singapore, 1819. Attracted trade of Borneo, Celebes, &c. Pirates.
Brooke acquired Sarawak 1840, the first permanent British
possession. Labuan a British Colony, 1846. The Dutch protest.
Their possessions in Borneo. Spanish claims. Concessions of
territory acquired by Mr. Dent, 1877-78. The monopolies of the
first Europeans ruined trade: better prospect now opening. United
States connection with Borneo. Population. Malays, their Mongolian
origin. Traces of a Caucasic race, termed Indonesians. Buludupih
legend. Names of aboriginal tribes. Pagans and Mahomedans.
CHAPTER II. PAGES 11-33.
Description of Brunai, the capital, and its river. Not a typical
Malayan river. Spanish Catholic Mission. British Consulate. Inche
Mahomed. Moses and a former American Consulate. Pigafetta's
estimate of population in 1521, 150,000. Present estimate, 12,000.
Decay of Brunai since British connection. Life of a Brunai noble;
of the children; of the women. Modes of acquiring slaves: 'forced
trade.' Condition of slaves. Character and customs of Brunai
Malays. Their religion, gambling, cock-fighting: _amoks_,
marriage. Sultan and ministers and officers of the state. How
paid. Feudal rights--Ka-rájahan, Kouripan, Pusaka. Ownership of
land. Modes of taxation. Laws. Hajis. Punishments. Executions. A
naval officer's mistake. No army, navy, or police, but the people
universally armed. Cannon foundries. Brass guns as currency.
Dollars and copper coinage. Taxation. Revenue; tribute from
Sarawak and North Borneo; coal resources.
CHAPTER III. PAGES 33-62.
Pigafetta's description of Brunai in 1521. Elephants. Reception by
the King. Use of spirituous liquors. Population. Floating Market.
Spoons. Ladies appearing in public. Obeisance. Modes of addressing
nobles. The use of yellow confined to the Royal Family. Umbrellas
closed when passing the Palace. Nobles only can sit in the stern
of a boat. Ceremonies at a Royal reception; bees-wax candles.
Mr. Dalrymple's description of Brunai in 1884. Quakers' meeting.
Way to a Malay's heart lies through his pocket. Market place and
hideous women. Beauties of the Harems. Present population.
Cholera. Exports. Former Chinese pepper plantations. Good water
supply. Nobles corrupt; lower classes not. The late Sultan Mumim.
The present Sultan. Kampongs, or parishes and guilds. Methods of
fishing: Kèlongs; Rambat; peculiar mode of prawn-catching;
Serambau; Pukat; hook and line; tuba fishing. Sago. Tobacco; its
growth and use. Areca-nut; its use and effects. Costumes of men
and women. Jewellery. Weapons. The _kris_; _parang_; _bliong_;
_parang ílang_. The Kayans imitated by the Dyaks in a curious
personal adornment. Canoes: dug-outs; _pakerangan_; prahus;
tongkangs; steering gear; similarity to ancient Vikings' boat;
boat races. Paddling. The Brunais teetotallers and temperate.
Business and political negotiations transacted through agents.
Time no object. The place of signatures taken by seals or _chops_.
The great seal of state. Brunais styled by the aborigines, _Orang
Abai_. By religion Mahomedans, but Pagan superstitions cling to
them; instances. Traces of Javanese and Hindu influences. A native
chronicle of Brunai; Mahomedanism established about 1478;
connection of Chinese with Borneo; explanation of the name
Kina-balu applied to the highest mountain in the island. Pepper
planting by Chinese in former years. Mention of Brunai in Chinese
history. Tradition of an expedition by Kublai Khan. The Chinese
driven away by misgovernment. Their descendants in the Bundu
district. Other traces of Chinese intercourse with Borneo. Their
value as immigrants. European expeditions against Brunai. How
Rajah Brooke acquired Sarawak amidst the roar of cannon. Brooke's
heroic disinterestedness. His appointment as British confidential
agent in Borneo. The episode of the murder of Rajah Muda Hassim
and his followers. Brunai attacked by Admiral Sir Thomas Cochrane.
Captain Rodney Mundy follows the Sultan into the jungle. The
batteries razed and peace proclaimed.
CHAPTER IV. PAGES 63-77.
Sarawak under the Brooke dynasty. By incorporation of other rivers
extends over 40,000 square miles, coast line 380 miles, population
280,000. Limbang annexed by Sarawak. Further extension impossible.
The Trusan river; 'trowser wearers'; acquired by Sarawak. The
Limbang, the rice pot of Brunai. The Cross flown in the Muhamadan
capital by pagan savages. A launch decorated with skulls. Dyak
militia, the Sarawak 'Rangers,' and native police force. Peace of
Sarawak kept by the people. Cheap government. Absolute Monarchy.
Nominated Councils. The 'Civil Service,' 'Residents.' Law, custom,
equity and common sense. Slavery abolished. Sources of
revenue--'Opium Farm' monopoly, poll tax, customs, excise, fines
and fees. Revenue and expenditure. Early financial straits.
Sarawak offered to England, France and Holland. The Borneo Company
(Ltd.). Public debt. Advantages of Chinese immigration 'Without
the Chinese we can do nothing.' Java an exception. Chinese are
good traders, agriculturists, miners, artizans, &c.: sober and
law-abiding. Chinese secret societies and faction fights; death
penalty for membership. Insurrection of Chinese, 1857. Chinese
pepper and gambier planters. Exports--sago and jungle produce.
Minerals--antimony, cinnabar, coal. Trade--agriculture.
Description of the capital--Kuching. Sir Henry Keppel and Sir
James Brooke. Piracy. 'Head money.' Charges against Sir J. Brooke.
Recognition of Sarawak by United States and England. British
protectorate. Death of Sir J. Brooke. Protestant and Roman
Catholic Missions. Bishops MacDougal and Hose. Father Jackson.
Mahomedans' conversion not attempted.
CHAPTER V. PAGES 77-84.
Incident of the Limbang rebellion against Sultan of Brunai.
Oppression of the nobles. Irregular taxation--Chukei basoh batis,
bongkar sauh, tulongan, chop bibas, &c. The orang kayas. Repulse
of the Tummonggong. Brunai threatened. Intervention of the writer
as acting Consul General. Datu Klassi. Meeting broken up on news
of attack by Muruts. Sultan's firman eventually accepted.
Demonstration by H.M.S. _Pegasus_. 'Cooking heads' in Brunai
river. Death of Sultan Mumim. Conditions of firman not observed by
successor. Sir Frederick Weld visits and reports on North Borneo
and Brunai. Legitimate extension of Sarawak to be encouraged.
CHAPTER VI. PAGES 84-92.
The Colony of Labuan, ceded to England in return for assistance
against pirates. For similar reasons monopoly of pepper trade
granted to the East India Company in 1774. First British
connection with Labuan in 1775, on expulsion from Balambangan.
Belcher and Brooke visit Brunai, 1844, to enquire into alleged
detention of an European female. Offer of cession of Labuan. Rajah
Muda Hassim. At Sultan's request, British attack Osman, in Marudu
Bay, 1845. Brooke recognised as the Queen's agent in Borneo.
Captain Mundy, R.N., under Lord Palmerston's instructions, hoists
British flag in Labuan, 24th Dec., 1846. Brooke appointed the
first Governor, 1847, being at the same time British
representative in Borneo, and independent ruler of Sarawak. His
staff of 'Queen's officers'; concluded present treaty with Brunai;
ceased to be Governor 1851. Sir Hugh Low, Sir J. Pope Hennessy,
Sir Henry Bulwer, Sir Charles Lees. Original expectations of the
Colony not realized. Description of the island. The Kadayans.
Agriculture, timber, trade. Overshadowed by Singapore, Sarawak,
and North Borneo. Writer's suggestion for proclaiming British
Protectorate over North Borneo, and assigning to it the Government
of Labuan, has been adopted. Population of Labuan. Its coal
measures and the failure of successive companies to work them; now
being worked by Central Borneo Company (Ltd.). Chinese and natives
worked well under Europeans. Revenue and expenditure. Labuan
self-supporting since 1860. High-sounding official titles. One
officer plays many parts. Labuan celebrated for its fruits,
introduced by Sir Hugh Low. Sir Hugh's influence; instance of,
when writer was fired on by Sulus. H.M.S. _Frolic_ on a rock.
Captain Buckle, R.N. Dr. Treacher's coco-nut plantation. The
Church.
CHAPTER VII. PAGES 92-103.
British North Borneo; mode of acquisition; absence of any real
native government; oppression of the inland pagans by the coast
Muhamadans. Failure of American syndicate's Chinese colonization
scheme in 1865. Colonel Torrey interests Baron Overbeck in the
American concessions; Overbeck interests Sir Alfred Dent, who
commissions him to acquire a transfer of the concessions from the
Sultans of Brunai and Sulu, 1877-78. The ceded territory known as
Sabah. Meaning of the term. Spanish claims on ground of suzerainty
over Sulu. Not admitted by the British Government. The writer
ordered to protest against Spanish claims to North Borneo, 1879.
Spain renounced claims, by Protocol, 1885. Holland, on ground of
the Treaty of 1824, objected to a British settlement in Borneo;
also disputed the boundary between Dutch and British Borneo. The
writer 'violates' Netherland territory and hoists the Company's
flag on the south bank of the Siboku, 1883. Annual tribute paid to
the Brunai Government. Certain intervening independent rivers
still to be acquired. Dent's first settlements at Sandakan,
Tampassuk, and Pappar. Messrs. Pryer, Pretyman, Witti, and
Everett. Opposition of Datu Bahar at Pappar. Difficult position of
the pioneer officers. Respect for Englishmen inspired by Brooke's
exploits. Mr. W. H. Read. Mr. Dent forms a 'Provisional
Association' pending grant of a Royal Charter, 1881, composed of
Sir Rutherford Alcock, A. Dent, R. B. Martin, Admiral Mayne, W. H.
Read. Sir Rutherford energetically advocates the scheme from
patriotic motives. The British North Borneo Company incorporated
by Royal Charter, 1st November, 1881; nominal capital two
millions, £20 shares. 33,030 shares issued. Powers and conditions
of the Charter. Flag.
CHAPTER VIII. PAGES 103-117.
Area of British North Borneo exceeds that of Ceylon; points of
similarity; styled 'The New Ceylon.' Joseph Hatton's book. Tobacco
planters attracted from Sumatra. Coast-line, harbours, stations.
Sandakan town and harbour; founded by Mr. Pryer. Destroyed by
fire. Formerly used as a blockade station by Germans trading with
Sulu. Capture of the blockade runner _Sultana_ by the Spaniards.
Rich virgin soil and fever. Owing to propinquity of Hongkong and
Singapore, North Borneo cannot become an emporium for eastern
trade. Its mineralogical resources not yet ascertained. Gold,
coal, and other minerals known to exist. Gold on the Segama river.
Rich in timber. 'Billian' or iron-wood; camphor. Timber Companies.
On board one of Her Majesty's ships billian proved three times as
durable as lignum vitæ. Mangrove forests. Monotony of tropical
scenery. Trade--a list of exports. Edible birds'-nests.
Description of the great Gomanton birds'-nests caves. Mr
Bampfylde. Bats' Guano. Mode of collecting nests. Lady and Miss
Brassey visit the Madai caves, 1887. Bêche-de-mer, shark fins,
cuttle fish. Position of Sandakan on the route between Australia
and China--importance as a possible naval station. Shipping.
Postal arrangements. Coinage. Currency. Banking. Probable cable
station.
CHAPTER IX. PAGES 117-127.
Importance of the territory as a field for the cultivation of the
fine tobacco used for 'wrappers.' Profits of Sumatra Tobacco
Companies. Climate and Soil. Rainfall. Seasons. Dr. Walker. The
sacred mountain, Kina-balu. Description of tobacco cultivation.
Chinese the most suitable labour for tobacco; difficulty in
procuring sufficient coolies. Count Geloes d'Elsloo. Coolies
protected by Government. Terms on which land can be acquired.
Tobacco export duty. Tobacco grown and universally consumed by the
natives. Fibre plants. Government experimental garden.
Sappan-wood. Cotton flock.
CHAPTER X. PAGES 127-147.
Erroneous ideas as to the objects of the Company. Difficult to
steal Highlanders' trowsers. Natives 'take no thought for the
morrow.' The Company does not engage in trade or agriculture. The
Company's capital is a loan to the country, to be repaid with
interest as the country developes under its administration. Large
area of land to be disposed of without encroaching on native
rights. Land sales regulations. Registration of titles. Minerals
reserved. Transfer from natives to foreigners effected through the
Government. Form of Government--the Governor, Residents, &c. Laws
and Proclamations. The Indian Penal, Criminal, and Civil procedure
codes adopted. Slavery--provision in the Charter regarding. Slave
legislation by the Company. Summary of Mr. Witti's report on the
slave system. Messrs. Everett and Fryer's reports. Commander
Edwards, R.N., attacks the kidnapping village of Teribas in H.M.S.
_Kestrel_. Slave keeping no longer pays. Religious customs of the
natives preserved by the Charter. Employment of natives as
Magistrates, &c. Head-hunting. Audit of 'Heads Account.' Human
sacrifices. Native punishments for adultery and theft. Causes of
scanty population. Absence of powerful warlike tribes. Head
hunting--its origin. An incident in Labuan. Mr. A. Cook. Mr.
Jesse's report on the Muruts to the East India Company. Good
qualities of the aborigines. Advice to young officers. The
Muhamadans of the coast, the Brunais, Sulus, Bajows. Capture by
Bajows of a boat from an Austrian frigate. Baron Oesterreicher.
Gambling and cattle lifting. The independent intervening rivers.
Fatal affray in the Kawang river: death of de Fontaine, Fraser and
others. Mr. Little. Mr. Whitehead. Bombardment of Bajow villages
by Captain A. K. Hope, R.N., H.M.S. _Zephyr_. Captain Alington,
R.N., in H.M.S. _Satellite_. The Illanuns and Balinini. Absence of
Negritos. The 'tailed' people. Desecration of European graves.
Muhamadans' sepulture. Burial customs of the aborigines.
CHAPTER XI. PAGES 147-165.
Importance of introducing Chinese into Borneo. Java not an
example. Sir Walter Medhurst Commissioner of Chinese immigration.
The Hakka Chinese settlers. Sir Spencer St. John on Chinese
immigration. The revenue and expenditure of the territory. Zeal
of the Company's officers. Armed Sikh and Dyak police. Impossible
to raise a native force. Heavy expenditure necessary in the first
instance. Carping critics. Cordial support from Sir Cecil Clementi
Smith and the Government of the Straits Settlements. Visit of Lord
Brassey--his article in the 'Nineteenth Century.' Further
expenditure for roads, &c., will be necessary. What the Company
has done for Borneo. Geographical exploration. Witti and Hatton.
The lake struck off the map. Witti's murder. Hatton's accidental
death. Admiral Mayne, C.B. The _Sumpitan_ or Blow-pipe. Errors
made in opening most colonies, e.g. the Straits Settlements. The
future of the country. The climate not unhealthy as a rule.
Ladies. Game. No tigers. Crocodiles. The native dog. Pig and deer.
Wild cattle. Elephants and Rhinoceros. Bear. Orang-utan.
Long-nosed ape. Pheasants. The Company's motto--_Pergo et perago_.
Governor Creagh. Mr. Kindersley.
BRITISH BORNEO:
SKETCHES OF
BRUNAI, SARAWAK, LABUAN
AND
NORTH BORNEO.
CHAPTER I.
In 1670 CHARLES II granted to the Hudson's Bay Company a Charter of
Incorporation, His Majesty delegating to the Company actual sovereignty
over a very large portion of British North America, and assigning to
them the exclusive monopoly of trade and mining in the territory.
Writing in 1869, Mr. WILLIAM FORSYTH, Q.C., says:--"I have endeavoured
to give an account of the constitution and history of the _last_ of the
great proprietary companies of England, to whom a kind of delegated
authority was granted by the Crown. It was by some of these that distant
Colonies were founded, and one, the most powerful of them all,
established our Empire in the East and held the sceptre of the Great
Mogul. But they have passed away
----fuit Ilium et ingens
Gloria Teucrorum--
and the Hudson's Bay Company will be no exception to the rule. It may
continue to exist as a Trading Company, but as a Territorial Power it
must make up its mind to fold its (buffalo) robes round it and die with
dignity." Prophesying is hazardous work. In November, 1881, two hundred
and eleven years after the Hudson's Bay Charter, and twelve years after
the date of Mr. FORSYTH'S article, Queen VICTORIA granted a Charter of
Incorporation to the British North Borneo Company, which, by confirming
the grants and concessions acquired from the Sultans of Brunai and Sulu,
constitutes the Company the sovereign ruler over a territory of 31,000
square miles, and, as the permission to trade, included in the Charter,
has not been taken advantage of, the British North Borneo Company now
does actually exist "as a Territorial Power" and not "as a Trading
Company."
Not only this, but the example has been followed by Prince BISMARCK, and
German Companies, on similar lines, have been incorporated by their
Government on both coasts of Africa and in the Pacific; and another
British Company, to operate on the Niger River Districts, came into
existence by Royal Charter in July, 1886.
It used to be by no means an unusual thing to find an educated person
ignorant not only of Borneo's position on the map, but almost of the
very existence of the island which, regarding Australia as a continent,
and yielding to the claims recently set up by New Guinea, is the second
largest island in the world, within whose limits could be comfortably
packed England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland, with a sea of dense jungle
around them, as WALLACE has pointed out. Every school-board child now,
however, knows better than this.
Though Friar ODORIC is said to have visited it about 1322, and LUDOVICO
BERTHEMA, of Bologna, between 1503 and 1507, the existence of this great
island, variously estimated to be from 263,000 to 300,000 square miles
in extent, did not become generally known to Europeans until, in 1518,
the Portuguese LORENZO DE GOMEZ touched at the city of Brunai. He was
followed in 1521 by the Spanish expedition, which under the leadership
of the celebrated Portuguese circumnavigator MAGELLAN, had discovered
the Philippines, where, on the island of Mactan, their leader was killed
in April, 1520. An account of the voyage was written by PIGAFETTA, an
Italian volunteer in the expedition, who accompanied the fleet to Brunai
after MAGELLAN'S death, and published a glowing account of its wealth
and the brilliancy of its Court, with its royally caparisoned elephants,
a report which it is very difficult to reconcile with the present
squalid condition of the existing "Venice of Hovels," as it has been
styled from its palaces and houses being all built in, or rather over,
the river to which it owes its name.
The Spaniards found at Brunai Chinese manufactures and Chinese trading
junks, and were so impressed with the importance of the place that they
gave the name of Borneo--a corruption of the native name Brunai--to the
whole island, though the inhabitants themselves know no such general
title for their country.
In some works, Pulau Kalamantan, which would signify _wild mangoes
island_, is given as the native name for Borneo, but it is quite
unknown, at any rate throughout North Borneo, and the island is by no
means distinguished by any profusion of wild mangoes.[1]
In 1573, a Spanish Embassy to Brunai met with no very favourable
reception, and three years later an expedition from Manila attacked the
place and, deposing a usurping Sultan, re-instated his brother on the
throne, who, to shew his gratitude, declared his kingdom tributary to
Spain.
The Portuguese Governor of the Moluccas, in 1526, claimed the honour of
being the first discoverer of Borneo, and this nation appears to have
carried on trade with some parts of the island till they were driven out
of their Colonies by the Dutch in 1609. But neither the Portuguese nor
the Spaniards seem to have made any decided attempt to gain a footing in
Borneo, and it is not until the early part of the 17th century that we
find the two great rivals in the eastern seas--the English and the Dutch
East India Trading Companies--turning their attention to the island. The
first Dutchman to visit Borneo was OLIVER VAN NOORT, who anchored at
Brunai in December, 1600, but though the Sultan was friendly, the
natives made an attempt to seize his ship, and he sailed the following
month, having come to the conclusion that the city was a nest of rogues.
The first English connection with Borneo was in 1609, when trade was
opened with Sukadana, diamonds being said to form the principal portion
of it.
The East India Company, in 1702, established a Factory at Banjermassin,
on the South Coast, but were expelled by the natives in 1706. Their
rivals, the Dutch, also established Trading Stations on the South and
South-West Coasts.
In 1761, the East India Company concluded a treaty with the Sultan of
Sulu, and in the following year an English Fleet, under Admiral DRAKE
and Sir WILLIAM DRAPER captured Manila, the capital of the Spanish
Colony of the Philippines. They found in confinement there a Sultan of
Sulu who, in gratitude for his release, ceded to the Company, on the
12th September, 1762, the island of Balambangan, and in January of the
following year Mr. DALRYMPLE was deputed to take possession of it and
hoist the British flag. Towards the close of 1763, the Sultan of Sulu
added to his cession the northern portion of Borneo and the southern
half of Palawan, together with all the intermediate islands. Against all
these cessions the Spanish entered their protest, as they claimed the
suzerainty over the Sulu Archipelago and the Sulu Dependencies in Borneo
and the islands. This claim the Spaniards always persisted in, until, on
the 7th March, 1885, a Protocol was entered into by England and Germany
and Spain, whereby Spanish supremacy over the Sulu Archipelago was
recognised on condition of their abandoning all claim to the portions of
Northern Borneo which are now included in the British North Borneo
Company's concessions.
In November, 1768, the Court of Directors in London, with the approval
of Her Majesty's Ministers, who promised to afford protection to the new
Colony, issued orders to the authorities at Bombay for the establishment
of a settlement at Balambangan with the intention of diverting to it the
China trade, of drawing to it the produce of the adjoining countries,
and of opening a port for the introduction of spices, etc. by the Bugis,
and for the sale of Indian commodities. The actual date of the
foundation of the settlement is not known, but Mr. F. C. DANVERS states
that in 1771 the Court ordered that the Government should be vested in
"a chief and two other persons of Council," and that the earliest
proceedings extant are dated Sulu, 1773, and relate to a broil in the
streets between Mr. ALCOCK, the second in the Council, and the Surgeon
of the _Britannia_.
This was a somewhat unpropitious commencement, and in 1774 the Court are
found writing to Madras, to which Balambangan was subordinate,
complaining of the "imprudent management and profuse conduct" of the
Chief and Council.
In February, 1775, Sulu pirates surprised the stockade, and drove out
the settlers, capturing booty valued at about a million dollars. The
Company's officials then proceeded to the island of Labuan, now a
British Crown Colony, and established a factory, which was maintained
but for a short time, at Brunai itself. In 1803 Balambangan was again
occupied, but as no commercial advantage accrued, it was abandoned in
the following year, and so ended all attempts on the part of the East
India Company to establish a Colony in Borneo.
While at Balambangan, the officers, in 1774, entered into negotiations
with the Sultan of Brunai, and on undertaking to protect him against
Sulu and Mindanau pirates, acquired the exclusive trade in all the
pepper grown in his country.
The settlement of Singapore, the present capital of the Straits
Settlements, by Sir STAMFORD RAFFLES, under the orders of the East India
Company in 1819, again drew attention to Borneo, for that judiciously
selected and free port soon attracted to itself the trade of the
Celebes, Borneo and the surrounding countries, which was brought to it
by numerous fleets of small native boats. These fleets were constantly
harassed and attacked and their crews carried off into slavery by the
Balinini, Illanun, and Dyak pirates infesting the Borneo and Celebes
coasts, and the interference of the British Cruisers was urgently called
for and at length granted, and was followed, in the natural course of
events, by political intervention, resulting in the brilliant and
exciting episode whereby the modern successor of the olden heroes--Sir
James Brooke--obtained for his family, in 1840, the kingdom of Sarawak,
on the west coast of the island, which he in time purged of its two
plague spots--head-hunting on shore, and piracy and slave-dealing
afloat--and left to his heir, who has worthily taken up and carried on
his work, the unique inheritance of a settled Eastern Kingdom, inhabited
by the once dreaded head-hunting Dyaks and piratical Mahomedan Malays,
the government of whom now rests absolutely in the hands of its one
paternally despotic white ruler, or Raja. Sarawak, although not yet
formally proclaimed a British Protectorate,[2] may thus be deemed the
first permanent British possession in Borneo. Sir JAMES BROOKE was also
employed by the British Government to conclude, on 27th May, 1847, a
treaty with the Sultan of Brunai, whereby the cession to us of the small
island of Labuan, which had been occupied as a British Colony in
December, 1846, was confirmed, and the Sultan engaged that no
territorial cession of any portion of his country should ever be made to
any Foreign Power without the sanction of Great Britain.
These proceedings naturally excited some little feeling of jealousy in
our Colonial neighbours--the Dutch--who ineffectually protested against
a British subject becoming the ruler of Sarawak, as a breach of the
tenor of the treaty of London of 1824, and they took steps to define
more accurately the boundaries of their own dependencies in such other
parts of Borneo as were still open to them. What we now call British
North Borneo, they appear at that time to have regarded as outside the
sphere of their influence, recognising the Spanish claim to it through
their suzerainty, already alluded to, over the Sulu Sultan.
With this exception, and that of the Brunai Sultanate, already secured
by the British Treaty, and Sarawak, now the property of the BROOKE
family, the Dutch have acquired a nominal suzerainty over the whole of
the rest of Borneo, by treaties with the independent rulers--an area
comprising about two-thirds of the whole island, probably not a tenth
part of which is under their actual direct administrative control.
They appear to have been so pre-occupied with the affairs of their
important Colony of Java and its dependencies, and the prolonged,
exhausting and ruinously expensive war with the Achinese in Sumatra,
that beyond posting Government Residents at some of the more important
points, they have hitherto done nothing to attract European capital and
enterprise to Borneo, but it would now seem that the example set by the
British Company in the North is having its effect, and I hear of a
Tobacco Planting Company and of a Coal Company being formed to operate
on the East Coast of Dutch Borneo.
The Spanish claim to North Borneo was a purely theoretical one, and not
only their claim, but that also of the Sulus through whom they claimed,
was vigorously disputed by the Sultans of Brunai, who denied that, as
asserted by the Sulus, any portion of Borneo had been ceded to them by a
former Sultan of Brunai, who had by their help defeated rival claimants
and been seated on the throne. The Sulus, on their side, would own no
allegiance to the Spaniards, with whom they had been more or less at war
for almost three centuries, and their actual hold over any portion of
North Borneo was of the slightest. Matters were in this position when
Mr. ALFRED DENT, now Sir ALFRED DENT, K.C.M.G., fitted out an
expedition, and in December, 1877, and January, 1878, obtained from the
Sultans of Brunai and Sulu, in the manner hereafter detailed, the
sovereign control over the North portion of Borneo, from the Kimanis
river on the West to the Siboku river on the East, concessions which
were confirmed by Her Majesty's Royal Charter in November, 1881.
I have now traced, in brief outline, the political history of Borneo
from the time when the country first became generally known to
Europeans--in 1518--down to its final division between Great Britain and
the Netherlands in 1881.
If we can accept the statements of the earlier writers, Borneo was in
its most prosperous stage before it became subjected to European
influences, after which, owing to the mistaken and monopolising policy
of the Commercial Companies then holding sway in the East, the trade and
agriculture of this and other islands of the Malay Archipelago received
a blow from which at any rate that of Borneo is only now recovering. By
the terms of its Charter, the British North Borneo Company is prohibited
from creating trade monopolies, and of its own accord it has decided not
to engage itself in trading transactions at all, and as Raja BROOKE'S
Government is similar to that of a British Crown Colony, and the Dutch
Government no longer encourage monopolies, there is good ground for
believing that the wrong done is being righted, and that a brighter page
than ever is now being opened for Borneo and its natives.
Before finishing with this part of the subject, I may mention that the
United States Government had entered into a treaty with the Sultan of
Brunai, in almost exactly the same words as the English one, including
the clause prohibiting cessions of territory without the consent of the
other party to the treaty, and, in 1878, Commodore SCHUFELDT was ordered
by his Government to visit Borneo and report on the cessions obtained by
Mr. DENT. I was Acting British Consul-General at the time, and before
leaving the Commodore informed me emphatically that he could discover no
American interests in Borneo, "neither white nor black."
The native population of Borneo is given in books of reference as
between 1,750,000 and 2,500,000. The aborigines are of the Malay race,
which itself is a variety of the Mongolian and indeed, when inspecting
prisoners, I have often been puzzled to distinguish the Chinese from the
Malay, they being dressed alike and the distinctive _pig-tail_ having
been shaved off the former as part of the prison discipline.
These Mongolian Malays from High Asia, who presumably migrated to the
Archipelago _viâ_ the Malay Peninsula and Sumatra, must, however, have
found Borneo and other of the islands partially occupied by a Caucasic
race, as amongst the aborigines are still found individuals of
distinctive Caucasic type, as has been pointed out to be the case with
the Buludupih tribe of British North Borneo, by Dr. MONTANO, whom I had
the pleasure of meeting in Borneo in 1878-9. To these the name of
pre-Malays has been given, but Professor KEANE, to whom I beg to
acknowledge my indebtedness on these points, prefers the title of
Indonesians. The scientific descriptions of a typical Malay is as
follows:--"Stature little over five feet, complexion olive yellow, head
brachy-cephalous or round, cheek-bones prominent, eyes black and
slightly oblique, nose small but not flat, nostrils dilated, hands small
and delicate, legs thin and weak, hair black, coarse and lank, beard
absent or scant;" but these Indonesians to whom belong most of the
indigenous inhabitants of Celebes, are taller and have fairer or light
brown complexions and regular features, connecting them with the brown
Polynesians of the Eastern Pacific "who may be regarded as their
descendants," and Professor KEANE accounts for their presence by
assuming "a remote migration of the Caucasic race to South-Eastern Asia,
of which evidences are not lacking in Camboja and elsewhere, and a
further onward movement, first to the Archipelago and then East to the
Pacific." It is needless to say that the aborigines themselves have the
haziest and most unscientific notion of their own origin, as the
following account, gravely related to me by a party of Buludupihs, will
exemplify:--
"_The Origin of the Buludupih Race._
In past ages a Chinese[3] settler had taken to wife a daughter
of the aborigines, by whom he had a female child. Her parents
lived in a hilly district (_Bulud_ = hill), covered with a large
forest tree, known by the name of _opih_. One day a jungle fire
occurred, and after it was over, the child jumped down from the
house (native houses are raised on piles off the ground), and
went up to look at a half burnt _opih_ log, and suddenly
disappeared and was never seen again. But the parents heard the
voice of a spirit issue from the log, announcing that it had
taken the child to wife and that, in course of time, the
bereaved parents would find an infant in the jungle, whom they
were to consider as the offspring of the marriage, and who
would become the father of a new race. The prophecy of the
spirit was in due time fulfilled."
It somewhat militates against the correctness of this history that the
Buludupihs are distinguished by the absence of Mongolian features.
The general appellation given to the aborigines by the modern Malays--to
whom reference will be made later on--is _Dyak_, and they are divided
into numerous tribes, speaking very different dialects of the
Malayo-Polynesian stock, and known by distinctive names, the origin of
which is generally obscure, at least in British North Borneo, where
these names are _not_, as a rule, derived from those of the rivers on
which they dwell.
The following are the names of some of the principal North Borneo
aboriginal tribes:--Kadaians, Dusuns, Ida'ans, Bisaias, Buludupihs,
Eraans, Subans, Sun-Dyaks, Muruts, Tagaas. Of these, the Kadaians,
Buludupihs, Eraans and one large section of the Bisaias have embraced
the religion of Mahomet; the others are Pagans, with no set form of
religion, no idols, but believing in spirits and in a future life, which
they localise on the top of the great mountain of Kina-balu. These
Pagans are a simple and more natural, less self-conscious, people than
their Mahomedan brethren, who are ahead of them in point of
civilization, but are more reserved, more proud and altogether less
"jolly," and appear, with their religion, to have acquired also some of
the characteristics of the modern or true Malays. A Pagan can sit, or
rather squat, with you and tell you legends, or, perhaps, on an occasion
join in a glass of grog, whereas the Mahomedan, especially the true
Malay, looks upon the Englishman as little removed from a "Kafir"--an
uncircumcised Philistine--who through ignorance constantly offends in
minor points of etiquette, who eats pig and drinks strong drink, is
ignorant of the dignity of repose, and whose accidental physical and
political superiority in the present world will be more than compensated
for by the very inferior and uncomfortable position he will attain in
the next. The aborigines inhabit the interior parts of North Borneo, and
all along the coast is found a fringe of true Malays, talking modern
Malay and using the Arabic written character, whereas the aborigines
possess not even the rudiments of an alphabet and, consequently, no
literature at all.
How is the presence in Borneo of this more highly civilized product of
the Malay race, differing so profoundly in language and manners from
their kinsmen--the aborigines--to be accounted for? Professor KEANE once
more comes to our assistance, and solves the question by suggesting that
the Mongolian Malays from High Asia who settled in Sumatra, attained
there a real national development in comparatively recent times, and
after their conversion to Mahomedanism by the Arabs, from whom, as well
as from the Bhuddist missionaries who preceded them, they acquired arts
and an elementary civilization, spread to Borneo and other parts of
Malaysia and quickly asserted their superiority over the less advanced
portion of their race already settled there. This theory fits in well
with the native account of the distribution of the Malay race, which
makes Menangkabau, in Southern Sumatra, the centre whence they spread
over the Malayan islands and peninsula.
The Professor further points out, that in prehistoric times the Malay
and Indonesian stock spread westwards to Madagascar and eastwards to the
Philippines and Formosa, Micronesia and Polynesia. "This astonishing
expansion of the Malaysian people throughout the Oceanic area is
sufficiently attested by the diffusion of common (Malayo-Polynesian)
speech from Madagascar to Easter Island and from Hawaii to New Zealand."
Footnotes:
[Footnote 1: The explanation _Sago Island_ has been given, _lamantah_
being the native term for the raw sago sold to the factories.]
[Footnote 2: A British Protectorate was established over North Borneo on
the 12th May, over Sarawak on the 14th June, and over Brunai on the 17th
September, 1888. _Vide_ Appendix.]
[Footnote 3: The Buludupihs inhabit the China or Kina-batangan river,
and Sir HUGH LOW, in a note to his history of the Sultans of Brunai, in
a number of the Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic
Society, says that it is probable that in former days the Chinese had a
Settlement or Factory at that river, as some versions of the native
history of Brunai expressly state that the Chinese wife of one of the
earliest Sultans was brought thence.]