The British Colony of Labuan was obtained by cession from the Sultan of
Brunai and was in the shape of a _quid pro quo_ for assistance in
suppressing piracy in the neighbouring seas, which the Brunai Government
was supposed to have at heart, but in all probability, the real reason
of the willingness on the Sultan's part to cede it was his desire to
obtain a powerful ally to assist him in reasserting his authority in
many parts of the North and West portions of his dominions, where the
allegiance of the people had been transferred to the Sultan of Sulu and
to Illanun and Balinini piratical leaders. It was a similar reason
which, in 1774, induced the Brunai Government to grant to the East India
Company the monopoly of the trade in pepper, and is explained in Mr.
JESSE'S letter to the Court of Directors as follows. He says that he
found the reason of their unanimous inclination to cultivate the
friendship and alliance of the Company was their desire for "protection
from their piratical neighbours, the Sulus and Mindanaos, and others,
who make continual depredations on their coast, by taking advantage of
their natural timidity."
The first connection of the British with Labuan was on the occasion of
their being expelled by the Sulus from Balambangan, in 1775, when they
took temporary refuge on the island.
In 1844, Captain Sir EDWARD BELCHER visited Brunai to enquire into
rumours of the detention of a European female in the country--rumours
which proved to be unfounded. Sir JAMES BROOKE accompanied him, and on
this occasion the Sultan, who had been terrified by a report that his
capital was to be attacked by a British squadron of sixteen or seventeen
vessels, addressed a document, in conjunction with Raja Muda HASSIM, to
the Queen of England, requesting her aid "for the suppression of piracy
and the encouragement and extension of trade; and to assist in
forwarding these objects they are willing to cede, to the Queen of
England, the Island of Labuan, and its islets on such terms as may
hereafter be arranged by any person appointed by Her Majesty. The Sultan
and the Raja Muda HASSIM consider that an English Settlement on Labuan
will be of great service to the natives of the coast, and will draw a
considerable trade from the northward, and from China; and should Her
Majesty the Queen of England decide upon the measure, the Sultan and the
Raja Muda HASSIM promise to afford every assistance to the English
authorities." In February of the following year, the Sultan and Raja
Muda HASSIM, in a letter accepting Sir JAMES BROOKE as Her Majesty's
Agent in Borneo, without specially mentioning Labuan, expressed their
adherence to their former declarations, conveyed through Sir EDWARD
BELCHER, and asked for immediate assistance "to protect Borneo from the
pirates of Marudu," a Bay situated at the northern extremity of
Borneo--assistance which was rendered in the following August, when the
village of Marudu was attacked and destroyed, though it is perhaps open
to doubt whether the chief, OSMAN, quite deserved the punishment he
received. On the 1st March of the same year (1845) the Sultan verbally
asked Sir JAMES BROOKE whether and at what time the English proposed to
take possession of Labuan. Then followed the episode already narrated of
the murder by the Sultan of Raja Muda HASSIM and his family and the
taking of Brunai by Admiral COCHRANE'S Squadron. In November, 1846,
instructions were received in Singapore, from Lord PALMERSTON, to take
possession of Labuan, and Captain RODNEY MUNDY was selected for this
service. He arrived in Brunai in December, and gives an amusing account
of how he proceeded to carry out his orders and obtain the _voluntary_
cession of the island. As a preliminary, he sent "Lieutenant LITTLE in
charge of the boats of the _Iris_ and _Wolf_, armed with twenty marines,
to the capital, with orders to moor them in line of battle opposite the
Sultan's palace, and to await my arrival." On reaching the palace,
Captain MUNDY produced a brief document, to which he requested the
Sultan to affix his seal, and which provided for eternal friendship
between the two countries, and for the cession of Labuan, in
consideration of which the Queen engaged to use her best endeavours to
suppress piracy and protect lawful commerce. The document of 1844 had
stated that Labuan would be ceded "on such terms as may hereafter be
arranged," and a promise to suppress piracy, the profits in which were
shared by the Sultan and his nobles, was by no means regarded by them as
a fair set off; it was a condition with which they would have readily
dispensed. The Sultan ventured to remark that the present treaty was
different to the previous one, and that a money payment was required in
exchange for the cession of territory. Captain MUNDY replied that the
former treaty had been broken when Her Majesty's Ships were fired on by
the Brunai forts, and "at last I turned to the Sultan, and exclaimed
firmly, 'Bobo chop bobo chop!' followed up by a few other Malay words,
the tenor of which was, that I recommended His Majesty to put his seal
forthwith." And he did so. Captain MUNDY hoisted the British Flag at
Labuan on the 24th December, 1846, and there still exists at Labuan in
the place where it was erected by the gallant Captain, a granite slab,
with an inscription recording the fact of the formal taking possession
of the island in Her Majesty's name.
In the following year, Sir JAMES BROOKE was appointed the first Governor
of the new Colony, retaining his position as the British representative
in Brunai, and being also the ruler of Sarawak, the independence of
which was not formally recognised by the English Government until the
year 1863. Sir JAMES was assisted at Labuan by a Lieutenant-Governor and
staff of European Officers, who on their way through Singapore are said
to have somewhat offended the susceptibilities of the Officials of that
Settlement by pointing to the fact that they were Queen's Officers,
whereas the Straits Settlements were at that time still under the
Government of the East India Company. Sir JAMES BROOKE held the position
of Governor until 1851, and the post has since been filled by such
well-known administrators as Sir HUGH LOW, Sir JOHN POPE HENNESSY, Sir
HENRY E. BULWER and Sir CHARLES LEES, but the expectations formed at its
foundation have never been realized and the little Colony appears to be
in a moribund condition, the Governorship having been left unfilled
since 1881. On the 27th May, 1847, Sir JAMES BROOKE concluded the Treaty
with the Sultan of Brunai which is still in force. Labuan is situated
off the mouth of the Brunai River and has an area of thirty square
miles. It was uninhabited when we took it, being only occasionally
visited by fishermen. It was then covered, like all tropical countries,
whether the soil is rich or poor, with dense forest, some of the trees
being valuable as timber, but most of this has since been destroyed,
partly by the successive coal companies, who required large quantities
of timber for their mines, but chiefly by the destructive mode of
cultivation practised by the Kadyans and other squatters from Borneo,
who were allowed to destroy the forest for a crop or two of rice, the
soil, except in the flooded plains, being not rich enough to carry more
than one or two such harvests under such primitive methods of
agriculture as only are known to the natives. The lands so cleared were
deserted and were soon covered with a strong growth of fern and coarse
useless _lalang_ grass, difficult to eradicate, and it is well known
that, when a tropical forest is once destroyed and the land left to
itself, the new jungle which may in time spring up rarely contains any
of the valuable timber trees which composed the original forest.
A few cargoes of timber were also exported by Chinese to Hongkong. Great
hopes were entertained that the establishment of a European Government
and a free port on an island lying alongside so rich a country as Borneo
would result in its becoming an emporium and collecting station for the
various products of, at any rate, the northern and western portions of
this country and perhaps, too, of the Sulu Archipelago. Many causes
prevented the realization of these hopes. In the first place, no
successful efforts were made to restore good government on the mainland,
and without a fairly good government and safety to life and property,
trade could not be developed. Then again Labuan was overshaded by the
prosperous Colony of Singapore, which is the universal emporium for all
these islands, and, with the introduction of steamers, it was soon found
that only the trade of the coast immediately opposite to Labuan could be
depended upon, that of the rest' including Sarawak and the City of
Brunai, going direct to Singapore, for which port Labuan became a
subsidiary and unimportant collecting station. The Spanish authorities
did what they could to prevent trade with the Sulu Islands, and, on the
signing of the Protocol between that country and Great Britain and
Germany freeing the trade from restrictions, Sulu produce has been
carried by steamers direct to Singapore. Since 1881, the British North
Borneo Company having opened ports to the North, the greater portion of
the trade of their possessions likewise finds its way direct by steamers
to the same port.
Labuan has never shipped cargoes direct to England, and its importance
as a collecting station for Singapore is now diminishing, for the
reasons above-mentioned.
Most or a large portion of the trade that now falls to its share comes
from the southern portion of the British North Borneo Company's
territories, from which it is distant, at the nearest point, only about
six miles, and the most reasonable solution of the Labuan question would
certainly appear to be the proclamation of a British Protectorate over
North Borneo, to which, under proper guarantees, might be assigned the
task of carrying on the government of Labuan, a task which it could
easily and economically undertake, having a sufficiently well organised
staff ready to hand.[13] By the Royal Charter it is already provided
that the appointment of the Company's Governor in Borneo is subject to
the sanction of Her Majesty's Secretary of State, and the two Officers
hitherto selected have been Colonial servants, whose service have been
_lent_ by the Colonial Office to the Company.
The Census taken in 1881 gives the total population of Labuan as 5,995,
but it has probably decreased considerably since that time. The number
of Chinese supposed to be settled there is about 300 or 400--traders,
shopkeepers, coolies and sago-washers; the preparation of sago flour
from the raw sago, or _lamuntah_, brought in from the mainland by the
natives, being the principal industry of the island and employing three
or four factories, in which no machinery is used. All the traders are
only agents of Singapore firms and are in a small way of business. There
is no European firm, or shop, in the island. Coal of good quality for
raising steam is plentiful, especially at the North end of the island,
and very sanguine expectations of the successful working of these coal
measures were for a long time entertained, but have hitherto not been
realised. The Eastern Archipelago Company, with an ambitious title but
too modest an exchequer, first attempted to open the mines soon after
the British occupation, but failed, and has been succeeded by three
others, all I believe Scotch, the last one stopping operations in 1878.
The cause of failure seems to have been the same in each
case--insufficient capital, local mismanagement, difficulty in obtaining
labour. In a country with a rainfall of perhaps over 120 inches a year,
water was naturally another difficulty in the deep workings, but this
might have been very easily overcome had the Companies been in a
position to purchase sufficiently powerful pumping engines.
There were three workable seams of coal, one of them, I think, twelve
feet in thickness; the quality of the coal, though inferior to Welsh,
was superior to Australian, and well reported on by the engineers of
many steamers which had tried it; the vessels of the China squadron and
the numerous steamers engaged in the Far East offered a ready market for
the coal.
In their effort to make a "show," successive managers have pretty nearly
exhausted the surface workings and so honeycombed the seams with their
different systems of developing their resources, that it would be,
perhaps, a difficult and expensive undertaking for even a substantial
company to make much of them now.[14]
It is needless to add that the failure to develop this one internal
resource of Labuan was a great blow to the Colony, and on the cessation
of the last company's operations the revenue immediately declined, a
large number of workmen--European, Chinese and Natives--being thrown out
of employment, necessitating the closing of the shops in which they
spent their wages. It was found that both Chinese and the Natives of
Borneo proved capital miners under European supervision. Notwithstanding
the ill-luck that has attended it, the little Colony has not been a
burden on the British tax-payer since the year 1860, but has managed to
collect a revenue--chiefly from opium, tobacco, spirits, pawnbroking and
fish "farms" and from land rents and land sales--sufficient to meet its
small expenditure, at present about £4,000 a year. There have been no
British troops quartered in this island since 1871, and the only armed
force is the Native Constabulary, numbering, I think, a dozen rank and
file. Very seldom are the inhabitants cheered by the welcome visit of a
British gunboat. Still, all the formality of a British Crown Colony is
kept up. The administrator is by his subjects styled "His Excellency"
and the Members of the Legislative Council, Native and Europeans, are
addressed as the "Honourable so and so." An Officer, as may be supposed,
has to play many parts. The present Treasurer, for instance, is an
ex-Lieutenant of Her Majesty's Navy, and is at the same time Harbour
Master, Postmaster, Coroner, Police Magistrate, likewise a Judge of the
Supreme Court, Superintendent of Convicts, Surveyor-General, and Clerk
to the Legislative Council, and occasionally has, I believe, to write
official letters of reprimand or encouragement from himself in one
capacity to himself in another.
The best thing about Labuan is, perhaps, the excellence of its fruit,
notably of its pumeloes, oranges and mangoes, for which the Colony is
indebted to the present Sir HUGH LOW, who was one of the first officials
under Sir JAMES BROOKE, and a man who left no stone unturned in his
efforts to promote the prosperity of the island. His name was known far
and wide in Northern Borneo and in the Sulu Archipelago. As an instance,
I was once proceeding up a river in the island of Basilan, to the North
of Sulu, with Captain C. E. BUCKLE, R.N., in two boats of H. M. S.
_Frolic_, when the natives, whom we could not see, opened fire on us
from the banks. I at once jumped up and shouted out that we were Mr.
Low's friends from Labuan, and in a very short time we were on friendly
terms with the natives, who conducted us to their village. They had
thought we might be Spaniards, and did not think it worth while to
enquire before tiring. The mention of the _Frolic_ reminds me that on
the termination of a somewhat lengthy cruise amongst the Sulu Islands,
then nominally undergoing blockade by Spanish cruisers, we were
returning to Labuan through the difficult and then only partially
surveyed Malawalli Channel, and after dinner we were congratulating one
another on having been so safely piloted through so many dangers, when
before the words were out of our mouths, we felt a shock and found
ourselves fast on an unmarked rock which has since had the honour of
bearing the name of our good little vessel.
Besides Mr. Low's fruit garden, the only other European attempt at
planting was made by my Cousin, Dr. TREACHER, Colonial Surgeon, who
purchased an outlying island and opened a coco-nut plantation. I regret
to say that in neither case, owing to the decline of the Colony, was the
enterprise of the pioneers adequately rewarded.
Labuan[15] at one time boasted a Colonial Chaplain and gave its name to
the Bishop's See; but in 1872 or 1873, the Church was "disestablished"
and the few European Officials who formed the congregation were unable
to support a Clergyman. There exists a pretty little wooden Church, and
the same indefatigable officer, whom I have described as filling most of
the Government appointments in the Colony, now acts as unpaid Chaplain,
having been licensed thereto by the Bishop of Singapore and Sarawak, and
reads the service and even preaches a sermon every Sunday to a
congregation which rarely numbers half a dozen.
Footnotes:
[Footnote 13: My suggestion has taken shape more quickly than I
expected. In 1889 Labuan was put under the administration of the
Company.]
[Footnote 14: Since the above was written, a fifth company--the Central
Borneo Company, Limited, of London--has taken in hand the Labuan coal
and, finding plenty of coal to work on without sinking a shaft,
confidently anticipate success. Their £1 shares recently went up to £4.]
[Footnote 15: The administration of this little Crown Colony has since
been entrusted to the British North Borneo Company, their present
Governor, Mr. C. V. CREAGH, having been gazetted Governor of Labuan.]