Many people have a very erroneous idea of the objects and intentions of
the British North Borneo Company. Some, with a dim recollection of
untold wealth having been extracted from the natives of India in the
early days of the Honourable East India Company, conceive that the
Company can have no other object than that of fleecing our natives in
order to pay dividends; but the old saying, that it is a difficult
matter to steal a Highlander's pantaloons, is applicable to North
Borneo, for only a magician could extract anything much worth having in
the shape of loot from the easy going natives of the country, who, in a
far more practical sense than the Christians of Europe, are ready to say
"sufficient for the day is the evil thereof," and who do not look
forward and provide for the future, or heap up riches to leave to their
posterity.
Some years ago, a correspondent of an English paper displayed his
ignorance on the matter by maintaining that the Company coerced the
natives and forced them to buy Manchester goods at extortionate prices.
An Oxford Don, when I first received my appointment as Governor,
imagined that I was going out as a sort of slave-driver, to compel the
poor natives to work, without wages, on the Company's plantations. But,
as a matter of fact, though entitled to do so by the Royal Charter, the
Company has elected to engage neither in trade nor in planting, deeming
that their desire to attract capital and population to their territory
will be best advanced by their leaving the field entirely open to
others, for otherwise there would always have been a suspicion that
rival traders and planters were handicapped in the race with a Company
which had the making and the administration of laws and the imposition
of taxation in its hands.
It will be asked, then, if the Company do not make a profit out of
trading, or planting, or mining, what could have induced them to
undertake the Government of a tropical country, some 10,000 miles or
more distant from London, for Englishmen, as a rule, do not invest
hundreds of thousands of pounds with the philanthropic desire only of
benefitting an Eastern race?
The answer to this question is not very plainly put in the Company's
prospectus, which states that its object "is the carrying on of the work
begun by the Provisional Association" (said in the previous paragraphs
of the prospectus to have been the successful accomplishment of the
_completion_ of the pioneer work) "and the further improvement and full
utilization of the vast natural resources of the country, by the
introduction of new capital and labour, which they intend shall be
stimulated, aided and protected by a just, humane and enlightened
Government. The benefits likely to flow from the accomplishment of this
object, in the opening up of new fields of tropical agriculture, new
channels of enterprise, and new markets for the world's manufactures,
are great and incontestable." I quite agree with the framer of the
prospectus that these benefits are great and incontestable, but then
they would be benefits conferred on the world at large at the expense of
the shareholders of the Company, and I presume that the source from
which the shareholders are to be recouped is the surplus revenues which
a wisely administered Government would ensure, by judiciously fostering
colonisation, principally by Chinese, by the sale of the vast acreages
of "waste" or Government lands, by leasing the right to work the
valuable timber forests and such minerals as may be found to exist in
workable quantities, by customs duties and the "farming out" of the
exclusive right to sell opium, spirits, tobacco, etc., and by other
methods of raising revenue in vogue in the Eastern Colonies of the
Crown. In fact, the sum invested by the shareholders is to be considered
in the light of a loan to the Colony--its public debt--to be repaid with
interest as the resources of the country are developed. Without
encroaching on land worked, or owned by the natives, the Company has a
large area of unoccupied land which it can dispose of for the highest
price obtainable. That this must be the case is evident from a
comparison with the Island of Ceylon, where Government land sales are
still held. The area of North Borneo, it has been seen, is larger than
that of Ceylon, but its population is only about 160,000, while that of
Ceylon is returned as 2,825,000; furthermore, notwithstanding this
comparatively large population, it is said that the land under
cultivation in Ceylon forms only about one-fifth of its total area. From
what I have said of the prospects of tobacco-planting in British North
Borneo, it will be understood that land is being rapidly taken up, and
the Company will soon be in a position to increase its selling price.
Town and station lands are sold under different conditions to that for
planting purposes, and are restricted as a rule to lots of the size of
66 feet by 33 feet. The lease is for 999 years, but there is an annual
quit-rent at the rate of $6 per lot, which is redeemable at fifteen
years' purchase. At Sandakan, lots of this size have at auction realized
a premium of $350. In all cases, coal, minerals, precious stones, edible
nests and guano are reserved to the Government, and, in order to
protect the native proprietors, it is provided that any foreigner
desirous of purchasing land from a native must do so through the
Government.
Titles and mutations of titles to land are carefully registered and
recorded in the Land Office, under the provisions of the Hongkong
Registration of Documents Ordinance, which has been adopted in the
State.
The local Government is administered by a Governor, selected by the
Court of Directors subject to the approval of the Secretary of State for
the Colonies. He is empowered to enact laws, which require confirmation
by the Court, and is assisted in his executive functions by a Government
Secretary, Residents, Assistant Residents, a Treasurer-General, a
Commissioner of Lands, a Superintendent of Public Works, Commandant,
Postmaster-General and other Heads of Departments usually to be found in
Crown Colonies, and the British Colonial Regulations are adhered to as
closely as circumstances admit. The title of Resident is borrowed from
the Dutch Colonies, and the duties of the post are analogous to those of
the Resident Councillors of Penang or Malacca, under the Governor of
Singapore, or of the Government Agents in Ceylon. The Governor can also
call to assist him in his deliberations a Council of Advice, composed of
some of the Heads of Departments and of natives of position nominated to
seats therein.
The laws are in the form of "Proclamations" issued by the Governor under
the seal of the Territory. Most of the laws are adaptations, in whole or
in part, of Ordinances enacted in Eastern Colonies, such as the Straits
Settlements, Hongkong, Labuan and Fiji.
The Indian Penal Code, the Indian Codes of Civil and Criminal Procedure
and the Indian Evidence and Contract Acts have been adopted in their
entirety, "so far as the same shall be applicable to the circumstances
of this Territory."
The Proclamation making these and other Acts the law in North Borneo was
the first formal one issued, and bears date the 23rd December, 1881.
The law relating to the protection of estate coolies and labourers has
been already referred to.
The question of domestic slavery was one of the first with which the
Company had to grapple, the Royal Charter having ordained that "the
Company shall to the best of its power discourage and, as far as may be
practicable, abolish by degrees, any system of domestic servitude
existing among the tribes of the Coast or interior of Borneo; and no
foreigners whether European, Chinese or other, shall be allowed to own
slaves of any kind in the Company's territories." Slavery and kidnapping
were rampant in North Borneo under native regime and were one of the
chief obstacles to the unanimous acceptance of the Company's rule by the
Chiefs. At first the Residents and other officers confined their efforts
to prohibiting the importation of slaves for sale, and in assisting
slaves who were ill-treated to purchase their liberty. In 1883, a
Proclamation was issued which will have the effect of gradually
abolishing the system, as required by the Charter. Its chief provisions
are as follows:--No foreigners are allowed to hold slaves, and no slaves
can be imported for sale, nor can the natives buy slaves in a foreign
country and introduce them into Borneo _as slaves_, even should there be
no intention of selling them as such. Slaves taking refuge in the
country from abroad will not be surrendered, but slaves belonging to
natives of the country will be given up to their owners unless they can
prove ill-treatment, or that they have been brought into the territory
subsequently to the 1st November, 1883, and it is optional for any slave
to purchase his or her freedom by payment of a sum, the amount of which
is to be fixed, from time to time, by the Government.
A woman also becomes free if she can prove that she has cohabited with
her master, or with any person other than her husband, with the
connivance of her master or mistress; and finally "all children born of
slave parents after the first day of November, 1883, and who would by
ancient custom be deemed to be slaves, are hereby proclaimed to be free,
and any person treating or attempting to treat any such children as
slaves shall be guilty of an offence under this Proclamation." The
punishment for offences against the provisions of this Proclamation
extends to imprisonment for ten years and to a fine up to five thousand
dollars.
The late Mr. WITTI, one of the first officers of the Association, at my
request, drew up, in 1881, an interesting report on the system of
Slavery in force in the Tampassuk District, on the West Coast, of which
the following is a brief summary. Slaves in this district are divided
into two classes--those who are slaves in a strict and rigorous sense,
and those whose servitude is of a light description. The latter are
known as _anak mas_, and are the children of a slave mother by a free
man other than her master. If a female, she is the slave or _anak mas_
of her mother's master, but cannot be sold by him; if a boy, he is
practically free, cannot be sold and, if he does not care to stay with
his master, can move about and earn his own living, not sharing his
earnings with his master, as is the case in some other districts. In
case of actual need, however, his master can call upon him for his
services.
If an _anak mas_ girl marries a freeman, she at once becomes a free
woman, but a _brihan_, or marriage gift, of from two to two and a half
pikuls of brass gun--valued at $20 to $25 a pikul is payable by the
bridegroom to the master.
If she marry a slave, she remains an _anak mas_, but such cases are very
rare and only take place when the husband is in a condition to pay a
suitable _brihan_ to the owner.
If an ordinary slave woman becomes _enceinte_ by her owner, she and her
offspring are henceforth free and, she may remain as one of her late
master's wives. But the jealousy of the inmates of the harem often
causes abortion to be procured.
The slaves, as a rule, have quite an easy time of it, living with and,
as their masters, sharing the food of the family and being supplied with
tobacco, betel-nut and other native luxuries. There is no difference
between them and free men in the matter of dress, and in the arms which
all carry, and the mere fact that they are allowed to wear arms is
pretty conclusive evidence of their not being bullied or oppressed.
They assist in domestic duties and in the operations of harvest and
trading and so forth, but there is no such institution as a slave-gang,
working under task masters, a picture which is generally present to the
Englishman's mind when he hears of the existence of slavery. The slave
gang was an institution of the white slave-owner. Slave couples,
provided they support themselves, are allowed to set up house and
cultivate a patch of land.
For such minor offences as laziness and attempting to escape, the master
can punish his slaves with strokes of the rattan, but if an owner
receives grave provocation and kills his slave, the matter will probably
not be taken notice of by the elders of the village.
An incorrigible slave is sometimes punished by being sold out of the
district.
If a slave is badly treated and insufficiently provided with food, his
offence in endeavouring to escape is generally condoned by public
opinion. If a slave is, without sufficient cause, maltreated by a
freeman, his master can demand compensation from the aggressor. Slaves
of one master can, with their owner's consent, marry, and no _brihan_
is demanded, but if they belong to different masters, the woman's
master is entitled to a _brihan_ of one pikul, equal to $20 or $25.
They continue to be the slaves of their respective masters, but are
allowed to live together, and in case of a subsequent separation they
return to the houses of their masters. Should a freeman, other than her
master, wish to marry a slave, he practically buys her from her owner
with a _brihan_ of $60 or $75.
Sometimes a favourite slave is raised to a position intermediate between
that of an ordinary slave and an _anak mas_, and is regarded as a
brother, or sister, father, mother, or child; but if he or she attempt
to escape, a reversion to the condition of an ordinary slave is the
result. Occasionally, slaves are given their freedom in fulfilment of a
vow to that effect made by the master in circumstances of extreme
danger, experienced in company with the slave.
A slave once declared free can never be claimed again by his former
master.
Debts contracted by a slave, either in his own name, or in that of his
master, are not recoverable.
By their own extra work, after performing their service to their owners,
slaves can acquire private property and even themselves purchase and own
slaves.
Infidel slaves, of both sexes, are compulsorily converted to
Muhammadanism and circumcized and, even though they should recover their
freedom, they seldom relapse.
There are, or rather were, a large number of debt slaves in North
Borneo. For a debt of three pikuls--$60 to $75--a man might be enslaved
if his friends could not raise the requisite sum, and he would continue
to be a slave until the debt was paid, but, as a most usurious interest
was charged, it was almost always a hopeless task to attempt it.
Sometimes an inveterate gambler would sell himself to pay off his debts
of honour, keeping the balance if any.
The natives, regardless of the precepts of the Koran, would purchase any
slaves that were offered for sale, whether infidel or Muhammadan. The
importers were usually the Illanun and Sulu kidnappers, who would bring
in slaves of all tribes--Bajaus, Illanuns, Sulus, Brunais, Manilamen,
natives of Palawan and natives of the interior of Magindanau--all was
fish that came into their net. The selling price was as follows:--A boy,
about 2 pikuls, a man 3 pikuls. A girl, 3 to 4 pikuls, a young woman, 3
to 5 pikuls. A person past middle age about 1-1/2 pikuls. A young
couple, 7 to 8 pikuls, an old couple, about 5 pikuls. The pikul was then
equivalent to $20 or $25. Mr. WITTI further stated that in Tampassuk the
proportion of free men to slaves was only one in three, and in Marudu
Bay only one in five. In Tampassuk there were more female than male
slaves.
Mr. A. H. EVERETT reported that, in his district of Pappar-Kimanis,
there was no slave _trade_, and that the condition of the domestic
slaves was not one of hardship.
Mr. W. B. PRYER, speaking for the East Coast, informed me that there
were only a few slaves in the interior, mostly Sulus who had been
kidnapped and sold up the rivers. Among the Sulus of the coast, the
relation was rather that of follower and lord than of slave and master.
When he first settled at Sandakan, he could not get men to work for him
for wages, they deemed it _degrading_ to do so, but they said they
would work for him if he would _buy_ them! Sulu, under Spanish
influence, and Bulungan, in Dutch Borneo, were the chief slave markets,
but the Spanish and Dutch are gradually suppressing this traffic.
There was a colony of Illanuns and Balinini settled at Tunku and Teribas
on the East Coast, who did a considerable business in kidnapping, but in
1879 Commander E. EDWARDS, in H. M. S. _Kestrel_, attacked and burnt
their village, capturing and burning several piratical boats and prahus.
Slavery, though not yet extinct in Borneo, has received a severe check
in British North Borneo and in Sarawak, and is rapidly dying out in both
countries; in fact it is a losing business to be a slave-owner now.
Apart from the institution of slavery, which is sanctioned by the
Muhammadan religion, the religious customs and laws of the various
tribes "especially with respect to the holding, possession, transfer and
disposition of lands and goods, and testate or intestate succession
thereto, and marriage, divorce and legitimacy, and the rights of
property and personal rights" are carefully regarded by the Company's
Government, as in duty bound, according to the terms of Articles 8 and 9
of the Royal Charter. The services of native headmen are utilised as
much as possible, and Courts composed of Native Magistrates have been
established, but at the same time efforts are made to carry the people
with the Government in ameliorating and advancing their social position,
and thus involves an amendment of some of the old customs and laws.
Moreover, customs which are altogether repugnant to modern ideas are
checked or prohibited by the new Government; as, for example, the
time-honoured custom of a tribe periodically balancing the account of
the number of heads taken or lost by it from or to another tribe, an
audit which, it is strange to say, almost invariably results in the
discovery on the part of the stronger tribe that they are on the wrong
side of the account and have a balance to get from the others. These
hitherto interminable feuds, though not altogether put a stop to in the
interior, have been in many districts effectually brought to an end,
Government officers having been asked by the natives themselves to
undertake the examination of the accounts and the tribe who was found
to be on the debtor side paying, not human heads, but compensation in
goods at a fixed rate per head due. Another custom which the Company
found it impossible to recognize was that of _summungap_, which was, in
reality, nothing but a form of human sacrifice, the victim being a slave
bought for the purpose, and the object being to send a message to a
deceased relative. With this object in view, the slave used to be bound
and wrapped in cloth, when the relatives would dance round him and each
thrust a spear a short way into his body, repeating, as he did so, the
message which he wished conveyed. This operation was performed till the
slave succumbed.
The Muhammadan practice of cutting off the hair of a woman convicted of
adultery, or of men flogging her with a rattan, and that of cutting off
the hand of a thief, have also not received the recognition of the
Company's Government.
It has been shewn that the native population of North Borneo is very
small, only about five to the square mile, and as the country is fertile
and well-watered and possesses, for the tropics, a healthy climate,
there must be some exceptional cause for the scantiness of the
population. This is to be found chiefly in the absence, already referred
to, of any strong central Government in former days, and to the
consequent presence of all forms of lawlessness, piracy, slave-trading,
kidnapping and head-hunting.
In more recent years, too, cholera and small-pox have made frightful
ravages amongst the natives, almost annihilating some of the tribes, for
the people knew of no remedies and, on the approach of the scourge,
deserted their homes and their sick and fled to the jungle, where
exposure and privation rendered them more than ever liable to the
disease. Since the Company's advent, efforts are being successfully made
to introduce vaccination, in which most of the people now have
confidence.
This fact of a scanty native population has, in some ways, rendered the
introduction of the Company's Government a less arduous undertaking than
it might otherwise have proved, and has been a fortunate circumstance
for the shareholders, who have the more unowned and virgin land to
dispose of. In British North Borneo, luckily for the Company, there is
not, as there is in Sarawak, any one large, powerful tribe, whose
presence might have been a source of trouble, or even of danger to the
young Government, but the aborigines are split up into a number of petty
tribes, speaking very distinct dialects and, generally, at enmity
amongst themselves, so that a general coalition of the bad elements
amongst them is impossible.
The institution and amusement of head-hunting appears never to have been
taken up and followed with so much energy and zeal in North Borneo as
among the Dyaks of Sarawak. I do not think that it was as a rule deemed
absolutely essential with any of our tribes that a young man should have
taken at least a head or two before he could venture to aspire to the
hand of the maiden who had led captive his heart. The heads of slain
enemies were originally taken by the conquerors as a substantial proof
and trophy of their successful prowess, which could not be gainsaid, and
it came, in time, to be considered the proper thing to be able to boast
of the possession of a large number of these ghastly tokens; and so an
ambitious youth, in his desire for applause, would not be particularly
careful from whom, or in what manner he obtained a head, and the victim
might be, not only a person with whom he had no quarrel, but even a
member of a friendly tribe, and the mode of acquisition might be, not by
a fair stand-up fight, a test of skill and courage, but by treachery and
ambush. Nor did it make very much difference whether the head obtained
was that of a man, a woman or a child, and in their petty wars it was
even conceived to be an honourable distinction to bring in the heads of
women and children, the reasoning being that the men of the attacked
tribe must have fought their best to defend their wives and children.
The following incident, which occurred some years ago at the Colony of
Labuan, serves to shew how immaterial it was whether a friend, or foe,
or utter stranger was the victim. A Murut chief of the Trusan, a river
on the mainland over against Labuan, was desirous of obtaining some
fresh heads on the occasion of a marriage feast, and put to sea to a
district inhabited by a hostile tribe. Meeting with adverse winds, his
canoes were blown over to the British Colony; the Muruts landed, held
apparently friendly intercourse with some of the Kadaian (Muhammadan)
population and, after a visit of two or three days, made preparations to
sail; but meeting a Kadaian returning to his home alone, they shot him
and went off with his head--though the man was an entire stranger to
them, and they had no quarrel with any of his tribe.
With the assistance of the Brunai authorities, the chief and several of
his accomplices were subsequently secured and sent for trial to Labuan.
The chief died in prison, while awaiting trial, but one or two of his
associates paid the penalty of their wanton crime.
A short time afterwards, Mr. COOK and I visited the Lawas River for
sport, and took up our abode in a Murut long house, where, I remember, a
large basket of skulls was placed as an ornament at the head of my
sleeping place. One night, when all our men, with the exception of my
Chinese servant, were away in the jungle, trying to trap the then newly
discovered "Bulwer pheasant," some Muruts from the Trusan came over and
informed our hosts of the fate of their chief. On the receipt of this
intelligence, all the men of our house left it and repaired to one
adjoining, where a great "drink" was held, while the women indulged in a
loud, low, monotonous, heart-breaking wail, which they kept up for
several hours. Mr. COOK and myself agreed that things looked almost as
bad for us as they well could, and when, towards morning, the men
returned to our house, my Chinese boy clung to me in terror and--nothing
happened! But certainly I do not think I have ever passed such an
uncomfortable period of suspense.
Writing to the Court of Directors of the East India Company a hundred
and thirteen years ago, Mr. YESSE, who concluded the pepper monopoly
agreement with the Brunai Government, referring to the Murut
predilection for head-hunting says:--"With respect to the Idaan, or
Muruts, as they are called here, I cannot give any account of their
disposition; but from what I have heard from the Borneyans, they are a
set of abandoned idolaters; one of their tenets, so strangely inhuman, I
cannot pass unnoticed, which is, that their future interest depends
upon the number of their fellow creatures they have killed in any
engagement, or common disputes, and count their degrees of happiness to
depend on the number of human skulls in their possession; from which,
and the wild, disorderly life they lead, unrestrained by any bond of
civil society, we ought not to be surprised if they are of a cruel and
vindictive disposition." I think this is rather a case of giving a dog a
bad name.
I heard read once at a meeting of the Royal Geographical Society, an
eloquent paper on the Natives of the Andaman Islands, in which the
lecturer, after shewing that the Andamanese were suspicious,
treacherous, blood-thirsty, ungrateful and untruthful, concluded by
giving it as his opinion that they were very good fellows and in many
ways superior to white man.
I do not go quite so far as he does, but I must say that many of the
aborigines are very pleasant good-natured creatures, and have a lot of
good qualities in them, which, with care and discriminating legislation
on the part of their new rulers, might be gradually developed, while the
evil qualities which they possess in common with all races of men, might
be _pari passu_ not extinguished, but reduced to a minimum. But this
result can only be secured by officers who are naturally of a
sympathetic disposition and ready to take the trouble of studying the
natives and entering into their thoughts and aspirations.
In many instances, the Company has been fortunate in its choice of
officials, whose work has brought them into intimate connection with the
aborigines.
A besetting sin of young officers is to expect too much--they are
conscious that their only aim is to advance the best interests of the
natives, and they are surprised and hurt at, what they consider, the
want of gratitude and backwardness in seconding their efforts evinced by
them. They forget that the people are as yet in the schoolboy stage, and
should try and remember how, in their own schoolboy days, they offered
opposition to the efforts of their masters for _their_ improvement, and
how little gratitude they felt, at the time, for all that was done for
them. Patience and sympathy are the two qualifications especially
requisite in officers selected for the management of native affairs.
In addition to the indigenous population, there are, settled along the
coast and at the mouths of the principal rivers, large numbers of the
more highly civilized tribes of Malays, of whose presence in Borneo an
explanation has been attempted on a previous page. They are known as
Brunais--called by the Natives, for some unexplained reason, _orang
abai_--Sulus, Bajows, Illanuns and Balininis; there are also a few
Bugis, or natives of Celebes.
These are the people who, before the Company's arrival, lorded it over
the more ignorant interior tribes, and prevented their having direct
dealings with traders and foreigners, and to whom, consequently, the
advent of a still more civilized race than themselves was very
distasteful.
The habits of the Brunai people have already been sufficiently
described.
The Sulus are, next to the Brunais, the most civilized race and, without
any exception, the most warlike and powerful. For nearly three
centuries, they have been more or less in a state of war with the
Spaniards of the Philippine Islands, and even now, though the Spaniards
have established a fortified port in their principal island, their
subjugation is by no means complete.
The Spanish officials dare not go beyond the walls of their settlement,
unless armed and in force, and it is no rare thing for fanatical Sulus,
singly or in small parties, to make their way into the Spanish town,
under the guise of unarmed and friendly peasants, and then suddenly draw
their concealed krises and rush with fury on officers, soldiers and
civilians, generally managing to kill several before they are themselves
cut down.
They are a much bolder and more independent race than the Brunais, who
have always stood in fear of them, and it was in consideration of its
undertaking to defend them against their attacks that the Brunai
Government conceded the exclusive trade in pepper to the East India
Company. Their religion--Muhammadanism--sits even more lightly on the
Sulus than on the Brunais, and their women, who are fairer and better
looking than their Brunai sisters, are never secluded or veiled, but
often take part in public deliberations and, in matters of business, are
even sharper than the men.
The Sulus are a bloodthirsty and hard-hearted race, and, when an
opportunity occurs, are not always averse to kidnapping even their own
countrymen and selling them into slavery. They entertain a high notion
of their own importance, and are ever ready to resent with their krises
the slightest affront which they may conceive has been put upon them.
In Borneo, they are found principally on the North-East Coast, and a
good many have settled in British North Borneo under the Company's
Government. They occasionally take contracts for felling jungle and
other work of similar character, but are less disposed than the Brunai
men to perform work for Europeans on regular wages. Among their good
qualities, it may be mentioned that they are faithful and trustworthy
followers of any European to whom they may become attached. Their
language is distinct from ordinary Malay, and is akin to that of the
Bisaias, one of the principal tribes of the Philippines, and is written
in the Arabic character; but many Malay terms have been adopted into the
language, and most of the trading and seafaring Sulus know enough Malay
to conclude a bargain.
The most numerous Muhammadan race in British North Borneo is that of the
Bajows, who are found on both coasts, but, on the West Coast, not South
of the Pappar River. These are the _orang-laut_ (men of the sea) or
sea-gipsies of the old writers, and are the worst class that we have to
deal with, being of a treacherous and thievish disposition, and
confirmed gamblers and cattle-lifters.
They also form a large proportion of the population of the Sulu Islands,
where they are, or used to be, noted kidnappers and pirates, though also
distinguished for their skill in pearl fisheries. Their religion is that
of Mahomet and their language Malay mixed, it is said, with Chinese and
Japanese elements; their women are not secluded, and it is a rare thing
for a Borneo Bajow to take the trouble of making the pilgrimage to
Mecca. They are found along the coasts of nearly all the Malay Islands
and, apparently, in former days lived entirely in their boats. In
British North Borneo, a large majority have taken to building houses
and residing on the shore, but when Mr. PRYER first settled at Sandakan,
there was a considerable community of them in the Bay, who had no houses
at all, but were born, bred, married and died in their small canoes.
On the West Coast, the Bajows, who have for a long time been settled
ashore, appear to be of smaller build and darker colour than the other
Malays, with small sparkling black eyes, but on the East Coast, where
their condition is more primitive, Mr. PRYER thinks they are much larger
in stature and stronger and more swarthy than ordinary Malays.
On the East Coast, there are no buffaloes or horned cattle, so that the
Bajows there have, or I should say _had_, to be content with kidnapping
only, and as an example of their daring I may relate that in, I think,
the year 1875, the Austrian Frigate _Friederich_, Captain Baron
OESTERREICHER, was surveying to the South of Darvel Bay, and, running
short of coal, sent an armed party ashore to cut firewood. The Bajows
watched their opportunity and, when the frigate was out of sight, seized
the cutter, notwithstanding the fire of the party on the shore, who
expended all their ammunition in vain, and carried off the two
boat-keepers, whose heads were subsequently shewn round in triumph in
the neighbouring islands. Baron OESTERREICHER was unable to discover the
retreat of these Bajows, and they remain unpunished to this day, and are
at present numbered among the subjects of the British North Borneo
Company. I have been since told that I have more than once unwittingly
shaken hands and had friendly intercourse with some of them. In fairness
to them I should add that it is more than probable that they mistook the
_Friederich_ for a vessel belonging to Spain, with whom their sovereign,
the Sultan of Sulu, was at that time at war. After this incident, and by
order of his Government, Baron OESTERREICHER visited Sandakan Bay and, I
believe, reported that he could discover no population there other than
monkeys. Altogether, he could not have carried away with him a very
favourable impression of Northern Borneo. On the West Coast, gambling
and cattle-lifting are the main pursuits of the gentlemanly Bajow,
pursuits which soon brought him into close and very uncomfortable
relations with the new Government, for which he entertains anything but
feelings of affection. One of the principal independent rivers on the
West Coast--_i. e._, rivers which have not yet been ceded to the
Company--is the Mengkabong, the majority of the inhabitants of which are
Bajows, so that it has become a sort of river of refuge for the bad
characters on the coast, as well as an entrepôt for the smuggling of
gunpowder for sale to the head-hunting tribes of the interior. The
existence of these independent and intermediate rivers on their West
Coast is a serious difficulty for the Company in its efforts to
establish good government and put down lawlessness, and every one having
at heart the true interests of the natives of Borneo must hope that the
Company will soon be successful in the negotiations which they have
opened for the acquisition of these rivers. The Kawang was an important
river, inhabited by a small number of Bajows, acquired by the Company in
1884, and the conduct of these people on one occasion affords a good
idea of their treachery and their hostility towards good government. An
interior tribe had made itself famous for its head-hunting proclivities,
and the Kawang was selected as the best route by which to reach their
district and inflict punishment upon them. The selection of this route
was not a politic one, seeing that the inhabitants _were_ Bajows, and
that they had but recently come under the Company's rule. The expedition
was detained a day or two at the Bajow village, as the full number of
Dusun baggage-carriers had not arrived, and the Bajows were called upon
to make up the deficiency, but did not do so. Matters were further
complicated by the Dusuns recognising some noted cattle-lifters in the
village, and demanding a buffalo which had been stolen from them. It
being impossible to obtain the required luggage carriers, it was
proposed to postpone the expedition, the stores were deposited in some
of the houses of the village and the Constabulary were "dismissed" and,
piling their arms, laid down under the shelter of some trees. Without
any warning one of two Bajows, with whom Dr. FRASER was having an
apparently friendly chat, discharged his musket point blank at the
Doctor, killing him on the spot, and seven others rushed among the
unarmed Constables and speared the Sikh Jemmadhar and the
Sergeant-Major and a private and then made off for the jungle. Captain
DE FONTAINE gallantly, but rashly started off in pursuit, before any one
could support him. He tripped and fell and was so severely wounded by
the Bajows, after killing three of them with his revolver, that he died
a few days afterwards at Sandakan. By this time the Sikhs had got their
rifles and firing on the retreating party killed three and wounded two.
Assistant Resident LITTLE, who had received a spear in his arm, shot his
opponent dead with his revolver. None of the other villagers took any
active part, and consequently were only punished by the imposition of a
fine. They subsequently all cleared out of the Company's territory. It
was a sad day for the little Colony at Sandakan when Mr. WHITEHEAD, a
naturalist who happened to be travelling in the neighbourhood at the
time, brought us the news of the melancholy affray, and the wounded
Captain DE FONTAINE and several Sikhs, to whose comfort and relief he
had, at much personal inconvenience, attended on the tedious voyage in a
small steam-launch from the Kawang to the Capital. On the East Coast,
also, their slave-dealing and kidnapping propensities brought the Bajows
into unfriendly relations with the Government, and their lawlessness
culminated in their kidnapping several Eraan birds' nest collectors,
whom they refused to surrender, and making preparations for resisting
any measures which might be taken to coerce them. As these same people
had, a short time previously, captured at sea some five Dutch subjects,
it was deemed that their offences brought them within the cognizance of
the Naval authorities, and Captain A. K. HOPE, R.N., at my request,
visited the district, in 1886, in H. M. S. _Zephyr_ and, finding that
the people of two of the Bajow villages refused to hold communication
with us, but prepared their boats for action, he opened fire on them
under the protection of which a party of the North Borneo Constabulary
landed and destroyed the villages, which were quickly deserted, and many
of the boats which had been used on piratical excursions. Happily, there
was no loss of life on either side, and a very wholesome and useful
lesson was given to the pirates without the shedding of blood, thanks
to the good arrangements and tact of Captain HOPE. In order that the
good results of this lesson should not be wasted, I revisited the scene
of the little engagement in the _Zephyr_ a few weeks subsequently, and
not long afterwards the British flag was again shewn in the district, by
Captain A. H. ALINGTON in H. M. S. _Satellite_, who interviewed the
offending chiefs and gave them sound advice as to their conduct in
future.
Akin to the Bajows are the Illanuns and Balinini, Muhammadan peoples,
famous in former days as the most enterprising pirates of the Malayan
seas. The Balinini, Balignini or Balanguini--as their name is variously
written--originally came from a small island to the north of Sulu, and
the Illanuns from the south coast of the island of Mindanao--one of the
Philippines, but by the action of the Spanish and British cruisers their
power has been broken and they are found scattered in small numbers
throughout the Sulu Islands and on the seaboard of Northern Borneo, on
the West Coast of which they founded little independent settlements,
arrogating to their petty chiefs such high sounding titles as Sultan,
Maharajah and so forth.
The Illanuns are a proud race and distinguished by wearing a much larger
sword than the other tribes, with a straight blade about 28 inches in
length. This sword is called a _kampilan_, and is used in conjunction
with a long, narrow, wooden shield, known by the name of _klassap_, and
in the use of these weapons the Illanuns are very expert and often boast
that, were it not for their gunpowder, no Europeans could stand up to
them, face to face. I believe, that it is these people who in former
days manufactured the chain armour of which I have seen several
specimens, but the use of which has now gone out of fashion. Those I
have are made of small brass rings linked together, and with plates of
brass or buffalo horn in front. The headpiece is of similar
construction.
There are no Negritos in Borneo, although they exist in the Malay
Peninsula and the Philippines, and our explorers have failed to obtain
any specimens of the "tailed" people in whose existence many of the
Brunai people believe. The late Sultan of Brunai gravely assured me
that there was such a tribe, and that the individuals composing it were
in the habit of carrying about chairs with them, in the seat of each of
which there was a little hole, in which the lady or gentleman carefully
inserted her or his tail before settling down to a comfortable chat.
This belief in the existence of a tailed race appears to be widespread,
and in his "Pioneering in New Guinea" Mr. CHALMERS gives an amusing
account of a detailed description of such a tribe by a man who vowed _he
had lived with them_, and related how they were provided with long
sticks, with which to make holes in the ground before squatting down,
for the reception of their short stumpy tails! I think it is Mr. H. F.
ROMILLY who, in his interesting little work on the Western Pacific and
New Guinea, accounts for the prevalence of "yarns" of this class by
explaining that the natives regard Europeans as being vastly superior to
them in general knowledge and, when they find them asking such questions
as, for instance, whether there are tailed-people in the interior, jump
to the conclusion that the white men must have good grounds for
believing that they do exist, and then they gradually come to believe in
their existence themselves. There is, however, I think, some excuse for
the Brunai people's belief, for I have seen one tribe of Muruts who, in
addition to the usual small loin cloth, wear on their backs only a skin
of a long-tailed monkey, the tail of which hangs down behind in such a
manner as, when the men are a little distance off, to give one at first
glance the impression that it is part and parcel of the biped.
In Labuan it used to be a very common occurrence for the graves of the
Europeans, of which unfortunately, owing to its bad climate when first
settled, there are a goodly number, to be found desecrated and the bones
scattered about. The perpetrators of these outrages have never been
discovered, notwithstanding the most stringent enquiries. It was once
thought that they were broken open by head-hunting tribes from the
mainland, but this theory was disproved by the fact that the skulls were
never carried away. As we know of no Borneo tribe which is in the habit
of breaking open graves, the only conclusion that can be come to is that
the graves were rifled under the supposition that the Europeans buried
treasure with their dead, though it is strange that their experiences of
failure never seemed to teach them that such was not the case.
The Muhammadan natives are buried in the customary Muhammadan manner in
regular graveyards kept for the purpose.
The aborigines generally bury their dead near their houses, erecting
over the graves little sheds adorned, in the case of chiefs, with bright
coloured clothes, umbrellas, etc. I once went to see the lying in state
of a deceased Datoh, who had been dead nine days. On entering the house
I looked about for the corpse in vain, till my attention was drawn to an
old earthen jar, tilted slightly forward, on the top of the old Chief's
goods--his sword, spear, gun and clothing.
In this jar were the Datoh's remains, the poor old fellow having been
doubled up, head and heels together, and forced through the mouth of the
vessel, which was about two feet in diameter. The jar itself was about
four feet high. Over the corpse was thickly sprinkled the native
camphor, and the jar was closed with a piece of buffalo hide, well
sealed over with gum dammar. They told us the Datoh was dressed in his
best clothes and had his pipe with him, but nothing else. He was to be
buried that day in a small grave excavated near the house, just large
enough to contain the jar, and a buffalo was being killed and
intoxicating drink prepared for the numerous friends and followers who
were flocking in for the wake. Over his grave cannon would be fired to
arouse the spirits who were to lead him to Kinabalu, the people shouting
out "Turn neither to the right nor to the left, but proceed straight to
Kinabalu"--the sacred mountain where are collected the spirits of all
good Dusuns under, I believe, the presidency of a great spirit known as
Kinaringan.