A History of Sarawak under Its Two White Rajahs 1839-1908

S. (Sabine) Baring-Gould, C. A. Bampfylde

A History of Sarawak under Its Two White Rajahs 1839-1908

PREFACE

As I have been requested to write a preface to The History of Sarawak under its Two White Rajahs, one of whom I have the honour to be, I must, first of all, assert that I have had nothing to do with the composition or writing of the book, and I do not profess to be a writer, otherwise than in a very ordinary sense, having left school at the age of twelve to enter the Navy.

In that service I remained for ten years, when I obtained my lieutenancy, and then received two years' leave, which the Admiralty were glad to grant at that time (about 1852), as they thought naval officers were of a type likely to be of service in the development of the colonies and the improvement of native states. I then went to Sarawak to join my uncle, the first Rajah, with and under whom I remained, and consequently had to retire from the Navy; but I will admit that my ten years' service gave me what I probably could not have gained from any other profession – the advantages of having been taught to obey my seniors, and of having been disciplined; and I very firmly adhere to the rule that no one can make a successful commander unless he has learnt to obey. It further taught me those seafaring qualities, which have been so useful ever since, of being able to rough it and put up with one's surroundings, the lack of which so often makes the men of the present day, in their refined and gentlemanly way, not quite suited to handle the wheel of a ship at sea or the plough on land.

Now I will pass on to say how this book, good or bad as it may be – and I am not competent to pass judgment either way – came to be written. I was asked by more than one if I had any objection to the writing of my biography, and I, as far as I can recollect, gave no decided answer one way or the other; but I thought if I handed over the correspondence and all records that related to Sarawak and its Government that the distinguished author, Baring-Gould, and my friend, Charles Bampfylde, might be enabled to form a truthful account, and at the same time give the public a readable book.

I thought that some interest might be felt in the story of a life such as mine has been for the last sixty years, coupled with an account of the institutions, manners, and customs of the inhabitants of Sarawak, and especially of the way in which we have always treated the native population, finding much profit by it, more in kindliness and sympathy than in a worldly point of view, by making them our friends, and I may say associates, though they are of a different creed and different colour; and how we gained their hearts by living among them and really knowing them, not as superiors, but as equals and friends; and I thought being brought out during my life by the pen of the able author and that of my old and much-esteemed officer, Mr. Bampfylde, it would be more likely to give a correct impression than if some one took up the pen after my death and gained material from some good and some rather scratchy works that have been written on Sarawak, since such an one would probably make up a work that would be, no doubt, very readable and well adapted to take the fashion of the day, but not so truthful as a man of long personal experience could do, and has, I think, done it; and this I can aver, that what is written are facts, however plain and uninteresting they may prove. The work is not the history of my life more than that of the late Rajah, and I may flatter myself that we – he as founder and myself as builder of the state – have been one in our policy throughout, from the beginning up to the present time; and now shortly I have to hand it to my son, and I hope that his policy may not be far removed from that of his predecessors.

My life draws towards its close, but the book, if and whenever brought out, will stand in the future as a record of events that may be considered as the work of private individuals who stood alone and unprotected in a far distant land, and who were, I may also say, fortunately, scarcely ever interfered with, or the policy of Sarawak could not have been as successful as it has proved. It will, I have reason to believe, attract more attention in comparatively new countries, such as America and Australia, where the story of Sarawak is perhaps better known than in England. One word more, and that is, that the native element has always been our base and strong point: and our lives are safe with them so long as they are wisely treated and relied on with thorough trust and confidence.

C. BROOKE,

Rajah.

Chesterton, 8th January 1909.

TITLES

Sultan. – Supreme head of the once large Bruni Sultanate, which is now only a corner or enclave within the raj of Sarawak. Iang di Pertuan, the Lord who Rules, is the correct supreme title in Bruni, and the one most generally in use.1

Sultan Muda, heir-apparent. Lit. young Sultan, but seldom used. Iang di Pertuan Muda is the more correct Malay title. Cp. Pangiran, infra.

Rajah (fem. Rani, or Ranee). – The old title of the Bruni sovereigns. It is a Sanskrit word, and means king. But in Bruni it was improperly assumed by those (male and female) of royal descent. This has fallen into disuse, that is, none of them now bears such a title, but in referring to the princes of Bruni generally the term Rajah Rajah2 would be used. Rulers of districts were never entitled to the title ex officio. Such rulers are feudal chiefs with the title of Pangiran, and their chieftainship is generally hereditary.

Rajah Muda, heir apparent. Lit. young Rajah.

Pangiran is the highest Bruni title. Pangiran Muda – sometimes Pangiran Muda Besar – is another title of the heir-apparent to the Sultanate. (Rajah Muda is only used in Sarawak.) It is a Javanese title and means prince. It is not, however, now confined only to persons of royal descent as formerly, and the title has become very common, especially as illegitimate as well as legitimate children of all pangirans assume it.

Datu. – Lit. great-grandfather (by extension – ancestor). This is a high title in the Malay Peninsula, and the highest in Sarawak, but not in Bruni, though it is in Sulu. It can be conferred by the Ruler alone, and is an official title and not hereditary. It is only granted to Malays.3

Bandar (Persian). – The meaning of this word is a port. Datu Bandar, one of the highest titles in Sarawak, would mean the chief of the port or town.

Shah Bandar means the Controller of the Customs.

Bandahara (Sanskrit.). – A treasurer. The Pangiran Bandahara is the chief of the four Wazirs of Bruni. The present Bandahara is Regent of Bruni.

Temanggong. – Another high official title, meaning Commander-in-Chief. The Pangiran Temanggong is one of the Bruni Wazirs.

Di Gadong and Pemancha. – Also high official titles, the meanings of which are uncertain. The Pangiran di Gadong and the Pangiran Pemancha are the titles of the other two Bruni Wazirs.4

Patinggi (from Tinggi – elevated, exalted; hence Maha-tinggi, the most high). The Datu Patinggi was the highest or premier chief in Sarawak.

Penglima. – A Malay title, also sometimes formerly given to Dayaks; means a Commander.

Orang kaya. – Lit. rich man. A title generally given to Malay chiefs of inferior rank and to the Dayak chiefs.

Sherif.5– An Arab title meaning noble. A title assumed by half-bred Arabs claiming descent from Muhammad. These men also take the exalted Malay title of Tunku or Tungku6 by which princes of the royal blood are alone addressed, but more especially the Sultan.

Haji. – One who has made the pilgrimage to Mecca.

Tuan. – Master, Sir, Lord, Mistress, Lady. Tuan Besar – High Lord. Tuan Muda – Young Lord.

Nakoda. – Shipmaster, merchant.

Pengulu. – Headman. A title given to Dayak district chiefs.

Inchi. – Mister – a lower title than Tuan. A title foreign to Sarawak, and in that country only assumed by foreign Malays.

Abang. – Lit. elder brother. Datu's sons are styled Abang, and also Malay Government chiefs below the rank of Datu.

Laksamana. – An Admiral.

Imaum. – High Priest.

Hakim. – A Judge: lit. a learned man.

Awang. – A title sometimes given to the sons of Pangirans.

Dayang or Dang. – Lady of rank. A title given to daughters of Datus and Abangs.

Wan. – Another title given to Sherifs, but more generally to their sons. It is probably derived from the Arabic word Awan, meaning a helper or sustainer of Muhammad.

The following Malay geographical terms should also be noted: —

Bukit, a hill.

Danau, a lake.

Gunong, a mountain.

Pulau, an island.

Sungi, a river.

Tanjong, a cape.

Kampong, a village, or subdivision of a town, a parish.

CHAPTER I

BORNEO

Next to Australia and New Guinea, Borneo7 is the largest island in the world; it is larger than the whole of France. It sits astride on the equator, that divides it nearly, but not wholly, in two; the larger portion being to the north of the Line.

The belt of islands, Sumatra, Java, and the chain to Timor and the Sarwatty group, represents a line of weakness in the crust of the earth, due to volcanic action, which still makes itself felt there. But the axis of elevation of Borneo is almost at right angles to this line, and in it are no active vents, and if there be extinct volcanoes, these are in the extreme north only. In Sarawak there are several hot springs, the water of which is impregnated with sulphuretted hydrogen. The island owes its origin, as far as we can judge, to a great upheaval of plutonic rock that has lifted aloft and shivered the overlying beds, but the granite does not come everywhere to the surface. Something analogous may be seen in Exmoor, where the superincumbent clay-slate has been heaved up and strained, but the granite nowhere shows save in Lundy Isle, where the superposed strata have been swept away, leaving the granite exposed.

Borneo is about 850 miles in length and 600 in breadth, and contains an area of 286,000 square miles. The centre of Borneo is occupied by broken hilly highland, with isolated mountains, of which the finest is the granite peak of Kina Balu (13,700 feet). Hills come down in places to the sea, as in the south of Sarawak, where they attain a height of from 2000 to over 5000 feet, and die into the sea at Cape Datu. The plains, chiefly swamps, are composed of the wash of the mountains, overlaid by vegetable mould, and these fringe the coast, extending inland from ten to thirty miles, with here and there isolated humps of hill standing up out of them.

The island is probably the best watered in the world. On every side are numerous rivers, mainly rising in the central highlands, at first dancing down the mountain ledges in cascades, then, forming dangerous rapids, enter the plain, and there swelled by affluents and widening out advance with no strong current to the sea. Owing to the width of the river-mouths, and to the configuration of the coast, some of them, as the Batang Lupar, the Sadong, and Saribas, have tidal bores, as is the case with our River Severn, that run up as many as seventy miles into the interior, and most have deposited troublesome bars at their mouths, and have embouchures clogged by shoals. To the slight fall is largely due the remarkable way in which several of these rivers descend into the ocean through plural mouths, thus forming a network of lateral waterways, called Loba and Trusan, whereby they mix and mingle with other rivers, and, very much like the Rhine after entering Holland, lose their identity and are frittered away in many channels. The Rejang, for instance, finds issue through five mouths, and the land between the Rejang and Igan entrances, which meet at Sibu, the apex of the delta, is a vast unbroken swamp, 1200 square miles in area. The same phenomenon is noticed in the Sarawak river, and in the Limbang to a smaller degree.

The rainfall in Borneo is so great, the rainy season lasting from October to April,8 that the rivers are very numerous and copious, rolling down large volumes of water. Severe droughts are, however, not uncommon during the fine season of the S.W. monsoon.

Between Kuching and Bruni are the Sadong, Batang Lupar, Saribas, Kalaka, Rejang, Bintulu, and the Baram rivers, all available as waterways for trade with the interior. For fifteen miles only from its mouth is the Batang Lupar navigable by steamers, above that, though a fine broad river, it is obstructed by dangerous shoals. The Rejang is navigable by steamers for 170 miles, nearly as far as the first rapids. This noble river descends many stages by as many plunges from terraces. Between the rapids the river is deep, sluggish and broad for many miles. Boats that can be hauled up past the rapids can ascend a distance of 650 miles from the mouth. The Baram river is navigable by steamers for some twenty miles above Claude Town, that is, eighty miles from the mouth, but owing to the exposed position of the bar and to the heavy seas breaking over it, and also to the silting up of the mouth during the N.E. monsoon, only very small craft can then enter, but during the S.W. monsoon it can be entered by steamers of light draught.

In Dutch Borneo as well there are magnificent rivers. The same cause that has made some of the rivers so uncertain in their mouths has produced vast stretches of morass, overgrown with the nipah palm and mangrove, and infested with mosquito swarms; but the beach is almost everywhere of beautiful white sand, reaching to where the graceful casuarina tree grows as a belt above the reach of the tide. The tropical heat, added to the great rainfall, makes Borneo a vegetable paradise; indeed, it presents the appearance of one vast surface of sombre evergreen forest, starred with flowering orchids, and wreathed with creepers, of a richness perhaps unsurpassed even in South America.

The hills and ranges of upland consist of blue metamorphic limestone on which is superposed a thick series of sandstones, conglomerates, and clay-shales. Piercing these beds are granite and a variety of plutonic rocks, as diorite, porphyrite, etc. These latter are developed in greatest abundance in the antimony districts, where they are in immediate contact with the limestone that has been fissured and tortured by upheaval. The sandstone shales have also been tilted and distorted; nevertheless in places they retain their original horizontal position. They are usually found to be impregnated with peroxide of iron. It is in this formation that the cinnabar deposits occur.

Both lime and sandstone have been extensively denuded, and the latter rises in isolated tabular mountains, or short peaky trends, to an altitude occasionally of 1500 feet above the sea, the ridges separated by undulating valleys, in which the limestone comes to the surface. Sometimes these denuded masses form low hilly tracts varying in elevation from 200 feet to 1200 feet; sometimes they appear as solitary crags, but invariably present long lines of ancient sea-cliff, and bold scarped faces, fissured and jointed in every conceivable direction.

In the intervening lowlands is a deposit of dark yellow felspathic clay varying in depth from a few feet to eighty feet and more, derived from the degradation of the hills by water. Associated with this clay and of more recent date are superficial deposits of pudding-stone and river gravels. The intrusive igneous rocks show mainly in the form of dykes, seaming the stratified rocks; consequently volcanic action took place subsequent to their deposition, but it was also antecedent to the more recent of the superficial deposits. It is in immediate connection with those plutonic dykes that we find the deposits of arsenic and cinnabar, occupying the fissures produced in the stratified rocks by volcanic upheavals, and we are led to the conclusion that these mineral lodes were deposited after the cessation of the upheaval.

Gold occurs in the form of fine sand in the alluvial deposits, and in the gravel of the rivers over a great part of Sarawak; and also in pockets of the limestone, in which it has been allowed to fall by water. Nuggets are of extremely rare occurrence, but Sir Spencer St. John mentions having seen one of seven ounces taken from the auriferous clay at Krian near Bau. The gold dust is usually in a state of finest comminution. So far no gold reef has been come upon.

In former days gold was extensively washed by Chinese at Bau and Paku in Upper Sarawak, which auriferous district commences at the confluence of the two branches of the Sarawak river, and extends back to their sources and the boundary of Dutch Borneo. As gold and antimony were known to abound here, the Chinese of Sambas and the lower Kapuas had made several endeavours to establish themselves in the district, but were much harassed by the Malays until the accession of the late Rajah Brooke, which made it possible for them to settle there and pursue in peace their business of gold mining. Then gold was washed extensively, and the fine reservoirs and "leats" which the Chinese constructed to sluice the alluvial soil remain to this day. They increased and became a thriving community, but they were not sufficiently looked after, and, falling under the machinations of socialistic Secret Societies, gradually got out of hand and broke into open rebellion in 1857, as shall be related in the sequel. It is sufficient to say here that this ended in dire ruin to themselves, and that the few who escaped were driven over the borders; but it also ruined the gold-mining industry, and, though some of the rebels returned and others came with them, the industry never fully recovered, and later on it received a further check by the introduction of pepper planting, which gave the Chinese a more profitable occupation, and gradually Upper Sarawak became covered with gardens of this description. Though gold mining under the Chinese practically died out, modern scientific and engineering skill has now placed it in a far higher position than it had ever previously attained, or could have attained under the primitive methods of the previous workers.

Quicksilver was discovered in situ about the year 1871, by Messrs. Helms and Walters of the Borneo Company, who prospected over the whole of Sarawak Proper, and ultimately succeeded in tracking the small fragments of cinnabar that are scattered over the district to a hill on the right bank of the Staat river. The hill is called Tegora, and rises to an elevation of 800 feet. In the upper portion of this hill, the ore was found deposited capriciously in strains and pockets with here and there a little metallic mercury.9

In former years a large quantity of quicksilver was exported, but for some time this mineral product has ceased to appear as an item in the exports, the large deposit of cinnabar at Tegora having apparently been worked out. The existence of this mineral in other parts of the state is proved by traces found in several places, and the same may be said of antimony, of which there are indications of rich deposits; but the discovery of these minerals in paying quantities is a matter of chance. Antimony is still worked by the Borneo Company, Ltd., and a recent rise in the price has been an inducement to Chinese and Malay miners to increase the production, and the export of 1906 was more in quantity than it was in 1905, though small as compared with what it used to be.

Black bituminous coal, which occurs in the Tertiary strata, has been found in different parts, and two collieries are owned and worked by the Government, at Semunjan in the Sadong district, and at Brooketon. Several hundred Chinese are employed as miners under European supervision, and large sums have been expended upon machinery, etc.

Oil, a crude petroleum, has been discovered in two places; it is of good quality, and is an excellent lubricant.

It is not impossible, or indeed improbable, that diamond deposits in Sarawak will be found and exploited. No systematic operations in search of these precious stones have been attempted, the dense jungle which covers the country being an obstacle. The only people who wash for diamonds are the Malays, and these carry on their work in a very desultory and imperfect manner.

But agriculture and jungle produce have been, and will be, the main source of revenue to Sarawak, and prosperity to the country. We shall deal with these products, as well as with those that are mineral, more fully in a subsequent chapter.

The Bornean forest is so varied and so different at different hours and seasons that no description can possibly convey an adequate idea of it to those who have not known it. Infinite and ever changing are its aspects, as are the treasures it hides. Its beauties are as inexhaustible as the varieties of its productions. In the forest man feels singularly free. The more one wanders in it, the greater grows the sense of profound admiration before nature in one of its grandest aspects. The more one endeavours to study it, the more one finds in it to study. Its deep shades are sacred to the devotee of Science. Yet they afford ample food for the mind of the believer, not less than to that of the philosopher.10

And we would add, to the superstitious native, to whom the jungles teem with ghosts and spirits.

The Bornean jungles are full of life, and of the sounds of life, which are more marked in the early mornings and in the evenings. Birds are plentiful (there are some 800 species), some of beautiful plumage, but few are songsters. Insect life is very largely represented, and includes many varieties of the curious stick and leaf insects,11 hardly to be distinguished from the twigs and leaves they mimic. Also the noisy and never tiring cicadas, whose evening concerts are almost deafening, and frogs and grasshoppers who help to swell the din. There are many varieties of beautiful butterflies, but these are to be found more in the open clearings. Though there are no dangerous animals, there are many pests, the worst being the leeches, of which there are three kinds, two that lurk in the grass and bushes, the other being aquatic – the horse-leech. Mosquitoes, stinging flies, and ants are common, and the scorpion and centipede are there as well. Snakes, though numerous, are rarely seen, for they swiftly and silently retire on the approach of man, and one variety only, the hamadryad, the great cobra or snake-eating snake, is said to be aggressive. The varieties of land and water snakes are many, there being some 120 different species. Natives often fall victims to snake bites. Pythons attain a length of over twenty feet;12 they seldom attack man, though instances have been known of people having been killed by these reptiles, and the following story, taken from the Sarawak Gazette, will show how dangerous they can be. At a little village a man and his small son were asleep together. In the middle of the night the child shrieked out that he was being taken by a crocodile, and the father, to his horror, found that a snake had closed its jaws on the boy's head. With his hands he prised the reptile's jaws open and released his son; but in his turn he had to be rescued by some neighbours, for the python had wound itself around his body. Neither was much hurt.

Of the wild animals in Sarawak, wild cattle and the rhinoceros have nearly disappeared before their ruthless destroyer, man; and such would have been the fate of that huge, though harmless, anthropoid, the maias, or "orang-utan," at the hands of collectors, had not the Government placed a check upon them by limiting the number each may collect.13 Deer, the sambur, the muntjac or barking deer, and the little mouse-deer, and also wild pig, of which there are several species, abound.14 Numerous too are the monkeys and apes, and numerous are the species; the more peculiar of the former being the proboscis monkey, a species confined to Borneo, and of the latter the gentle gibbons, who announce the dawn, making the woods ring and echo with their melodious gurgling whoops. There are two kinds of diminutive bears, the tree-leopard, wild cat, the scaly ant-eater, the porcupine, the otter, the lemur, and other small animals, including the flying fox, flying squirrel, flying lizard, flying frog, a peculiar kind of rat with a tail which bears a close resemblance to a feather,15 and huge toads nine inches in height.16 But to the casual traveller in the dense jungle with but a limited view, excepting an occasional monkey, or a pig or deer startled from its lair, few of these animals will be visible.