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

After diving under the Chinese boat, the Rajah had swum across the creek, where he lay exhausted on the mud bank for a while, until sufficiently recovered to be able to reach the house of a Malay official, where shortly after he was joined by Mr. Crookshank and Mr. Middleton. The Mr. Nicholetts who was murdered before the eyes of the Rajah was a promising young officer, who had just arrived from Lundu on a visit, and was lodged in a cottage near the Rajah's house.216 Startled from his sleep by the yells of the Chinese, he rushed from his door, when the rebels fell on him, hacked off his head, and, putting it on a pike, paraded the town with it, shouting that they had killed the Rajah himself.

Imminent as their own danger was, the Malays did not forget the Rajah, and a gallant little band led by Haji Bua Hasan, then the Datu Imaum, hastened to his aid, though they were too late; and they had to fight their way back.

"The other attacks," says Mr. St. John, "took place simultaneously. Mr. and Mrs. Crookshank, rushing forth on hearing this midnight alarm, were cut down – the latter left for dead, the former seriously wounded. The constable's house was attacked, but he and his wife escaped, while their two children and an English lodger were killed by the insurgents. Here occurred a scene which shows how barbarous were the Chinese. When the rebels burst into Mr. Middleton's house, he fled, and his wife following found herself in the bathroom, and by the shouts was convinced that her retreat was cut off. In the meantime the Chinese had seized her two children, and brought the eldest down into the bathroom to show the way his father had escaped. Mrs. Middleton's only refuge was a large water-jar; there she heard the poor little boy questioned, pleading for his life, and heard his shriek when the fatal sword was raised which severed his head from his body. The fiends kicked the little head with loud laughter from one to another. They then set fire to the house, and she distinctly heard the second child shrieking as they tossed him into the flames. Mrs. Middleton remained in the jar till the falling embers forced her to leave. She then got into a neighbouring pond, and thus escaped the eyes of the Chinese, who were frantically rushing about the burning house. Her escape was most extraordinary.217

"The stockades, however, were not surprised. The Chinese, waiting for the signal of attack on the houses, were at length perceived by the sentinel, and he immediately roused the treasurer, Mr. Crymble, who resided in the stockade, which contained the arsenal and the prison. He endeavoured to make some preparation for defence, although he had but four Malays with him. He had scarcely time, however, to load a 6-pounder field-piece, and get his own rifle ready, before the Chinese with loud shouts rushed to the assault. They were led by a man bearing in each hand a flaming torch. Mr. Crymble waited until they were within forty yards, he then fired and killed the man who, by the light he bore, made himself conspicuous, and, before the crowd recovered from the confusion in which they were thrown by the fall of their leader, discharged among them the 6-pounder loaded with grape, which made the assailants retire behind the neighbouring houses, or hide in the outer ditches. But, with four men, little could be done; and some of the rebels having quietly crossed the inner ditch, commenced removing the planks which constituted the only defence. To add to the difficulty, they threw over into the inner court little iron tripods, with flaming torches attached, which rendered it as light as day, while they remained shrouded in darkness.

"To increase the number of the defenders, Mr. Crymble released two Malay prisoners, one a madman who had killed his wife, the other a debtor. This latter quickly disappeared, while the former, regardless of the shot flying around, stood to the post assigned him, opposite a plank which the Chinese were trying to remove. He had orders to fire his carbine at the first person who appeared, and, the plank giving way, a man attempted to force his body through, he pulled the trigger without lowering the muzzle of his carbine, and sent the ball through his own brains. Mr. Crymble now found it useless to prolong the struggle, as one of his few men was killed, and another, a brave Malay corporal, was shot down at his side. The wounded man begged Mr. Crymble to fly and leave him there, but asked to shake hands with him first, and tell him whether he had not done his duty. The brave Irishman seized him by the arm and attempted to drag him up the stairs leading to the dwelling over the gate, but the Chinese had already gained the courtyard, and pursuing them, drove their spears through the wounded man, and Mr. Crymble was forced to let go his hold, and with a brave follower, Daud, swung himself down into the ditch below. Some of the rebels, seeing their attempt to escape, tried to stop Mr. Crymble, and a man stabbed at him, but only glanced his thick frieze coat, and received in return a cut across the face from the Irishman's cutlass, which was a remembrance to carry to the grave.

"The other stockade, though it had been but a corporal's watch of three Malays, did not surrender, but finding that every other place was in the hands of the Chinese, the brave defenders opened their gates and, charging the crowd of rebels, sword in hand, made their escape, though they were all severely wounded in the attempt.

"The confusion which reigned throughout the rest of the town may be imagined, as, startled by the shouts and yells of the Chinese, the inhabitants rushed to the doors and windows, and beheld night turned into day by the bright flames which rose in three directions, where the Rajah's, Mr. Crookshank's, and Mr. Middleton's houses were all burning at the same time."

Those English whose dwellings had not been attacked gathered in the Mission-house, to the number of six men with eight or more children. All the men had guns, and it was resolved that they should endeavour to keep the Chinese back till the ladies had made their escape into the jungle. The Bishop, armed like the rest, gave his blessing to the whole party that united in brief prayer; but with the first streaks of daylight a party of seven Chinese came to the Mission-house, saying that their quarrel was with the Government only, and not with the English generally. They requested the Bishop to go with them to the hospital to attend to some thirteen or fourteen218 of their men who had been wounded in the attack upon the fort.

The Rajah as soon as possible proceeded to the Datu Bandar's house, and being quickly joined by his English officers, endeavoured to organise a force to surprise the victorious Chinese, but it was impossible. No sooner did he collect a few men than their wives and children surrounded them and refused to be left, – and being without proper arms or ammunition, it was but a panic-stricken mob; so he instantly took his determination with that decision which had been the foundation of his success, and giving up the idea of an immediate attack, advised the removal of the women and children to the left-hand bank of the river, where they would be safe from a land attack of the Chinese, who could make their way along the right-hand bank by a road at the back of the town.219

By the morning the women and children had been moved across, and the Rajah and his officers, having been joined by Abang Buyong220 and some armed Malays, proceeded to the Samarahan, intending to go on to the Batang Lupar, and fall back on the well-equipped forts there to organise a force to drive out the rebels.

The next morning the Chinese chiefs summoned the Bishop; Mr. L. V. Helms, Manager of the Borneo Company Limited; Mr. Rupell, a merchant, and the Datu Bandar, to appear before them in the Court-house. Seated on the Rajah's chair, the head Chief, supported by his secretaries, issued his orders that Mr. Helms and Mr. Rupell were to rule the foreign portion of the town, and the Datu Bandar the Malays, under the Kongsi as supreme rulers. The Bishop now warned the Chinese that they were playing a desperate game, that the Tuan Muda would be coming down upon them, with his host of Sekrang and Balau warriors, to avenge the death of his uncle and his friends – for most of them supposed the Rajah dead. Discouragement fell upon the Chinese, for they remembered that the Tuan Muda was the daring and popular leader of the Sea-Dayaks, and could bring many thousands of these wild warriors against them. They therefore decided to send him a letter to the effect that they would not interfere with him so long as he did not interfere with them, and confined himself to the districts under his government.

The leaders also knowing that the Rajah was not killed, had offered a large reward for his capture, dead or alive, for what he was preparing they knew not. They were now doubly anxious to leave Kuching with their plunder, they therefore called upon the Europeans and the Malay chiefs present to swear fidelity to the Kongsi, and this they were forced to do under fear of instant death.

The next day at noon the Chinese retired up-river with their boats heavily laden with cannon, rifles, plate, money, and all the valuables upon which they could lay their hands. The Malay chiefs at once held a meeting at the Datu Bandar's house, when sturdy Abang Pata, the Datu Temanggong's son, avowed his determination to remain faithful to the Rajah and at once to wreck vengeance on his enemies. Though all were as faithful, wiser counsels prevailed, the Malays being so scattered, conveying their women and children to places of safety, that no organised attack could yet be made; but Pata impetuously dashed off with a dozen men in a small canoe, and following the Chinese, captured one of their boats, killing five of the crew. This, and the news reaching them that the Malays were preparing to resist, brought the Chinese back, recruited by several hundreds from Upper Sarawak, and the agriculturists of Segobang, whom they had forced to join them, and when the Rajah returned at the earnest request of the chiefs to lead them against the Chinese, a request he complied with, though he knew it was useless, he found the rest of the English flying, the town in the hands of the Chinese, and the Malay houses burning.

As soon as the Chinese boats were seen rounding the point above the town, the Malays gallantly dashed at them, and succeeded in capturing ten of their largest barges. They were, however, pressed back by the more numerous and better armed Chinese, and, though they lost heavily, they doggedly retreated retaining their prizes, which were laden with valuable plunder, and, what was of more use to them, a quantity of arms and ammunition, and secured them to a large trading vessel anchored in the centre of the river. Here they maintained a determined resistance, which they were now better able to do, and effectually defied the Chinese to dislodge them. They were commanded by the Datu Bandar Muhammad Lana, a grave and gentle Malay, who now showed the courage of his father, the late Datu Patinggi Ali. The Chinese still held the town in force.

The Rajah was again forced to retire, to carry out his original intention of rallying his people up the coast, but his first care was to see to the safety of the ladies, the English non-combatants, and the wounded, and to send them off to safety at Lingga fort under the care of the Bishop in a schooner. Despondently he prepared next day to follow with a small flotilla of Malay boats, but at the mouth of the river, to his intense relief, the Borneo Company's steamer, the Sir James Brooke, arriving from Singapore, met them. The vanguard of the Tuan Muda's force, which was quickly coming to his relief, was also arriving, and now the tide had changed, and the day of reckoning had come.

The sight of the steamer and the Dayak bangkongs eagerly following was quite sufficient for the Chinese. They fired one wild volley, and fled panic-stricken, with the ships' guns playing on them, and pursued by the Dayaks and Malays.

The Datu Bandar's gallant band on board the trader and in war-boats around her had stood their ground in spite of heavy guns having been brought to bear upon them, and they now assumed the offensive. The Chinese, that morning, had crossed the river to destroy the Malay town on the other side; their boats were now seized, and the Dayaks pursued them into the jungle. Of that large party, not one can have escaped. Those who were not killed wandered into the jungle and died of starvation, or hanged themselves. Their bodies were eagerly sought for, as on many were found from five to twenty pounds sterling, besides silver spoons, forks, or other valuables, the plunder of the English houses.

The main body of the Chinese retired by road to Segobang, and from thence up-river in their boats.

We have already recorded how the news had been brought to the Tuan Muda at Sekrang, and how he hurried with his Dayaks to the Rajah's rescue, to find him safe and in good health, though crippled by the injuries he had received, on board the Sir James Brooke, which he had made his headquarters. Kuching was wrecked – "a mass of ashes, and confusion and ruin lay around. Half-habitable débris of houses only were left. The trees for many hundred yards around the fires were nearly all burnt black and leafless, and those remaining alive were drooping," so the Tuan Muda wrote, and we will now follow his account of the retribution which the rebels so deservedly met.

To check the pursuing boats of the Dayaks and Malays, the Chinese had thrown up a strong stockade at Lidah Tanah (lit. the tongue of land), a point of land at the junction of the right and left hand branches of the river. Here they placed a picked garrison under trusted leaders, and the stockade was well armed with guns and rifles that had been taken from Kuching.

A small force of Malays, and several hundreds of Sekrang and Saribas Dayaks were organised to attack it, and the mild Datu Bandar, in his new rôle of a redoubtable warrior, led them with such dash that the position was soon carried. Amongst the trophies that were brought back by the Dayaks the Chinese merchants recognised the heads of some of the principal leaders of the rebels, and showed marked satisfaction that such was the case.

The Rajah and the Tuan Muda then pushed on to Belidah, about eight miles above Lidah Tanah. Here the fort was found to have been destroyed, the rebels having left little behind them in their retreat but desolation and misery. The Malays and Dayaks were then despatched under Abang Buyong to attack the Chinese, but these latter were in full retreat from Bau, and their other villages, towards the border; once across they would be safe:

but the dogs of war were at their heels, harassing and cutting them off at every opportunity. Their plan of retreat was very skilfully arranged, and a fanatical idea of the infallibility of their Joss (idol), which they carried with them, kept them in order. We were helpless to a certain extent, in being unable to gather together an organised force, or we should have routed them without doubt, and fearful loss of life would have been the consequence. In looking back on these events, it was perhaps fortunate that we were not able to act more unitedly against them, but if it had been within our power at that time, the Joss undoubtedly would have been overturned, and the people exterminated. The most merciful of men could not deny that they had richly merited such a punishment. They protected this image with the utmost caution, keeping their women and children around it, while their bravest men acted as a guard on the outside. They had advanced a considerable distance before the Dayaks approached. The Dayak leaders on closing were at once shot down. This made the others more cautious. But the Chinamen had our best rifles and arms, with all the necessary accoutrements belonging to them. The Dayaks then changed their tactics, and did not dare appear in the open road again, but entered the jungle on each side of the enemy, and thus harassed them continually, cutting off every straggler without mercy. The Chinamen were powerless to follow these wild cat-like fellows into the close jungles, and were obliged to submit to their fate as best they might. The road over which the rebels were retreating was one continued track of clothes, valuables, silver plate, and dead bodies. To enable their retreating force to gain a few minutes whilst passing precipitous places, they strewed the road with rice, and threw here and there a valuable article to retard and keep off their pursuers. This continued for several successive days, during which the Chinese must have suffered intensely. They were not even able to cook or sleep by night or day. They now arrived at a point which must have ended their career, if it had been properly held. This was Gombang Hill, which forms the frontier between Sambas and Sarawak: here was a long Dayak house, past which the Chinese could not go unless the inhabitants were favourably disposed to them;221—

but these suffered themselves to be bribed into permitting the rebels to pass unmolested. Thus the survivors of the Chinese escaped into Sambas territory.

But no sooner were they there than those of the Chinese who did not belong to the Secret Society, filled with resentment against the members of that league for having involved them in such disaster, fell upon them, and killed many of them, reducing the hundred of the original band of 600, who had survived the muskets and spears of the Dayaks, to between thirty and forty. To add to their discomfiture, the Dutch officers came upon them and despoiled them of all the arms and plunder they had succeeded in bringing with them, and placed them under strict surveillance. The Dutch Government sent back to Kuching everything which was considered to be public or private property.222

How many of the rebels were killed it has not been possible to estimate, but it could not have been far short of 1000. Sir Spenser estimates that 2000, of which half were women and children, escaped over the borders, but this is probably an under-estimate.

"It was the madness," wrote the Rajah, "the stark staring folly of the attempt that caused it to succeed. With mankind in general we may trust to their not doing anything utterly opposed to reason; but this rule does not hold good with the Chinese," who in their blindness of consequences become daring and audacious, and, when possessed of power, contemptuous of their adversaries, but who lose spirit on the first reverse.

April 15, witnessed the closing scene of the drama. A prahu gaily decorated with flags and the yellow umbrella, the symbol of authority, went up and down the river. A gong was beaten, and then a man, standing among the flags and umbrella, proclaimed peace, and announced that all danger was at an end, and that every one might now put away his arms.

On March 28, when peace had been restored, H.M.S. Spartan arrived, under Captain Sir William Hoste, from Singapore, with instructions to protect British lives and property, but with no orders to fire a gun, or to lend a marine or blue-jacket for the protection of the Sarawak Government. There was no knowing what the humanitarians at home might say, should a finger be held out to assist the Rajah. Those who lifted up their voices to justify the pirates might now espouse the cause of the Chinese, and again be loud in condemnation of the Rajah for having summarily suppressed the insurrection. There will always be found a man, as says Cordatus in Ben Jonson's Every Man out of his Humour, "who will prefer all countries before his native," and thinks every man right except an Englishman.

The Dutch Resident at Pontianak behaved very differently from the English authorities. He at once sent a gunboat and troops to Sarawak with offers of assistance, which, however, were not then required.

The rebellion was "the direct outcome of the loss of prestige and strength which followed the appointment of the Commission sent to try the Rajah for high crimes and misdemeanours, the favourable findings of which had never been brought home to the native mind by any act of reparation made by the British Government."223 The Chinese knew that the Rajah had been left to his fate by his country, and, as The Times commented, —

had they (the Chinese) had the opportunity of reading recent debates in the British Parliament, their more subtle spirits might have received further encouragement from the belief that we were not only an ultra-peaceful, but an ultra-punctilious people, and that the cutting of Rajah Brooke's throat and the burning of the town might be considered matters beyond our cognizance, until the precise colonial status of Sarawak was determined, and whether a Kunsi Chinese (sic, Chinese Kongsi) was under the jurisdiction of any British court.

And, the Daily News, which through ignorance of the true circumstances had voiced the hostile opinion of the cranks against the Rajah in the matter of the suppression of the Saribas and Sekrang pirates, was candid enough to admit

having in the earlier part of Sir James Brooke's career felt it our duty to express our dissent from, and disapproval of, certain parts of his policy, we have sincere pleasure in proclaiming our unreserved admiration of the manner in which he must have exercised his power to have produced such fruits.

But it was precisely that part of his policy that had been condemned by Mr. Gladstone and the Daily News which had produced these present marked effects.

The condition of the Sarawak Government was now serious, and surrounded with difficulties. The revenue was gone. There was not a shred of a document extant to tell the tale of former times. So complete was the ruin that the Rajah had to wear native costume, which he borrowed here and there.

But there was a bright spot amid the gloom, in the devotion of the natives; their sympathy, their kindness, their entire willingness to do what they could, are all balm to a wounded spirit. We have lost everything but the hearts of the people, and that is much to retain.224

The fidelity of the natives of all races and classes was exemplary. They everywhere took up arms to support the Rajah and their Government, and had the Chinese been twenty times as numerous, they would have been driven out.

The whole of the Rajah's private capital had been long ago exhausted, and how were the ruins to be cleared away and the Government buildings to be rebuilt? how were the servants of the State to be paid? Nevertheless the Rajah and his staff faced their difficulties with courage and confidence; but, deserted by the British Government, he was sorely tempted to appeal to that of another power. Happily, after a period of discouragement and resentment, he resolved to face his difficulties, relying only on himself and his few English assistants. He had on his right and left hand two stout and able men, his two nephews.

Within a short period many of the Chinese refugees, particularly those of the agricultural class, returned and rebuilt their old homes. Gradually their numbers were added to by others from over the border, from the Straits, and from China, until in time Upper Sarawak recovered its former prosperity. The severe lesson they had learnt, which had taught them how powerless they were to cope with the forces at the call of the Government, that were not represented merely by a handful of fortmen and policemen as they had blindly imagined, did not, however, deter them from forming another Hueh, which decreased and increased in strength in proportion to the number of people in the district. But the power of the Government has been steadily growing, and what chance the Hueh may have ever hoped to obtain of successfully opposing it has long ago vanished. Dangerous and mischievous, however, these secret societies can still be, unless vigilantly watched and swiftly suppressed, and the Chinese population in Upper Sarawak has since increased five-fold.

For years the Bau Hueh remained dormant, though it had a perfect organisation, but in 1869 it raised its hand in opposition to the Government, and barbarously murdered an informer. Mr. Crookshank, who was administering the Government in the absence of the present Rajah, took prompt and energetic measures, and all the headmen of the Hueh were arrested. They were condemned to long terms of imprisonment and to be flogged. When their terms had expired they were banished the country under a penalty of death should they return; but the Hueh in Dutch Borneo, of which this was a branch, immediately re-organised the Society and appointed other office-bearers. Unfortunately the register and records of this Hueh could not be found. They had been cleverly concealed in the double-planked floor of a bed-place which had been overturned in the search.