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

Indifference to the fate of Sarawak had been openly expressed by the British Government; consequently no helping hand had been proffered, though the troubles with which the State was beset were well known. Even the presence of a man-of-war, though she lent no active support, would have exercised great moral effect. "Sarawak has been encouraged and betrayed,"251 in mournful anger wrote the Rajah, "England has betrayed us beyond all doubt, and in the time of urgent peril cares nothing whether we perish or survive."

In April, Captain Brooke, the Tuan Besar, returned to Sarawak and resumed his duties as head of the Government. His brother's arrival released the Tuan Muda from his duties at the capital, and left him free to devote his time to the more active work yet to be done in the provinces, where his presence was needed to reassure the people; and there were still the refractory Dayaks of the Serikei and Nyalong to be subjected, and Rentap to be smoked out of his lair.

Tunjang's fate is not recorded. The Dutch offered to deliver him up for punishment, but it was left to them to deal with him, and no doubt they dealt severely. The Datu Haji died at Malacca, and Bandar Kasim in Kuching. The confiscation of his property was deemed sufficient punishment, but he was not permitted to return to Sadong. The last phase of Sherip Masahor is recorded in the next chapter.

We will now briefly follow the Rajah's movements in England, whither he had gone mainly for a rest, which was, however, denied him. To add to the mental worries caused by intense desire to safeguard the future of his adopted country, he was visited by a grave bodily affliction.

His reception by Court and by Ministers was more cordial than on his previous visit to England, and he was publicly entertained at Liverpool and Manchester, but shortly afterwards he was struck down by a stroke of paralysis. Though some months passed before he recovered his bodily strength, the vigour of his mind remained unimpaired.

In his efforts to obtain protection he was backed by many influential friends, and by public bodies. The Birmingham Chamber of Commerce memorialised the Government to restore the protection afforded to Sarawak up to 1851, and a large and influential deputation, representing the mercantile interests of Liverpool, Manchester, Glasgow, and, to some extent, London, with several members of Parliament, waited upon Lord Derby with the same object. Lord Derby's refusal was severely commented upon by the Times, and it occasioned a difference in the Cabinet. The subject would again have been entertained, had not the Government shortly afterwards gone out on their Reform Bill.252

The Rajah was left with but little hope. He felt that the Government of both parties desired to be rid of Sarawak, and that the country was indifferent; moreover he was fully assured that Sarawak could not stand alone. England failing, Holland was tried, but "Holland," he writes, "declares openly that there is an understanding the country shall fall to them after my death." Then France was tried; and the protection of France, the Rajah was of opinion, could have been gained had the Tuan Besar been whole-hearted in the negotiations. But the Tuan Besar did not share the Rajah's opinion that Sarawak could not maintain its independence unsupported, and disliked the idea of handing the country over to a Foreign Power, and in this he was supported by the Tuan Muda. The Rajah wisely gave way to what has since proved to be the better judgment of his nephews, and he wrote to the Tuan Muda, "as my views for Sarawak are at an end, and as we are now to run the risk, with a rational prospect of success, to sustain the Government I will loyally and cheerfully work to falsify my own convictions. Time brings changes, and may work upon the British Government. But it was a fatal mistake to let slip an opportunity of safety, recognition, and permanency,253 and to allow an English prejudice to interfere with Sarawak. However, it is past, and the juncture requires union, and united we will cheerily work," – and time was very shortly to work on the British Government in favour of Sarawak.

But pecuniary failure was also staring Sarawak in the face. The Borneo Company, Limited, suffering under severe losses consequent on the Chinese insurrection and the continued disturbed state of the country, were losing heart; they considered it advisable to withdraw from Sarawak, and such a step on their part would have been fatal to the investment of further British capital in the country. In the next place, the Rajah was being pressed for repayment of a large sum of money, which, for the purposes of the Government, he had found it necessary to borrow after the ruin caused by the Chinese insurrection. But "the Borneo Company persevered, and has long since reaped the benefit of so doing,"254 and a kind and ever staunch friend, Miss (afterwards Baroness) Burdett-Coutts, relieved him of his pressing debt by a loan free of interest. She further advanced the money to purchase a steamer, a very urgent need, and the Rajah bought a little vessel which he named the Rainbow– "the emblem of hope," and never was a rainbow after a storm more welcome. Of her the Tuan Muda wrote that "she was welcomed as a god-send of no ordinary description, whereby communication could be quickly carried on and outposts relieved or reinforced within a short time. She was the small piece of iron and machinery which could carry Sarawak's flag, and raise the name of the Government in the minds of the people along the coast."

A testimonial to the Rajah had also been raised by public subscription "as a simple, earnest, and affectionate testimony of friends to a noble character and disinterested services – services which, instead of enriching, had left their author broken by illness and weariness of heart, with threatening poverty."255 With a portion of this fund he purchased Burrator, a small estate in the parish of Sheepstor, on the fringe of Dartmoor, in Devon. It was then very much out of the world, having no station nearer than Plymouth, some miles off, and the intervening roads were steep, narrow, and bad. The situation is singularly picturesque; a moorland village, with a church of granite under the bold tor that gives its name to the place. Its wildness and seclusion charmed him, and there he settled in June, 1859, "trusting to live in retirement, in peace; but there is no peace for me with Sarawak in such a state," for the news of the Malay conspiracies caused him further distress of mind, and he resolved to return to Sarawak.

CHAPTER VIII

MUKA

In 1856, the Honourable G. W. Edwardes had been appointed Governor of Labuan; Mr. Spenser St. John being Consul-General at Bruni. The Governor was known to have imbibed all the prejudices and antipathies fostered in England by Mr. Gladstone and his tail; and he was eager in everything to hamper the development of the little State of Sarawak. He was not, however, authorised to interfere in the relations between Bruni and Sarawak, nor in the internal affairs of these States, where he had no jurisdiction; but when the Consul-General left on leave early in 1860, the Consular Office was handed over to him, and he was then placed in a position to give vent to his bias, and, as Sir Spenser St. John remarks, "he was delighted to get a chance of giving a blow to Sarawak." With regard to Sherip Masahor, "he acted against his better judgment," and with regard to the subsequent events at Muka "against the strong advice of his own experienced officers."256

Sherip Masahor, after having been driven out of Sarawak, retired to Muka, and, having established his family and numerous followers there, passed on to Bruni to lay his case before the Sultan. Consul-General St. John was then on the point of leaving, but before his departure he received information from the Sultan which left little doubt "that Masahor had instigated the murder of – had, in fact, by his paid agents, murdered – Messrs. Fox and Steele."257 On his way to England Mr. St. John visited Kuching, and there obtained evidence which quite convinced him of the Sherip's guilt, and he then wrote to the Sultan, calling upon him to deliver up the Sherip to the Sarawak Government. But this letter passing into acting Consul-General Edwardes' hands was suppressed by him. He had seen the plausible Sherip, who had been sent to him by the Sultan, and not only declined to believe in his guilt, but advised the Sultan that his detention was not justifiable, and that he should be permitted to return to Muka; there to watch and if needs be oppose the aggression of the Rajah's nephews. To add fuel to the flame, he led the Sultan to believe that prosperous Sarawak would soon be restored to Bruni – a tempting prospect for the covetous and plundering nobles.

Writing to the Tuan Besar, under date July 4, 1860, Governor Edwardes says: —

After careful consideration of the documents sent, and examination of the case, I am unable to arrive at the conviction that Sherip Masahor is guilty of instigating the murders of Messrs. Fox and Steele, or of such complicity to justify me to induce his Highness to surrender him.

His Highness, and the Rajahs, have expressed the most earnest desire to further the ends of justice, and to afford every assistance to the Sarawak Government. I have full confidence in their sincerity.

I have not hesitated to inform his Highness and the Rajahs that I consider the evidence insufficient and that he (Sherip Masahor) could not with justice be surrendered.

As regards the Tuan Muda's actions in attacking and driving Sherip Masahor out of Sarawak, Mr. Edwardes wrote that these "have greatly prejudiced the British name and character in this country, and have engendered a strong feeling of hostility to this colony (Labuan)."

In obedience to instructions the poor Sherip had gone to Kuching from Serikei, taking certain Government monies and properties. In the Sarawak river he had met the Tuan Muda coming down, and he then received orders to follow him and join in an attack on Sadong. He obeyed, and on entering the Sadong river brought up and anchored, the Tuan Muda going on. The same evening the Tuan Muda dropped down, anchored close to his prahu, sent and borrowed his small boat, and the next morning unexpectedly fired upon him. This is the story the Sherip told the Governor at Bruni, and this is the story the Governor found it suitable to his purpose to believe, though he hoped it was not true, and that he would be able "to clear away so great a stain upon the British name."258

The energetic Sherip, before he left Muka had stirred up his brother-in-law, the sleepy Pangiran Nipa, in charge there, to reconstruct and strengthen the defences of the place, and there he was joined by his Igan and Segalang people. No Sarawak traders were allowed to enter the port to obtain raw sago, and the Muka people were forbidden to have any commercial dealings with Kuching. A vessel chartered by a Madras trader, a British subject, was prohibited under the heaviest penalties from entering the Sarawak river, and two of his companions, also British subjects, were detained as hostages against his doing so. A fleet of twenty-five Sarawak vessels had been forced to collect at Bruit, permission having been refused to enter Muka to load sago; and the sago factories in Kuching were rendered idle.

From Bruni two agents had arrived at Muka, the Bandari Samsu and Makoda Muhammad, whose sole business was to spread false reports for the purpose of stirring up feelings of hostility against the English in Sarawak. A spear (the usual token of a call to arms) had been sent through the Sea-Dayak countries under Sarawak rule by the Sherip to order the Dayaks in the names of the Bruni Rajahs to repair to Muka, and that would have led to the coast, from Rejang to Bintulu, under the Sultan's rule, being ravaged by thousands of Dayaks, and the heads taken of every man, woman, and child met by them; fortunately, however, the Sarawak officials were able to keep the Dayaks in.

The Tuan Muda had received a letter from the Pangiran Temanggong couched in the most friendly terms, repudiating the acts of Nipa, and informing him that the Muka river was to be opened for trade to all alike; but in the meantime the Bruni Court, always playing a double game, had despatched the two agents above mentioned, with an order that the Sarawak nakodas were not to be allowed to fly the Sarawak flag at Muka, nor to trade directly with the Muka people, but only through the Bruni Pangirans.

Acting upon the Temanggong's assurance, the Sarawak vessels had gone to Muka, but off the mouth the nakodas had been warned that they would be fired on if they entered, and the bearer of a friendly letter from the Tuan Besar to the Pangiran Nipa was refused admittance. With the aid of the Temanggong's letter, the Tuan Besar determined to try by friendly negotiations to get Pangiran Nipa to be reasonable, and failing that to send the Tuan Muda on to Bruni to complain to the Sultan.

In June, 1860, they anchored off the bar, and a Sambas Malay, the nakoda of a vessel flying Dutch colours, was commissioned to take in a letter saying that the Tuan Besar had come as a friend, and as bearer of a letter from the Pangiran Temanggong of Bruni, to the effect that Muka was not to be closed to Sarawak traders. No reply was vouchsafed, and with telescopes it was observed from the gunboats that earthworks were being thrown up at the mouth of the river. The Tuan Besar then decided to take up the message himself, and two small boats were sent in to sound the bar, upon which a large war prahu came out and fired at them. This was a declaration of war, and the Tuan Besar resolved to let them have what they invoked.

The following is an account of the affair as given by the Tuan Muda in his book, Ten Years in Sarawak, 1866:

We plainly perceived that the enemy was preparing in earnest for opposition. Temporary stockades were being erected at the entrance and many hundreds of people were collecting heaps of wood in various places on the shore; these were to be burnt, and their intention was to raise a strong breeze to drive us from our anchors and drift us on to the coast. The idea of the effect was correct, that excess of heat would produce a vacuum, and cause an inshore current of air. However, their fires were not sufficient, and the expected effect did not follow.

The town of Muka lies about two miles up the river of the same name, and is situated on both banks of that river and of another, the Telian, smaller in volume, that here flows into it. At the mouth was not only the usual bar, the channel through which had been staked to obstruct the entrance, but also a long sandy finger of land on the north side, which at that time deflected the tortuous stream. Behind the gunboats was a fleet of traders impatient to enter and obtain their cargoes; for which they were more eager than for exposure to danger.

We had received an announcement of a large party among the enemy being in favour of at once making peaceful overtures; and even the headman's brother, Pangiran Lada, advised the opening of their river, and admission of our boats to trade; but the headman himself, Pangiran Nipa, was firm in the grasp of Sherip Masahor's mother and sister, who were hostile to any approach to friendly relations. Many of our people had relatives among the enemy, some even had wives living in Muka. A council of war was held on board the Venus259 in the evening, at which all the chiefs and Europeans were present. It was decided that an advance should be made next morning for the entrance to the Muka river. A landing party was appointed to cut off the narrow point which extends to the mouth. By landing there and making a demonstration, the enemy would give up their lower stockade, and the pinnaces might then have free ingress over the bar and through the narrow channel.

The Tuan Besar took charge of the landing party, which, however, could not effect much, as it was so small, and a despatch was sent off to Kuching to hurry up reinforcements. The Tuan Muda was in command of the little fleet of three small gunboats.

Morning came, and we were on the alert before the sun had given any signs of approaching the horizon, and within a few minutes we were gliding along (the Tuan Muda aboard the Venus), with a light though full breeze steering to the nearest point for crossing the bar; then we again came to anchor. Our first work was to draw the spikes, which were soon shaken with bowline knots let down to their base. We opened a passage wide enough for an entry, and with one boat in tow we advanced towards the mouth. The sea was as calm as a pond, and the morning bright without a cloud. We had crossed over the bar with only six inches under our keel, and a stake had dragged along under our bottom without doing injury even to the copper.

One boat, commanded by a gallant native, Penglima Seman (who has so often been mentioned before), was ahead of us, and drawing towards the enemy's stockades, at which we opened fire directly we were within range. The enemy soon abandoned this position and made off up the river as fast as boats would carry them. We then entered the river, and anchored about half-way between the mouth and the enemy's fortifications to await further orders, and become better acquainted with the position of what forts and obstacles they might have thrown in our way, to allow time also for the remainder of our flotilla to join us. We inspected the enemy's fortifications in the afternoon, and found that they were holding a high and formidable-looking stockaded house of two stories, the lower having port-holes for large guns, and the upper pierced with small apertures for the firing of lelahs (brass ordnance of native manufacture). There were also small stockades, protected with sacks full of raw sago.

The position was well chosen, and had thorough command of a long reach in the river. A few yards below the fort were two large booms fastened across the river, with no apparent passage for boats to pass through.

A landing party was despatched in the morning to reconnoitre the enemy's position, and a temporary enclosure was then thrown up by our party beyond the range of the enemy's guns, to form a basis for active operations, from which nearer stockades could be fed and watched, —

that is to say, advanced stockades could be thrown up and kept supplied with men and ammunition.

The Tuan Besar was at the head of two hundred men, but on a good many of these no reliance could be placed. After having established a basis of operations on the spit of land at the mouth, he was to advance in the direction of the town. This was done, and as the force approached it was saluted with fire from the guns in the stockades and houses, but that did little damage, and the party set to work intrenching itself. "Nearly the first shot fired entered a prog-basket and smashed a bottle of gin. A few only were wounded, and the escape from further casualties was surprising."

The Tuan Muda was now resolved on running the gauntlet past the town, up the river, so as to place it between himself and the land force under the Tuan Besar, whose position was in danger. It would be a hazardous as well as a daring attempt, but he prepared for it in an ingenious manner, by constructing a stockade round the Venus. Long beams were placed across the schooner, and to them a framework was attached horizontally, and upon this frame a stockade was erected, screening the deck and the sides to the water's edge, so that the Venus assumed the appearance of a monstrous "Jack in the Green" or haystack. The thick planks reached to five feet above the bulwarks, and were pierced with holes through which the guns could play on the enemy's fortified houses as the Venus drifted up-stream with the tide. This took two days to accomplish. Meanwhile on shore the land party had thrown up a bank for protection, and further the natives had dug pits about two feet deep in which they lay after duty, and were thus completely protected from the enemy's shot.

But no progress up the river could be effected till the booms had been removed, and this would not be an easy matter, as they were commanded by the forts. It could be effected only at night, and by expert and daring swimmers. The Tuan Muda, Pangiran Matusin, and a nakoda, undertook the task. Under cover of the darkness, in a small canoe, they stole softly up the bank, unobserved, and then the pangiran and nakoda entering the water, with their swords set to work to sever the rattans that held the booms in place. These rattans had been twisted together to the thickness of a hawser cable, and had to be cut under water. It was an anxious time for the Tuan Muda, as any moment might have brought a volley on their heads.

In an hour they were severed. Towards the latter part of the time, the enemy were on the alert, and one boom moved slightly with the tide, when a few harmless shots ensued, which we heard pass over our heads among the leaves. At length the two men returned, and the enemy cried out, "Our booms are adrift," and forthwith banged away, but never caught sight of us. Matusin was so exhausted that I had to assist him into the boat, and at first I thought he was wounded.

The tide was ebbing, and the booms, now disengaged, floated downwards towards the sea. The passage was clear for the venture upwards of the Venus. Messrs. Watson and John Channon accompanied the Tuan Muda, who had a crew of nine Europeans, besides the Malay complement.

On that night the attempt was to be made, anchor to be raised half an hour before midnight, when the tide was flowing. Happily the weather favoured, as a thick mist and drizzling rain set in.

We triced up the awnings and up anchor, when the tide swept us on so swiftly that I soon found it would be hopeless trying to turn the vessel, so we drifted stern first, with two oars out on each side to assist in steering. Our guns were loaded and ready, and not a voice was to be heard as we silently and swiftly drifted along. I stood on the top of the stockade to pilot the vessel. We were soon off the camp (of the land force under the Tuan Besar), from which I was hailed to look out as the enemy would fire on us directly. I replied "All right," and then stepped on deck to be under cover. Just as I was so doing, a shot was fired from the bank close abreast of us. Another five minutes, and we were fairly in the fray. I heard the enemy call "Look out, the pinnace is drifting up," and they blazed on us volley after volley, as we lay within five or six yards of their fortifications. Watson watched to fire as the enemy opened their ports, but the haze was far too dense for us to discern anything at all; I soon found, however, that we were not progressing, and had fouled something. We swung to and fro, at times close under the enemy's guns, and then away into the centre of the stream.

We let go our anchor and hauled it up again, but all to no purpose, and we were at a loss to know what had fouled us. We then laid out a kedge and hove it home, without moving clear, and every now and then we blazed our 6-pounder of grape into the enemy, while they peppered us incessantly. The position was far from pleasant with guns banging all around and the fog and smoke so dense as to preclude a possibility of making out our position. At length I found that a large rattan made fast to one of the booms which had been cut adrift was holding us. The rattan was across the river, and the enemy had evidently entertained the intention of reconstructing their booms that night. I ordered a plucky young native260 to jump down and cut it, which he did with two strokes of his sword. This had been holding us now for more than two hours under the enemy's fire.

Directly the rattan was gone, the schooner swung sufficiently to bring the guns to bear on a lofty building whence most of the firing had come, and, after a round of grape, the wailing of women was heard issuing from it, and the enemy's fire was silenced. Next morning it was ascertained that the Pangiran Lada, brother of Pangiran Nipa, and some of his followers had been killed. The tide was still flowing, and the Venus drifted on above the town, and anchor was cast within range of all the houses. Only one small stockaded place continued to fire on her.

Four hours had elapsed since we started; for three we had been exposed to fire. When we had passed the danger, our men gave three hearty cheers, which was answered by the party in the camp. At daylight we found a goodly mess on our decks, shot, pieces of iron, and nails in bucketfuls; our spars and ropes had been considerably damaged and cut about. The awnings were riddled with grape and nails; scarce a square foot had escaped uncut, but only two men were wounded, one, an Englishman, in the face. The other was struck in the leg by a splinter; but the barricading of wood had most effectually saved us all; without it, I don't think one would have lived to tell the story.