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

After an hour's work, the deck had been cleared, and then we opened fire upon the enemy's village, or rather on the headman's house (Pangiran Nipa's), which had guns mounted on the roof. The women and children had all been taken up a small stream on which the village is situate.261 The only return was kept up by the small stockade which had troubled us on the previous night, and this place must have been guarded by some very determined fellows.

The whole country – if only we had an available force with us – was in our hands. To all appearance the place was deserted, and it provoked us beyond measure not to be able to take the initiative. In the course of the afternoon we determined to pull higher up the river, and take up a position to communicate with our force at the mouth. We should also be above the enemy's fortifications, and enabled to receive and support those who were inclined to favour our cause.

Here the Tuan Muda was constrained to remain for over a month, as was also the Tuan Besar below the town, waiting for reinforcements from Kuching.

Desultory fighting, firing at the forts and from them, and attempts made to waylay those who passed between the camp and the Venus occupied the tedious interval, but at length the desired help came; and those who arrived were divided between the force under the Tuan Besar, which would be engaged in a frontal attack on the town, whilst the other force, under the Tuan Muda, would march inland to make a flanking movement.

Everything being ready, the Tuan Muda started, drawing with him a 6-pounder gun. The Englishmen of his party numbered nine. The advance was by no means easy. The ground was rough and treacherous, full of bog-holes, and the enemy hovered around, and kept blazing at the party from every cover.

"Pangiran Matusin was indefatigable; no weight seemed too heavy for his powerful limbs to lift, and although a man of rank, he worked as one of his slaves. At midnight we fitted our 6-pounder brass gun, and fired one shot to see that it was ready. The enemy fired all night, and the quantity of ammunition expended must have been considerable."

On the morrow, at daybreak, all preparations were made for a further advance, when a messenger arrived from the Tuan Besar ordering the cessation of further hostilities, as Mr. Edwardes, Governor of Labuan, had arrived off the mouth of the Muka in the H.E.I.C.'s steamer Victoria, had peremptorily forbidden them, and had threatened, unless he were instantly obeyed, that he would fire a broadside upon the Sarawak camp. He further sent a messenger into Muka to inform the Pangiran Nipa that he and his were taken under British protection, and to forbid any more hostilities whilst the Sarawak forces were withdrawing.

The indignation and consternation produced by this interference can be better imagined than described. The Tuan Muda was of course obliged to withdraw and descend the river, jeered at by the enemy at every point, who, regardless of the orders of the Governor of Labuan, continued to fire at the party, which fire they did not venture to return.

We reached the headquarters shortly after mid-day, and I was present at a discussion before the Governor, an old and infirm man, who most doggedly attempted by every means in his power to bring disgrace on our little State. He expressed himself with marked favour towards the Sherip Masahor and his followers here, notwithstanding that they had been the murderers of two Englishmen only the year before. The Governor held interviews in the houses of the natives of Muka (our enemies), and reports were listened to, even credited, of the demands and deceits of the Sarawak government. None but the most blind and prejudiced could have entertained a doubt of the absurdity of these assertions, but the Governor's duty appeared to be a preconcerted business to disgrace our flag,262 and to defeat our objects, which were, firstly, to open trade; secondly, expel Sherip Masahor and his myrmidons, and establish some creditable government that would enable traders to hold their property and lives in safety.

He found fault with the proceedings of Pangiran Matusin, and was startled when told the man in question was sitting opposite him. A few papers were immediately produced by the Pangiran to justify his acts. The signatures of the Rajahs of Bruni were attached to the documents, and the old Pangiran's quiet, gentle voice, under as resolute an eye and countenance as could be seen, softened the Governor's heart towards him.

If this untimely interference had not taken place, the country would have been in our hands in three days.

Under protest, and with an intimation that the matter would be referred to the Foreign Office, the Sarawak force retired, followed by boatloads of the more peaceful inhabitants, who entreated not to be left to Sherip Masahor's vengeance.

Governor Edwardes informed the Tuan Besar that he had received power from the Sultan to interfere, and then called upon him in the name of the Queen to retire from Muka; he was acting as a minister of Bruni as well as a British official.

The Tuan Besar was unwilling to risk a collision.

He need not have paid any attention to the Governor's summons, and it is probable that had he refused to listen to it, Mr. Edwardes would not have dared to interfere with violence. But Captain Brooke took the wise course of withdrawing his force and appealing for justice to the British Government. For this conciliatory and prudent step he received Lord Russell's thanks. I will not enlarge on Mr. Edwardes' conduct, but his constant association with the murderers of his countrymen was very much commented upon.263

Protesting against the action of the Governor "as seriously affecting British trade and compromising the safety of British subjects," the Singapore Chamber of Commerce wrote to Lord John Russell, October 5, that the Governor was actuated by jealousy of Sarawak, "the interests of that colony (Labuan) being in some degree opposed to that of the settlement of Sarawak, the latter having attracted to it a large trade, part of which might but for the existence of Sarawak be expected to find its way to Labuan."

Before the Tuan Besar left Muka, the Governor, both by word and in writing, pledged himself not to leave Muka until all the forts there had been demolished, and he guaranteed that trade should be opened, and that all those, both at Muka and Oya, who had sided with the Sarawak Government should not in any way be punished. But these were promises he had no intention to perform, neither had he any power to do so, for he returned to Labuan the day after the Tuan Besar had departed, and left Sherip Masahor under the ægis of the British flag to work his own sweet will on the people. By a significant coincidence the Sherip's arrival there had been simultaneous with his own.

Furthermore, Mr. Edwardes had brought down with him a Bruni minister, the Orang Kaya de Gadong, the head of the Council of Twelve, known as "a consistent opponent of any intercourse with Christian nations; and when forced by business to sit and converse with Europeans, the expression of his face is most offensive, and he was one of the few natives I have met who appeared to long to insult you. He was one of the most active of those engaged in the conspiracy to assassinate the Rajah Muda Hasim, partly on account of his supposed attachment to the English alliance."264 This was the man who was to act as the Sultan's agent, and when the Governor had left he cruelly vindicated his authority in the usual Bruni fashion. He levied heavy fines which he wrung from these poor people, returning to Bruni with many thousand dollars' worth of property, and taking with him the names of thirty rebels to be submitted to the Sultan as deserving of death. But rebels against the Sultan they were not. They had heard three years before the Sultan's mandate empowering the Rajah to guard and guide their affairs, ordering peace, and authorising the Rajah to punish any breach of it; they had heard the Rajah pledge himself to punish any who by their actions should disturb it. Now for forming a party in favour of peace and order, and for holding themselves aloof from the real disturbers of peace, they were handed over for punishment to the latter by a British official. These unfortunate people could not resist. Resistance was rendered impossible, as the Orang Kaya and the Sherip had come down backed by a man-of-war, which represented a power which they well knew was far stronger than the Sarawak Government, to which they would have otherwise looked for help.

This, however, was not the only evil caused by the wanton and capricious act of Governor Edwardes. The whole country was disturbed. The peaceably disposed were filled with apprehension, and all the restless and turbulent Sea-Dayaks encouraged by reports, which, though exaggerated, were but the natural consequence of the Governor's action, coupling his name and the Sherip's together as the real Rajahs of the country, prepared to protect the enemies of the Sarawak Government with men-of-war. The Sherip's henchman, Talip, the actual murderer of Steele, led a large force of Kayans down the Rejang river, attacked the Katibas, and destroyed fourteen Dayak villages. This was done because these Dayaks had been staunch to the Tuan Muda against the Sherip. The Malays at Kanowit were seized with a panic, and the Tuan Besar seriously entertained the idea of abandoning the station, which would have meant the sago districts being again exposed to the raids of the Dayaks. Sherip Masahor was left at Muka, with all the prestige of having the Governor on his side, to reorganise his plots, with tenfold more power to do mischief than before; and just as confidence had been again established after the late troubles, the lives of the Europeans were again endangered. The sago trade was ruined. The Sarawak vessels had to return empty; the factories in Kuching to suspend work; and the Singapore schooners to sail without cargoes.

Whilst the Tuan Besar returned to the capital to direct affairs there, the Tuan Muda remained on the coast to oppose any aggressive action the Sherip and his Bruni colleagues might conduct against those within the borders, as also to counteract their growing influence. The Melanaus of Rejang village, who were not safe where they were, to the number of 2000, he saw safely moved to Seboyau. Numbers of Muka, Oya, and Matu people also abandoned their homes, and shifted into Sarawak territory. The Kalaka Malays, although in Sarawak territory, were so near the borders that they did not deem themselves safe, and sent an urgent message to the Tuan Muda for protection whilst they made their preparations for moving. He at once went to them, remained with them until they were ready, and then in the Venus escorted them to Lingga. All these wretched people had to abandon their sago estates and gardens, but they deemed anything preferable to constant danger to life and liberty, and to being ground down to supply the rapacity of the Bruni nobles.

Fearing that many of their people would be led astray by the agents of Sherip Masahor, who were now all over the country withdrawing people from their allegiance to the Government, the well-disposed Dayak chiefs of the Kanowit earnestly begged that an English officer should be stationed there. The Tuan Muda visited Kanowit without delay, and with the aid of the people built a new fort in a better position. Having obtained the sincerest promises from the Dayaks to protect and support him, the Tuan Muda left young Mr. Cruickshank in charge, and then returned to Sekrang. Active measures had also to be taken against a large party of Dayaks in the Saribas who had fortified themselves in preparation for the coming of the Sherip, and these were driven out. But the Saribas Malays were surprisingly staunch. "Enemies were numerous up the rivers Sekrang, Saribas, Kalaka, Serikei, and Kanowit, numbering many thousands of families, all of whom relied on the support of Sherip Masahor,"265 and these had to be watched and kept in check by punitive forces despatched in different directions. The heads of these rivers have one watershed, and the focus of the malcontented Dayaks was Rentap's reputed impregnable stronghold on Sadok. Owing to its situation, almost in the centre of this watershed, it was at once a support and a refuge to those Dayaks, and around it they gathered. The powers of the Government during the past few years had been taxed to their utmost, so that Rentap of necessity had been left undisturbed, and with the munitions of war supplied by the Sherip, and the staunch support of the Kayans his power had increased. But the Tuan Muda was not to be denied, and his fall was near.

In November, 1860, the Rajah left England, and with him went the Consul-General, Mr. S. St. John, and Mr. Henry Stuart Johnson266 to join his uncle's service. After a short detention in Singapore waiting for the Rainbow, he arrived at Kuching on February 12, 1861.

The Consul-General now officially informed the Council of Sarawak that the British Government disavowed and totally disapproved of Governor Edwardes' proceedings. But though they reprimanded him, they supported him in office. His term as Governor was, however, very shortly to expire, but not till he had seen, what must have been gall and bitterness to his soul, as it certainly was to his backers in England, the cession by the Sultan to Sarawak of Muka and all the region of the sago plantations, the produce of which he had hoped to secure for Labuan, and the banishment of Sherip Masahor from Borneo.

Mr. St. John went on to Bruni and relieved Mr. Edwardes of his position as Consul-General, and was the tactful and just medium for arranging the difficulties produced by the conduct of the latter. He says:

I established myself in the capital, to find the Sultan sulky at the failure of Mr. Edwardes' promises. I remained quiet for a few weeks, when I found his Highness gradually coming round, but it was long ere I was again established first adviser to the Crown, for Mr. Edwardes' promises had either been great, or had been misunderstood, and they thought that the British Government was about to remove the English from Sarawak, and return the country to them.267

In April the Rajah went to Bruni. The Sultan and the wazirs received him warmly, and the good understanding between the two countries was established anew. The Sultan was now anxious to place Muka and the intermediate places under the Rajah's rule, but the latter waived this consideration until hostilities were over. The Rajah then went to Oya, Mr. St. John accompanying him, also the Sultan's envoy, Haji Abdul Rahman, bearing private letters and messages from the Sultan pressing Pangiran Nipa not to fight. Here the principal chiefs were seen, and the Sultan's commands that hostilities should cease and that Sherip Masahor was to be banished were read to them.268

Mr. St. John then went to Singapore to obtain a man-of-war from which to deliver the Sultan's decree at Muka, and the Rajah made every preparation to assume the offensive against Muka, as it was not expected that the Sherip would quietly submit to even the Sultan's mandate. Masahor had defied both the Sultan and the Bruni Rajahs, and had heaped insults upon them so often before when in the plenitude of his power in the Rejang, where he had been practically an independent prince, with the dreaded and powerful Kayans and the Dayaks at his back, that his submission was doubtful. This was no idle supposition, as one writer has suggested, for when, two months after Mr. Edwardes' ill-advised action at Muka, the Victoria, conveying Messrs. A. C. Crookshank and L. V. Helms (of the Borneo Company), again visited Muka, to endeavour once more by peaceable means to re-open trade with Kuching, these gentlemen and the captain, who had foolishly gone up to the town unarmed and without a guard, met with a hostile reception on the part of the Sherip, and would have fared badly at his hands, had not his adherents been prevailed upon to desist by the wiser counsel of Pangiran Nipa.

Mr. St. John went to Muka in H.M.S. Charybdis, and with Captain Keane and an armed force of 200 blue-jackets and marines proceeded up to the town. The Sultan's titah (decree), "advising a cessation of hostilities, and that Sherip Masahor and his men were to leave the country," was read, and both Pangiran Nipa and the Sherip promised obedience. They were told that Mr. Edwardes' interference had not met with the approval of her Majesty's Government, and "Captain Keane's judicious conduct in taking an overpowering force up the river to the middle of the town showed them that Mr. Edwardes' support was no longer to be relied upon."269

The Rajah then went to Muka with a large force to ensure that there should be no resistance, and Muka was surrendered to him. Pangiran Nipa and the Bruni aristocracy were sent to Bruni, and Sherip Masahor was deported to Singapore. The Rajah wrote: "He will never trouble Sarawak more, and I am not lover enough of bloody justice to begrudge him his life on that condition. He deserved death, but he was a murderer for political ends."

The Rajah now established himself at Muka, and spent a month working to bring order into the district, so torn by civil war and crushed by oppression that everything was in confusion, and where there had been no protection for either person or property, and justice had not been administered. The effect of opening the port was immediate. Numbers of vessels entered bringing goods from Kuching to traffic with the natives for raw sago.

Early in August the Rajah went to Bruni again, and for the last time. The concession to Sarawak of the coast and districts from the Rejang to Kedurong point was then completed. For many years the Sultan had derived little or no revenue from these parts, for what had been squeezed out of the natives by the pangirans went to fill their own pockets, and he was more than satisfied to receive a sum down and an annual subsidy, which would be paid into his own hands. And the natives rejoiced, for they were now freed from the rapacity of these Bruni pangirans.

"And thus," says the Tuan Muda, "were about 110 miles of coast annexed to the Sarawak territory – valuable for the sago forests, but in a most disturbed state, owing to a prolonged period of the worst anarchy and misgovernment. Its inhabitants had many redeeming qualities when once relieved from the Bruni tyranny and oppression, as they were industrious and clever in different trades, particularly that of working wood, and the rougher kinds of jungle labour. But they required a severe hand over them, although one that was just, and were scarcely able to appreciate kindness. They had considered it a merit to a certain extent to be the Sultan's slaves, although they had many times smarted under the foulest injustice, and been deprived of their wives and daughters; the majority of the latter class were often taken for the Bruni Rajahs' harems.

"The women were considered better looking than most others on the coast, having agreeable countenances, with the dark open rolling eye of Italians. The men are cleanly and generally well dressed, but not so nice looking as those of many other tribes."

After the Rajah had laid the foundations of good government, he appointed Mr. Hay as Resident,270 and in a few years the aspect of the place, the condition of the people, and even their character was changed for the better. A fort had also been planted at Bintulu, then at the extreme north of the coast now under the sway of the Rajah, and a Resident appointed there.

Sherip Masahor, exiled to the Straits Settlements, lived the rest of his life in Singapore. He was granted a small pension by the Sarawak Government, which he eked out by boat-building, and died in February, 1890. To the end he continued to intrigue, through his relatives, in Sarawak affairs, but to no purpose.

He was an arch-fiend, and the murderer of many of his countrymen. He butchered in cold blood the relatives and followers of Pangiran Matusin; he executed his own trusted agents in the murder of Fox and Steele to silence their tongues. One further instance of his cruelty may be quoted. Jani, a noted Sea-Dayak chief of Kanowit, visited Sherip Masahor at Muka, and told him that Abang Ali had sent him to murder him, Masahor, treacherously, which was absolutely false, and that he revealed the fact to convince the Sherip of his own loyalty to his person. Masahor bade him prove his loyalty by attacking the fort at Kanowit. Jani promised to do this, but asked to be given a head so that he might not return empty-handed to his people. The Sherip ordered up a young lad, the adopted son of a Malay of rank, a follower of the Sarawak Government, whom he had already mutilated by cutting off his hands, and he bade Jani then and there decapitate the poor boy and take his head. This is but one instance of his ruthlessness. Backed by his Segalangs he had always been a terror to the Malays and Melanaus of the Rejang.

The Rajah's work was now done. What he had come out to do had been accomplished, and his failing health led him to seek peace and repose at his refuge, Burrator. "I am not strong, and need to be kept going like an old horse," he wrote to the Tuan Muda. After publicly installing the Tuan Besar, Captain Brooke-Brooke, as the Rajah Muda and his heir, he sailed towards the end of September, leaving the government with confidence in the hands of his nephews.

Shortly after his arrival in England the Rajah received the good news of the fall of Sadok, and the remaining cause of anxiety was removed from his mind. "Though confident of the result, the great difficulty of the undertaking, and the chances of war, caused me some anxiety. It is well over, and I congratulate you upon this success, which will lead to the pacification of the Dayaks and the improved security of Sarawak. You have the warm thanks of your Rajah and uncle, who only regrets he has no other reward to bestow but his praise of your ability, zeal, and prudence. You deserve honour and wealth as the meed due to your merit," so wrote the Rajah to the Tuan Muda on receipt of the news.

The Serikei and Nyalong Dayaks had received due punishment at the hands of the Tuan Muda, and peace now reigned along the coast and in the interior. The Kayans alone remained to be humbled, and the remaining actual murderers of Steele and Fox, Sakalai, Sawing, and Talip, whom they were harbouring, to be punished.

In the beginning of February, 1862, after a month's detention in Kuching suffering from jungle fever, the Tuan Muda left for England. After an arduous journey to the head-waters of the Batang Lupar and overland to the Katibas, by which river and the Rejang he returned, his health had broken down, and it became necessary for him to return to Europe to recruit. He had now been in Sarawak for nearly ten years, for the greater part of the time at Sekrang, and had been engaged in many very trying expeditions.

I left Sekrang and Saribas in perfect confidence in Mr. Watson's ability to manage affairs during my absence, and felt sure the natives would support him to the uttermost. For a few days previously I had conferred with all the Dayak chiefs, and begged them to desist from head-hunting and prevent their people running loose as in former times. They spoke well, and assured me of their staunch support.

Amongst the many who had collected to bid him farewell was the octogenarian Sherip Mular, the intrepid enemy of former days, but who had long since become a peaceful member of society, and a friend of the Tuan Muda.

CHAPTER IX

THE LAST OF THE PIRATES

As we have already noticed, the action of the Nemesis with a fleet of Balanini pirates off Bruni in May, 1847, following on the destruction by Admiral Cochrane of the pirate strongholds in North Borneo, for some years effectually checked the marauding expeditions of the pirates down the north-west coast of Borneo. This lesson was shortly afterwards followed up by the destruction of the Balanini strongholds by the Spanish, who a few years later destroyed Tianggi, or Sug, the principal town in Sulu. The Dutch had also been active. The pirates were crippled and scattered, and a period of immunity from their depredations followed these vigorous measures. But the efforts of the three powers mainly concerned in the suppression of piracy subsequently relaxed, and the pirates, who had gradually established themselves in other places on the coast of Borneo and in neighbouring islands, gained courage by the absence of patrolling cruisers, and again burst forth.