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

Captain Keppel had been long expected, but the Dido had been detained in India, and when she arrived on July 30, with the welcome addition of the H.E.I.C.'s steamer Phlegethon, preparations for the coming expedition against the Batang Lupar were so well forward that it was enabled to start almost immediately. On board the Dido was the Rajah's favourite nephew, midshipman Charles Johnson, who eight years later became the Tuan Muda of Sarawak, and who ultimately succeeded his uncle as Rajah.

The combined force of blue-jackets, Malays, and Dayaks, headed by the Phlegethon, started from Kuching on August 5th, and on the 7th were off Patusan. This place was well fortified, sixty-four brass besides many iron guns were taken there,121 and its five forts were captured, with heavy loss to the pirates. The attacking party lost only one man killed, the captain of the main-top of the Dido, who was cut in two by a cannon-shot whilst loading the bow-gun of the Jolly Bachelor; close to him was the present Rajah, who fortunately escaped unhurt.

So confident had Sherip Sahap and Pangiran Makota been in the impregnability of their strongholds that they had not taken the usual precaution of sending their women, children, and property of value, to a distant place of refuge. On their flight the unfortunate children were placed in different nooks and corners.

After having completely destroyed the town of Patusan, and Makota's town about a mile above, the expedition moved on upon the 10th. The Phlegethon was taken up as far as the Sekrang, a very bold proceeding considering the dangerous nature of the river, and the force was divided into three divisions, to ascend the Undup, the Sekrang, and the main-river; but the pirates, chiefly Malays, offered such a stubborn resistance in the Undup that these divisions had to be reunited to make a simultaneous attack. The gallant Datu Patinggi Ali here distinguished himself in a hand-to-hand fight with the enemy; it was witnessed by the blue-jackets, who hailed him with three hearty British cheers on his return. It took the force the whole day to cut through the heavy log barriers that had been placed across the river below Mular's town, which the enemy deserted during the night, retiring to a Dayak village some twenty-five miles farther up the river. After an arduous journey of two days the landing-place of the village was reached; here occurred a brush with the pirates, who were pushed back, and old Datu Patinggi nearly covered himself with glory by almost capturing Sherip Mular, who saved himself by ignominiously jumping into the river and swimming ashore. A little later, Captain Keppel and Lieutenant Wade with some seven men surprised a large force of pirates waiting behind a point; these were so taken by surprise that they were easily routed, but Lieutenant Wade rushing on in pursuit was struck by two rifle-shots, and fell at his commander's feet mortally wounded. The Dayak village was then attacked, and the enemy scattered.

On the 15th, the Phlegethon was reached, and on the 17th, a force started up the Sekrang to administer a lesson to the notorious Dayak pirates of that river, who had been making their presence felt in an unpleasant manner, continuously annoying the force at night time by hanging about on the river banks and killing and wounding several of the Malay and Dayak members of the force. The expedition consisted of seven of the Dido's and Phlegethon's boats, and the Jolly Bachelor, with a division of a few light native boats under Datu Patinggi Ali as a vanguard, and the rest of the Sarawak contingent behind as a reserve. On the 19th, the enemy made a determined stand, blocking the advance of Patinggi Ali's division with a formidable array of war-boats, and with thousands of men on each bank, who had selected positions where they could effectively use their javelins and blow-pipes. Instead of falling back upon the main body, old Ali bravely dashed on, followed by his little contingent. A desperate encounter against fearful odds ensued, and before the ships' boats could come to his support the fine old Malay chief122 had fallen along with a Mr. Steward,123 and twenty-nine of his devoted followers, fifty-six more being wounded. The gun and rocket fire of the boats soon turned the tables, and the Dayaks retreated from their position with considerable loss. The same day their town was destroyed, and the expedition returned. At Patusan, which was reached on the 22nd, Captain Sir Edward Belcher, with the boats of the Samarang, joined them, but too late to render any service. At Kuching there was barely time to get the sick and wounded into comfortable quarters before news arrived that Sherip Sahap had joined Sherip Japar at Lingga, and was again collecting his followers. With the addition of the Samarang's boats, the force immediately started for Lingga; Sherip Sahap hastily retired, and, though closely pursued, escaped over the border; Sherip Japar was deposed from his governorship of Lingga; and Pangiran Makota was captured and sent a prisoner on board the Phlegethon. The Rajah then held a meeting of all the Malay chiefs of the surrounding country, and in an eloquent speech impressed upon them the determination of the British Government to suppress piracy; dwelt upon the blessings arising from peace and trade, and concluded by saying that the measures lately adopted against piracy were taken for the protection of all the peaceful communities along the coast. "So great was the attention bestowed during the delivery of his speech that the dropping of a pin might have been heard."124 On September 4th, the force again reached Kuching.

Sherip Sahap, after residing for a short time in the Kapuas, in Dutch Borneo, died of a broken heart at Pontianak. Sherip Mular, who also escaped over the border, subsequently sued for forgiveness, but this was then refused.125 Sherip Japar, who the previous year had rendered good service against the Saribas pirates, was removed to Ensingai in the Sadong. Pangiran Makota, who so richly deserved death, and who as a matter of policy alone, as well as in the interests of humanity, should have been executed, was spared by the Rajah, and allowed to retire to Bruni, with what results we have already noted.

Early the next year the Saribas and Sekrang Dayaks visited the Rajah at Kuching and formally tendered their submission. The promises then made of future good behaviour would probably have been observed, and those, of which there was now a large party, in favour of peace have been upheld, had the British Government afforded the Rajah continuous support for a short time, even in the shape of a small brig-of-war. "We must progress or retrograde" was the Rajah's timely, though unheeded warning. But the desired support was denied, and gradually the piratical party again became dominant, and in less than two years found themselves in a position once more to defy the Rajah, and to spread terror along the coast. But with this, and their final, though tardy punishment, we shall deal later.

The Rajah seeing how precarious his position was, had offered the cession of Sarawak to the British Crown without remuneration, though he had now laid out £10,000 upon its development. He showed how by developing the trade and the natural wealth of the land through British influence, river after river might be opened up to commerce. He entreated that steady and unremitting efforts should be made for the suppression of piracy. But the Government shrank from the extension of its Colonies, it was afraid of being dragged into a second New Zealand scheme, and it consented, reluctantly, to afford him help, and that but inadequate, against the pirates.

"It is easy," wrote the Rajah at the close of the previous year, "for men to perform fine feats with the pen; it is easy for the rich man to give yearly thousands in charity; it is easy to preach against the slave trade, or to roar against piracy; it is easy to bustle about London, and get up associations for all kinds of objects – all this is easy, but it is not easy to stand alone – to be exiled – to lay out a small fortune – to expend life and health and money – to risk life itself, when the loss would be without glory and without gain… I am enabled to dispense happiness and peace to many thousand persons. I stand alone; I appeal for assistance and gain none; I have struggled for four years bearing my life in my hand. I hold a commanding position and influence over the natives; I feel it my paramount duty to gain protection and some power. I state it in so many plain words, and if, after all, I am left to my own resources the fault of failure is not with me. This negotiation with Government is nearly at an end, or if protracted, if I perceive any intention of delay, or any coolness, I will myself break it off and trust to God and my own wits… If they act cordially they will either give me a plain negative or some power to act, in order that I may carry out my views. If they haggle and bargain any further I will none of them, or if they bother me with their suspicions, or send any more gentlemen for the purpose of espionage, I will assert the independence I feel, and send them all to the devil."

This, it must be remembered, was in a private letter. His position was precarious. He, with less than half-a-dozen Englishmen, had established himself as reigning prince over Sarawak; its population consisted mainly of timid Land-Dayaks, useless in warfare, and there were only a few hundred Malays and Sea-Dayaks upon whom he could rely to protect the little State against its powerful and actively hostile neighbours. Even his own people were in a condition of tension and hesitation, not knowing whether the arm of England would be extended in his support, or be withdrawn, leaving him to succumb under the krises of assassins.

It is perhaps as well that the British Government did leave the Rajah so much alone; that he was able to exercise a free hand to carry out his own ideas, and that he was not crossed or hampered by the changing policies of the different Cabinets that came into power – some ready to extend the limits of the Empire, others shrinking from responsibilities, and seeking to contract the sphere of British influence within the narrowest limits, but all timid and nervous of opposition from the adverse party. The little State has thus had the advantage of having been governed for just seventy years directly by two of the ablest rulers of Orientals, having an intimate knowledge of their subjects and their requirements, and governing with their people, instead of having been subject to the capricious and often stupid government of the Colonial Office, and of ever-changing governors. Unfortunately the late Rajah was subsequently "crossed and hampered" from home, notably by the little England party at whose head stood Mr. Gladstone, and the greatest evil was done to Sarawak by his own countrymen supported by a timorous Government. Happily, the English rajahs, the second as well as the first, by their honesty of purpose and their inflexibility of resolution gathered about them a host of native adherents; these they inspired with self-respect, and confidence in their rulers, and thus formed a mass of public opinion that went far towards making their rule permanent, and enabled it to withstand checks from within and from without.

The Dutch at this time had been making praiseworthy efforts to check the Lanuns; they had destroyed several piratical fleets, and were preparing on a large scale to drive them off the seas; in this, however, they failed.

For some time the Rajah was free from his troublesome neighbours, and he devoted his time to the affairs of his little State, the population of which had just received an addition of 5000 families of Malays from the disturbed districts along the coast.

Not till Hasim and his train of obstructive and rapacious hangers-on had departed from Sarawak could the benefits of the Rajah's administration take complete effect. So long as these men remained, with their traditions of misrule, and their distorted ideas of the relation between the governor and the governed, a thousand difficulties were interposed, thwarting the Rajah's efforts, and these had to be circumvented or overcome. The pangirans, great and small, great in their self-confidence, proud of the mischief they had wrought, small and mean in their selfish aims, viewed the introduction of reform with ill-disguised hostility; and the Rajah Muda Hasim in their midst formed a nucleus about whom disaffection and intrigue must inevitably gather and grow to a head. Only Bedrudin was heart and soul with the Rajah, so far as his lights went. He was a man of intelligence and generous spirit, who had taken the lesson to heart that by good government, the encouragement of commerce and the peaceful arts, the country would thrive and the revenue in consequence largely increase, and that his brother pangirans were blindly and stupidly killing the goose that laid golden eggs. To him the Rajah was sincerely attached, and the attachment was reciprocated. Personally, the Rajah was sorry when Bedrudin had to return with his brothers to Bruni; but the Sultan's recall was imperative, and it obviated all risk of the prince being made, unwillingly, a gathering point of faction. It was advisable, moreover, that there should be near the Sultan's ear a man like Bedrudin, who would give wise counsel; and Hasim, weak and vacillating as he was, could show his nephew by his own experience that advantage would accrue to him by adopting a policy favourable to British enterprise, and by warning him that disaster, though approaching with lagging feet, must overtake him inevitably if he attempted to thwart it. Furthermore, the Sultan had been loud in his professions of affection for his dear absent uncles, and of his desire to have them about his person.

Early in October, H.M.S. Samarang, Captain Sir Edward Belcher, and the H.E.I.C.'s steamer Phlegethon, arrived to convey to Bruni, Rajah Muda Hasim, his brothers, and their numerous families, retainers, slaves, and hangers-on. The Rajah himself went up in the Samarang. On approaching Bruni there were signs of hostility from four forts on Pulo Cheremin, which Pangiran Usup had frightened the Sultan into building, but the flag of Hasim reassured the Brunis. The exiles were well received. The Sultan declared he would listen to no other adviser than Hasim, and the people were in favour of him. Though Pangiran Usup had gained great influence over the Sultan he deemed it prudent to dissemble, and declared himself ready implicitly to obey Hasim, and as a proof of good faith at once dismantled the new forts on Hasim ordering him to do so. The poorer classes, who had heard of the peace and security enjoyed by the inhabitants of Sarawak, openly expressed their desire that the Rajah should remain and govern conjointly with Pangiran Muda Hasim. Labuan island, which the Sultan now offered the Rajah, was examined, and the Rajah considered it superior to Kuching for a settlement, as being in a more central and more commanding position.126

In February, 1845, Captain Bethune of H.M.S. Driver, anchored in the Sarawak river, and brought a despatch from Lord Aberdeen appointing the Rajah confidential agent in Borneo to her Majesty, an appointment made mainly upon the Rajah's own suggestion that official recognition would go far to help him. He at once proceeded to Bruni in the Driver, bearing a letter from the Foreign Office to the Sultan in reply to his letters requesting assistance to suppress piracy; and Captain Bethune had been directed to select a suitable locality on the N.W. coast for the formation of a British settlement, whence the sea along the north and west coasts might be watched, and where there was coal suitable for a coaling station.

The letter was received by the Sultan and his pangirans with due honours, and the Rajah told them that he "was deputed by her Majesty the Queen to express her feelings of goodwill, and to offer every assistance in repressing piracy in these seas." The Sultan stared. Muda Hasim said, "We are greatly indebted; it is good, very good."127 And the Sultan had reason to stare. Pangiran Usup, who was also present, was no doubt likewise too much taken aback to do anything else, ready as he was with his tongue, for such a proffer was as unexpected as it was unwelcome. Hitherto they had imagined, and with some reason, that owing to its slowness and inaction, the British Government was lukewarm in its intentions to suppress piracy; that outward professions would not be taken seriously, and were all that was needed of them to cover their secret encouragement of their piratical neighbours. The Sultan, however, was a clever dissembler; he joined with Hasim in expressing a hope that with the Rajah's assistance the government of Bruni might be settled, piracy suppressed, and trade fostered.

The Rajah then went to Singapore to meet the Admiral, Sir Thomas Cochrane, and to endeavour to interest him in Bornean affairs, to gain his assistance against the pirates, and in support of the party in Bruni that was in favour of reform. He was successful as the sequel will show, and in May returned to Bruni in the Phlegethon. He then discovered to his no little concern that the Princes Hasim and Bedrudin were in such danger that their brothers begged to be allowed to return to Sarawak. They were exposed to the intrigues of Pangiran Usup, who had not only poisoned the mind of the Sultan against his uncles of legitimate blood, but who was also bitterly hostile to English interference with piracy, which was the main source of his revenue. The imbecile Sultan, vicious at heart, and himself a participator in the spoils of piracy, was of too contracted a mind to be able to conceive the advantages that could be obtained were his capital converted from a nest of brigands and slaves into an emporium of commerce; and he was totally indifferent to the welfare of the greater portion of his subjects, who being pagans, were created by Allah to be preyed upon by the true believers.128 He was accordingly induced to listen to Usup, of whom he was really frightened, and to mistrust Hasim and Bedrudin. To add to Hasim's troubles, the pirate chief of Marudu, Sherip Usman, had sent a defiant message threatening to attack him for favouring the English. If unsupported, the Rajah foresaw that Hasim would be dragged into a civil war which might end in his downfall. His life was in peril owing to his leaning towards the British Government, and the Rajah was determined to uphold him; if necessary, by bringing a force from Sarawak to carry Bruni. If too late to save him and Bedrudin, he resolved to burn Bruni from end to end, and take care it should remain afterwards in desolation.

The Rajah again proceeded to Singapore, and sufficiently interested the Admiral in Bruni affairs to induce him to call at that place with his squadron on his way to China. A fresh outrage by Sherip Usman in plundering and burning a brig decided the Admiral to take measures against him, and by his detention in slavery of two British subjects Pangiran Usup himself gave sufficient cause to call for punishment; these captives he had placed in confinement whenever a man-of-war appeared.

On August 9, Sir Thomas Cochrane had an interview with the Sultan, and the following morning called upon him for the restoration of the captives held by Usup, and for his punishment. The Sultan replied that Usup refused obedience to him, and that he was powerless to enforce it, and, as the offence was committed against the British, he requested the Admiral himself to take Usup in hand. Though the Admiral had brought a line-of-battle ship, two frigates, two brigs, and three steamers, Usup, "strong in the idea of his strength," was foolhardy enough to defy him, and prepare for resistance. A shot was fired over his house from the Vixen, which was replied to by the guns of his fortified house, thereupon the steamer poured in a broadside and knocked the house to shivers. Usup fled with the few retainers he had with him – he had taken the precaution to send away his women and treasure the day before. We will return to him shortly.

The fleet then sailed to call Sherip Usman to account. His stronghold in Marudu Bay was attacked by a force of 550 men in twenty-four boats, and after a stout resistance was taken with a loss of some twenty killed and wounded. Amongst the former was Lieutenant Gibbard, and near him, when he fell, was the present Rajah, then a midshipman on the Wolverine. The pirates suffered heavily. Many sherips and chiefs were killed, and Sherip Usman was himself mortally wounded – he was carried away to die in the jungle. As in the Batang Lupar the year previously, several proofs of piracies committed upon European vessels here came to light in the shape of articles taken from ships; and such articles would probably have been more numerous had there not been a market in Singapore for the more valuable commodities.

The Rajah now returned to Sarawak in the Cruiser, visiting Bruni on his way. Here he learnt that two days after he had left the town, Pangiran Usup, full of rage and resentment, had gathered a force to attack Bruni and take and kill Pangiran Muda Hasim, and his brother Pangiran Bedrudin, but the latter met him, inflicted on him a signal defeat, and Usup was constrained to fly to Kimanis, some seventy-five miles to the north-east of the capital, over which district he was feudary lord. Then the two uncles insisted upon their nephew the Sultan issuing a decree for his execution. This was done, and the order transmitted to the headman at Kimanis. It was carried out by him with characteristic perfidy. Pretending to entertain a lively friendship for the refugee, he seized an opportunity, when Usup had laid aside his weapons in order to bathe, to fall upon him and strangle him. His brother, Pangiran Yakub, was executed at the same time.

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1

Sultan is a title foreign to the Court language of Bruni. – Sir Hugh Low, G.C.M.G., Sarawak, 1848.

2

Rajah, correctly Raja. Plural is expressed by duplication.

3

In Bruni this title also is now debased by being granted to all natives, Chinese included.

4

St. John gives the di Gadong as Minister of Revenues, and the Pemancha as Minister for Home Affairs. —Forests of the Far East.

5

Pronounced by Malays Sherip, or Serip. Fem. Sheripa, Seripa. Sayid is another, though in the East less common title, assumed by descendants of the Prophet. Sir Richard Burton in his Pilgrimage says the former, men of the sword, the ruling and executive branch, are the descendants of El Husayn, the Prophet's grandson; and the latter, men of the pen, religion, and politics, are descended from the Prophet's eldest grandson, El Hasan. Siti is the female title.

6

A corruption of Tuan-ku (Tuan aku), my Lord, as it is often so pronounced.

7

The name Borneo is a corruption of Burni, itself a corruption of Beruni or Bruni, the capital of that ancient but now decayed Sultanate bearing the same name, and of which Sarawak, and a great part of British North Borneo, once formed parts. It was the first place in Borneo with which the Spanish and Portuguese had any dealings, and in their old chronicles it is referred to as Burni, and Borneo subsequently became the distinguishing name of the whole island to Europeans. The natives themselves have none, except perhaps the doubtful one of Pulau Ka-lamanta-an, the island of raw sago, so named in recent times by the merchants and traders of the Straits Settlements as being the island from which that commodity was brought, and in those settlements it has since become the native name for Borneo. But in Sarawak this name is known to the Malays alone, and in other parts of Borneo, perhaps only a few have heard of it. In fact, it is applicable to Sarawak only, for in former days sago was exported to the Straits solely from that country, and the trade was carried on by Sarawak Malays, first with Penang and subsequently with Singapore. An old English map of about 1700 gives to the town of Bruni, as well as to the whole island, the name of Borneo. Mercator (1595) also gives Borneo to both.