Baring-Gould Sabine
A History of Sarawak under Its Two White Rajahs 1839-1908
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.
The year 1858 was marked by a great revival of Lanun and Balagnini piracy. Among others, a Spanish vessel was taken in the Sulu seas by Panglima Taupan of Tawi-Tawi: a young girl, the daughter of a Spanish merchant, was the only one on board not massacred. Taupan took her for a wife; and, as I wrote at the time, – "Alas for the chivalry of the British Navy! Sir – , who was present when this information was given, said it was a Spanish affair, not ours." Another fruit of the Commission – officers dared not act.271
No more terrible fate can be conceived than that to which this poor girl, who had witnessed the murder of her father, was dragged, but had a British man-of-war been present it is doubtful whether her Commander would have interfered, unless he were prepared to sacrifice duty to compassion. For, after the notorious Commission, the Admiralty had issued stringent commands that unless a vessel should have, within view, attacked some British vessel or subject, or that there was proof that she had done so, she was not to be molested. It was a revival of the former order of 1844, which, though it contained the same strict limit, allowed some latitude to a Commander.
The Rajah was rightly of opinion that
These orders are a direct violation of our treaties with Holland and with Bruni.272 Such a course of action with pirates has never been pursued before by any civilised nation, and is manifestly calculated to destroy our commerce, wherever it may be practically acted upon. Let either the Lanun or Chinese pirates know that we shall not molest them unless they commit depredations on the English flag, and they would sweep away a million of commerce on these seas, which was bound to English markets in native bottoms.
Though the inhabitants and commerce of neighbouring countries continued to suffer, up to 1861 the pirates gave Sarawak a wide berth. Then they began to appear on the coast again, but the little Sarawak gunboats were on the alert. The principal object of the pirates was not to fight, but to obtain plunder and captives, and they afforded the gunboats only a few long shots. Still they managed to capture a few people, including some natives of Madras, British subjects. But in 1862 they were out in increased numbers.
In that year Captain Brooke, the Rajah Muda, met with a great loss, his second wife died at Kuching, after having given birth to her first child.273 This occurred on May 6, and after a few days it was thought by his friends that he might find some mental relief in change of scene and active work. Accordingly he was persuaded to undertake a voyage to Bintulu, and Bishop McDougall volunteered to accompany him so as to cheer and support him. Mr. Helms, agent of the Borneo Company, joined the party and was dropped at Muka. On the second day after the arrival of Mr. Helms, and when the Rajah Muda had left in the Rainbow, a piratical fleet of Lanuns, consisting of six large and many small vessels, appeared off the mouth of the Muka river and blockaded the place. For a couple of days they remained there, making excursions on land, and capturing thirty-two persons. Mr. Helms despatched a party of natives in a fast boat that succeeded in eluding the pirates, though they narrowly escaped capture, to make known the state of affairs to the Rajah Muda, and they found him still at Bintulu.
On May 25, the little screw-steamer Rainbow, carrying two 9-pounder guns, steamed out of Bintulu, and at once engaged a detachment of three Lanun prahus, one of which was sunk, and another captured; the third was engaged by the Jolly Bachelor and driven on the rocks off Kedurong point, and her crew taking refuge ashore were hunted down and killed by the Bintulu people. Learning from the captives the direction taken by the remainder of the fleet, the Rajah Muda stood out to sea in search of them.
After an hour or so, wrote the Bishop, the look-out at the mast-head reported three vessels in sight, right ahead. At this time it was quite calm, and when we came near enough to see them from the deck, we saw them sweep up to the central vessel and lay themselves side by side, with their bows at us, as if they meant to engage us in that position. However, as we went on towards them the sea-breeze sprang up, so they changed their tactics, and opened out in line with their broadsides towards us to rake us as we came up. Our plan was, as before, to shake them first and run them down in detail. Brooke did not give the order to fire until we came within 250 yards of them, and they opened their lelahs (brass swivel-guns) upon us some time before we commenced firing. They fired briskly and did not attempt to get away, even when we got all our guns to bear upon them; but as we steamed round to get our stem fairly at the sternmost vessel, they seemed to think we were retreating, and pelted us with shot more sharply than ever, directing their chief attention to us on the poop, where we had one man killed and two severely wounded in no time, and we should have suffered more if the temporary bulwark of planks, etc., had not stopped their balls.
After the first prahu was run down, I had to go below to attend to our own wounded as they came in, but I plainly felt the concussion as we went into the others. One of the vessels was cut right in two; the steamer went straight on without backing, and she sank the other, one half on each side of us. She was the largest, and had a valuable cargo, and much gold and bags of Dutch rupees. The pirates fought to the last, and then would not surrender, but jumped into the sea with their arms; and the poor captives, who were all made fast below as we came up to engage them, were doubtless glad when our stem opened the sides of their ships and thus let them out of their prison. Few, comparatively, were drowned, being mostly all good swimmers. All those who were not lashed to the vessels or killed by the Illanuns escaped. Our decks were soon covered with those we picked up, men of every race and nation in the Archipelago,274 who had been captured by the pirates in their cruise. One poor Chinese came swimming alongside, waving his tail over his head, and the other captives held up the cords round their necks to show they were slaves, lest they should be mistaken for Illanuns and shot or left to their fate. We soon picked up the poor fellows, and the Chinaman came under my hands, being shot through the arm. Many of the pirates we took were badly wounded, some mortally, the greater part were killed or disabled by our fire before we closed.
It is a marvel how these poor creatures live at all under the terrible tortures and ill-treatment they endure, sometimes for months, before they reach their destination and settle down as slaves to the worst of masters – very demons, not men. The captives state that when the pirates take a vessel, they kill every one who makes any resistance, plunder and sink their boats or ships, and when those they spare are first taken on board their own prahus, they put a rattan, or black rope-halter, round their necks, beat them with a flat piece of bamboo on the elbows and knees and the muscles of the arms and legs, so that they cannot use them to swim or run away. After a while, when sufficiently tamed, they are put to the sweeps and made to row in gangs, with one of their fellow-captives as a mandore or foreman over them, who is furnished with a rattan to keep them at their work; and if he does not do this effectually, he is "krissed" and thrown overboard, and another man put in his place. If any of the rowers jump overboard, the pirates have a supply of three-pronged and barbed spears, with long bamboo handles, ready to throw at them. When hit by one of these they can neither swim nor run, and are easily recaptured. They are made to row in relays night and day, and to keep them awake they put cayenne pepper in their eyes or cut them with their knives and put pepper in their wounds.
We found, on reckoning up, that we had picked up 165 people, and that 150 to 200 men had got to land from the vessels we sank near the shore. In every pirate vessel there were forty or or fifty Illanuns, fighting men, all well armed, each having a rifle or musket besides his native weapons, and from 60 to 70 captives, many of whom were killed by the pirates when they found themselves beaten; among them two women. Seven of the women and four of the children were our own Muka people275 and it was indeed most touching to witness the joy and gratitude of them and their relations when we returned them to their friends. Of the Illanuns we captured 32, ten of them boys. Some have died since of their wounds, the remainder are in irons in the fort here. The boys have been given out by Brooke for five years to respectable people to train and bring up. Very few of the pirates live to tell the tale; some captives assured us in the boat they were in there were only two out of the forty fighting-men who had not been killed or wounded by our fire, when we gave them the stem and cut them down.
Under the present system at Labuan, and the difficulties thrown in the way of our men-of-war against attacking these wretches when they are known to be in the neighbourhood, England with all her power and philanthropy is doing absolutely nothing towards putting an end to this abominable and most extensive system of rapine, murder, and slavery. It is impossible to estimate the destruction and the havoc, the murder and the amount of slave-dealing carried on by these wretches in their yearly cruises. The prahus we met were but one of the many squadrons that leave Sulu every year. Seven months had these wretches been devastating the villages on the coast, capturing slaves, taking and sinking trading vessels. Their course was along the coasts of Celebes, down the Macassar Straits to Madura and then along the Northern coast of Java, and the South of Borneo, up the Caramata passage to Borneo, to go home by Sarawak and Labuan. The other five pirate vessels parted company from them to go over to Balliton276 and Banca Straits, and doubtless they too will carry their depredations right up into the Straits of Singapore and pick up English subjects and injure English trade, as those we met have done. But apart from all our local feelings, and danger from these people, it makes an Englishman out here ashamed to feel that his own dear country, which we would fain regard as the liberator of the slave and the avenger of the wronged, is in truth doing nothing against the system, fraught with incalculable misery to so large a section of the human race. For it must be remembered that the slavery these people suffer is far more crushing to them than the African who is taken as a savage to serve civilised and at least, nominally, Christian masters; but these are generally well-to-do men of civilised nations who are made the slaves of utter fiends, who work and torture them to death one year, only to replace them by fresh victims whom they capture the next. It is indeed vae victis with them, and I think it is the duty of every Christian man and every Christian nation to do all that can be done to rid the earth of such horrible and dangerous monsters, and to punish the Sultan of Sulu and all who abet and aid them. The Dutch and Spaniards are always doing something, but not enough, and during the last four or five years, these pirate fleets have been gradually getting more and more numerous and daring on these coasts, and now it is for England to rouse herself and complete the work of putting them down. Labuan is near their haunts and it might be done from thence. A few thousands spent out here yearly for the purpose would, I believe in my heart, soon effect more real and lasting good than the millions which are being spent on the coast of Africa. All honour is due to Sir James Brooke and his nephew, the Rajah Muda, and the other officers of the Sarawak government, who in spite of misrepresentation and factious opposition, through evil report and good report, have persevered for years in constant, steady, and systematic efforts to put down piracy on this coast and chastise these villainous marauders whenever they come into Sarawak waters. If the English government will now act with and assist us, we shall soon clear the Sarawak and Labuan waters of these pests. Assisted by the knowledge and experience of our natives, the work would be done surely and effectually; but single-handed the Sarawak government notwithstanding all it has done, cannot carry it out. We want means; if England or Englishmen will give us that, we shall gladly do the work, and feel that we are delivering our fellow-men, and doing our duty to God, who has commanded us to free the captive and deliver the oppressed. While at the same time we shall be averting a danger which is ever threatening us at our own doors, and has so long crippled the energies and resources of this country.
The original fleet of Lanuns had consisted of eleven prahus, but off the western coast of Borneo five had parted company and stayed behind to cruise around Banka and Belitong. Shortly afterwards one of her Majesty's ships fell in with three of them and attempted to take them, but the pirates managed to effect their escape.
