Baring-Gould Sabine
A History of Sarawak under Its Two White Rajahs 1839-1908
APPENDIX TO CHAPTER II
LIST OF THE MAHOMEDAN SULTANS OF BRUNI
Taken from the Selesilah (Book of the Descent), preserved in Bruni, by the late Sir Hugh Low, G.C.M.G. Published in the Journal No. 5 of the Straits Branch R.A.S.
1. Sultan Mahomed, who introduced the religion of Islam.
2. Sultan Akhmed, brother of above, married to the daughter of Ong Sum Ping, Chinese Raja of Kina-batangan. No sons, but one daughter married to —
3. Sultan Berkat, from Taif in Arabia. A descendant of the prophet through his grandson Husin. Berkat, the blessed. His real name was Sherif Ali.
4. Sultan Suleiman, son of above, who was succeeded by his son —
5. Sultan Bulkeiah;76 towards the end of his reign Pigafetta's first visit to Bruni in 1521 probably took place.
6. Sultan Abdul Kahar, son of above. Had forty-two sons, of whom —
7. Saif-ul-Rejal succeeded him. During his reign the Spaniards attacked Bruni in 1576 and 1580, taking it on the second occasion.
8. Sultan Shah Bruni, son of above. Having no children he abdicated in favour of his brother —
9. Sultan Hasan, succeeded by his son.
10. Sultan Abdul-Jalil-ul-Akbar, succeeded by his son.
11. Sultan Abdul-Jalil-ul-Jehar, who was succeeded by his uncle —
12. Sultan Mahomet Ali, son of Sultan Hasan.
13. Sultan Abdul Mubin. Son of Sultan Mahomet Ali's sister. He murdered his uncle and usurped the throne. He was worsted in a revolution that lasted twelve years, and was executed.
14. Sultan Muaddim, fourth son of Sultan Jalil-ul-Akbar, nephew and son-in-law of Sultan Mahomet Ali. Succeeded by his nephew (half-brother's son) —
15. Sultan Nasr Addin, grandson of Sultan Jalil-ul-Akbar.
16. Sultan Kemal-Addin, son of Sultan Mahomet Ali, who abdicated in favour of his son-in-law —
17. Sultan Mahomet Ali-Udin – on his father's side grandson of Sultan Muaddin, on his mother's side great-great-grandson of Sultan Jalil-ul-Akbar. He died before his father-in-law and great uncle, Sultan Kemal-Addin, who again ascended the throne and was succeeded by his son —
18. Sultan Omar Ali Saif-udin. Died 1795. Succeeded by his son —
19. Sultan Tej-Walden. Died 1807. He abdicated in favour of his son —
20. Sultan Jemal-ul-Alam, who reigned for a few months only, and died in 1796, when his father reascended the throne and was succeeded in 1809 by his half-brother —
21. Sultan Khan Zul-Alam, succeeded by his great-nephew and grandson —
22. Sultan Omar Ali Saif-udin, second son of Sultan Mahomed Jemal-ul-Alam. Died 1852. He left the throne, by will and general consent of the people, to
23. Sultan Abdul Mumin, who was descended from Sultan Kemal-Addin. Died 1885, succeeded by
24. Sultan Hasim-Jalilal Alam Akamaddin, son of Sultan Omar Ali Saif-udin. Died 1906.
25. Sultan Mahomet Jemal-ul-Alam, son of above.
The above are abridged extracts. The last two sultans were not included in Low's list, which was made in 1893. Low's spelling of the names is followed.
Forrest, op. cit., who obtained his information from Mindanau records, states that about 1475 a Sherip Ali and his two brothers came from Mecca. Ali became the first Muhammadan prince in Mindanau; one brother became King of Borneo (Bruni) and the other King of the Moluccas. As regards the date this agrees with the Bruni records, and the brothers might have borne the same name. (See Mahomet Ali, Omar Ali above.)
According to Chinese records, a Chinese is said to have been King of Bruni in the beginning of the 15th century.77 This would have been in Ong Sum Ping's time, and it probably refers to him.
CHAPTER III
THE MAKING OF SARAWAK
James Brooke was born at Benares on April 29, 1803, and was the son of Thomas Brooke of the East India Company's Civil Service. He entered the Company's army in 1819, and took part in the first Burmese war, in which he was severely wounded, and from which he was invalided home in 1825. He had been honourably mentioned in despatches for conspicuous services rendered in having raised a much needed body of horse, and for bravery. Then he resigned his commission, and visited China, Penang, Malacca, and Singapore. There he heard much of the beauty and the wonders of the fairy group of islands forming the Eastern Archipelago, and of the dangers to be encountered there from Malay pirates; islands rich in all that nature could lavish in flower and fruit, in bird and gorgeous butterfly, in diamond and pearl, but "the trail of the serpent was over them all." Very little was known of these islands, few English vessels visited them, the trade was monopolised by the Dutch, who sought to exclude all European nations from obtaining a foothold. They claimed thousands of islands from Sumatra to Papua as within their exclusive sphere of influence, islands abounding in natural products which they exploited imperfectly, and did nothing to develop. This was a dog-in-the-manger policy to which Great Britain submitted.
The young man's ambition was fired; he longed to explore these seas, to study the natural history, the ethnology, to discover gaps in the Dutch imaginary line through which English commerce might penetrate and then expand.
Mr. Brooke made a second voyage to the East in a brig which, in partnership with another, he had purchased and freighted for China; but this venture proved a failure, and the brig and cargo were sold in China at a loss.
In 1835, Mr. Thomas Brooke died, leaving to his son the sum of £30,000. James now saw that a chance was open to him of realising his youthful dream, and he bought a yacht, the Royalist, a schooner of 142 tons burden, armed with six-pounders and several swivels, and, after a preliminary cruise in the Mediterranean to train his crew, he sailed in December 1838, flying the flag of the Royal Yacht Squadron, for that enchanted group of islands —
Those islands of the sea
Where Nature rises to Fame's highest round.78
And as he wrote, to cast himself on the waters, like Southey's little book; but whether the world would know him after many days, was a question which, hoping the best, he could not answer with any degree of assurance.
He arrived in Singapore in May, 1839. The Rajah Muda Hasim of Sarawak had recently shown kind treatment to some English shipwrecked sailors, and Mr. Brooke was commissioned by the Governor and the Singapore Chamber of Commerce to convey letters of thanks and presents to the Rajah Muda in acknowledgment of his humanity, exceptional in those days, and a marked contrast to the treatment afforded to the crew and passengers of the Sultana a little later by his sovereign, the Sultan of Bruni, which is recorded further on.79 This chance diverted Mr. Brooke from his original project of going to Marudu Bay, the place he had indicated as being the best adapted for the establishment of a British settlement, and took him to the field of his life-long labours.
He left Singapore on July 27, 1839, full of hope and confidence that something was to be done, and reaching the West Coast of Borneo surveyed some seventy miles of that coast before entering the Sarawak river, which was not then marked on the charts; for of Borneo at that time very little was known; its interior was a blank upon the maps, and its coast was set down by guess work on the Admiralty charts; so much so, that Mr. Brooke found Cape Datu placed some seventy to eighty miles too far to the east and north, and he was "obliged to clip some hundreds of miles of habitable land off the charts."
Kuching,80 the capital of Sarawak, is so called from a small stream that runs through the town into the main river, that a few miles below expands and forms a delta of many channels and mouths. The town, which is seated some twenty miles from the open sea, was founded by Pangiran Makota, when Bruni rule was established in Sarawak, and he was sent down as the Sultan's representative a few years previously to the arrival of Mr. Brooke. At this time the population, with the exception of a few Chinese traders and other eastern foreigners, consisted entirely of Bruni Malays to the number of about 800. The Sarawak Malays lived at Katupong,81 a little higher up, and farther up again at Leda Tanah, under their head chief, the brave Datu Patinggi Ali.
A distinction must be made, which it will be as well to again note here, between the Malays of Bruni and those of Sarawak, in other works described – the former as Borneans, and the latter as Siniawans. They are very different in appearance, manners, and even in language. There are not many Brunis in Sarawak now. Most returned to their own country with Rajah Muda Hasim when he retired there in 1844, and others drifted thither later. All the Malays in Kuching, except a sprinkling of foreigners, are Sarawak Malays, the descendants of the so-called Siniawans.
The bay that lies between Capes Datu and Sipang is indeed a lovely one. To the right lies the splendid range of Poé, over-topping the lower, but equally beautiful, Gading hills; then the fantastic-shaped mountains of the interior; while to the left the range of Santubong end-on towards you looks like a solitary peak, rising as an island from the sea, as Teneriffe once appeared to me sailing by in the Mæander. From these hills flow many streams which add to the beauty of the view. But the gems of the scene are the little emerald isles that are scattered over the surface of the bay, presenting their pretty beaches of glittering sand, or their lovely foliage drooping to kiss the rippling waves. There is no prettier spot (than the mouth of the Sarawak river); on the right bank rises the splendid peak of Santubong, over 2000 feet in height,82 clothed from its summit to its base with noble vegetation, its magnificent buttresses covered with lofty trees, showing over a hundred feet of stem without a branch, and at its base a broad beach of white sand fringed by graceful casuarinas, waving and trembling under the influence of the faintest breeze, and at that time thronged by wild hogs.83
On August 15, the Royalist cast anchor off the capital, and Mr. Brooke had an interview with the Rajah Muda, presented the letters and gifts, and was very graciously received. He was allowed to make excursions to Lundu, Samarahan, and Sadong, large rivers hitherto unknown to Europeans, and he added some seventy miles to his survey of the coast; but as the Malays and most of the Dayak tribes were in insurrection in the interior, travelling there was unsafe.
The Rajah Muda Hasim, the Bandahara of Bruni and the heir-presumptive to the throne, was a plain, middle-aged man, with gracious and courtly manners, amiable and well disposed, but weak and indolent. He was placed in a difficult position, which he had not the energy or the ability to fill. The Sultan of Bruni had confided the district of Sarawak some years previously to the Pangiran Makota as governor, a man utterly unprincipled, grasping, selfish, cruel, and cowardly, but "the most mild, the most gentlemanly rascal you can conceive";84 and by his exactions and by forced labour at the antimony mines, he had driven the Sarawak Malays, as well as the Land-Dayaks, into open revolt. They proclaimed their independence of Bruni, and asserted that submission to the Sultan had been voluntary on their part, and on stipulated conditions that had not been carried out. For three years they had carried on their struggle against the Bruni tyrants, but, though far from being reduced, it became evident to them that unaided they could not attain their freedom. Surrender meant death to the chiefs and abject slavery to the people, and to their womankind something far worse than either, so in their extremity they appealed to the Dutch. A year before Mr. Brooke's arrival they had invited the Dutch to plant the Netherlands flag in their camp, and afterwards had sent an emissary to Batavia to beg the assistance of the Governor-General, but open assistance was refused, though the Sultan of Sambas appears to have constantly supplied the rebels with ammunition and provisions. As Mr. Brooke had warned the Pangiran Makota, who had reason to fear Dutch aggression, the danger was not an open violation of their independence, but their coming on friendly terms – they might make war after having first gained a footing, not before. The Dutch had made great efforts to establish trade with Sarawak, in other words, to monopolise it, and through their vassal, the Sultan of Sambas, had offered assistance to open the antimony mines.
The Sultan of Bruni had sent his uncle, the Rajah Muda Hasim, to reduce the rebels, but without withdrawing Makota and checking his abuse of authority. A desultory war had been carried on without success under the direction of Makota, who was too cowardly himself to lead his Malay and Dayak levies into action, to storm the stockades of the insurgents, and to pursue them to their strongholds. The consequence was that anarchy prevailed, except in the immediate neighbourhood of the capital.
There was something in the frank eye, in the cheery self-confidence of Brooke that captivated the timid little Rajah Muda, who was not only unable to cope with the Malays in revolt, but was afraid of his neighbours, the Dutch, lest they should make the disturbances an excuse for intervention and annexation, and he hoped in his extremity to obtain some help from the British.
"Which is the cat and which is the mouse?" he asked in reference to the rival powers. "Britain is unquestionably the mouser," replied Brooke. But he did not add that the mouser was so gorged and lazy as only occasionally to stretch forth a paw.
Mr. Brooke bade his friends good-bye on September 20, after having received a pressing invitation from the Rajah Muda to revisit him, and he begged Brooke not to forget him. Leaving the Royalist at Muaratebas, Brooke visited the Sadong river, where he made the acquaintance of Sherip Sahap,85 a powerful half-bred Arab chief and ruler of that river, who in later days was to give Brooke so much trouble. He returned to the Royalist on the 27th, and intended to sail the next morning, but was delayed by a startling incident that gave him his first experience of the piratical habits of the Saribas Dayaks. The boat of Penglima Rajah (the Rajah's captain), who was to pilot the Royalist over the bar, and which was lying inshore of the yacht, was attacked in the middle of the night, but the report of a gun and the display of a blue light from the yacht caused the Dayaks to decamp hurriedly, though not before they had seriously wounded the Penglima and three of his crew. Mr. Brooke waited until the wounded were sufficiently recovered to be sent to Kuching, and, after he had paid a flying visit to that place at the urgent request of the Rajah, sailed for Singapore on October 3.
The history of his late cruise, to quote Mr. Brooke, had agitated the society in Singapore, and whilst the merchants presented him with an address of thanks, the Governor became cooler towards him. The former foresaw an access of trade, the latter was nervous of political embarrassments.
He would fain have me lay aside all politics, but whilst I see such treachery and baseness on one part (the Dutch), and such weakness, imbecility, and indifference on the other (the English), I will continue to upraise my voice at fitting seasons. I will not leave my native friends to be deceived and betrayed by either white nation, and (what the governor does not like) I will speak bold truths to native ears.
The Dutch trading regulations weighed on this island as they did on all others within their influence. Sir Stamford Raffles, in his History of Java, 1830, tells us that by an edict of 1767, trading in opium, pepper, and all spices was prohibited in the Archipelago to all persons under pain of death, and other severe penalties were imposed upon those trading in other commodities. The quantity of gunpowder and shot that might be carried by any vessel was restricted, and the punishment for carrying more than was permitted was the confiscation of the vessel and corporal punishment. Vessels were not allowed to sail from any part of the Java coast where there was not a Company's Resident. Those from Banka and Beliton could only trade to Palembang (Sumatra). Navigation from Celebes and Sumbawa was prohibited under pain of confiscation of vessel and cargo. The China junks were permitted to trade at Batavia and Banjermasin alone. In all there were thirty-one articles of restriction, "serving to shackle every movement of commerce, and to extinguish every spirit of enterprise, for the narrow, selfish purposes of what may be called the fanaticism of gain." The consequence was that honest traffic was paralysed, and an opportunity and indirect encouragement given to piracy. Indeed, the Dutch winked at this as it hampered smuggling by European and native traders. They resented it only when their own trade was interfered with by the marauders.
After visiting the Celebes, where he spent four months, Mr. Brooke sailed for Sarawak from Singapore on August 18, 1840. His kindly feeling for the Rajah Muda Hasim prompted him to pay another visit to Sarawak, taking it on his way to Manila and China. He found the condition of the country as distracted as ever, "with no probability of any termination of a state of affairs so adverse to every object which I had in view," and so decided to quit the scene and proceed on his voyage. On notifying his departure to the Rajah, he was urgently pressed to remain; every topic was exhausted to excite his compassion. The Rajah laid his difficulties before him, and expressed "his resolution to die here rather than abandon his undertaking – to die deserted and disgraced"; and it was compassion for his miserable situation that induced Mr. Brooke to alter his intention.
The rebellion had lasted for nearly four years, and for the efforts made to quell it might well last for a century, and the whole country, except Kuching, become independent. Starvation had compelled many of the Land-Dayaks to submit, but that was the only advantage that had been gained. Hasim was in ill odour at Bruni because he had effected nothing, and the Orang Kaya di Gadong, a Bruni minister, had been sent by the Sultan to stir him up to greater activity. But how to exert himself, how with cowardly pangirans to come to close quarters with the rebels he could not see, and in his helplessness and discouragement he caught at the opportunity offered by the arrival of Brooke.
With some reluctance Mr. Brooke consented to assist Hasim against the insurgents, and proceeded to Siniawan; but after having been up-river a short time he returned to Kuching, disgusted by the supineness and inertness of Makota and the other leaders, and announced his intention of sailing for Manila. Hasim saw that Brooke's departure would deprive him of his last chance of reducing the rebels, and that he would have to return to Bruni in disgrace. Again he urged Brooke to stay, and he offered him the country if he would return up-river and take command of his forces. "He offered me," wrote Brooke, "the country of Siniawan and Sarawak, with its government and trade;" in addition he offered to grant him the title of Rajah.
Hasim had been placed in Sarawak for a purpose, which he was wholly unable to effect; as he was heir-presumptive86 to the throne of Bruni, he was impatient at what he considered his exile from the capital. Could the insurrection be subdued he would be reinstated in the favour of his nephew, and might return to Bruni to defeat the machinations of his enemies there, leaving the government of Sarawak in the strong hands of Brooke.
Mr. Brooke hesitated for some time, as the offer had been imposed by necessity, but finally agreed, and promised the assistance required. With ten of his English crew and two guns, he joined the Rajah's mixed force of Malays, Dayaks, and Chinese, and proceeded against the insurgents. As was their wont, the pangirans in command hung back and would not expose their precious persons to danger, with the notable exception of the Pangiran Bedrudin, half-brother to the Rajah Muda Hasim. This was Brooke's first meeting with Bedrudin. He was greatly impressed with his frank but overawing and stately demeanour, and a warm friendship soon sprang up between them, which lasted until the death of this ill-fated prince, who justly earned a reputation for bravery and constancy, the only one of the royal princes of Bruni in whom these qualities were combined.
To Mr. Brooke's regret, Bedrudin was shortly withdrawn by his brother, and the other pangirans, led by Makota, thwarted him in every forward movement, to disguise their own cowardice. Finally, after several bloodless engagements and bombardments, communication was opened with Sherip Mat Husain,87 one of the rebel leaders, and he came to see Mr. Brooke under a flag of truce, which would have received little respect had it not been for the stern measures taken by the latter. This meeting led to an interview between the Malay rebel chiefs and Mr. Brooke, and they submitted, but only on the understanding that Brooke was henceforth to be the Rajah, and that he would restrain the oppression of the pangirans. On these terms they laid down their arms, and then it was with great difficulty that Brooke succeeded in wringing from the Rajah Muda a consent that their lives should be spared, and that consent was only reluctantly given on Brooke rising up to bid the Rajah Muda farewell; but the wives and children of the principal chiefs, to the number of over one hundred, were taken from them by Hasim as hostages. They "were treated with kindness and preserved from injury or wrong."88
Some delay ensued in the investiture of Brooke with the governorship. Hasim was disposed to shuffle, and Makota, who feared his exactions would be interfered with, used all his power to prevent it. Hoping it would content Brooke, the Rajah Muda had drawn up an agreement which was only to the purport that he was to reside in Sarawak in order to seek for profit, an agreement which the Rajah Muda explained was merely to be shown to the Sultan in the first place, and that it was not intended as a substitute for that which had been agreed upon between themselves, and would be granted in due course. Hasim was between two stools: his duty in respect to his promise to Brooke, whose friendship and support were necessary to him; and his fear of the party led by Makota in Sarawak, but still more powerfully represented in Bruni, who foresaw, as well as he did himself, the end of their rule of tyranny if once such an advocate for reform as Mr. Brooke were allowed to gather up the reins of power.
Brooke accepted this equivocal arrangement, and, trusting in the Rajah Muda's good faith, to establish trade and communication with Singapore, went to the expense of buying and freighting the schooner Swift of ninety tons with a general cargo. On her arrival from Singapore the Rajah Muda took over the whole cargo, promising antimony ore in exchange, but this promise also he showed no intention of fulfilling – in fact it never was fulfilled. After this cargo had been obtained the Rajah Muda became cool to Brooke, evaded all discussion about the settlement of the country, and even went so far as to deny that he had ever made the unsolicited promise to transfer the government to him; and a plot was attempted to involve him in a dispute with the Dutch at Sambas.
To ruin Mr. Brooke's prestige with the Land-Dayaks, Malays, and Chinese, as their protector, a crafty scheme was devised by Makota, to which he induced the Rajah to grant his consent. He invited a party of 2500 Sea-Dayaks from Sekrang to ascend the Sarawak river and massacre the Land-Dayaks, Malays, and Chinese in the interior. They arrived at Kuching, and, with the addition of a number of Malays as guides, started up the river. But Brooke, highly incensed, retired to the Royalist, and at once prepared that vessel and the Swift for action. This had the desired effect. Hasim was cowed; "he denied all knowledge of it; but the knowledge was no less certain, and the measure his own."89 He threw the blame on Makota, and, yielding to Brooke's insistence, sent a messenger up river after the fleet to recall it, – a command that could not be disobeyed, as Brooke held command of the route by which they must return. Sulkily and resentfully did the Sekrang Dayaks return, without heads, and without plunder. And for Makota it was a case of the biter bit, as he had unwittingly enhanced Brooke's prestige. The oppressed people now learnt that Brooke was not only determined to protect them, but that he had the power to do it – a power greater than Makota's; and this strengthened his hands, for many who had wavered through doubt on this point and fear of Makota, now threw in their lot with him, as Makota was shortly to discover to his cost.
"The very idea," wrote Brooke in his Journal, "of letting 2500 wild devils loose in the interior of the country is horrible. What object can the Malays90 have in destroying their own country and people so wantonly? The Malays take part in these excursions, and thirty men joined the Sekrangs on the present occasion, and consequently they share the plunder, and share largely. Probably Muda Hasim would have twenty slaves (women and children), and these twenty being redeemed at the low rate of twenty reals each makes 400 reals, besides other plunder amounting to one or two hundred reals more. Inferior pangirans would, of course, take likewise."
Mr. Brooke had now been put off for five months, and for six weeks had withdrawn from all intercourse with Rajah Muda Hasim. As he wrote, "I have done this man many benefits; and, if he prove false after all his promises, I will put that mark of shame upon him that death would be lighter." This was no idle threat, for he sent a final demand to the Rajah Muda either to perform his promise or to repay him all his outlay, and a warning that should Hasim do neither he would take sure means to make him; and the means were at hand, for on his return from Singapore Mr. Brooke had found the people of Sarawak again at issue with their ruler, and had once more thrown off their allegiance to the Sultan. They then offered him that allegiance, and their support to drive Rajah Muda Hasim and his followers out of the country; this offer was, however, declined. But a circumstance occurred that precipitated matters. Makota attempted to poison Brooke's interpreter by mixing arsenic with his rice. Through the indiscretion of a subordinate the plot was discovered, and Brooke immediately laid the facts before the Rajah Muda, as well as "a little treasury" of grievances and crimes against Makota, and demanded an inquiry. "The demand, as usual, was met by vague promises of future investigation, and Makota seemed to triumph in the success of his villainy, but the moment for action had now arrived, and my conscience told me that I was bound no longer to submit to such injustice, and I was resolved to test the strength of our respective parties."91 The Royalist's guns were loaded, and her broadside brought to bear, and Mr. Brooke landed with a small armed party. He demanded and immediately obtained an audience, and pointed out Makota's tyranny and oppression of all classes, and his determination to attack him, and drive him out of the country. Not a single man upheld Makota, whilst the Malays rallied around Mr. Brooke. This was a test of public opinion to which Makota had to bow, and he was deposed from his governorship. Mr. Brooke's public installation immediately followed, the Rajah Muda Hasim informing the people that he was henceforth to rule over them. On the 24th of September, 1841, a memorable day in the history not only of Sarawak but of the whole of North-Western Borneo, he was declared Rajah and Governor of Sarawak, amidst the roar of cannon and a general display of flags and banners on the shore and the vessels on the river.92
On that day he became Rajah of Sarawak, though a feudatory Rajah, a position which he was not content to hold for long, as such a position would have proved untenable.
Sarawak was then of very limited extent; it was a little governorship extending from Cape Datu to the mouth of the Sadong, and included, besides smaller streams, the Lundu, Sarawak, and Samarahan rivers; and this district, about 3000 square miles in area, is, with the inclusion of the Sadong river, now known as Sarawak Proper. In the days of Hasim Sarawak was not a raj, but a province under a governor. Hasim was not actually the Rajah of Sarawak, though his high birth gave him the right to the courtesy title of Rajah. His real title was the Pangiran Muda;93 Muda is inseparable from the title, and was not a part of his name. Pangiran Muda, the heir to the throne, is the correct Bruni title. Rajah Muda (young Rajah) also means heir-apparent.
The districts from Sarawak up to Bintulu, and beyond, formed separate provinces, and were under separate governors, but Hasim's high rank naturally gave him some influence over these officials. Sadong was governed by Sherip Sahap, his subjects being Land-Dayaks; his power, however, extended to the head of that river. Sherip Japar of Lingga, Sherip Mular of Sekrang, and Sherip Masahor of Serikei, held nominal authority only over the main population of their respective districts occupied by the Sea-Dayaks, for these people acknowledged no government, and lived in independence even in the vicinity of the Malays. Such, moreover, was the case with the Saribas, which was nominally governed by Malay chiefs. The districts of Muka, Oya, and Bintulu were under Bruni pangirans, but, having only Melanaus to govern, their control was complete. In the Baram, a river inhabited by warlike Kayans and Kenyahs, the Malays, nominal rulers and traders, lived on sufferance alone, and so it was in the Sea-Dayak countries of the Batang Lupar, Saribas, and Rejang. Over the Malays, the Land-Dayaks, and the Melanaus, the Bruni Government had power – the Sea-Dayaks and Kayans scorned it. The sherips, as the title denotes, are of Arab origin, and they claim descent from the Prophet. They are half-breeds, and were dangerous men. Earl, in his Eastern Seas, 1837, says: —
