CHAPTER VIII

MUKA

In 1856, the Honourable G. W. Edwardes had been appointed Governor of Labuan; Mr. Spenser St. John being Consul-General at Bruni. The Governor was known to have imbibed all the prejudices and antipathies fostered in England by Mr. Gladstone and his tail; and he was eager in everything to hamper the development of the little State of Sarawak. He was not, however, authorised to interfere in the relations between Bruni and Sarawak, nor in the internal affairs of these States, where he had no jurisdiction; but when the Consul-General left on leave early in 1860, the Consular Office was handed over to him, and he was then placed in a position to give vent to his bias, and, as Sir Spenser St. John remarks, "he was delighted to get a chance of giving a blow to Sarawak." With regard to Sherip Masahor, "he acted against his better judgment," and with regard to the subsequent events at Muka "against the strong advice of his own experienced officers."[254]

Sherip Masahor, after having been driven out of Sarawak, retired to Muka, and, having established his family and numerous followers there, passed on to Bruni to lay his case before the Sultan. Consul-General St. John was then on the point of leaving, but before his departure he received information from the Sultan which left little doubt "that Masahor had instigated the murder of—had, in fact, by his paid agents, murdered—Messrs. Fox and Steele."[255] On his way to England Mr. St. John visited Kuching, and there obtained evidence which quite convinced him of the Sherip's guilt, and he then wrote to the Sultan, calling upon him to deliver up the Sherip to the Sarawak Government. But this letter passing into acting Consul-General Edwardes' hands was suppressed by him. He had seen the plausible Sherip, who had been sent to him by the Sultan, and not only declined to believe in his guilt, but advised the Sultan that his detention was not justifiable, and that he should be permitted to return to Muka; there to watch and if needs be oppose the aggression of the Rajah's nephews. To add fuel to the flame, he led the Sultan to believe that prosperous Sarawak would soon be restored to Bruni—a tempting prospect for the covetous and plundering nobles.

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

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

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

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

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

In obedience to instructions the poor Sherip had gone to Kuching from Serikei, taking certain Government monies and properties. In the Sarawak river he had met the Tuan Muda coming down, and he then received orders to follow him and join in an attack on Sadong. He obeyed, and on entering the Sadong river brought up and anchored, the Tuan Muda going on. The same evening the Tuan Muda dropped down, anchored close to his prahu, sent and _borrowed_ his small boat, and the next morning unexpectedly fired upon him. This is the story the Sherip told the Governor at Bruni, and this is the story the Governor found it suitable to his purpose to believe, though he _hoped_ it was not true, and that he would be able "to clear away so great a stain upon the British name."[256]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

We had received an announcement of a large party among the enemy being in favour of at once making peaceful overtures; and even the headman's brother, Pangiran Lada, advised the opening of their river, and admission of our boats to trade; but the headman himself, Pangiran Nipa, was firm in the grasp of Sherip Masahor's mother and sister, who were hostile to any approach to friendly relations. Many of our people had relatives among the enemy, some even had wives living in Muka. A council of war was held on board the _Venus_[257] in the evening, at which all the chiefs and Europeans were present. It was decided that an advance should be made next morning for the entrance to the Muka river. A landing party was appointed to cut off the narrow point which extends to the mouth. By landing there and making a demonstration, the enemy would give up their lower stockade, and the pinnaces might then have free ingress over the bar and through the narrow channel.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

We let go our anchor and hauled it up again, but all to no purpose, and we were at a loss to know what had fouled us. We then laid out a kedge and hove it home, without moving clear, and every now and then we blazed our 6-pounder of grape into the enemy, while they peppered us incessantly. The position was far from pleasant with guns banging all around and the fog and smoke so dense as to preclude a possibility of making out our position. At length I found that a large rattan made fast to one of the booms which had been cut adrift was holding us. The rattan was across the river, and the enemy had evidently entertained the intention of reconstructing their booms that night. I ordered a plucky young native[258] to jump down and cut it, which he did with two strokes of his sword. This had been holding us now for more than two hours under the enemy's fire.

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

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

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.[259] 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,[260] 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.[261]

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."[262] 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,"[263] 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 Johnson[264] 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.[265]

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.[266]

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."[267]

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,[268] 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.

Footnote 254:

_Life of Sir James Brooke._

Footnote 255:

_Idem._

Footnote 256:

Extracted from Governor Edwardes' letter to the Tuan Besar of May 25, 1860.

Footnote 257:

A sailing gunboat of 50 tons, just launched, and manned with a crew of twelve Englishmen and twenty Malays.

Footnote 258:

Dagang, a brave Balau Dayak, who subsequently filled many positions of trust, as Police Sergeant and native officer, now retired on pension.

Footnote 259:

The Telian.

Footnote 260:

Under the pretext of "having a proper regard for British interests, and the honour of my country."—Governor Edwardes to the Tuan Besar, July 31, 1860.

Footnote 261:

St. John, _op. cit._

Footnote 262:

St. John, _Life in the Forests of the Far East_.

Footnote 263:

_Ten Years in Sarawak._

Footnote 264:

Youngest son of the Rev. Charles Johnson. He was at first styled _Tuan Adek_ but this was afterwards changed to the more correct Malay title of Tuan Bongsu, now held by the present Rajah's third son. (Adek = younger brother; bongsu = youngest born.) He served principally in the Saribas, until 1868, when his health having broken down he retired. He became Deputy-Governor of Parkhurst and Chatham Prisons in succession, and then Chief Constable of Edinburgh. He died March 31, 1894.

Footnote 265:

St. John, _Life of Sir James Brooke_.

Footnote 266:

From a letter to the Tuan Muda of May 5.

Footnote 267:

St. John, _op. cit._

Footnote 268:

He retired in 1863.