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Full text of "The Indian archipelago, its history and present state"



ON 













5.1 4-3 L 



THE 



I-NDIAN ARCHIPELAGO; 



ITS 



HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE, 



HORACE ST. JOHN, 

AUTHOR OF 

" HISTORY OP THE BRITISH CONQUESTS IN INDIA," 

" LIFE OF CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS," 

ETC. 



IN TWO VOLUMES. 

VOL. II. 



LONDON: 

LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, AND LONGMANS. 
1853. 




LONDON i 

SPOTTISWOODES and Siutt, 
New-ltret-t-Sqnarc. 



Library of David 
Leavitt & Co. May 21 1884 



CONTENTS 



OF 



THE SECOND VOLUME. 



CHAPTER I, 

A. D. Page 

The Chinese settlers in Java j 

Their industry - - . . . - ib. 

Character of the Chinese - - - _ - 2 

Their government - - - -. . - ib. 

Increased immigration - - . . . jj 

1740. Policy of the Dutch - . _ .3 

^Restrictions on the Chinese --..-_ fa 

Conspiracy imputed to them - ... 4 

They continue their settlement .... fa 

The Dutch resolve to expel them - ... fa 

Grounds of the outrage - - - . - ib. 

Dutch violence j- - .... <j 

Commotion among the Chinese - fa 

Insurrection - - - _ _ .5 

A massacre proclaimed - * - . - ib. 

Terrific tragedy in Batavia - <. fa 

Envoys sent to China - - - * _ 7 

Conduct of Valckenier - - . - ib. 

Arrest of three councillors - - . . . fa 

Baron Imhoff - - - '. . g 

The Chinese war - - . . _ - ib. 

Dutch conquest - - . . . - ib 

Forts erected - - _ . . - ib 

The sultan's policy - . . . _ 9 

War commenced - - . - ib 

Javan barbarity - - - . . - ib 

Duplicity of the native prince - - . - 1 

Massacre of the sick and wounded - - - - ib 

Mock battles - - . . ^ - ib 

Spirit of conquest - - - _ _ -n' 

Language of Java - ^ 

1742. Progress of the Chinese - - - _ - 12 

A 2 



IV CONTENTS. 

A. D. Page 

Their brutality - -12 

1743. End of the war - - ib. 

1745. Interval of peace - ... 13 

1746. The native capital changed - ib. 
Conduct of Imhoff - - ib. 

1747. The Philippines - - 14 

1748. Progress of Holland - ... ib. 
Change of administration - - ib. 

1749. Territorial aggrandisement in Java - 15 
The Dutch supreme - ib. 

1752. Success of their diplomacy - . - - 16 
War in Java - - ib. 
Civil strife - - ib. 

1753. Intervention of the Dutch - 17 

1757. League with native princes - - ib. 

1 758. Second war of Java concluded - - 18 
Devastation of the island - - ib. 
Cost of the war - - - ib. 
Final agreement - ib. 
Troubles in Borneo - 19 
Pepper treaties - ib. 
The Dutch in Timor - - ib. 
History of that island - ib. 
Its position - - 20 
Characteristics * - - - - - ib. 

Hills - - - .-.- - - ib. 

Natural divisions - - - ib. 

Fantastic aspect - - - ' . - * ib. 

Minerals - - . - - - - ib. 

Agriculture ... ... - 21 

Barren coasts : : - - ib. 

The interior valleys - * ;'*;. - ib. 

Inhabitants * - . . - ib. 

The Philippines . - - r-v' - ib. 

Spaniards and Chinese , - - - - ib. 

1760. English driven from Sumatra - - . . - - 22 

British triumphs - - ib. 

1762. Expedition against Manilla - - 23 
Arrives in the Bay - - - ib. 
Landing of the forces - - - 24 
Challenge from the city - - - ib. 
Manilla bombarded . - - ib. 
Conduct of the siege - - -, - ib. 
General assault - - - -? v-rj -25 
Surrender of the Philippines 

The Manilla ransom - - - - ; . - 26 

Last defenders of Luzon - - - - - ib. 
Insurrection in favour of the English 

Archbishop Roxo - - - - - - ib. 

1763. Kestoration of the Philippines - 28 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER II. 

A. D. Page 

1774. Balambangan - .... 29 

1781. Rebellion in Celebes , - - - 30 

Dutch warfare - - - - - ib. 

1778. Dutch acquisitions in Borneo - - - - 31 

English conquest - - - - - ib. 

1783. An emporium in the Archipelago desired - - 32 

Foundation of Pinang - - - - ib. 

Policy of the transaction - ... ib. 

Pinang - .... 33 

Situation - - - - - ib. 

Extent - - - - - - ib. 

Surface - - - - - - ib. 

Vegetation - ib. 

Climate ... ... 34 

Timber - - - - - - ib. 

Products - - - - - - ib. 

Antiquities - - - - - - ib. 

English policy - ib. 

1791. The Dutch in Borneo - - 35 

Capture of Malacca - - - ib. 

Dissolution of the Netherlands' East India Company - 36 

Desolation of Java - - - - - ib. 

And of the Spice Isles - - - - ib. 

Disasters of the Dutch - - - - ib. 

English in Pinang - - - - 37 

Plan to abandon Malacca - - - - ib. 

Change of British policy - - - - ib. 

1810. Fall of Holland ---... 38 
Her struggles - - - - - - ib. 

Napoleon's conquests - - - - ib. 

French cruisers in the East - - ib. 

English plan to conquer Java - - - - 39 

1811. The expedition - - - . - - ib. 
Sir Stamford Baffles ... ib. 
The British armament - ... ib, 
Arrives off Java - - - - - .40 

Commencement of the campaign .... ib. 

Surrender of the Dutch possessions - - - 41 

Factory at Ban jar - - - - - - 42 

Dutch policy in Java .... ib. 

Lord Minto's proclamation - ... ib. 

Raffles appointed governor - 43 

Sir Stamford Raffles and Sir James Brooke - 44 

Their characters - - - - - ib. 

Youth of Raffles --.__-#. 

His career - ... ib. 

His success - - - - - - 45 

His present task - ....*&. 

State of Java - ... ib. 

The native prince 4 6 

A 3 



VI CONTENTS. 

A. D. Page 

Success of Raffles - - 46 

Relations with the island princes - -47 

Palembang - - - 48 

1812. Expedition to it - ib. 
Night attack - 49 
War in Java - - - - 50 
Acquisitions in Borneo - - - 51 

1813. Bantam ... - 52 
Manifesto of Raffles - ^ '., - - ib. 
Its spirit - ib. 

1814. Wisdom of Raffles - - 53 
Affairs of Celebes ------ ib. 

Feebleness of British policy - 54 

Fall of Buonaparte - ib. 

Revival of Holland - - - 55 

Treaty of London - - - - - ib. 

Treaty of Paris - - - ib. 

Restoration of the Dutch possessions - ib. 

Close of the war-period - - ib. 



CHAPTER III. 

1816. State of Java in 1816 - 56 

New administration of the Dutch - ib. 

Commercial restrictions - 57 

New treaties - - - ib. 

Wars and insurrections - - - *-' - 58 

1818. English in Achin - - - 59 
Dispute with the Dutch - - - - ib. 

English treaties in the Peninsula - - - 60 
Plans of Raffles ------ ib. 

Forbearance of the English - - - 61 

Resolve to open a free port - - ib. 

Dutch intrigues - - - - - - ib. 

Search for a place of settlement ... - ib. 

1819. Monopolising policy of Holland - 62 
New British settlement, Singapore - - 63 
Situation - - ib. 
Shape ... ib. 
Extent - - - ib. 
Surrounding group - ib. 
Surface ... 64 
Productions - - ib. 
Animals - - - - - ib. 
Climate - - - - - - ib. 



The town - 
Agriculture 
Founders of Singapore 
Cession of the island 
Its occupation 



ib. 
65 
ib. 
ib. 
ib. 



Politics of Johore - - 66 



CONTENTS. Vli 

A - D - Page 

Population of the island - - - 66 

Its rapid increase ' - - . - 67 
Dutch factory - ib. 

Negotiations - - - ' . - ib. 

Dutch malignity - .. . . -68 

Their quarrels in Timon - - - - 69 

In Sumatra - - - - . - ib. 

In Banca - - - - - - - ib. 

New government of the Netherlands' Indies - - ib. 

Capellen's policy - - - - - .70 

Achin - - ... , -71 

Its fallen condition - - . - ib. 

Relations with the English - - . " - ib. 

Monopoly - - - - - - - ib. 

1820. Politics of Java - - - - . - 72 
Administration of Java - - - - - 73 
Police laws - - - - ' "."'. . ib. 
Politic enactments - - - - . - ib. 

1821. Last struggle of Palembang - - - - 74 
And of Banca - - - - - - ib. 

1 822. Other insurrections - - - - - ib. 
Long neglect of Java - - - - - 75 
Spread of influence - - - - - 76 

1823. Mission to Japan - - - - - - ib. 
Exertion in Borneo - - - - ib. 
Chinese in Borneo - - - - ib r 
False policy of the settlers - - - ,77 
Threatened disturbance in Java ' - - ib. 



Causes of disaffection 

Wretched policy in the Moluccas - 

Transactions in Celebes 



1824. Celebes 



Conquests in that island 
The English in Singapore - 



ib. 
78 
ib. 
79 
80 
ib. 



CHAPTER IV. 

1824. The treaty of 1824 ...... gl 

Spirit of the treaty - - - - - - ib. 

Value of the treaty - 83 

Dutch progress in Celebes - - - - - 85 

1825. Mercantile enterprize of the Dutch - - - - 86 

Kolff's expedition - - - - - ib. 

The Arafura Isles - - - - - -87 

The Serwatty - ib. 

Description of the eastern groups - ib. 

Account of Damma - - - 88 

Changes in its aspect - - - - ib. 

Trade ....... if,, 

The Tenimber Isles - - - - ib. 

The Arru group - - - 89 

A 4 



Vlll CONTENTS. 

A. D. Page 

Aspect - .... 89 

Inhabitants - - - - - ib. 

The mart of Dobbo - - . - - ib. 

Ceram, Laut, and Goram - - - - 90 

Restoration of Malacca to the English - - 9 1 

American trade - - - - - ib. 

Naning - - - - . . ib. 

Its people - ... - ib. 

Gold mines - - - - . ib. 

The Straits settlement - - - - - 92 

Great war of Java -'.-' - - - ib. 

Summary of Javan politics - ... ib. 

Kemote origin of the war - - - - 93 

Conspiracy - - - - - -94 

Outrage on the Dutch - - - - ib. 

Causes of rupture - ib. 

Anarchy of Java - .... 95 

Dutch interposition .... $. 

Direct cause of the war - - - - - 96 

Agitation of the island - - - - - 97 

Conspiracy against Holland - - - - 98 

Dhipo Negoro - ib. 

Kindling of the rebellion - - . - - - ib. 

1826. The war --.....99 

1827. The Dutch operation - ib. 
1830. Negoro captured .... - ib. 

End of the war - - - - - - ib. 

Pacification of Java .... ib. 

Dutch acquisition - - - - - 100 

Subsequent tranquillity of Java - - ib. 



CHAPTER V. 

1825. Dutch influence at Banjarmassim - - 101 

1826. Settlement in New Guinea - ib. 
Peace in Celebes - - - Jf . - 102 

1827. Revolt in Borneo - - - - - ib. 

1828. Agriculture of Java improved - - ib. 

1829. Progress of Singapore - 103 

1831. Events in Naning - - - - - - ib. 

Military expedition in Naning - - - - 104 

1832. Success of the expedition - - - - ib. 
Progress of the Straits settlements - - - 105 
Condition of Java - - ib. 

1833. Rumours of war in Europe .... ib. 
Town of Singapore - - - - - 106 

1834. Free trade at Rhio - - ii>. 
Chinese in Borneo - - - - - -107 

1835. The " Singapore Free Press" - - ib. 

1836. American trade - .... ib. 
Transactions with Keddah - - - - ib. 



CONTENTS. IX 

A. D. Page 

Bad faith of the English - - - - 108 

Forbearance towards the Dutch - - - 109 

Lord Palmerston's opinion - - ib. 

Belligerent speech of Mr. Joseph Hume - - ib. 

Dutch prohibitions - - - - ib. 

1837. The Spanish possessions - - - - 110 



CHAPTER VI. 

The piratical system - ^ ^_ -111 

Its antiquity - - - - - ib. 

Inveterate character of the evil - - - 112 

Freebooting princes - ib. 

Early accounts of piracy - - - ib. 

The Molucca buccaneers - - - - ib. 

Piratical character of the Malays - - - 113 

Classes of pirates - ... - ib. 

The powerful tribes - - ib. 

Petty prowlers ... ^ ib. 

Facilities in the Archipelago for pirates - - 114 

General description of pirates - - ib. 

Circumstances favourable to piracy - '- - ib. 

Ancient range of piracy - - - 1 1 5 

Law of nations on piracy - - - - ib. 

Parallel with European piracy - - - 116 

Lanuns of Magindanao - - ib. 

Their renown ... - - ib. 

Their lagoon city - - - - - -117 

The bay of Elanun - ib. 

Political relations of the pirates - - ib. 

Economy of the pirate city - - - 118 

Ingenious " escapes " - - - - ib. 

Mode of flight - - - - - ib. 

Adroitness of the pirates - - - - ib. 

Their batteries - - 119 

Their vessels - - - - - ib. 

Slaves " - - - - - - ib. 

Fighting-men - ib. 

The cabin - ib. 

Guns - - - - - ib. 

Swivels - * - - ib. 

Costume of the warriors - - 120 

Armour - - - - - - - ib. 

Weapons - - ib. 

Signs of piracy - ib. 

The prahus - - ib. 

Their decorations - ib. 

Other vessels - - - - -121 

Their use - - - - - - - ib. 

Moorings - - - - - - - ib. 

Navigation - - - - ib. 



CONTENTS. 

Page 

Ketreats ---.__. 121 

Constitution of the pirate fleets .... ib. 

Divisions of booty ------ 122 

Laws of the pirates - ib. 

Music in the boats - ib. 

Pirate songs - - - - - ib. 

Light galleys - - . - - ib. 

Strength of the fleets .... ib. 

Places of concealment .... ib. 

Pirate tactics - - - - - -123 

River scenes - - - - - ib. 

The pirate lake - " "- ' - . ib. 

Villages - - - - - - - ib. 

Floating dwellings - - - - - ib. 

Life in the lagoon - - : . - - ib. 

Number of Lanuns - - - - - 124 

Pirate cruises - - - - - ib. 

Their extent - - - ib. 

Seasons for pillage - - - - ib. 

Floating camps - - - - - -125 

Plan of an expedition - - ib. 

Routes - - ."'' - ib. 

Terror of the islanders - . . v - - - ib. 

Audacity of the pirates - . ' - - - ib. 

Their formidable character - - - - 126 

Mode of warfare - - - - - ib. 

Battle sounds - 127 

Their cunning - - - - - - ib. 

Horrible character of their visitations - ib. 

Slave trade - - 1 28 

Anecdote - - - - - - - ib. 

Resistance of the islanders - ib. 

European victims - - - - - ' ; - ib. 

Kidnapping Spaniards - - ib. 

Force of the Lanuns ... _ ib. 

Account of a voyage - - 129 

Bugis boats - - - ib. 

Plans of attack --.... ib. 

Anecdote - -.... ib. 

Attacks on coast villages - - - ' f - 130 

Choice of plunder - - ib. 

Ravages in the Philippines - - ib. 

Conflicts with the pirates - ib. 

Fort at Samboangan - - - ib. 

Long struggle with the buccaneers - - 131 

Princes of Mindanao - - ib. 

Jesuit account of them - - - ib. 

Their treachery - - - - - - ib. 

Their skill - - - - - - - 132 

Other Lanun communities - - - ib. 

Their great fleets - - - - - - ib. 

Their courage - - ib. 

Battles with women - - 133 

Security of their Lagoon - - ib. 



CONTENTS. XI 

A. D. 



Seasons of rest - - - - - 133 

Pirate orgies - - - - - ib. 

War dance - - - - - ib. 

The pirate's person - - - - - ib. 

The Lanuns incorrigible - - - - ib. 

Pirates of Borica - - - - - -134 

Account of Mindoro - - - - ib. 

Its former prosperity - - - - ib. 

Its rich cultivation - - - - - ib. 

Its actual desolation - - - - -135 

Lanun invasion - - - - - ib. 

Extermination of its people - ib. 

Curse of piracy - - - - - - ib. 

Retreats of the Moros - - - - ib. 

Lanun settlements in Borneo - - - - 136 

Secluded strongholds - - - - ib. 

Pirate industry - - - - - - ib. 

Freebooting sultans - - - - ib. 

Cruises to Java - ... - ib. 

Kottaringin - - - - - - ib. 

A pirate colony - - - - - -137 

Intercourse with the Bornean Princes ... ib. 

Malludu Bay - - - - ib. 

History of the community - - - - ib. 

Devastation of the coast - - - - - 138 

Tawarrun - - - - - - - ib. 

Tampassuk - - - - - - ib. 

Mercenary pirates - ... - ib. 

Career of a chief - - - - - 139 

Defences of the pirate haunt - ib. 

Booms - - - - - - ib. 

Fate of Ambong - - - - - - ib. 

Its former beauty - - - - - -140 

Pirate settlement - - - - - - ib. 

Ambong in ruins - - - - - - ib. 

Destruction of industry - - - - -141 

Picturesque pirate retreat at Pandassan ... ib. 

The pirates of Tampassuk - - - ib. 

Piracy in Brune - - - - - - ib. 

Traffic with buccaneers - - - - - 142 

Other Bornean pirates - - - - ib. 

Treaties to repress them, - - - - - ib. 

The Karimata isles - - - - - 143 

Sambas pirates - - - - - - ib. 

Dutch policy - - - - - - ib. 

Means of repression - - - - -144 

Robbers from necessity - - - - ib. 

Theories of crime - - - - - -145 

The Lanuns incapable of reclamation ... ib. 

Anecdote ....... ib, 

Anecdotes - ..... 145 

Chinese attacked by pirates - - - - 147 



Xll CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER VII. 

A. D. Page 

The Balanini pirates - - - - - 148 

Their islands - - - - - ib. 

Defences - ib. 

Anecdote - - - - - - ib. 

Political relations of the Balanini ..... ib. 

Pirate leagues - - - - - -149 

Sulu ..... . ib. 

Balanini fleets - - - "... - ib. 

Their vessels - - - > - - ib. 

Armament - - - - - -150 

Their origin - - - - - ib. 

Smaller boats - ib. 
Swivels .-__-.- ib. 

Other weapons ... ib. 

Bowing boats - ... - ib. 

Cruises of the Balanini - - ib. 
Account of a cruise ... {&. 

Labuan infested - - 151 

The Pirates' Wind - ib. 

Battle with pirates - - - - - ib. 

Courage of the buccaneers - - - - - 1 52 

Guilt of the Sultan of Sulu .... #. 

Season of their adventures ... - ib. 
Anecdotes - ..... j$. 

The Jolo pirates - - - - - ib. 

Anecdote of them - - - - - 153 

Piratical sultan - - - - - ib. 

Economy of the pirate life - - - - ib. 

Prefer flight to conflict - - 154 

Their attacks - - - - - ib. 

Cruelty - - - - - - , - ib. 

Ransom - - - - - ib. 

The Linga pirates - - 155 

Their politics - - - - - - ib. 

Their occupations - - - ib. 

Fisheries - - - - - -156 

Barter - - - - - . - ib. 

Periodical expeditions - - - - ib. 

Tyranny of chiefs - - - - ib. 

Routes of the Linganese fleets - - - ib. 

Forbearance of Europeans - - - 157 

Treaties with the freebooters ib. 

Anecdote - - - ib. 

Tribes of pirates - - 1 58 

Haunts in the Straits - 1 59 

Ravages of the pirates - - ib. 

Large fleets - - - ib. 

Malay rajahs - - - 160 

Pirate navigators - - ib. 

The Raynt Laut - - - 161 



CONTENTS. xiii 

A. D. Page 

Their social economy - - - 161 

Punishments - - ib, 

Migratory pirates - - - - - - ib. 

Traffic - - - - ib, 

Their attacks at sea - - - 162 

The Rendezvous - - - - - ib. 

Interval of rest - - - - - - ib. 

Periodical refit - - - - ib. 

Scattered Malay communities - - ib. 

Nomadic pirates - - 1 63 

Their chiefs ... . jj t 

Adventurers - - ib. 

Retreats in Borneo - - - - ib. 

Manner of carrying on piracy - -164 

Contests with sloops of war - - ib. 

Disguised piracy - - -- -165 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Pirates of Sumatra - - - - - ' - 166 

OfReteh ....... t -j. 

History of this settlement - - . ' - ib. 

Its forces - - - - - . . 167 

Season cruises - - - - - - ib, 

Pirate nests on the coasts - - - - - ib, 

Character of the people - - - - - 1 68 

Instance of piracy " - - - - - ib, 

Pirates of the creeks - - - - - ib, 

Biliton - - - - - - - ib, 

Two races of pirates - - - - - ib. 

Water dwellers - - - - - - ib. 

Various families of freebooters - - - - 169 

Karimata pirates - - - - . - ib, 

Other pirates of the islands - . - - ib, 

General economy of their haunts and cruises - - 1 70 

Isle of Wononi --___ 17^ 

Its beauty - - - . v - - ib. 

Its peaceful inhabitants - - - - ib, 

Ravaged by pirates - - - - - ib, 

Ravages in Celebes - - - - - ib, 

The fishing tribes - - - - - -172 

Saleyer group - - - - - - ib, 

Anecdote - - . . . . ib. 

Ceramese pirates - - " * - - -173 

Their boats - - - - . - ib, 

Captives ... . . . - ib. 

New Guinea - - . . - - 1 74 

Inhabitants of New Guinea - - - - ib. 

Coast dwellers - - - - _ -175 

Beautiful female captives - ib. 

Pirate Dyaks of Borneo - '_..._ ib. 



XIV CONTENTS. 

A. D. Page 

Denial of their existence - - - - 175 

Proofs of their existence - - - - it>. 

Various authorities - - ib. 

Accumulation of testimony - - 176 

Example of their outrages - - ib. 

Their weapons - - - '-.".,. -177 
Sea Dyaks ------- ib. 

Their piracies - - - - - ib. 

Country of the sea Dyaks - - ib. 

Beautiful abodes - - - - - ib. 

Secret paths - - - - - ib. 

Villages - - - - - - - 178 

Sir James Brooke - - - - - ib. 

Serebas pirates - - - - - 179 

Their vessels - - - - - ib. 

Sakarrans - - - - - - - ib. 

Their ravages ... . ib. 

Mixed community of pirates - - - 180 

Devastation of the country . ib. 

Roving expeditions ... ib. 

Native testimony - - - - -181 

Kanowit pirates - - 1 82 

Their ravages - - - - - - ib. 

Pirate vessels - - - - - ib. 

The Penjajap prahus - - 183 

The Kakap prahus ... - ib. 

Paduakan prahus - - - - 184 

Ordinary Malay boats ib. 



CHAPTER IX. 

History of efforts to suppress piracy - 186 

1705. Dutch attempts - - - , - ib. 

Maritime regulations - - - v* <sj & 

1708. Examples of piracy - - . - 187 

Negotiation with Indian princes - - "- --r - t'6. 

Passports - - - - ib. 

1760. Growth of the evil - - - - - ib. 

Cooperation of the island powers - - - 188 

Anecdote - - - - - - - ib. 

1807. Romantic incident - - - - - ib. 

Daendels' exertions - - - - 190 



1810. Adventure of The Fly 
181 I.French efforts 
1812. English enterprises - 

The Wellington - 

The Modest 

The Coromandel - 

The Matilda 

The Helen 

United efforts of the English and Dutch 



ib. 
ib. 
191 
ib. 
ib. 
ib. 
ib. 
ib. 



CONTENTS. XV 

A. D. Page 

Cruisers stationed - - - - -191 

Increase of piracy - - - - - ib. 

Square-rigged ships captured .... ib. 

1821. Improved plans of ship-building * - - 192 
Plans for suppressing piracy .... t'J. 

Cruising boats - - - - - ib. 

Native cruisers - - - - - -193 

Economy of the squadron - - - ib. 

Java surrounded by a line of cruizers - ib. 

Sea police laws - - - - - ib. 

Native auxiliaries - - - - - ib. 

Their value - - - - - - ib. 

Pirates of Biliton - - - - - ib. 

1822. Pirates of Celebes attacked - - - - 194 

1823. The General Koch - - - - - - - ib. 

Ravages in the Molucca group .... ib. 

Rajah Djilolo - - - - - ib. 



His career - 
His retreat in Ceram 
His stronghold attacked 
1825. Flight into the woods 
Negotiations with him 
His installation as a king 



ib. 
195 

ib. 
196 

ib. 

ib. 



Fortified settlement in Ceram - ib. 

1824. Treaty of 1824 - .... 197 

Clause respecting piracy - - - - ib. 

Efforts of the two governments .... ib. 

Activity of the Dutch - - 198 

Continued ravages of the pirates - ... ib. 

Ceramese fleet - - - - - - ib. 

Conflicts at sea ...... 199 

Anecdote - - - - - - - ib. 

1825. European plans - - - - - - ib. 

Tribes of pirates ---... 200 

Fishers in the Bornean sea - - - - ib. 

Piratical fishers - - - - - - ib. 

Policy of the Dutch - - - 201 

Maritime regulation - - - - - ib. 

1826. Destruction of a Dutch cruiser - - ib. 
Captures by pirates - - - - ib. 
The Anna -..-._ 202 
The Sara Theodora - - - - - ib. 

1829. Results of efforts at repression - ib. 



CHAPTER X. 

Feebleness of Dutch attempts to extirpate piracy - - 204 

Parallel between the British and Dutch possessions - - ib. 

1830. Audacity of the buccaneers - - 205 

1831. Injury to trade - - ib. 
Treaty with Linga - - 206 



XVI CONTENTS. 

A. D. Page 

Great freebooting fleet - - 206 

Adroitness of the pirates - - ib. 

Anecdote - - 207 

A woman and child captured - - ib. 

1 833. Progress of the war against piracy - - ib. 
Robbers of Ceram - - - - 208 
Slavery - - - - . - * - ib. 
Reclamation of pirates in Celebes - - t'6. 
New haunts r - - 209 
Curious narrative of piracy .... ,'ft. 
Adventures on board a pirate fleet - - 210 
Account of an escaped prisoner - - - 212 

1834. Episodes of the war - - ib. 

1835. Expedition to Borneo - - 213 
General results - ib. 
Value of treaties - - - 214 
Forced abstinence from piracy - - ib. 

1836. Barbarian devices of the Dutch - - 215 
Neglect of the English - - ib. 
Continued spread of the system - - 216 

1837. Instance of piracy - - ib, 
The William I. - - ib. 
Barbarity of the Lamms - 

1839. Formidable character of Indian piracy - - 218 

Anecdote - ib. 

Anecdote - - - ... 219 

Anecdote - - 220 

Sinking of a pirate ship - - 221 

Necessity of extirpating piracy - - ib. 



CHAPTER XL 

Sir James Brooke - - 222 

His splendid achievements - - ib. 

Unique character of his labours - - ib. 

Their general nature - - - "* ' ' 223 

Romance of his career - - - ib. 

His family ------- ib. 

Lineage - ib. 

Sir Robert Vyner - - - - - - 224 

Sir James Brooke's father - - - - ib. 

Birthplace - ib. 

Early career .... - ib. 

Burmese war .... - ib. 

Wounded ------- ib. 

Returns to Europe - 

Loss of his commission - - - 225 

First visit to the Archipelago - ib. 

Its beauty - *& 

Information collected - ib. 

Anarchy of the island - 226 



CONTENTS. XV 11 

A. D. Page 

Brooke's design - -226 

Failure - - ib. 

Sails for Borneo - - ib. 

His vessel - - ib. 

Voyage out - ib. 

Precautions - 227 

Arrival in the Archipelago - - ib. 

Scenes at sea - - 228 

Singapore - - - ib. 

Sarawak - - ib. 

Politics - - 229 

Arrival off Borneo - - ib. 

First intercourse with the rajah - - ib. 

Exploring of the country - - 230 

Investigations - ib. 

Transactions at Sarawak - - ib. 

Intercourse with the rajah - - 231 

Brooke's explanation of his views - - ib. 

The rajah's conduct - 232 

Pirates - - ib. 

Civil war in Sarawak - ib. 

Misery of the country - ib. 

Visit to Celebes - - 233 

Rumours of his plans - ib. 

Second visit to Sarawak - - ib. 

Politics of Borneo - - ib. 

The rajah prays him to remain - - 234 

Resolves to leave the island. - ib. 

Persuaded to stay - - ib. 

Wretched conduct of the war - 235 

New resolve to depart - - ib. 

Again persuaded to remain - ib. 

Offer of Sarawak to Brooke - ib. 

Joins the royal army - ib. 

Submission of the rebels - - 236 

Saves the prisoners' lives - ib. 



Influence of Mr. Brooke at Sarawak - 238 

Malay intrigues - - ib. 

Position of Mr. Brooke - - ib. 

His conduct - - ib. 

Position of the rajah - - 239 

Summary of the proceedings - - ib. 

Bornean warfare - - 240 

The rajah's offers - - - ib. 

His rights - ...<-, .... , .. fa 

Moderation of Mr. Brooke - - //-wr - ib. 

His behaviour - 241 

Reflections on Malay administration - ,$, 

VOL. ii. a 



XVlll CONTENTS. 

A. D. Page 

Stipulations for reform - - 241 

Plans of amelioration - - - - . ib. 

Actual government of Sarawak - - 242 

Reply of the rajah - - - ib. 

Apology for abuses ... 243 

Suspicious conduct of the rajah - ... t '6. 

Equivocal document - - ib. 

Agreement with Mr. Brooke - ib. 

Mr. Brooke's risk ------ 244 

Bad faith of the rajah - - - ib. 

Expenditure on his account - - ib. 

His promises - - ib. 

His procrastination - - - ib. 

His avarice - - - ib. 

His ingratitude - - - 245 

Intrigues against Mr. Brooke - ib. 

Faithless conduct towards Mr. Brooke - ib. 

Mr. Brooke's remonstrances - ib. 

The rajah's reply - - 246 

A fleet of Dyak pirates - - ib. 

The projected ravages prevented by Mr. Brooke - - ib. 

Policy of Mr. Brooke - - 247 

His rights in Sarawak - - ib. 

His treatment - - it. 

Treachery of Muda Hassim - 248 

Moderate conduct of Brooke - ib. 

New interview with the rajah - ib. 

His situation in Borneo - - 249 

Capabilities of Sarawak - - ib. 

Its condition .- - - it. 

Its resources - ib. 

Behaviour of the rajah - - 250 

Delicate conduct of Mr. Brooke - - - - ib. 

Improvement of Mr. Brooke's situation - - it. 

Influences in operation against hi - - - 251 

Makota's intrigues - it. 

Resolution of Mr. Brooke - - 252 

His preparations - ib. 

Prospects of success - it. 

Temper of the people - it. 

An issue - - ib. 

Declared rajah of Sarawak - - 253 



CHAPTER XIII. 



Borneo - - - - - -* - 254 

Ancient accounts - ... it. 

Tropical vegetation - - 255 

Capabilities of Borneo - - -it. 

Comparison of travellers' accounts - -it. 



CONTENTS. xi x 

* D - Page 

Geography of the island - - - 255 

Extent - - - - . _ - ib 

Native ideas of geography - - - - - 256 

The Dyaks . . . . - ib. 

Sea tribes - - 257 

Imperfection of our knowledge - ib, 
Position of Borneo ----._ 

Its importance ---.__ 
Population ----._ 

Surface -----__ ,$ 

Tribes of Borneo ----._ 258 

Aspect of Borneo - - - - ib. 

Mountains - - - - - . - ib 

Plains .... . ib ' 

Rivers ..._.__ ^ 

Tidal rivers ______ 259 

Lakes _ _ - - . - ib. 

Native settlements - - - - 260 

Forests ----.._ ^ 

Morasses - z -j" 

Water life - - - - - ib. 

Surface - - - 261 

- ib. 



Beach 



Swamps - - 

Mosquitos - - $' 

The monkey family - - _ $' 

Other animals - - $[ 

Indian gazelle - - _ 262 

Wild beasts - - ,-^ 

Elephants - - - - ,' 

Snakes - - ,-j] 

Insects - ' - ib 

Birds - - - - - _ 263 

Minerals - ^ 

Timber - - ,-j" 

Vegetation- - . t -j| 

Rain - - 264 

Warmth - - . ,-5 

Tints of verdure - . $] 

Valuable productions . , ,-j* 

Camphor - .'.* . ,-j[ 

Miscellaneous produce - - *. . fo 

Flowers - - - 265 

Inhabitants - - ,-j 

Dyaks . - - - - - - ib 

Village life . 266 

Various tribes - - <..-; , - ^ 

Land and sea Dyaks - t -^' 

Peaceful tribes - - ~ - ~ ib. 

Their savage state - - - - -267 

Malays - ... - ib. 

Character of half-bred Arabs - - ,-^' 

Industry - - ,-j| 

Political state of Borneo - vnnfc- n^t-?i - f - A* 
a 2 



XX CONTENTS. 

A. D. Page 

Kingdom of Brune - - 268 

Dutch in Borneo - - ib. 

Their jealousy of the English - - ib. 

Sarawak - - - ib. 

Situation - - - ib. 

Extent ... - ib. 

Boundaries ib. 

Capabilities ib. 

Ancient oppression - ib. 

Frequency of crime - 269 
Disorganisation of society - 



CHAPTER XIV. 

Rajah Brooke - '270 

Extraordinary character of his undertaking - ib. 

Obstacles - - ib. 

Views of the Dutch - - 271 

Mr. G. Windsor Earl - - ib. 

Dutch policy - - ib. 

Bali - - - ib. 

Population - - ib. 

Religion - - 272 

Soil - - - - - - ib. 

The people - . - ib. 

Dutch designs - - ib. 

Treaties - - ib. 

Piracy - - - ib. 

Rights of the Dutch - 273 

Rajah Brooke's administration - - ib. 

1842. Beneficence to the people - - ib. 
Devastations of pirates - - ib. 
Pathetic appeal of the Dyaks - ib. 
Factions at Brune" - - ib. 
Makota's intrigues - - - 274 
The sultan's policy - - ib. 
Promulgation of new laws at Sarawak - - ib. 
The Chinese -;- . - 275 
Transactions with pirates - - ib. 
Fortunate influence of Mr. Brooke in Sarawak - - 276 
Jealousy of the Dutch - - - 277 
Instances of piracy - ib. 

1843. Bornean coal - 278 
Labuan - - ib. 
The treaty of 1824, Article XII. - - ib. 
False interpretation by the Dutch - ,/>. 
Brooke's offer to the English government - - ib. 
Necessity of suppressing piracy - ib. 
Captain Keppcl - - ib. 
His expedition - - - ib. 



CONTENTS. XXI 



A. D. 

State of the coast - - - 278 

Excursion to the interior - - 279 

The Sarebas - - - - - ib. 

Muda Hassim's letter - ... ib. 

Character of the Sarebas - - - ib. 

Power of the Bornean pirates - - ib. 

Fruits of Rajah Brooke's rule - - 280 

Captain Keppel's energy - - ib. 

Expedition commenced - - ib. 

Approach to Paddi - - - - - ib. 

Its defences - - - - ib. 

Fight - - - - ib. 

Sack of the town .... ib. 

Destruction of strongholds - - - 281 

Submission of pirates - ib. 

Mr. Brooke's statement to them - - ib. 

Their reply - - - - - - ib. 

Mr. Brooke's explanation - - ib. 

Accounts of other pirates - - ib. 

Other haunts broken up - 282 

Astonishment of the islanders - ib. 

Return to Sarawak - - ib. 

Welcome by the people - - ib. 

Expedition to Brune - - 283 

Politics of the capital - ib. 

Attempt to open trade ... ib. 

Failure ... ib. 

Perpetual cession of Sarawak - - - ib. 

Disposition of Muda Ilassim .... ib. 

Dutch efforts against piracy .... ib. 

Its great success ... - 284 

Pirate nests in Sumatra - - ib. 

Linga pirates - - - ib. 

Isle of Kalatoa - ... ib. 

Narrative of adventure with pirates - 285 

Escape - - - - - - ib. 

Picture of pirate life - - - - 286 

Pirate armament - ...-&. 

1844. Proceedings of Rajah Brooke - - 287 

Sir William Parker - - - - ib. 

Expedition to Sumatra - - ib. 

Piracy at Gualla Batta ... ib, 

Attack on the town - - 288 

Piracy at Murdu - - - ib. 

Town captured and destroyed - ib. 

Growth of Sarawak - - ib. 

Cottages - . . . . . ib. 

Traffic ...---. ib. 

Industry - - ib. 

Improved social condition ib. 

Piratical neighbours - ... 289 

Piratical Dyaks - - - - - ib. 

Sakarrans - - ib. 

Their forces - - ib. 

a 3 



XX11 CONTENTS. 

A. . Page 

Progress of buccaneering - - 289 

Anecdote of piracy ..... 290 

Sheriff Sahib ... - - & 

His cruel rule - - - ib. 

His power - .... - ib. 

Its decline - - - - - - - ib. 

Expedition to punish him - - 291 

His ravages - - - - . - ib. 

Injury to trade - ib. 

Captain Keppel's second expedition - ib. 

Services of Keppel - .... 292 

Pirate haunts - - - - - ib. 

Result of the expedition - - - - - ib. 

Plunder - - - - - - - ib. 

Attack on Sakarran ... ib. 

Fight in the river - - - - - - ib. 

Return of peace - - 293 

Rajah Brooke's policy - ib. 

Transactions with Brune - - - - ib. 

Prosperity of Sarawak - - ib. 



CHAPTER XV. 

1845. Correspondence with the British government - 294 
Rajah Brooke appointed a political agent ... ib. 
His instructions - ... - ib. 
Factions at Brune - ... ib. 
The Brune dynasty - = - - - ib. 
The succession - - -..- . -295 
Right of Muda Hassim - . - - #. 
Pirates from Brune '-; - - - ti. 
Sir Thomas Cochrane .... ib. 
Americans at Brune - - ".-. - ib. 
Policy of Sir Thomas Cochrane - - - - 296 
His demands at the capital - ib, 
Attack on Pangeran Usop - - ib. 
Expedition against Malludu ... #. 
Attack - - - : - '- ib. 
Defences - - ,* - ib. 
Return - - ib. 
Action - - - - . - ib. 
Plunder of the town - - 297 
Continued happiness of Sarawak - - - ib. 
Chinese settlers - - ib. 
Balow Dyaks - - - . - , -,; - ib. 
Acts of piracy - - - ib. 

1846. Sakarran buccaneers - - ib. 
News from Brune - - 298 
The massacre - ib. 
Crimes of the sultan - ..-*- - ib. 



CONTENTS. XXlll 

A.D. Page 

British policy - . 298 

Expedition against Brune - - - - ib. 

Its leaders - - fa 

Fall of Brune - 299 

General attack on pirates - ib. 

The freebooters' stronghold - - ib. 

Kajah Brooke at Brune - - ib. 

Sultan restored - ib. 

Acquisition of Labuan - - - 300 

Captain Mundy - - ib. 

Treaty with Brune - ib. 

Labuan - - ib. 

Situation - ib. 

Extent - ----- 301 

Surface - ib. 

Capabilities - ... ib. 

Vegetation - ; b. 

Water - - ib. 

Labuan - - - - - ib. 

1848. Visit of Kajah Brooke to England - ib. 

Public honours - ib. 

His knighthood - - ib. 

Welcome at Sarawak - ib. 

Settlement of Labuan - - - . - ib. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

Piratical character of the Serebas - <'-" ---*. ; ' . 302 

Evidence of it - - - '. -- _ _ ib. 

Population of the north-west coast of Borneo - - ib. 

Variety of tribes - - -'_-. 393 

The Balows - - - - .;.r.-,, _ fa 

The Sibuyows - ' - ib. 

Serebas and Sakarran - 304 

Their Malay allies - - - - - - ib. 

Dividends of plunder - .. _ . fa 

Pirate population - - - - - - ib. 

Eesistance of the Balows ----- 395 

Eavages of the Serebas - * ib. 

Fields of plunder - - - - _ - ib. 

Market for their booty ----- fa 

Methods of war ---.-.' t '&. 

The Sakarrans - - - - , - ib. 

Relations with Brune - ... 305 

Pirate fleet at Sarawak - - - - - ib. 

Pirate depredations .... fa 

Influence on the coast - - - - - ib. 

Testimony of Keppel - - - - fa 

Fruits of his exertions .... 397 

Return of piracy - - - - . fa 



XXIV CONTENTS. 

A.D. Page 

Meeting with chiefs - - 307 

Duty of Sir James Brooke - . - ib. 

The outrages of half-a-year . . ib. 

Letter from the sultan - - 308 

Preparations for a new expedition - - 309 

Anecdote ... - ib. 

Pirate captured - - ib. 

Pirate atrocities - - ib. 

Devastation of Sadong - - ib. 

Incident of the attack . - 310 

Anecdote - - ib. 

Artifices of the pirates - - 311 

Their treachery - - ib. 

Melancholy vestiges of their inroads - - ib. 

Insecurity of the coast - - 312 

Daily outrages - - ib. 

Extent of the buccaneering operations - - ib. 

General results ... _ ib. 

Security of the pirates ... ib. 

Preparations of the English - - 313 

The Nemesis - ... ib. 

A squadron assembled - - - ib. 

Flotilla from Singapore - - - ib. 

Singular scene - ib. 

Mooring on the river - - 314 

Night sounds - ib. 

Scenes in the fleet - - ib. 

Assembly of the chiefs - - ib. 

Discussion - - 315 

Ascent of the Kaluka river - ib. 

Chase of a canoe - - - ib. 

Anecdote ----- - 316 

Evidences of piracy - - ib. 

Changed aspect of the country - - ib. 

Town of Sussang - - ib. 

Deserted by its inhabitants - - 317 

Pirate retreat - - ib. 

Advance up the river - ib. 

Conflicts with pirates - ib. 

Ruins of a Dyak city - - ib. 

History of its desolation - - - ib. 

Council of war - - 318 

Speech of a chief - . - - t'6. 

Laws of Malay warfare - - 319 

March through the jungle - - ib. 

Bivouac on the river - ib. 

Curious scene - 320 

Order of march - - ib. 

A native army - . ib. 

Pirates surprised ... - ib. 

News from the army - . - 321 

Courage of the Dyaks - ' - ib. 

Picturesque night scene - - ib. 

Rumours from the pirate haunt - - 322 



CONTENTS. XXV 

A. D. Page 

Concert of gongs - - 322 



Return of the army 
Their achievements 
Capture of pirate villages 
Discovery of heads 



- ib. 

- 323 

- ib. 
. ib. 

Conference with concealed pirates - - ib. 

Deliverance of captives - - 324 

Descent of the stream - ib. 

Interval of peace - - 325 

New expedition prepared - - ib. 

Passage of the squadron - - ib. 

Intelligence of a Dyak fleet - - ib. 
Their means of escape 



Arrangement 
Period of expectation 
The fleet reported - 
Animating scene - 



- 326 

- ib. 

- ib. 

- 327 

Commencement of the fight - - ib. 

Extraordinary picture - . - - ib. 

Movement of the enemy - - 328 

Then- rout - ... ib. 

Attempts to escape Captain Farquhar - ib. 

Effect of the fire - ... ib. 

Incidents of the conflict - - - - - 329 

Thoughts of the natives on English warfare - ib. 

General confusion - - - - - ib. 

Courage of the pirates - - ib. 

Anecdote - - ib. 

Escape of pirates - - 330 

Reports of the battle - ib. 

Panic on shore - ib. 

Anecdote - ib. 

Scene after the conflict - - - - - 331 

Debris of the fleet - - - - - - ib. 

Spoil of the pirate vessels - - ib. 

Atrocity of the Serebas - - - - - ib. 

Motives to revenge - -i - - - ib. 

Dyak vessels - - ' : , ;, . . 332 

Bangkongs - . . . - ib. 

Armaments ..... 333 

Tactics of the pirates - - - . - ib. 

Evidence of their piratical character >-. - - ib. 

Remnant of the freebooting expedition ... ib. 

Testimony of prisoners ..... 334 

Account of the piratical expedition ', -:; ' ~< - ib. 

Movements of the fleet - - - . - ib. 

Plunder of a trader - .... 335 

Murder of fishermen ..... ib. 

Proceedings of Sir James Brooke - - ... - 336 

Ferocity of the Dyak pirates - -, - ib. 

Captain Wallage - - - . . - ib. 

His humanity - - . . . - ib. 

Result of the chastisement inflicted .... ib. 

Fortresses built - . . . ..' - 337 



XXVI CONTENTS. 

A.D. Page 

Treaty with the Serebas - - 337 

Discussions in England ... 339 

Settlement of the dispute - - ib. 

Enormity of the charges against Sir James Brooke - ib. 

Sir Christopher Rawlinson - - - 340 

Public opinion on Sir James Brooke's policy - ib. 

Debate in parliament - ib. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

Actual state of the Archipelago - - 341 

Its varied social phases - - - - ib. 

European settlements - ib. 

Hospitality of Europeans - ib. 

Batavia - - 342 

Makassar ------ ib. 

Manilla - - . ib. 

Singapore - - ib. 

Pinang - - ' -; . - - ib. 

Decay of ancient cities - - ib. 

Ruins of states - - - ib. 

Present aspect of the Archipelago - - 343 

Commerce - - ib. 



The Arm Isles 

Little changes 

Unpeopled solitudes 

The Malays 

Borneo 

Sarawak 

Achievements of Sir James Brooke 



- - ib. 

- ib. 

- ib. 
. * . - ib. 

. - - ib. 

- 344 

- ib. 

Happy state of the province - ib. 

Former condition of the people - - ib. 

The Dyak population - . - 345 

Form of administration - - ib. 

Trial of criminals - - - ib. 

Power of Rajah Brooke - - ib. 

His mode of procedure - ib. 

Native parliament - - 346 

Character of the people - - ib. 
Anecdote - 

Courts of justice 

Industry and trade - 

Imports and exports 348 

Character and actions of Sir James Brooke - - ib. 

The Labuan settlement - - 349 

Eastern Archipelago Company - - ib. 

Coal of Labuan 

Coal in the East - - - - 350 

Its distribution 

Suppression of piracy 

Necessity for its total extirpation - - ib. 



CONTENTS. XXV11 

Page 

Recent instances of piracy - - 351 

Injury to trade - - 352 

Actual state of Singapore - - ib. 

Extent of its trade - - - - - 353 

Chinese inhabitants - - ib. 

Tigers - - - - - - - ib. 

Progress of Pinang .... $. 

Malacca - - - - - - ib. 

Dutch rule ... - - 354 

State of Java - ib. 

Administration - - - ib. 

Prospects of the Dutch possessions - - 355 

Sumatra - - - 356 

Celebes - - - - - - ib. 

Other settlements - - - ib. 

Influence of the Dutch - - ib. 

Violation of the treaty of 1824 - - 357 

Dutch claims ... . H>. 

Their extravagance - - ib. 

Spanish settlements - - 358 

The Sulu group ...... 359 

Americans - ib. 

Conclusion - - - - - - ib. 



THE 



INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



ITS 



HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 



CHAPTER I. 

WHEN the Dutch first landed in Java, they found a The CM- 
scattered population of Chinese labouring in every pro- ? es !: settlers 
vince of the island. The fruits of their industrious 
energy were already apparent. Commerce, agriculture, 
gardening, and domestic architecture were carried on 
by them with equal vigour and skill. 1 They laid out 
sugar plantations, manufactured arrack, raised harvests 
of rice, and freighted their junks with every valuable 
commodity. Wherever, indeed, one of that ingenious Their in- 
race was settled 2 , the soil sprang into cultivation, the dustr y- 
earth was ransacked for its treasures, the forests were 
searched for gums or perfumed woods, and a little for- 
tune was collected in his dwelling. The low-class 

1 Raffles, Memoirs, i. 83. 2 See Nieuhoff. in Churchill, ii. 258, 
VOL. II. B 






THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



Character 
of the 
Chinese. 



Their go- 
vernment. 



Increased 
immigra- 
tion. 



A.D. 1740. 



Chinaman, however, is as addicted to gaming, as to in- 
dustry; and more to fraud than to either. 1 

Java, fertile and beautiful, was then thinly peopled. 
China, at least in its maritime provinces, was densely 
crowded. The commercial spirit was strong in the in- 
habitants of her cities, who continually sought in the 
neighbouring islands new materials for their trade. Even 
before the arrival of Europeans, they spread over the Ar- 
chipelago ; but afterwards settled in more considerable 
numbers. China was governed by a reckless and savage 
despot, who was perpetually engaged in a struggle with 
rebels more ferocious than himself. The Dutch pos- 
sessions in Java seemed to offer security at least, and 
comparative freedom. Emigrants, consequently, were 
attracted in great numbers to Batavia. 

The expulsion of the Chinese from the Philippines, 
at the commencement of the eighteenth century, had 
driven crowds of them to Java. There the inflexible 
character of Dutch policy refused to comprehend under 
its care the new interests thus created ; and, in con- 
formity with a natural law 2 , the interest that was not 
allowed to be friendly, became hostile to them. An 
edict was issued, in 1723, to forbid their admission; 
but it was powerless to shut them out. They increased 
in wealth and influence. Their prosperous fortune ex-> 
cited jealousy among the Europeans. 3 Their numbers, 
their riches, and the authority which waits on success, 
created in them at once rivals and enemies of the Dutch. 
All possible means were employed to check their im- 

1 See Sir Thomas Herbert, Travels, 364. Also, Dampier, ii. 
136, 137. 

2 Guizot, Moyens de Gouvernement, 203. 

3 Yet in 1632 the Chinese had struck a medal in honour of the 
Dutch governor, with a laudatory inscription, in proof of their 
respect. Von Loan, Hist. Metattique, ii. 204. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 3 

migration, but to no purpose. The trade between the 
two countries, which was greatly developed under the 
administration of Zwardekroon, contributed to augment 
the evil. An annual fleet of junks brought not only 
merchants, planters, house-builders, and gardeners, to 
pursue their various occupations, but criminals and 
vagabonds of every description, to whom the protecting 
laws of Holland appeared to offer an asylum. 1 

Devices of all kinds were adopted to check the set- Policy of 
tlement of the Chinese. Plans were arranged for dis- 
gusting them with life in the Dutch possessions. They 
were burdened with odious taxes ; their offences were 
visited with arbitrary punishments ; fearful executions 
took place ; insults and vexations were added to a list 
of tyrannical restrictions, that the government of Ba- 
tavia might be more hateful to the emigrants than the 
despotism of their own emperor. A series of regula- 
tions, in particular, was issued with respect to their 
residence in the city. 

Every Chinese was required to be furnished with a Restrictions 

. . i.-ii i f i on the 

written permission to settle, signed by a member ot the Chinese. 
Regency, and delivered on the payment of about ten 
shillings. He was forbidden to ride out beyond the 
jurisdiction of the city, unless by express indulgence 
from a commissary appointed to watch the interests of 
the natives. All who could not explain and prove their 
means of subsistence were arrested and sent to China. 
Power also was given to the officers of justice to im- 
prison any Chinaman on bare suspicion of an offence. 
By these and other laws the Dutch endeavoured to 
render their sway unendurable to the settlers. It was, 
at the best, but a barbarous policy. Indeed, the in- 

1 Crawfurd, ii. 429. 
B 2 



THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



Conspiracy 
imputed to 
them. 



They con- 
tinue their 
settlement. 



The Dutch 
resolve to 
expel them. 



Grounds of 
the outrage. 



capacity, the selfishness, the insolence, and the tyranny 
of the governors-general from 1725 to 1737 are ad- 
mitted by one of their writers. 1 

Valckenier, their successor, distinguished his admin- 
istration by an exaggeration of the system which op- 
pressed the Chinese. It is said that at this period they 
were remarkably turbulent, conspiring even to subvert 
the authority of Holland. There was at Batavia a 
man named Thioesia, son of the Chinese Emperor, or 
some great noble of that country, who expiated in exile 
a political intrigue which had been defeated. In Java 
he pursued the conduct which had expatriated him, and 
found ready accomplices in the more adventurous of his 
exasperated countrymen. He concerted a rebellion, 
and was promised the throne of Jakatra. Encouraged 
by these hopes the Chinese became more turbulent, and 
the Dutch more solicitous to close their colonies against 
them. 

Nothing was effectual to prevent their settlement. 
A strong interest attracted them to the island, and rou- 
leaus of gold from China relaxed the integrity of the 
Dutch officials. Measure after measure was concerted, 
but the population of these industrious strangers rose, 
and multiplied in alarming numbers. In 1740, there- 
fore, it was resolved, since plots were continually in 
machination, and the Chinese fretted in ceaseless tur- 
bulence, to call arms to the aid of the law. 

The grounds of the subsequent outrage are shifted 
by Dutch and Javan writers. It is asserted on the one 
hand that Valckenier was so liberal to the Chinese that 
they gre\y to a power and prosperity only second to 
that of the conquerors themselves. In consequence of 
this they monopolised the produce of the land, and ex- 



Temminck, Coup cTCEil sur let Possessions Neerlandaises, i. 36. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 5 

eifed jealousy among the native tribes. 1 Quarrels arose, 
and the rivals spilled blood in their encounters. It 
was, therefore, we are told, in the interest of peace, 
that the Dutch committed their famous crime against 
the alien settlers. An opportunity was soon found. 
A 'number of Chinese, accused of misconduct in the Dutch 
neighbourhood of Batavia, were arrested and trans- 
ported to Ceylon, or, as the native historians assert, 
carried out to sea in a Dutch vessel and drowned, with 
the exception of a few who escaped and inflamed their 
countrymen by an account of the catastrophe. The 
selection of persons to be exiled or made victims of this 
noyade, was ordered to be made of the humbler class, or 
those who wore blue clothing. The officers employed 
received, however, secret instructions, and arrested 
many not distinguished by this badge of poverty in- 
famous in most countries. 

Large bodies of Chinese congregated near the town, Commotion 
unawed by any military force. Inflamed by the out- 

rage, they fled to arms, and in their anger committed 
great ravages in the neighbouring district. The council 
of Batavia was alarmed. Some peaceful merchants in, 
the city were arrested and put to the torture. Few men 
have fortitude enough to resist the pangs of the rack. 
Taught by their judges, they confessed a plot to mas-s 
sacre the Dutch. The name of Thioesia was deeply 
implicated. Great excitement spread through the po- 
pulation. The insurgents outside the walls fought the 
troops. Neither could claim a victory. A conflagration 
occurred in the Chinese quarter. It was declared to 
be the signal for a general massacre of the Christians. 
Some terrible danger was apprehended. Valckenier 



1 Unscrupulous and tyrannical they generally are, as well as 
fraudulent and crafty. Raffles, Memoirs, i. 81. 

B 3 



Insurrec- 
tion. 



assembled his council, and proposed to cut off all the 
Chinese in Batavia. The idea excited some indignation, 
and Baron Imhoff ! , whose humanity did honour to his 
name, solemnly protested against it. 

The Chinese began to assemble near the sugar mills 
of a village near Batavia. The Dutch proclaimed to all 
those in the city that they might, if willing, join their 
countrymen. Those who remained were required to 
shave their mustachios as a sign ; to give up every 
sharp weapon, from a sword to a penknife, in their pos- 
session ; to light no fires and kindle no lamp in their 
dwellings. Not one man went. The insurgents then 
made an attack, and were repulsed with considerable 
loss. 

Still pretending to fear a massacre, and terrified by 
the spreading rebellion, the Dutch fell on the Chinese 
and cut them down wherever they were to be disco- 
vered. A few timid, panic-stricken citizens commenced 
the work; but it soon assumed the character of a deli- 
A massacre berate massacre. Within a few hours the regency gave 
le * it a positive sanction, suggesting only that women and 
children should be spared. 

A band of sailors from the fleet was called on shore 
to take a share in this sanguinary task. 2 The rallying 
cry of Treason ! was started through the city. The work 
of slaughter was continued with terrible regularity. The 
Chinese dwellings were forcibly entered. The wretched 
men, helpless, unarmed, making no more resistance, says 
the native historian, than a nest of young mice, were 
dragged out and put to death in front of their doors. 
Batavia was converted into a vast slaughter-house. 
All the streets flowed with blood; every where the 



Terrific 
tragedy in 
Batavia. 



1 See Macaulay, Essays, 593 612. 

2 Raffles, History of Java, ii. 235. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 7 

remains of the dead encumbered the way ; every where 
the murderers carried on their occupation. Throughout 
the city, shouts and shrieks resounded, some from the 
dying wretches, others from their merciless enemies. 1 
For fifteen days the massacre continued, with unsparing 
feyocity, until ten thousand victims had fallen, when an 
armistice was proclaimed. Almost with truth, therefore, 
did a voyager say, " It is better to commit ourselves to 
the mercy of a Turk in Europe, than a Dutchman in 
India if he hath the upper hand." 2 

When they had dealt this bloody vengeance on the Envoys sent 

^ .* to China. 

Chinese, the Dutch took precautions to secure their 
trade from injury. Like the Spaniards, they dispatched 
ships of war to meet the trading fleets from China. 
Some of the injured natives, who had been conciliated, 
were employed to inspire confidence into their country- 
men. A letter of excuses, couched in terms of humble 
submission, was addressed to the Emperor. 3 He treated 
the missive with neglect, but took no measures to punish 
the massacre of his subjects. Possibly he was well 
content to lose ten thousand daring men, whose vigour 
might be as dangerous to him as it had been profitable 
to themselves. 

Valckenier then changed his tone, and blustered in A.D. 1740. 
imperial strain, convoking a session of councillors on the 



6th December, 1741. To them, in virtue of his charter 

of power, supported as it was by a company of soldiers, 

stationed in the hall of the council house, he addressed 

a speech, accusing them of opposition to his will. Three Arrest of 

councillors, among whom was the humane Imhoff, were 

the peculiar objects of his anger. They were arrested 



1 Crawfurd, ii. 430. 2 Payne, Voyage of the Flying Eagle, 6. 
3 See, for reception of embassies by Chinese emperors, Schlegel, 
Phil, of Hist. , English translation, 133. 

B~4 



THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



Baron 
Imhoff. 



The Chi- 
nese war. 



Dutch con- 
quest. 



Forts 
erected. 



and sent to Holland. The Governor soon after followed 
them. The story of his deeds, however, had raised a 
storm in Europe, and at the Cape he met an order for 
his arrest and trial for the illegal imprisonment of his 
colleagues, and the massacre of the ten thousand. The 
three councillors whom he had subjected to punishment 
for their endeavour to save the Chinese, had hastened, 
on their return to the United Provinces, to lay an ac- 
count of the transaction before the supreme Council of 
Directors. Baron Van Imhoff, who drew up their 
report, appended to it a plan of various reforms, which 
bore such weight with the government that they ap- 
pointed him governor-general in place of his accuser. 
The investigation into Valckenier's conduct was pro- 
tracted through several years, and he died a prisoner in 
the citadel of Batavia. 

No change of policy could now save Java from 
another visitation of war. The Chinese, driven from 
their intrenchments near Batavia, retreated to the east 
of the island, and opened negotiations with the Susunan 
of Mataram, who longed to break the yoke of Dutch 
influence. Some of them, it is said, embraced the faith 
of Mohammed to secure the good will of the natives. 
Pakubowono resolved to aid them, but secretly until 
the struggle was drawing to a close, when he might 
declare for the stronger. 

In the course of their wars, the Dutch had learned to 
adopt a system adapted to the theatre they occupied. 
It was found of little avail to destroy an enemy's town, 
or even his capital city, the houses being constructed 
of branches, mats, and atap thatch, restored by a few 
days' labour. To waste the site was therefore useless, 
since a city might be erected on another spot before 
the havoc was complete. Consequently, to hold the 
country in subjection, they built forts to command 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 9 

important positions, and sprinkled Celebes, Borneo, 
Timor, the Moluccas, and Java, with such edifices. 
There was one near Kartasura, the metropolis of Ma- 
taram, garrisoned by a small company of soldiers. The The Sui- 
Sultan perceived he must capture this, or lose all chance 
of/success. He proceeded with consummate treachery. 
Preparing to attack them, he still corresponded with 
the Dutch, promised to destroy the Chinese, and sent 
three commanders with the necessary qualities of craft 
and resolution to receive their final orders. 1 

A conference was held outside the fort. The chief War corn- 
Dutch officer approached and saluted the envoys. They menced - 
returned his courtesy, but, on the firing of a signal shot, 
attempted to plunge their poinards in his heart. A few 
persons standing near were instantly cut down. A 
movement was made by a body of Javanese towards the 
fort, but the gates had closed, and the assailants were 
overpowered. 3 

At this juncture the vast army of Chinese poured 
itself out of the woods, united to those of the Susunan, 
and gave the assault. The garrison immediately sur- 
rendered on a pledge of mercy. Pakubowono was 
possessed by a momentary inclination to be humane. 
He ordered the Christians to suffer the initiatory cere- 
monies of the Moslem creed, and be admitted among the 
faithful. The next minute, however, his barbarous 



spirit revived, and he ordered them all to be beaten to 
death with bludgeons. 3 

When intelligence of this massacre reached the Dutch 
at Samarang, they pompously absolved the Paugeran 
of Madura from allegiance to the Susunan, and as his 
wife was sister of that prince, he sent her back to him 



1 Crawfurd, ii. 363. 2 Raffles, History of Java, ii. 241. 

3 Native MS., quoted by Crawfurd, Indian Archipelago, ii. 363. 



10 THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 

with a message of courtesy. He then proclaimed an 
edict against the Chinese, and threw himself vigorously 
into the war. From Kartasura the united army of 
Javans and Celestials numbering, it is stated, more 
than two hundred thousand men marched against 
Samarang. They levied siege ; but a sortie of twelve 
thousand soldiers put them to the rout. Emissaries 
were then sent to effect a rupture between the Chinese 
and their native ally, who was easily induced to forsake 
the cause he had adopted. 

Duplicity of He pretended that all recent occurrences had been 
prince." tne ac t s f ^18 wuzeer, Nata Kasuraa, who was still 
with the united army. The Dutch suggested to him a 
means of serving them. He ought, they said, to pre- 
serve an appearance of friendship with the Chinese 
until a concerted moment, when his troops might put 
them to the sword. He acceded. 

Nata Kasuma received intelligence of the project. 
He revealed it to the Chinese, and told them it would 
be prudent to abandon the sick and wounded, with 
those who were worn out by fatigue, and march 
away. This plan, characteristic of a savage, and not 
Massacre of unworthy of Napoleon, was followed. The wretches, 
wunded and t ^ ius deserted, were at once slaughtered by the crafty 
Javans, and their heads, packed in baskets, were sent 
to the Governor of Samarang as a warrant of good 
faith. The Chinese retreated towards the east, still 
accompanied by a number of Javan adherents, took the 
route towards the capital of Mataram, and elected to 
the throne, Kuning, the grandson of Mangkorat Mas, 
a child only ten years old. They were followed by the 
Susunan's army, still commanded by Nata Kasuma, who 
maintained a secret correspondence with them, but 
Mock agreed to deceive the enemy by fighting a mock battle. 
His friends, unaccustomed to these feats, inquired how it 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 11 

could be done. "Father," replied the Javan chief, 
" such a battle is conducted by us in perfect earnestness, 
with mutual slaughter, for not the smallest compassion 
is shown to the people. Keeping your secret and saving 
the life of the chief, you may exterminate the rest." l 
^ The singular feature of this answer consists, not in Spirit of 
the sentiment, but in its daring avowal. The spirit is con< * uest 
doubtless no more inhuman than that of most con- 
querors who have deluged the earth with blood, to 
appease the lust of their ambition. Unfortunately, 
however, few possess the candour to display, without 
reserve, the absolute tyranny of one passion in their 
hearts ; and men are thus seduced to lavish titles of 
glory on adventurers who would have based their for- 
tunes on the utter desolation of the world. The san- 
guinary nature of the war was preserved throughout. 
Nata Kasuma proclaimed a reward for the ear of every 
Chinese; he had previously offered a price for the 
head of every Dutchman killed. Yet while these 
savage passions raged among them, the tone of their 
hostile correspondence wore always the mildness cha- 
racteristic of Javan language. Martupuro, a chief of 
the island, in alliance with the Chinese, and attached to 
the false Susunan, wrote thus to his enemy : " There Language of 
is a wild bull to the north of the range of Kandang, Java * 
that longs to gore the white elephant to the south 
of it." 

Figurative as the style is, it requires interpretation, 
even when translated from the original language. The 
wild bull was the Javan emblem of courage, and repre- 
sented the young usurper whose army had encamped 
to the north of the Kandang hills. The old Susunan 
was indicated contemptuously by the white or female 
elephant. The reply of the challenged chief was 

1 Native History, quoted by Crawfurd, ii. 365. 



12 



THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



couched in similar terms. " He knew there was a 
buffalo calf to the north of the Kandang hills accom- 
panied by a little fugitive ragged animal of a goat, of 
both of whom he would soon render a good account." 
By the buffalo calf was meant Kuning, and by the 
goat, Martupura himself, who had violated the Javan 
laws of beauty by wearing a beard. Words of grosser 
signification than these are seldom employed, for the 
dagger, carried in every man's girdle, is a check on the 
tongue. 1 

Nata Kasuma, to continue his plan, returned to the 
Susunan's camp ; but the old sovereign was aware of 
his wuzeer's treachery, and, sending him on a false mis- 
sion to the Dutch, they transported him to Ceylon. 2 
Progress of Meanwhile the Chinese marched rapidly upon Kar- 
tasura, enjoying by the way several insignificant 
triumphs, and leaving behind a country blasted by their 
passage. The resident prince, in the capital, escaped, 
but left his mother &nd his wives to the mercy of the 
conquerors. The Chinese seized them, subjected them 
to their licentious violence, and compelled the youthful 
princesses to strip naked and dance for their gratifi- 
cation. 3 In the midst of these revels they received 
accounts of a Madurese army on the march, and fled 
with their young Susunan to a retreat among the 
mountains. Hence they descended from time to time 
and fought several battles, which proved of little conse^ 
quence to either of the belligerents. 

At length, however, in spite of an alliance with 
another powerful chief, the rebels were compelled to 
disperse, and their young chief, the usurper Kuning, 
delivering himself up to the council at Samarang, waa 
banished to Ceylon. Relieved from this war, the Dutch 

1 Crawfurd, History of Indian Archipelago, ii. 366. 

2 Raffles, History of Java, ii. 243. 3 Crawfurd,. ii. 367. 



Their 
brutality. 



A. D. 1 743. 
End of the 
war. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 13 

turned to another. Their ally of Madura, actually in A. D.I 745. 
dependence on them, quarrelled with the Susunan, 
attacked a Netherlands vessel, put some seamen to 
dpth, was defeated in two or three engagements, but 
gained one victory. He then proceeded to Banjar- 
massin, whence he intended to sail for Bencoolen, and 
apply for assistance from the English. But the prince 
of the Bornean province, on an application from Batavia, 
delivered up the fugitive, with his son-in-law. The 
one was transported to the Cape of Good Hope, the 
other to Ceylon. A short interval of peace succeeded, interval of 
and Java was allowed a little period to recover from 
the exhaustion of these conflicts. 1 

. In 1746, Baron Van Imhoff, the new governor- A. n. 1746. 
general, visited the Susunan of Mataram. In com- cap i t ai a r 
pliance with a national belief that a city once visited by changed, 
misfortune is for ever ill-fated, that prince had removed 
from Kartasura to Surakarta, not many miles distant, 
which thenceforward continued to be the metropolis of 
the empire. 2 

Imhoff met the Susunan at this place, and by his Conduct of 
haughty conduct so irritated the Javan princes that they 
withdrew by night from the city. Two chiefs, Mang- 
kubumi and Mangkunagoro, headed them, and a new 
rebellion broke out, which extinguished the last spark 
of independence remaining to the Mohammedan states , 

of Java. After a passing notice of the only important 
incidents which occurred in the other parts of the 
Archipelago, we shall be for a while solely engaged 
with this memorable war. 

The governor-general was sedulous in his efforts to 
establish the influence of his country wherever any 
profit could result from it. He obtained a new treaty 

1 Raffles, History of Java, ii. 246. * Ibid. 224. 



14 



THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



A. n. 1747. 
The Philip- 
pines. 



A.D. 1748. 
Progress of 
Holland. 



Change of 
adminis- 
tration. 



A.D. 1749. 



with Banjarmassin, was allowed to build a fort at 
Tubarnio, and a factory at Pulo Tatas ; the total 
monopoly of pepper was granted ; and the company en- 
gaged to defend its ally from every enemy. 1 

In the Philippines the old policy was followed by the 
Spaniards. In 1747 another royal order arrived at 
Manilla for the expulsion of the Chinese, but it fell to 
the ground. 2 Perhaps the more liberal of the settlers 
comprehended a loftier scheme of colonial economy; 
perhaps they feared that the objects of this hostile edict 
might be roused by the example of their countrymen in 
Java. 

The advance of Holland was rapid, and her influence 
spread widely through the islands ; but this, nevertheless, 
was the period of her decline. England was rising, by 
means of her new fleets ; a vast theatre was opening in 
India to her arms ; the Chinese massacre made the 
Dutch company disreputable in Europe, and its affairs 
were confused to an extreme degree. 3 It appeared to 
the directors that a prince was required to revive the 
sinking credit of the association, and the Prince of Orange 
was installed governor-general of the Indies. Still the 
process continued, and while Great Britain was laying 
the foundation of her unrivalled empire, the Netherlands' 
declined with the decline of their commerce. 4 

In 1749, Pakubowono the Second died. On his death- 

1 Leyden, Sketch of Borneo, 24. 

2 It is difficult in this age to realise an idea of the narrow and 
sordid principles on which Spain then carried on her trade. 
During the war with England, in 1740, the introduction of En- 
glish merchandise into Spain was punished with death. Law 
published at Cadiz, March, 1740. Montesquieu, xx. 13. 

s Baron d'Imhof, Considerations sur VEtat present de la Com- 
pagnie Hollandaise des Indes Orientales. Appendix to Dubois. 
Vie des Gouverneurs, SfC. 

4 Heeren, Historical Researches, ii. 119. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 15, 

bed, conscious of the weakness to which his dynasty Territorial 
had been reduced, he submitted to terms dictated at mcnt in 
his pillow by the Dutch, and signed a paper "abdi- Java - 
eating for himself and his heirs the sovereignty of the 
country, conferring the same on the Dutch East India 
Company, and leaving it to them to dispose of it, in 
future, to any person they might think competent to 
govern it for the benefit of the Company." It has 
been insinuated that a false translation in Javan was 
imposed on the sultan when he put his seal to this 
document of abdication ; but it is improbable. With a 
recommendation of his children, and especially the heir 
apparent, to those who were successors to his power, 
the Susunan died. 1 

Thenceforward the Netherlands East India Company The Dutch 
was supreme in Java, and the native princes held their supreme - 
dignities in fee. Still the position of Susunan, though 
stripped of its pride and splendour, was held, among 
the native chiefs, to be a brilliant object of ambition. 
While, therefore, the Dutch elected to a throne with- 
out authority, a grandson of the late sovereign, a child 
of nine years, Mangkubumi with his adherents was 
busy collecting stores, troops, and arms. At length he 
was at the head of a large army and encountered the 
Dutch and their Javan allies at Kadir. A fierce battle 
ensued. He routed his enemies completely a signal 
instance of success against European troops, especially 
when their superiority of arms and discipline was aided 
by the local knowledge and experience of a native ally. 
Other disasters ensued to the Dutch ; and during a A. D . 1751. 
considerable period the rebels followed their enemies 
through every district they visited. In 1752 the A. D. 1752. 

1 Raffles, History of Java, ii. 249. 



16 THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 

greatest battle of the war was fought, when Mangku- 
bumi again put his foes to flight. 

Success of The Dutch, in many instances, were more fortunate 
macy< in diplomacy than in arms. For, while they suffered 

many military reverses, they seldom failed in nego- 
tiating the terms of a contract. The sultan of Bantam, 
by a convention dated 16th April, 1752, resigned his 
Javan territories, with the Sumatran Lampongs, to the 
council of Batavia. They restored him his title, but 
retained the power of governors. He was installed as 
a ruler in fief, and engaged to supply, at a price fixed 
by the company, an annual amount of pepper. To 
remind him perpetually of the vassalage he had accepted, 
a fort was erected, whose shadow almost fell upon his 
palace. 

War in In the other parts of Java, while a terrible eruption 

Java. from a mountain in a neighbouring island, with an 

extraordinary eclipse, a visitation of plague, and a por- 
tentous famine desolated the country, Mangkubumi and 
Mangkunagoro proceeded in their victorious career. 
They were men of no common order. They were brave, 
intelligent, and persevering ; but their success is never- 
theless attributed, with great reason, to the imbecility 
of their enemies. 1 Their fame, prowess, energy, and 
skill, were increased by the pusillanimity, negligence, 
and incapacity of the Dutch leaders, who were fre- 
quently surprised, more frequently defeated, and never 
Civil strife, found completely developing their successes. Conse- 
quently the rebel chiefs possessed other than personal 
A. D. 1 753. advantages. Probably they would have succeeded in 
utterly driving the Europeans from Java, but for the 
jealousy which invariably ruined the cause of the native 
powers. One had married the daughter of the other, 

1 Crawfurd, ii. 368. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 17 

yet, Notwithstanding this tie, though united by the A - D - 1753 - 
bond of a common cause, with a common enemy, and a 
common end to gain, they became estranged and fought 
a battle, in which Mangkubumi was defeated. 1 

The Dutch sought to conciliate the victorious chief, interven- 
and offered to restore the body of his father, who had 
died an exile in Ceylon, if he would unite his arms 
with theirs against Mangkubumi. He declined the 
negotiation, and the three belligerents prepared to con- 
tend for the supremacy of Java. 

Mangkubumi, though now alone, with two enemies 
in the field against him, was victorious in every battle. 
At length the Dutch, with their dependent ally, the 
Susunan who was still, indeed, a child yielding to 
fear, endeavoured to check his conquests by concession, 
and succeeded. 2 They proposed he should rule half the 
Mataram empire, with the dignity, power, revenue, and 
title of sultan. He consented to the plan, and entered A>1)> 1756< 
into alliance with his humbled enemies, fixing his resi- 
dence at Yugyacarta, a considerable town in Mataram. 3 

The triple league then carried their arms against A - D - 1757 - 
Mangkunagoro, who had increased in power and skill, and nativlT W 
offered to defy their united forces. A price was set on P rinces - 
his head no inconsiderable stimulus to the resolution 
of a desperate man. In the absence of the new sultan 
he descended on his capital, and sacked it; thence 
continuing to march in triumph through the island 
until the three confederated powers saw the necessity of 
negotiating terms of peace. They might never, indeed, 
be overwhelmed by their audacious foe, but his active 
courage and vigilant strategy might keep them in the 
field to the perpetual destruction of that peace on which 

1 Raffles, History of Java, ii. 250. 2 Ibid. 251. 

3 Crawfurd, ii. 369. 
VOL. II. C 



18 THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 

the happiness of Java depended. Ambassadors were 
sent to offer him terms of amity. He was not easily 
brought to consent, but ultimately yielded on receiving 
the grant of an estate of " four thousand families," 
where he settled himself, rich in honour and abundant 
A. D. 1758. in revenue, with all the glories of the campaign on his 

head. 1 

Second war Thus was concluded the second war of Java, which 
f Javacon - had desolated the island for twelve years. 

eluded. ^ J 

Devastation The finest provinces wasted, thousands slain on both 
sides, myriads taken from industry, the freedom of the 
island gone ; such were the results of these struggles, in 
which the thirst of aggrandisement, in a few individuals, 
broke up the peace of millions. To the Dutch they 

Cost of the brought a name of power ; but the war had cost them 
4,286,000 florins, and they never reaped from it an ade- 
quate advantage. 

They reserved to themselves, on the conclusion of 
this struggle, the actual government of all the northern 
maritime provinces from Cheribon to the utmost east of 
Madura. The interior and southern territories, from 
the Cheribon isles to Kalang, were nominally restored 
to the native powers divided in nearly equal portions 
between Mangkubumi and the Susunan, from whose 
share, however, four thousand chachas each chacha 
being as much land as an ordinary family could culti- 
vate were appropriated for the grant to Mangkunagoro. 
The Dutch were now paramount in the finest island of 
the world, and the native princes were no more than 
their viceroys. 2 

Final agree- They agreed to stimulate the culture of those pro- 

ment ducts chiefly valued by the Dutch, to be supplied at a 
fixed price. At Surakarta, the capital of the Susunan, 

1 Crawfurd, ii. 369. * Raffles, History of Java, ii. 253. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 19 

and Yu^yacarta, the capital of the Sultan, forts were 
built, and the palaces of the Javan sovereigns were 
overlooked by the guns of the merchant conquerors. 
A resident to transact affairs and a "guard of soldiers 
aided in the establishment of their supreme and per- 
manent authority. The policy of a great statesman, 
with wisdom enough to create a cohesive principle in 
this insular empire, might have commenced at that date 
a splendid era in the colonial history of Holland. Java 
was conquered ; the materials were laid out ; and hu- 
manity would have rejoiced had the old system been 
succeeded by a liberal, civilising administration. The 
dawn of that change, however, had not yet arrived. 

During the last year of this war, troubles broke out Troubles in 
in the Bornean state of Benjarmassin, and its young I ieo ' 
prince Tasmid was forced to seek the aid to which he 
was by treaty entitled from the Dutch. They agreed 
to subdue the rebels, in consideration of his forcing the 
product of pepper to 15,000 piculs every season. When 
the contest was terminated, they induced him to cede 
to the Company the districts of Passir, Koti, Beton, 
and Kutta Mudingen. He pushed forward the exertions 
of his subjects in the pepper plantations, until they at 
length yielded, during some years, 600,000 pounds. Pepper 
These were genuine commercial advantages. The cost treaties - 
of their establishment on this coast was almost 13007. 
annually, and thirty men were counted sufficient to 
garrison their fort at Tatas. 

They introduced themselves also into another country The Dutch 
the curious island of Timor, on the north-eastern 1! 
boundaries of the Archipelago. There a despotic king- History of 
dom had once nourished, and some lustre had signalised that lsland * 
it, but its strength was fallen, and several petty states 
divided the fragments. Some of these, by treaties, 
signed in 1752, and 1757, declared themselves under 

C 2 



20 



THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



Its position. 



Character- 
istics. 



Hills. 

Natural 
divisions. 



Fantastic 
aspect. 



Minerals. 



Netherlands' protection, hasted to fly on board their 
vessels, and gave her, in name at least, the supremacy. 
Timor is an island of the second rank, the principal in 
the chain which is extended from Java to the New 
Guinea group. Its position is remarkable as forming a 
link between Asia and the Australian world, two regions 
which so vividly contrast in their productions, in their 
people, in their climate, and in all the aspects of 
their natural history. Politically it is the limit on the 
south-east of the Indian Archipelago, commanding the 
approaches from the north-west. Its formation is partly 
madreporous and schistous. Presenting a vegetation 
far from so vigorous and rich as that prevailing in the 
neighbouring isles, it is distinguished by less bloom than 
the Moluccas, and less poverty than New Holland. 

The island is ribbed throughout its length by a low 
chain of hills, dividing two natural systems. On the 
one side, the species of animals which abound in the 
Archipelago are found ; on the other, those of Australia. 
In the vegetable kingdom a similar phenomenon is re- 
marked, and two sets of rivers stream down the slopes 
to either sea. The hills range from 4000 to 6000 feet 
in elevation. No volcanoes are found, and no traces of 
their action ; consequently there is, in the aspect of 
the country, little to attract. The heights are rugged, 
bald, and forbidding. The low lands are partly shaded 
by woods, partly spread into level tracts, sterile on the 
sea. Scattered over these are gigantic blocks of rock, 
of eccentric form, which seem in the distance the 
ruins of some vast Runic city. They form as many 
strongholds to the savage tribes in time of war. 

In its productions, Timor offers no great variety or 
wealth. Gold is found in flakes and dust, in the beds 
of streams, and probably copper will be discovered. 
The inferior nature of the soil, the superstition and the 



ITS HISTOKY AND PRESENT STATE. 21 

barbarism of the people, contribute to stint agriculture. 
Cotton is grown, with maize, numerous fruits, and ve- Agricui- 
getables. Trees of various kinds exist in the forest, ture * 
and animals of the humbler species, though in small 
variety. Unlike most of the islands, where the verdure 
springs from the brim of the sea, and climbs the hills 
to their summits, Timor is encircled on its coasts with Barren 
rugged elevations all but naked, while in the interior coasts> 
plains well-peopled and richly watered valleys are The interior 
found. A population of about 200,000 natives, Chi- inhaWt- 
nese, Malays, and Papuans inhabit it. The aboriginal *****. 
stock is of the straight-haired yellow l Polynesian race, 
resembling in some particulars the Dyaks of Borneo 2 , 
and the Alfoeras of the Molucca group. 3 They wel- 
comed the Europeans on their first arrival, and have 
probably escaped little scathed by their civilisation. 
Perhaps their soil was not prolific enough in precious 
metals, or their woods in perfumed gums, or their 
plantations in sweet spices, to bring upon them the curse 
of European passions. 

In the Philippines the lowest of these passions, that The Phi- 
of selfishness, displayed itself as a characteristic of the ^PP 1 " 68 - 
Spanish genius. The Chinese, growing dangerously Spaniards 
wealthy, were attacked and expelled in obedience to the and Chi ~ 

Q6S6 

royal edict, which had slept in the dust for ten years. 

As well, however, might they attempt to drive back the 

sea to China. Proclamations from the throne at Madrid A .D. 1759. 

possessed no magic for the hardy merchants who owed 

allegiance to the Solar and Lunar family. They again 

settled down in whole colonies near Manilla ; they 

multiplied with strange rapidity. Their prosperity never 

1 See Flinders, Voyage, ii. 254. 
Nieuhoff, Churchill, ii. 259. 

3 Temminck, Coup cTGEil sur les Possessions Neerlandaises, iii. 
161. 

c 3 



22 



THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



forsook them. Perhaps the Spaniards, stricken as they 
were with sloth, imputed to their vigorous competitors 
some sorcery in the culture of the earth, and the exchange 
A.. 1760. of commodities. Idleness never failed to ascribe witchery 
or fraud to its successful rival. An enemy, however, 
was now preparing to take up arms and bring to 
humility the patrician traders, who confessed themselves, 
with all the pride of their ancient civilisation, unable to 
contend in the arena of industry with a horde of heathen 
artificers and husbandmen. The king of Brune had 
ceded to them in 1750, his claims in Palawan 1 ; but 
where, in the aspect of that wild island, is there a trace 
to signify its possession by a civilised power ? Pirates 
have made it a desert. 2 The English had multiplied 
their settlements on the coast of Sumatra. Great ad- 
vantages accrued to their trade from these depots where 
the products of the islands were collected. Suddenly, 
^ owever > tne French flag appeared on the western 
borders of the Archipelago, and a fleet swept the whole 
line of Sumatra, destroying every establishment our 
countrymen had formed. The English made no im- 
me( Ji a te attempt to recover these possessions, for the 
pretensions of her rival in India were giving way in 
all directions before the valiant arms of Clive, and the 
power of France was visibly declining. Conquests 
eclipsing those of Cortez and Pizarro, were widening 
their dominion in Asia ; French standards were borne 
triumphantly from Kensington Palace to the city ; 
North America added the saddened glories of Quebec ; 
and an immense fleet was driven by Hawke into the 
rivers of Brittany. On every side their trophies, all 
brilliant, if some were barren, multiplied to the delight 
of the nation. They were preparing, moreover, the 



English 



British 
trmmphs. 



Zuniga, ii. 110. 



* Journ. Ind. Arch. 



ITS HISTOKY AND PRESENT STATE. 23 

only formidable attack ever made by Europeans on the 
Spanish Philippines. Accounts had been circulated 
that Manilla was a store of wealth. Millions of dollars 
sent annually from America, splendid prizes won by 
Cavendish and Anson these ideas dazzled and seduced 
the minds of the English into an expedition which dis- 
appointed its projectors. On the 4th of January, 1762, A - D - 1762> 
while Europe was still trembling after the earthquake 
of a general war, and England had strewn the sea with 
shattered fleets, hostilities were declared against Spain, 
and that old monarchy received another shock which 
vibrated through her loosened frame. 1 

An expedition, planned and prepared by Sir William Expedition 
Draper, was furnished for the conquest of the Philip- Manilla, 
pines. The East India Company zealously joined in 
the project, and stipulated for a third of the profits to 
accrue from its success. The value of the Spanish pos- 
sessions was indeed diminished, but they were still 
worth a battle, and rumour added to their opulence 
enough to inflame the ardour of the adventurers. 

On the 23d of September, a squadron of nine men- Arrives m 
of-war appeared in the magnificent bay that extends tbe Bay> 
its horns from side to side of Manilla. 2300 men 
from the European and native Indian army were on 
board, besides 550 sailors, and 270 marines. The 
Spaniards, who had, by their own account 550, by the 
English 800, were soon joined by 5000 or 10,000 (the 
accounts vary) of the Philippine Indians armed with 
bows, arrows, and spears. The preparations for defence 
had been hurried, and there was manifestly no force 
important enough to render the victory doubtful. 

1 Heeren, Historical Researches. There are few lessons in history 
like that supplied by the annals of Spain. See, for a brilliant 
passage on the breadth of her old dominion in both hemispheres, 
Macaulay, Essays, 233, 

c 4 



24 



THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



Landing of 
the forces. 



Challenge 
from the 
city. 



Manilla 
bombarded. 



Conduct of 
the siege. 



The British troops, still plumed with the pride of 
great triumphs in the Carnatic, landed at mid-day, 
struggling through the foaming surf 1 , with their arms 
and ammunition carried above their heads. The fire of 
three frigates covered their disembarkation. Far spent 
as the season was, and unfavourable for warlike ma- 
noeuvres, the British vigorously commenced operations, 
and Manilla was summoned to capitulate. In reply, 
was received a bold defiance from the governor, and 
shortly afterwards a body of troops sallied, but was re- 
pulsed with much loss. Works were raised around the 
town, and completed notwithstanding several gallant 
sallies of the besieged. Within twelve days all was 
ready for an assault. Walls and bastions, a covered 
way, and a wet ditch, formed the defences. The point 
of attack was chosen at the San Diego bastion. A bat- 
tery of small shells was opened upon it, while the ships 
of war in the bay rolled in their broadsides in conjunc- 
tion with the artillery on shore. 

Stormy weather, however, put the squadron more 
than once in great peril. A vessel with stores was driven on 
the beach ; but while she lay stranded, her guns continued 
to sweep the line of the bay, driving back the swarms 
of Indians who came down from the city or the neigh- 
bouring woods. Pieces of heavier ordnance and larger 
mortars were mounted in succession, and on the third 
of October they opened fire on San Diego, compelling 
the cannoniers to leave their posts. In the same night, 
another battery was finished, and poured in a continual 
storm of bombs and shot, so that speedily the walls 
were dismantled. 

When the Spaniards saw their defences failing, they 
gathered courage and sallied, with 5000 Indians, divided 



Walton, Preliminary Discourse, 51. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 25 

into three columns. One, moving by night under the 
secresy of thick bushes along the edge of a little rivulet, 
attacked the seamen who were encamped on the beach. 
A body of men, however, came to the rescue, and as 
the Indian forces advanced, the guns made bloody 
chasms in their ranks. Still, they pressed to the cannon's 
mouth to shower in their arrows and lances ; but the 
seamen, with Roman discipline, held their ground, and 
drove the assailants back. By a similar attack, the 
sipahis were expelled from a church which they had 
occupied, though on rallying they regained the position. 
At length, the sortying party was forced to shelter 
itself within the town. 1 

Meanwhile, the batteries never slackened their fire. General 
Within twelve days all was ready for the assault. On a 
the 6th, a breach was open to the valour of the forlorn 
hope. The English advanced under a general fire of 
guns and mortars from their own batteries and those of 
the enemy. The walls were stormed. The town was 
entered. The governor and archbishop of the Philip- Surrender 
pines, Don Emanuel Roxo, fell back upon his citadel, 
but soon after delivered himself up to the English, and 
by a written capitulation ceded the whole of the Philip- 
pines for ever to Great Britain. The lives, the pro- 
perties, and the liberties of the people were guaranteed 
on the payment of 4,000,000 of Spanish dollars ; but a 
three hours' pillage of Manilla was exacted to reward 
the troops. 2 Some accounts say the sack was protracted 
during a day and a night ; others declare even forty. 3 
English guards protected the nunneries. The Indians, 
in many cases, discovered their master's riches to share 
in the plunder of them. Three hundred men, the 



1 Walton, Preliminary Discourse, 52. 

2 Crawfurd, ii. 477. s Walton, Preliminary Discourse, 53. 



26 



THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



The Ma- 
nilla ran- 
som. 



Last de- 
fenders of 
Luzon. 



garrison of one suburban fort, refused to surrender, 
shouldered their arms, and marched into the interior. 1 

The 4,000,000 of dollars was a contribution too heavy 
to be wrung from such a city as Manilla, and, though 
some of the church plate was melted down, the arch- 
bishop's silver goods and jewels thrown into the balance, 
and all the money that could be collected added, little 
more than half a million was amassed. The cargoes 
which were annually exported were demanded, but not 
obtained. 111,000 dollars, which had been placed in 
safety near Lake Bay, were ordered to be given up ; 
but its guardians, the Franciscan friars, loth to lose the 
custody of money, sent it over the mountains to a 
secure place in the wild province of Ituy. There was 
still, therefore, a heavy account against the captured 
city. To liquidate it, Don Emanuel Hoxo signed bills 
on the imperial treasury at Madrid, which were pro- 
tested and never paid, though the captors declared it 
a breach of faith. 2 

In November, the Philippines were formally ceded 
to the British, and General Draper proclaimed that 
every Indian who acknowledged allegiance to the con- 
querors should be free from taxation. Nevertheless, 
the Spanish commandant refused to recognise the ca- 
pitulation, and, collecting the religious orders, retreated 
to the interior, and there set up his standard with great 
success. All the Chinese joined the English, and com- 
mitted many excesses after their example. Senor Anda, 
the chivalrous commandant, immediately ordered every 
man of that race in the group to be hanged, and the 
gallows had thousands of victims. Some were spared, 



1 Annual Register, 1763, 13. 

2 All will remember the remarks of Junius on the Manilla 
ransom, Feb. 7. 1769, and the reply, Feb. 17th, 1769. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 27 

and accidentally, but the military governor readily over- 
looked the omission. 1 

Large numbers of the natives now rose and declared insurrec- 
themselves friends of the English. All things appeared favour of 
to promise the success of the new power. Arrangements the English. 
for the government of the Philippines were speedily 
made. Archbishop Roxo, who had possibly colluded Archbishop 
with the invaders, consented to retain his civil and 
political office, while a British commandant exercised 
military rule a course which brought on him the re- 
proaches of his countrymen. He prayed Senor Anda 
to make peace, and, continuing friendly to the British, 
died in January 1764. On his death-bed he bitterly A - D ' 1764 - 
repented the unpatriotic course he had pursued, and 
wrote home to Spain, saying it had been better had he 
rushed to the breach made by English cannon, to die 
by the stroke of an English sword. 2 All the high 
funeral honours paid to his ashes by the conquerors, 
whose cause he had embraced, failed to invest his 
memory with lustre. Anda, meanwhile, faithful to the 
Spanish flag, was vigorous in his operations, and vowed 
to obey no orders but those he had received before the 
fall of Manilla, and that by every means in his power 
he should uphold in the islands the authority of Spain. 
Neither force nor diplomacy could break his purpose. 
He continued in the field until the evacuation of the 
group. 

The English, though not yet inspired by their rising 
fortunes in the East with the ambition of extended 
empire, were employing their arms with great vigour on 
the continent, where a magnificent theatre had opened 
to their enterprise. Among the islands their energy 
was less powerfully displayed. The sultan of Sulu 

1 Zuniga, xvi. 2 Walton, Preliminary Discourse, 57. 



28 THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 

was taken under their protection, and ceded to them 

A. D.I 763. the island of Balambangan. Their settlements on the 

western shores of Sumatra were re-established, and 

preparations were made to defend them with equal 

spirit, when the peace of Paris, confirming the English 

possessions, put an end to all warlike operations. The 

settlement of Bencoolen, or Fort Marlborough, was 

Restoration declared an independent presidency. By this treaty 

of the Phi- , . . * * / , OUT 

lippines. their precarious and doubtrul conquests in the Jrnuip- 
pines were once more delivered over to the Spaniards, 

A.D. 1764. On the 31st of March 1764, Senor Anda took pos- 
session of Manilla, whose capture and occupation had 

A. D. 1765. cost a thousand lives. Within one year the revolt 
among the Indians was quelled. The rebellious races, 
it is said, lost 10,000 men. 1 

The character of these proceedings was not in any 
high degree honourable to the British name. Neither 
by the success of our arms, the wisdom of our policy, nor 
the conduct of our operations, had we acquired any 
honours to crown the triumphs which had lately made 
our standard supreme on the Coromandel coast, and on 
the lower borders of the Ganges. 

1 Walton, Preliminary Discourse^ 59. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 29 



CHAPTER II. 

IN 1774 the English, directed by that able navigator, Baiamban- 
Alexander Dalrymple *, planted a settlement at Balam- ^* 17 - 4 
bangan, ceded to them for that purpose. It lies off the 
northern extremity of Borneo, is fifteen miles in length 
and three wide, but is now uninhabited. With two 
excellent harbours, however, abundance of fish on the 
coast, good water, and an admirable situation for trade, 
it promised to be a valuable entrepot for the commerce 
of those seas ; but sufficient precautions were not taken 
for its defence, and next year the Sulu pirates drove 
all the settlers from the island. 2 

The Spaniards laid a claim on this island, and disputed 
the right of the English to establish themselves there. 
But their objections were proved flimsy and untenable ; 
equally flimsy and untenable, indeed, with those of the 
Dutch, when every year they deliver a penful of pro- 
tests against the British occupation of Labuan, pleading 
that article in the treaty which engages us to make no 
settlement in the Malacca waters to the south of the 
Carimon Isles. Balambangan was, perhaps, not the 
most favourable spot that could have been selected ; but 
its advantages are great, though the harbours require 
care to approach. In the same sea, however, are other 
islands which might be easily obtained, and where 
settlements could be founded most valuable to the 
commerce of this country. 

1 Dalrymple, Account of the Establishment at Balambangan. 

2 Belcher, i. 34., ii. 116. 



30 



THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



A. D.I 781. 

Rebellion 
in Celebes. 



Dutch 
warfare. 



The period of great acquisitions had now passed in 
the Archipelago. The progress of the European powers 
was thenceforward more cautious. When war, indeed, 
broke out once more between England and Holland, the 
former, in 1781, by a single blow wrested from her 
enemy all the settlements on the western coast of Su- 
matra; but few new conquests were effected. In 
Celebes, the sixteen years rebellion of Sankilang had 
broken out, and the Dutch were engaged with all their 
vigour in resisting the forces which rose against them. 
In this conflict was displayed a ferocity which it has 
been the fashion of civilisation to attribute only to the 
savage. We find in the secret journal kept by one of 
the governors of Macassar, various entries, such as the 
following : 

" Thursday, January 29th, 1777. 

" In the morning the Boni Interpreter came to the castle 
accompanied by a messenger from Datu Boringang, who 
presented to his Excellency, in a basket, four enemies' 
heads, said to be the head of Kraing Bonsala and of three 
Zalanigs, a rajah and three lesser chiefs." 

"Friday, 30th. Five heads more were brought to his 
Excellency this morning, reported to be those of some chiefs 
of the enemy taken prisoners in the action at Tikeri yester- 
day, when they were defeated and pursued, with the loss of 
fifteen men, by Arung Panchano." l 

These wars in Celebes, in which the Dutch fought on 
the same level with their savage allies, were extremely 
characteristic of the social state then, and still with little 
modification, prevailing in the Archipelago. The heads 
of the fallen were carried away on spear-tops ; the battle- 
field was defiled by hideous acts of ferocity ; and the 
hearts of the dead were sometimes devoured at a feast 



Crawfurd, History of Indian Archipelago, i. 244. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 31 

in celebration of victory. A traveller spoke to one chief 
who had eaten this horrid meal, and he declared it was 
much the same as eating the bowels of a goat or buffalo. 1 

In Borneo influence was acquired by peaceful nego- A. D. 1778. 
tiation. In 1778 they obtained from the sultan the acquisitions 
cession of Succadana ; establishing also in that year a m Borneo - 
fort and factory at the prosperous Malay settlement of 
Pontianah. By a treaty signed in March, the sultan 
of Bantam, long dependent as he had been on the Dutch, 
resigned to them the whole of his possessions on the 
northern coast of Borneo. Acquired by a doubtful 
means, held on an equivocal title, and retained by an 
uncertain tenure as they were, their loss to him was of 
no moment, while to Holland their acquisition was of 
importance. A resident was at once sent to Pontianah, 
where the tributary chief confirmed the prerogative 
of the company, and was acknowledged with his children 
as hereditary ruler in fief over his aboriginal subjects, 
though Holland reserved the absolute privilege of power 
over all Javans, Chinese, Malays, or others who settled 
in the country. The territorial rights of the Dutch in 
Borneo have never, however, been strictly defined, for 
the imaginary lines which have been laid down on the 
map represent no real dominion. While, however, they 
claimed extensive tracts, and endeavoured to become 
paramount in the remoter seas of the East, the English 
were content from time to time to secure an entrepot 
for their increasing trade. 

The extension of British empire in India, the con- English 
solidation of their power on the plains of Bengal and 
the Carnatic, and along the whole line of the Coro- 
mandel coast, had occupied their attention, and with- 
drawn it from regions further east. When these suc- 

1 Crawfurd, History of Indian Archipelago. 



32 



THE INDIAN ARCIIIPELAGO, 



A. n. ] 783. 



An empo- 
rium in the 
Archipelago 
desired. 



Foundation 
of Pinang. 



Policy of 
the trans- 
action. 



cesses, however, had been reaped, and other powers 
threatened entirely to close the gates of the Archipelago, 
the supreme government of British India sought a con- 
venient position for establishing a port to shelter their 
trade in those seas. Holland, in 1783, equipped an 
expedition against Rhio. It was, indeed, defeated with 
the loss of a large frigate and five hundred men, but a 
second attempt was successful. To secure, therefore, 
a permanent emporium in the direct highway of com- 
merce between the Bay of Bengal and the China Ocean, 
was a matter of anxious desire. 

Captain Scott, a merchant engaged in the trade of 
the further East, pointed out Junk Ceylon, or Salomy ; 
but this was a dependency of Siam. Captain Light, a 
gentleman following a similar profession, had frequently, 
however, mentioned to the rajah of Keddah or Quedah, 
on the peninsula, the desire of the British to gain 
a port in the straits. That chief protested that he was 
altogether independent of Siam, and Captain Light 
was convinced by his assertions. He wrote to the 
governor-general, prayed for a treaty, styled the em- 
peror of Siam his enemy, and pushed on negotiations 
to cede Pinang, that he might secure the alliance of 
the new power which was now displaying its trophies 
on the continent of India. 1 

Keddah is, however, considered by some to have 
been tributary to Siam, and any alienation of its ter- 
ritory without reference to the supreme power would 
in that case have been invalid. Ignorance of this fact, 
it is said, was, but need not have been, the reason why 
the British Government listened to the rajah's over- 
tures. The native history and authorities were ex- 



1 Lieut-Col. James Law, Origin and Progress of British Settk- 
ments, J. I. A. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 33 

tant, which alluded to the fact l ; but an able defence 
of the Keddah king's right to cede Pinang, as well as 
to claim assistance from Great Britain against Siam, 
appears to have proved the contrary. 2 However, Pi- 
nang was ceded, and Captain Light took possession of 
it, on the 17th of July 1786, in the name of Great 
Britain, and for the Honourable East India Company. 3 

Pinang, called also Prince of Wales' Island, lies off Pinang. 
the west coast of the Malay peninsula, opposite Ked- s 
dah. It is upwards of fifteen miles long, between eight Extent, 
and twelve broad, with an area of about a hundred and 
sixty square miles 4 , of which a large portion has proved 
fit for cultivation. 5 In shape it is an irregular qua- 
drangle. All the northern part is mountainous ; at the Surface, 
east lies a level tract nearly three miles wide, known as 
the Valley ; while through the centre run jungly 
hills. Considerable woods cover the slopes and plains, 
except where husbandry is spreading and obliterating the 
primal traces of nature. A belt of cocoa-trees fringes Vegetation. 
the shore, and groves of the tall and graceful areca 
or Pinang palm are scattered over the island. Some 
rivulets of fine sweet water descend from the hills, 
fertilising the alluvial tracts below. 6 The destruction 
of forest and jungle, however, operates unfavourably by 
diminishing the moisture of the air, and actually affect- 
ing the climate. 7 Pepper and spice plantations have 

1 Keddah Annals, translated by James Low ; also quoted by that 
learned writer the Abbe Choisy, and Loubere, History of Siam. 

2 Anderson, quoted by J. R. Logan. 

3 Bedford (Considerations on the Conquest of Keddah, unpub- 
lished MS.) proves the right of Keddah. 

4 New bold, British Settlements in Straits of Malacca. 

5 Balestier, Agriculture in Straits Settlements, J. I. A. 

6 Newbold, British Settlements in Straits of Malacca. 

7 Journal of the Indian Archipelago. 
VOL. II. D 



34 THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 

in several localities taken the place of the cane thickets, 
but every where the vegetation, natural or cultivated, 
wraps the island from the brim of the sea to the 
summits of the highest hills, which, though all of grani- 
tic formation, assume different shapes, some peaked 
like those of New Zealand, some domed like those 

climate. of the Deccan. For its beauty and its salubrious 
atmosphere, Pinang is the retreat for invalids through- 
out the Archipelago. 

Timber. Ship-timber, woods of various kinds, caoutchouc, 

sugar-canes, the tea plant, and numerous valuable fruits, 
are found in abundance at Pinang. 1 Nutmegs 2 , cloves, 

Products. and pimento have been introduced with much success 3 , 
while pepper, cocoa-nuts, betel-nut, betel-leaf, coffee, 
rice, cotton, and ginger, thrive to perfection. Tin ore 
is the only mineral hitherto discovered. All these 
commodities form the materials of a vigorous trade, 
which soon sprang up at George Town, on this island, 
where, at the time of the British occupation, only a 
few Malay fishermen dwelt in rude huts on the coast. 

Antiquities. Ancient burial places, however, indicated a former 
population which had utterly decayed. 4 The British 
government at once offered rewards and inducements to 
industry, and a change speedily came over the face of 
this small but picturesque island. 5 The possession of 
this, the key to the north-western entrance of the Ar- 

Engiish chipelago, was not, however, quite peaceful. When 

policy. the ra j an o f Keddah discovered that his claims to as- 
sistance of the English were, though just, denied, he 
made an aggression on the allies he had himself sought, 



1 Newbold, British Settlements in Straits of Malacca. 

2 Journ. 2nd. Arch.v. 583. 3 Oxley, Culture of the Nutmeg. 
4 Newbold, British Settlements in Straits of Malacca. 

6 Low, British Settlements in Straits of Malacca. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 35 

and forced from Captain Light a compromise of money. 

A new complication arose, and this time was decided 

by arms. The English were unsuccessful, but at length A. D. 1791. 

agreed to pay the rajah an annual sum, in order to 

discharge their obligation to him. 1 

While the British were forming their modest settle- 
ment on the north-western borders of the Archipelago, 
the fitful ambition of the Dutch urged them to make 
new acquisitions, to open new wars, and engage in 
arbitration between native states, which usually left 
every contested prize to the umpire. Tasmid, the Th e Dutch 
eldest son and successor of their old ally, ascended the 
throne of Banjarmassin, and excited discontent among 
many of his subjects. Three thousand men rose in arms, 
and were put down by the Dutch. The sultan was not 
so grateful as they considered he should have been. 
Therefore, when his younger brother Makta revolted 
with a numerous band of nobles in his train, Holland 
espoused the cause of the insurgent, and dethroned the 
reigning prince. The successful pretender, in an excess 
of gratitude, relinquished his entire kingdom, and re- 
tired, content with the title of hereditary governor in 
Jief of all the territory, with the exception of three 
districts. 

Four years later, when the war beyond the line 
broke out, the Dutch power received a formidable 
shock. Malacca surrendered to a British force ; Perak Capture of 
on the same peninsula was ceded ; and while the power 
of Holland from that day visibly declined, the star of 
her rival in the East mounted rapidly above the political 
horizon. 

The Netherlands East India Company had now dis- Dissolution 
solved. It had performed its mission. It had opened ^ * e ^ e " 

therlands 

1 Low, British Settlements in Straits of Malacca, J. I. A. 
D 2 



36 



THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



East India 
Company. 



Desolation 
of Java, 



and of the 
Spice Isles. 



Disasters of 
the Dutch. 



up for Holland the most lucrative trade she possessed. 
It had made her the envy of great European nations. 
Liberal directors might have built on that foundation a 
magnificent structure of dominion, and accumulated in 
the stores of Amsterdam perennial harvests of wealth 
from the Indian Islands. The improvidence of mono- 
poly determined all things to a different end. Regions 
proverbial for their natural opulence became impover- 
ished deserts, and civilisation, in many places, retro- 
graded under the institutions of an European race. 1 
Cities once flourishing fell to ruin ; the jungle, driven 
back by barbarians to the upper slopes of hills, spread 
again over the plains ; and, measured by the just 
standard, that of the people's happiness, Dutch rule was 
in more than one part of the Archipelago, pregnant 
with a curse. 2 In the Spice Islands, depopulation fol- 
lowed their establishment, and savages sought in caves 
and woods refuge from the remorseless hand of civilisa- 
tion. 3 Philosophy may seek to trace these effects to a 
natural cause, inevitable in the contact of strange 
races; but the whole is explained by a simple truism, 
that when the passion of selfishness is supreme in the 
councils of a government, its progress can only be a 
career of desolation. 

At this period fortune turned upon the Dutch, and 
their empire in the East threatened to break up under 
a general stroke of ruin. Their enemies in all parts of 
the Archipelago gained ground ; one rebel rose up after 
another ; British squadrons anchored before Malacca 
and captured it ; and one by one every possession of 
Holland was agitated by dangerous commotions. 

1 Sir James Brooke, Journal. Keppel, Voyage of the Dido. 
8 Stamford Raffles, History of Java. 

3 Hogendorp, Coup (TCEH sur Java. Temminck, Coup cCCEil 
sur rinde Archipdagique. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 37 

The colonising: policy of the English in the Straits English in 

r TV/T i ' r> TV Pinan S- 

or Malacca was ot a curious nature, Pinang was a 

favourite settlement ; but its prosperity did not for a 
considerable period answer their desires, although the 
revenue was fair and the trade very lively. 1 Malacca, 
on the other hand, which they neglected to support, 
supported itself on its own name and the remnants of 
an industrious population composed of various races. 
Prejudice, custom, predilection, the neighbourhood of 
pepper, vegetable and fruit plantations, with fisheries 
on the coast, retained at Malacca a busy concourse of 
people ; while the inhabitants of Pinang, composed of 
adventurers ready to shift their place of settlement and 
follow any new prospect which seemed to open, were 
bound by no ties to their adopted soil. Yet the 
British government, to foster this settlement, ordered Plan to 
the fortifications of Malacca to be levelled and other MalacCU 
measures to be employed to induce the residents to 
embark for the rising colony. To this Mr. Raffles, 
who had already distinguished himself by his ability 
and judgment, offered strong opposition. Captain 
Farquhar joined in this resistance, and contributed 
largely to the recal of the obnoxious orders. The oldest 
European settlement in the Archipelago was retained, 
and Pinang suffered to develope itself according to the 
course of nature. 

It was now felt throughout England and British 
India at least among those classes which devoted any 
notice to the political transactions of the East that a 
more vigorous policy was necessary to be pursued in the change of 
Indian Archipelago. While more important measures 

. f A 

were in preparation, inferior transactions were com- 
pleted; and, while the Dutch in the islands, under 

1 Low, Settlements in the Straits of Malacca, J. I. A. 

D 3 



38 



THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



A. D. 1810. 
Fall of Hol- 
land. 



Her strug- 
gles. 



Napoleon's 
conquests. 



French 
cruizers in 
the East. 



Marshal Daendels, lost territory, reputation, and re- 
venue, compromising a quarrel for 200 dollars, selling 
one of their settlements for 50,000, abdicating their 
influence in various places, and abandoning many of 
the advantages they had acquired, the English settled 
at Banjarmassin by the request of its sultan, and oc- 
cupied the portion their old rivals had evacuated. In 
this manner a decade passed unmarked by any important 
events. 

Holland had, for a while, performed the last act of 
her ambition. Fallen from her place in Europe, she 
was unable to preserve that noble resolution to be free 
which had formerly cast a lustre round her name. Less 
than a century and a half before, she had threatened to 
fly, with all her people and her moveable wealth, to the 
farthest isles of Asia, and there erect the capital of a 
new republic amid the waters of the remote East ; but the 
spirit of that chivalry had passed away. Degenerated 
and enfeebled, she sank under the dangers which, at a 
former time, would have roused the martial virtue of 
her people. The vain and profligate Louis Quatorze had 
failed in the attempt to add those provinces, rescued 
from the sea, to his wide but miserable empire. But 
Napoleon possessed at least the quality of vigour, and 
the territorial alliance of France and Holland placed 
the Dutch possessions in the East entirely at his com- 
mand. He beheld in Java a favourable point for con- 
centrating his forces, to carry on the design he had 
formed against the British Indian Empire. 

Throughout the war French cruizers from Bourbon 
and the Mauritius had infested the Indian coast, cap- 
turing merchantmen trading between the eastern ports. 
Several richly laden Indiamen fell into their hands, 
though the Company's ships, well armed, were often 
enabled to contend successfully with the privateers. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 39 

Great damage, however, was done to the British trade. 
After a successful expedition in the Molucca sea, English 
another was organised against Java, which on the 16th ql^" Java?' 
of May 1811, had been taken possession of, in Napo- A . D. isn. 
Icon's name, by Commander Jannsenns. 

The plan of the expedition was chiefly framed ac- The expe- 
cording to the advice of Stamford Baffles. 1 During his sir stam- 
settlement in the Archipelago, he had drawn from all ford Raffles, 
open sources information of every profitable kind; he 
had felt the pulse of the native races ; had inquired 
into their political and military capabilities, the ten- 
dency of their inclinations, the tone of their ideas, and 
was, in a comparative degree, familiar with the civilisa- 
tion of the Archipelago. Placing confidence in such a 
man, Lord Minto, writing from Calcutta in February, 
arranged a meeting with him and Sir Samuel Achmutty 
at Malacca, where a plan of operation might be drawn 
out. The conference took place, and the expedition 
was vigorously prepared. 

The Straits of Malacca were now once more covered The British 
with the sails of an enormous fleet. It was not now, 
however, composed of barbarian prahus rudely built, 
rudely armed, and still more rudely manned ; but of 
more than ninety British ships, furnished forth with all 
the resources of civilised war. This magnificent arma- 
ment was ready in June, when a difficulty arose which 
appeared serious. So large an armada had never before 
traversed the Archipelago; and long as these waters 
had been familiar to the fleets of Europe, it appeared 
dangerous to steer such a crowd of ships in regions 
where the channels are in many parts so narrow that 
only one vessel at a time can pass, and that sometimes 
with both bulwarks overshadowed by the foliage which 

1 Baffles, Memoirs, by Lady Raffles, i. 111. 
D 4 



40 THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 

in those verdant islands often droops over the very brink 
of the sea. Raffles boldly indicated a route to be fol- 
lowed ; the naval authorities generally opposed him ; 
but Lord Minto deferred to his opinion, and within 
six weeks after quitting Malacca the whole armament 
Arrives off had safely arrived within view of Batavia. 1 The city 
burghers, on the sight, applied for protection and sur- 
rendered without a blow. Their garrison had retreated 
to Welterwieden, at some little distance from the town. 
Commence- The campaign was immediately opened with the ut- 
campa*?gn. e most energy. Driven from his first position, the enemy 
entrenched himself at Cornells, about three miles from 
Batavia. This retreat was strong, and, combined with 
superior numbers, threatened a formidable resistance to 
the forces of the English. It was between the river of 
Jakatra and the Sloken, an artificial watercourse. A 
deep trench, strongly palisaded, shut up the approaches. 
Seven redoubts, with numerous batteries of heavy 
cannon, defended the lines. In the centre rose the 
frowning walls of Fort Cornelis. Field and forest 
spread around. The hot season and the smallness of 
the invading army forbade the idea of carrying the 
position by regular approaches ; but Sir Samuel Ach- 
mutty knew the troops he commanded, and resolved to 
win' the plaoe by assault. 2 He at once opened a hot 
fire on the batteries, which continued until the night of 
the 26th, when many of the enemies' guns were silent. 
Then all was prepared for the attack. Colonel Gibbs, 
Major Yule, Major-General Wetherell, Colonel Wood, 
Lieutenant-General Macleod, Captain Sayer, and Cap- 
tain Noble, were among the principal in command. 
They led the assault in that manner which has achieved 



1 James, Naval History, vi. 27. 

* Achmutty, Despatches, Ann. Reg. 1812, 226. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 41 

for the British army laurels in every field it has con- 
tested. The troops courageously advanced ; discharges 
of cannon broke out on every side. The infantry moved 
forward under this fiery storm, and carried the lines by 
a sudden burst of valour. Tremendous volleys met 
them as they scaled the defences, but in the face of 
death they pushed on towards the centre of the en- 
trenched camp. Wherever a practicable opening was 
made, cavalry poured in to support the battalions of 
foot, while the horse-artillery, carried forward with 
distinguished gallantry, swept in every direction the 
well-defended field. 1 

The victory was rapid and complete. It reflected 
honour on all who aided in procuring it, for the enemy 
was superior in numbers, infinitely superior in position, 
well prepared, and brave as the French and Dutch in- 
variably are in battle. The loss on the English side 
was considerable ; but the Hollanders suffered fearfully 
in the rout. Many fell in the entrenchments ; crowds 
in the confusion of the storm were driven into the 
river and drowned. Five thousand prisoners were taken. 
All the country round Batavia was immediately in 
the hands of the English. 

General Jannsenns, with a body of cavalry, made his 
escape, followed by the wreck of his army. Driven from 
post to post, he was at length shut up at Serindeh, 
towards the east of the island, within seven miles of 
Samarang. There a last struggle took place, ou the 
16th of September. In two days more the Dutch 
possessions in the Indian Archipelago, in virtue of a Dutch pos- 
treaty signed by W. Jannsenns and Sir Samuel Ach- 
mutty, were surrendered to Great Britain. Java, for 
three hundred years the stronghold of Holland in the 

1 Baffles, Memoirs, i. 125. 



42 



Factory at 
Banjar. 



Dutch 
policy in 
Java. 



Lord 
Minto's 
proclama- 
tion. 



THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 

Eastern Ocean, with all the inferior acquisitions of 
that power, were now English territory. 1 Our mer- 
chantman, sailing among the remoter waters of the 
globe, might securely enter any European port, for no 
flag but that of Great Britain floated on any spot be- 
tween Cape Horn and Cape Comorin, between Ben- 
gal and the Yellow Sea. 2 

While Java was being conquered, a factory was 
peacefully established at Banjar, in consequence of 
a mission sent to Malacca in the previous year. 

In Java, our countrymen discovered a curious fea- 
ture illustrating the weakness of the government which 
had recently been overthrown. Daendels, in the pos- 
sessions he consented to retain, pursued a singular 
course of policy. To re-introduce the culture of coffee, 
which under a restrictive system fell to decay, to inter- 
sect Bantam with roads, to open the sea-approaches by a 
new harbour ; these appeared to him necessary enter- 
prises. But to perform the task with a vigour equal to 
his wishes, he was compelled to burden the people with 
fresh taxes, and call so many to the public works, 
that a rebellion broke out, which gathered under the 
banners of a pangeran Achmet, whose insurrection 
grew too formidable to suppress. He was left, there- 
fore, unmolested, in the interim, to carry on a series 
of devastating forays. While the British fleet swung 
at anchor in the roads, this rebel supplied them with 
provisions, and when the army landed he was found in 
possession of a whole province. 

On the llth of September, five days after the con- 
quest, Lord Minto issued a proclamation to the inha- 
bitants of Java, assuring them of the kind purpose of 



1 Alison, History of Europe, xiv. 110. 

2 Mill, History of British India. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 43 

the English, asking them to pass in friendship under 
the new sway, guaranteeing them the rights of British 
Indian subjects, with freedom of trade similar to that 
enjoyed by all British subjects east of the Cape of 
Good Hope. It promised the Dutch residents fair 
treatment, and welcome to whatever offices of trust 
they were qualified to fill. It notified a project for the 
complete revision of the monopolising system, and 
warranted to the people the protection of the Nether- 
lands laws, subject to alterations then proclaimed. These 
were, the abolishing of torture and mutilation, in the 
punishment of criminals ; mitigation of all penalties 
more severe than those laid down in the British penal 
code ; and security of life until sentence of death was 
reported to and approved by the lieutenant-governor. 
All persons in the island, of whatever nationality, were 
to obey the same law, and the lieutenant-governor was 
empowered to revise the system of administration sub- 
ject to the control of the Supreme British Indian 
Government. The tone of the proclamation was liberal 
and conciliatory, containing no insult to the fallen 
power or threat to the new subjects. 1 

The administration of the island, though partly Raffles 
pledged to another, was at once conferred by Lord 
Minto on Thomas Stamford Raffles, with the title of 
Lieutenant-Governor. He had contributed chiefly to 
the success of the British arms, and to him alone the 
honour and the trust were due. Nor could any man 
have then been chosen better fitted to assume the 
charge of Java. 

It may be permitted the historian here to diverge a 
moment from the direct track of his narrative, to recall 
the youth of a man who now enters prominently on the 

1 Raffles, Memoirs, i. 142. 



44 



THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



Sir Stam- 
ford Raffles 
and Sir 
James 
Brooke. 
Their 
characters. 



Youth of 
Raffles. 



His career. 



scene. The name of Raffles is indissolubly associated 
with that, as the name of Brooke is with a later, period 
in the history of the Indian Archipelago. There 
are points of resemblance between the men. Their 
wide, liberal views, their philanthropic spirit, their 
hatred of the system which wrung profit from the 
misery of the natives, their endeavours to suppress 
piracy, their exalted ideas of the mission which civilisa- 
tion has, surely, to accomplish in those distant regions 
of the East ; in these particulars there is a link between 
Sir Stamford Baffles and Sir James Brooke, whose 
memories will be bequeathed together with honour to 
the latest posterity. 

Raffles was born at sea, near Jamaica, on the 5th of 
July, 1781. From his infancy he was accustomed to 
an adventurer's life. His father, Benjamin Raffles, was 
one of the oldest captains, in the trade of those seas, out 
of the port of London. Placed at an early age at a 
school in Hammersmith, he quickly developed the cha- 
racteristics of thoughtfulness and close application which 
were among his distinctions ; and though his education 
was not complete or fine, he acquired much knowledge 
during the brief opportunity he enjoyed. At fourteen 
he was placed as an extra clerk in the East India House. 
Thus drawn from the form and scholar's desk, he did 
not abandon learning. His leisure hours were never 
idle. Principles of a strong, elevated character, directed 
his conduct. He was conscious of the talents which 
graced him. He appreciated himself with an honest 
candour, but still with modesty. 

Those abilities were speedily acknowledged by the 
Indian government; and when, in 1805, the Court of 
Directors resolved on consolidating the establishment at 
Pinang, Raffles was named assistant secretary. To- 
wards the close of that year, he arrived in the Indian 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 45 

Archipelago. His capacity and application, his tact 
and judgment, attracted notice. He rose through various 
grades of office, and at all times was eager in the col- 
lection of knowledge with respect to the region which 
fortune had opened as the field of his exertions. He 
mingled at Pinang with the crowds of temporary or 
permanent settlers from various countries of the fur- 
ther East from Java and the Moluccas, from Ce- 
lebes and Borneo, from Papua, Cochin China, and the 
Celestial Empire. With these he conversed, discovering 
their habits of thought, the tone of their sympathies, 
and their commercial tastes, thus acquiring that ac- 
quaintance with them by which alone an European can 
open the way which leads to the respect, the con- 
fidence, or the love of a barbarian race. Raffles had 
a purpose in view, and, bringing to his aid the kindliest His success - 
qualities of the human heart, as well as a vigorous 
intellectual mind, his success was in most instances 
'more than answerable to his hopes, if short of his 
desires. 

The task allotted to him was arduous and responsible. His present 
Six millions of men, divided into thirty residencies, with task * 
powerful chiefs chafing under European rule, fell under 
his charge. An extensive island, the most fertile and state of 
beautiful in the world, was to be reclaimed from de- 
solation. Its population was to be conciliated to 
friendship with governors of the white race they had 
learned to fear, if not to hate. Before the conquest by . 
the English, the Dutch had only actually subjugated 
one of the four principal kingdoms. The inferior king- 
dom of Jakatra, extending from Bantam to Cheribon, 
and containing Batavia, alone acknowledged with im- 
plicit obedience the name of Holland. The Dutch, 
indeed, had been long lords paramount of Java ; but 
their sword was never in its sheath, and when new 



46 



THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



The native 
prince. 



Success of 
Raffles. 



rulers arrived it remained for them to prove their con- 
quest by the same weapons. Lord Minto remained in 
Java six weeks, arranging places of government, and 
for the suppression of piracy. The proposal was made 
to him to plunder and abandon Java, but it was re- 
jected, and the island received as a province of the 
British Indian empire. 1 He left Raffles abundant op- 
portunities to exercise the courage and judgment which 
were his distinguishing characteristics. 

Taking advantage of the overthrow of the French 
and Dutch dominion, the ex-sultan of Java seized the 
throne which had been wrested from him, and put 
his vizier and his vizier's father to death for opposing 
his will. His turbulent spirit displaying itself in a 
threatening form, Raffles resolved to visit his capital 
and conclude a settlement of the relations to exist be- 
tween the British government and this barbarian prince, 
who had long since yielded his independence to Holland. 
A convention was at length agreed upon. The sultan 
acknowledged the English supreme in Java, recognised 
their succession to the rights of the Dutch, ceded them 
the regulation of duties and the collection of tribute in 
his territories, with the administration of justice in all 
cases where British interests were concerned, and, pledg- 
ing himself to the fulfilment of these engagements, 
expressed deep regret for all that had passed. Never- 
theless, he sought to expel our countrymen from the 
island, and it was found necessaiy to send an expedition 
to reduce him to reason. 

The conduct of Stamford Raffles, in this and in other 
measures, was almost universally approved. General 
Gillespie, indeed, impeached it, and put him to a severe 
trial, but, though his motives were undoubtedly pure, 



Raffles, Life and Memoirs, by Lady Raffles. 



ITS HISTOKY AND PRESENT STATE. 47 

his charges could not be sustained, and the widow of 
Raffles, in chronicling these transactions, expresses her 
belief that if this gallant soldier had not met an early 
and honourable death, he would himself have borne a 
generous testimony to the man with whom he had 
formerly co-operated, but whose policy he conscien- 
tiously blamed. Other opponents, indeed, stood up 
occasionally to charge ill to the account of Baffles 
some openly accusing him, others throwing arrows in 
the dark ; but he was able to convince his honest, and 
to confound his malignant antagonists. 1 

The native chiefs of Java, by the establishment of 
British power, gained considerable advantages. In po- 
litical, commercial, and territorial arrangements, terms 
more liberal than those offered by the Dutch were 
granted to them. Palembang, in Sumatra, was selected Relations 
as the object of peculiar liberality. Its dependency, ^," nd 
the island of Banca, long famous for mines of tin, would princes, 
alone have rendered it worth attention. Raffles sent to its 
sultan a mission, requiring the acknowledgment of the 
new authority, and the settlement of future relations. 2 
That prince, however, had fallen into a dream of inde- 
pendence, and welcomed the commissioners with most 
equivocal courtesy. He refused intercourse with the 
English, despised their offers, and compelled the envoys 
to sign fictitious reports, in which it was stated that the 
Dutch fort had been razed to the ground, and the gar- 
rison, at their request, marched to Batavia. At first, 
indeed, he had assumed a tone of truculent insolence, 
defying all the earth to conquer him ; but the battle of 
Cornelis fell on his ears like a clap of thunder, and 
he sought to escape through a labyrinth of truly 

1 See Raffles, Proclamation, Oct. 15th, 1813. Memoirs, i. 240. 

2 See Temminck, ii. 13. 



48 THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 

Oriental lies. To conceal all evidence which might rise 
against him, he ordered the Dutch residents to be mur- 
dered, while the agents of Raffles were summoned to 
receive the same fate. 

The maltreatment of these men, the plunder and 
murder of Europeans, who, by the fortune of war, had 
fallen under British protection, and the insulting reply 
despatched to the lieutenant-governor, justified no 
other than a severe policy. Nor was the importance 
of the event, to the interests of commerce, of any mean 
Paiembang. consideration. The closing of Palembang would have 
shut up the harbour of Klabbout in Banca, one of the 
most spacious and commodious havens in the East. 
Two rocky promontories embrace a magnificent basin 
of deep water, and through a narrow gateway, easily 
defended, the whole navy of Great Britain might pass 
and safely lie within. It was not at that period con- 
templated to withdraw altogether from Java, and such 
a port, in the direct route to China, would have been 
of great value. Banca was fixed upon for a new settle- 
ment. On board the fleet equipped for Palembang, 
guns and stores for the island were embarked, and the 
expedition set sail. The passage from Batavia, which, 
with fair weather, could be accomplished in four or five 
days, occupied, on account of contrary winds and cur- 
rents, a much longer period. These delays afforded the 
sultan leisure to prepare for defence or flight. He 
provided for both. He removed his treasures and his 
women into the interior. He blockaded the approaches 
to his capital. He issued letter after letter to the 
British commander, couched in the language of accom- 
plished hypocrisy. 

Expedition Nevertheless, the fleet made for the river, entered 

AD 1812 ** ant ^ P usne d U P m spite of desultory attacks. On the 

22d of April, the rising sun revealed the batteries and 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 49 

armed flotillas of the enemy, at a formidable position 
near Borang. The passage was obstructed by all the 
devices of savage stratagem. Pile, boom, and fire raft 
were employed, but as the assailants advanced, the 
defendants fled or capitulated, and yielded up their 
works. The whole country woke into alarm. Borang 
was passed. The sultan knew his great hope was 
broken. He escaped and gave Palembang up to ruin. 
His adherents rushed, before their flight, to strike a 
blow for fortune. They fell on the opulent Chinese 
residents, commenced an unsparing massacre, pillaged 
the dwellings, and set fire to all they could not bear 
away. The city was converted into a field of battle. 
Men fought with mortal hatred ; life and death hung 
in the balance of every personal conflict ; all bad 
passions were let loose. Carnage, plunder, and riot 
mingled their horrors, and while they, who should have 
been preparing to defend the town, anticipated its sack 
by the conqueror, the English boats were pushing 
rapidly up the stream. News came of the fearful events 
going forward, and all possible haste was made, if 
possible, to stay the havoc. 

Colonel Gillespie 1 , with a small band of followers, Night 
stimulated by the excitement of the hour, imprudently 
advanced too far, and reached the entrance of the city, 
which lay dimly visible in the gloom on either side of 
the river. On all hands the forest enclosed it, shutting 
in the landscape with its sombre outlines. The sky 
was dark ; the houses were scattered densely along the 
shores, and from these masses of human habitations rose 
at intervals a body of flames, rushing from street to 
street, roaring in the wind and throwing a red glare 
around, while the yells of the murderers, shrieks of the 

1 See a good sketch of Gillespie's life, U, S. Mag. cclxxviii. 65 
VOL. II. E 



50 THE INDIAN AECHIPELAGO, 

victims, and mingled sounds of various tones from fury 
to despair, gave to the scene a terrible reality. 

The little band of Europeans, guided by an Arab 
chief, stepped on shore. Crowds of Malays and Muslims 
thronged about them, flashing over their heads glaring 
torches, and weapons red with blood. Huge battle- 
ments with wide gates rose along the town, permitting 
no egress. Signs of the recent havoc were abundant. 
The assassins had been fiercely at their work. Scared, 
however, by the undaunted appearance of the British 
officers, with seventeen grenadiers who forced their way 
in, numbers fled and others remained passive as they 
passed. Meanwhile, the conflagration spread. The 
bamboo-built houses burned easily, and the crackling 
of this inflammable material resembled incessant dis- 
charges of musketry. Then, to increase the terror and 
confusion, a violent storm, with thunder and lightning, 
broke out, and thus in the midst of this uproar, a little 
body of Englishmen took possession of Palembang, 
though overshadowed by a fort and batteries, bristling 
with 252 pieces of cannon. 1 Not one man was lost. 
A daring though rash stroke accomplished all. A 
regular siege would have probably cost showers of 
blood. 2 

The royal body-guard of murderers having fled, the 
sultan was formally deposed, and replaced by a relative. 
In recognition of the British supremacy he ceded the 
isles of Banca and Biliton. 

war in In June, the English declared war against the sultan 

of Java, and on the 20th marched a force of not more 
than 1000 men against his capital. Retiring to his 
strongly fortified palace, the old prince considered him- 

1 Thornton, 14. * Raffles, Memoirs, i. 171. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 51 

self secure with high walls and 8000 of his chosen 
soldiers to protect him. 

Yet this immense Indian castle, crowded with de- 
fenders, could not resist the assault of a thousand troops 
under British command. The garrison cast prodigious 
volleys of stones from slings, but without sensible effect. 
Nevertheless, the siege lasted two days. They em- 
ployed, indeed, other weapons of more formidable 
nature among them a lance twelve or fourteen feet in 
length, with a sharp head of iron. Crawfurd saw a 
full-grown tiger, ranging at will within a spacious 
enclosure, pierced to the heart with a similar spear 
hurled by a Javan hunter. 1 The kriss, said by the 
natives to have been invented by a prince of the four- 
teenth century, though universally worn, was seldom 
employed in the contests with Europeans. Rarely 
indeed was there a hand-to-hand collision. In this 
instance, the palace, immediately after the walls were 
scaled, surrendered. The sultan was made prisoner, 
and his son, a favourite with the Dutch, was elected to 
the throne, with the title of Mangkubuwono III. 
The old Susunan had never actually delivered up the 
districts ceded by him to Holland, but his successor was 
bound to the fulfilment of this convention. The terri- 
tories of Kader Blora, Tipang, Japan, Gurroo, and 
others were peacefully relinquished. 

Daendel's act of abdication, repudiated by the Dutch, Acquisi- 
was not acknowledged by the English. The Bornean ^ ons m 
districts were included within the meaning of the general 
capitulation. Treaties were signed with the sultan of 
Banjarmassin and chiefs on the adjoining coast to 
determine the relations of commerce, and consolidate 
the influence of Great Britain, now paramount over 

1 Crawfurd, Indian Archipelago, i. 244. 

E 2 



52 THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 

A. . 1813. the length and breadth of the Archipelago. At the 

Bantam. 

same time, the administration of Bantam was purchased 
from its nominal sovereign for an annual pension of 
10,000 dollars. Its population was not then one-fourth 
of a million. The city, once surrounded by rich plan- 
tations of pepper, once the great resort of Indian 
merchants, once a famous entrepot for merchandise, 
had sunk far from its former prosperity, under the re- 
strictive policy of the Dutch. 

Manifesto When these political arrangements had been effected, 
of Raffles. g' r Stamford Raffles proceeded to develop his plans for 
the civil administration of Java. On the 15th of 
October, 1813, he published at Batavia a comprehensive 
manifesto. The spirit and purpose of this document 
may be succinctly stated. 

its spirit. it proposed to check the undue authority of the 
native chiefs, but receive them into offices of trust in 
the department of police, with such rewards in land and 
money as would render it their interest and their duty 
to encourage industry and protect the inhabitants. The 
police regulations were to be framed, a fixed principle 
consonant with the ancient habits and institutions of the 
country. 

The government lands were to be let to heads of 
villages, who might sublet them at fair rents, though 
held responsible for their proper and liberal manage- 
ment. The system of vassalage and forced deliveries 
would be abolished. The cultivation of coffee would 
be encouraged, and government would purchase at a 
fixed rate all for which a higher price could not be 
found in the market. Many duties were to be abolished, 
toll-gates and transport dues diminished, every facility 
offered for procuring teak timber for boat building, salt 
cheapened, and by a free system every encouragement 
afforded to industry and trade. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 53 

A full and liberal code of revenue instructions was A.I>. isu. 
promulgated next year, besides regulations for the dis- 
tribution of justice. 

Sir Stamford Raffles was, perhaps, of all men then wisdom of 
living the one most capable of the task to which he 
applied himself. With a kind solicitude for the welfare 
of the native population, he was animated by a keen 
desire to promote the interests of British commerce. 
He understood the philosophy of colonial government ; 
he comprehended the true interests of the aborigines. 
He knew that to protect their peaceful industry by 
suppressing the buccaneering system which preyed 
upon it was the duty of civilisation. His humanity was 
of that liberal kind which would warm the whole world 
in its embrace, yet he never held his hand when peace 
could be procured by a blow. 

In various islands it was necessary to coerce re- 
fractory or hostile chiefs. In 1814, a brother of the 
Rajah Bleling, a Hindoo chief in Bali, insulted the 
English settlement of Blambangan in Java. A British 
force, then about to sail for Celebes, was ordered to 
stop by the way and force an apology. The rajah was Affairs of 
wise enough to submit. The expedition then proceeded Ce i ebes - 
to Boni, where the king refused to acknowledge the 
British supremacy. It remained to compel him. 

The operations were carried on in alliance with some 
native chiefs. These met in council to swear fealty. 
The banners of the state were unfurled, sprinkled with 
blood, and waved above the assembly. Each man 
in succession, dipping his kriss in water, drank the 
sacred draught. Then winding through the evolutions 
of a war dance, he leaped around the blood-spotted 
standard, whirling his sword and swearing oaths of 
faith. Skilful flattery of his new friends was woven 
into this heroic gasconade. " Observe me, you English," 

E 3 



54 THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 

cried one, " I am prepared to live and die with you. I 
am as a spear in your hands, ready to do execution in 
whatever quarter directed." A second exclaimed, "I 
shall be in your hands like a skein of white thread, ready 
to receive whatever colour the skill of the dyer may give 
it." Nothing was so remarkable among these warriors 
as their treachery. 1 

With this combination of forces, the armies of the 
king of Boni were attacked and defeated, but the prince 
himself escaped into the interior with a considerable 
number of troops, and was successful in a series of pre- 
datory attacks during the short period of our rule in the 
Eastern seas. 

Feebleness Whether Great Britain was wise in her abdication of 
the territories won from the Dutch in 1811, is a 
question which, by the British politician, can be 
answered only in one way. It is safe to assert that, 
had these islands remained under the government of the 
East India Company, the Archipelago would, thirty- 
seven years later, have worn an aspect wholly different 
from that which it assumed under the divided sway of 
Holland and the pirates. The trade of England en- 
larged, the prosperity of the Archipelago increased, the 
general welfare of the human race promoted, and 
Christendom graced with a new dominion, such would 
have been the results. But the wisdom of diplomacy 
decided otherwise. 

The fate of the East was decided in the West. An 

insurrection in Amsterdam, followed by outbursts all 

FaiiofBuo- over Holland, made her once more a nation. The 

uaparte. co lossal power of Napoleon Buonaparte, shaken by the 

three days' battle on the field of Leipsic, was shattered 

to ruins on the plains of Waterloo. The Netherlands 

1 Crawfurd, Indian Archipelago, i. 234. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 55 

had regained their independence though the old re- Revival of 
publican form of government was rejected by a people 
which had degenerated from the virtuous patriotism 
that animated them when they originally shook off the 
double yoke of priest and prince in Spain. 1 The star 
of the Corsican despot had been quenched amid the 
storms of war, and peace dawned amid a general recon- 
struction of the European system. There was an uni- 
versal exchange of conquered territories. By the treaty Treaty of 
of London, signed on the 13th of August, 1814, the London - 
transmarine possessions of Holland were restored to 
her, with the exception of the Cape of Good Hope and 
Collins on the Malabar coast. The peace of Paris in Treaty of 
1815 comprised these arrangements. The brief but Pans- 
bright day of English dominion then closed. Java was Restoration 
once more delivered to the Dutch. Celebes was next ^J^e 
evacuated, and the Spice Islands followed, with the in- possessions. 
ferior acquisitions. During the few years of British 
administration, so wise and mild a policy had been pur- 
sued, that the natives relapsed with reluctance to the 
power of their old masters. 2 

Thus closed the era of the war, since which the rival close of tbe 
nations have worked with diplomacy in place of arms. war -P enod - 

1 Heeren, Historical Researches, ii. 348. * Ibid. ii. 398. 



56 THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



CHAPTER III. 

A. D. 1816. WHEN the Dutch, on the 24th of June, 1816, were 
Java in restored to the possession of Java, that island was 
A. D. isle, flourishing under the liberal system of administrative 
economy projected by Sir Stamford Raffles. During 
the short eclipse of their national existence, they had 
not learned, amid the general confusion of opinions in 
Europe, any new theories of colonial policy. The ideas 
received in the days of Koen still influenced their form- 
ation of their schemes, and the spirit, if not the whole 
Newadmin- frame of the English laws was speedily changed. Con- 
the Dutch, fessedly, however, they felt the necessity of adopting 
to some extent the plans of the abdicated government, 
though many of the more bold and grand were imme- 
diately rejected. Trial by jury had been introduced : 
it was now abolished. The freedom of agriculture was 
ratified, with a modification of the land-tax, but the 
old communal partition was renewed, in lieu of the per- 
sonal impost. Chiefs and elders of villages received a 
commutation of money, to compensate them for the loss 
of their ancient feudal revenues, and the treasury for- 
bore to force payment of arrears, on account of the 
poll-tax. The necessity for this sacrifice they ascribe 
to the English, by whom the finances had been so 
confused that an equitable liquidation was impossible. 
Whatever was true of the fiscal measures adopted by 
Raffles, it is certain that Java flourished under them, in 
more genuine prosperity than she ever enjoyed before 
or since. It is also just to say, that the Dutch, when 
their restoration took place, devised several plans in 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 57 

emulation of the British policy, for the encourage- 
ment of industry, and especially to stimulate the culti- 
vation of indigo, sugar, and coffee. The liberty of 
trade, though still restrained by rigid enactments, was 
slightly extended, and other beneficial regulations were 
enacted. These indeed were all conceived to promote 
in politics and commerce the interests of Holland * ; but 
it is a characteristic of wise and benevolent rule, when 
the happiness of the people is increased by laws which 
provide for the aggrandisement of the governors. 

Jealous, however, of the amity which had sprung Commer- 
up between the English and many of the native princes, t ions. 
they so far restricted the trade of the island, as to 
shut out the vessels of all other nations from its ports, 
making this an express stipulation in every new com- 
pact framed. 2 For, though great independent kingdoms 
remained no longer to be subdued, and a change was 
coming over the general policy of Europe, Holland 
continued in the Archipelago to extend her power by 
treaties as well as by arms. Nor was her ancient au- New 
thority so confirmed in the affections of the native race, treaties - 
as to flourish without the danger of overthrow. The 
people, far from grovelling in that reptile lethargy in 
which so many nations throughout Asia are immersed, 
were not easily reconciled to lose an independence which 
they had not exchanged for any great civilising influ- 
ence of industry or peace. In the very year in which 
Java was restored it was disturbed by insurrectionary 
outbreaks; though these forerunners of the portentous 
commotion which afterwards burst forth were with fa- 
cility appeased. In Borneo and Celebes the relapse to 
Dutch rule took place in tranquillity, and in Sumatra 



1 Temminck, Coup (FCEil, i. 113. 

2 Wilson, History of India. 



58 THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 

wars and some of their merchants settled in peace ', but the 

tioiis. C Moluccas passing from the hands of the English into 
those of the governors, who had made them the scene of 
melancholy devastation, were speedily agitated by a 
sanguinary war. 

A. D. isi?. The Dutch resident at Saparoa was assassinated; an 
expedition sailed to quell the insurgent tribes, and con- 
flicts took place in that island as well as in Haroeka and 
Amboyna, which, after a fierce struggle, were reduced 
to subjection. 2 The states of Borneo stood to Holland 
in the same relation as previously, but new settlements 
were made with some of the native princes. The prin- 
cipal object of these was to increase the culture of pep- 
per, except at Banjarmassin, where the intervention of 
the Dutch arms more than once took place to defend 
the natives from the tyranny of their sultan. By them, 
this sovereign had been elected, and to their support 
he owed his continued elevation, so that they enjoyed 
justly the prerogative of arbitrating between him and 

A. D. 1818. the people he oppressed. 3 Their own administration, 
nevertheless, in some of their Bornean settlements, pro- 
voked rebellion, while at Cheribon formidable disturb- 
ances took place, as well as at Palembang in Sumatra, 
where the Dutch became involved in a costly war. A 
disputed succession, in the determination of which the 
English had taken a share, divided the state into two 
hostile parties, and the Dutch, adopting the cause of a 
favoured claimant, fought in his name for ascendancy 
at Palembang, but their first expedition was defeated 
with loss and disgrace. 4 They succeeded, nevertheless, 
in dethroning the reigning prince, and electing in his 
place another who had been deposed by the British 

1 Temrainck, ii. 21. * Moniteur des Indes, i. 84. 

3 Capellen, Moniteur, i. 165. 4 Moniteur, i. (5.) 84. 



ITS HISTOKT AND PRESENT STATE. 59 

government. 1 He applied to his old benefactors for 
assistance, and they feebly attempted to promote his 
claims, sending a small body of Bengalee troops, but 
these were captured, and no further movements took 
place to compromise the general peace of Europe. 2 

Further to the north-east on the same island, the English in 
settlement of politics in a native state was effected by Acbm - 
European intervention. Johore Allum Shah, who had 
been thrust from the throne of Achin by Sufful Allum, 
was restored by the East India Company, and the 
usurper pensioned. The ancient symbol of the state, a 
blood-red flag, emblem of enmity and pride, was then 
modified by the device of a sabre horizontal across a 
full shield, round, argent on a red field. 3 

In 1818 a dispute arose between the English and Dispute 
the Dutch respecting the possession of Malacca. That 
ancient city had been in 1785 occupied by the British 
for the Prince of Orange, but Holland affirmed it was 
conquered by force of arms. Her own records, indeed, 
proved the unpopularity of her rule there, which was 
perpetually endangered by rebellion, but the possession 
of any spot of ground in the Archipelago, valueless or 
perilous as it might be, was coveted for empire's sake, 
and a scheme was proposed that Malacca should be 
relinquished in favour of Pinang, and if not yielded to 
the Dutch, at least suffered to relapse into the original 
wilderness. Colonel Farquhar, however, with Stam- 
ford Raffles, who had recently received the title of a 
knight, prevented the demolition, and the city was 
spared. In the same year, nevertheless, the Dutch ne- 
gotiators prevailed, and Malacca once more fell into 

1 Wilson, History of India. 

z Dr. Epps, Schilderungen aus Ostindens Archipel. trans, in 
Journal Ind. Arch. 

3 Singapore Free Press, Jan. 26th, 1837. 



60 



THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



English 
treaties in 
the Pen- 
insula. 



Plans of 
Raffles. 



their hands. The treaty of Vienna, indeed, had made 
its surrender a stipulation, but judicious politicians in 
the East foresaw that efforts were necessary to prevent 
British influence from being altogether extinguished in 
the further East. Claims were made on Holland for 
the expenses incurred in holding Malacca, during a^ 
long war, for the States of the Netherlands, and a pro- 
longed correspondence arose out of the transaction. 1 
The amount demanded was 28,000 Spanish dollars, and 
when a settlement had been effected, Malacca, with 
great pomp of flags waving and salutes fired, was deli- 
vered over to the Dutch. They tried the experiment of 
declaring it a free port, which partially succeeded, but 
the history of the city from that period is one of decline 
and decay. 2 

Though, however, the English yielded so many of 
their acquisitions during the war, they retained a suffi- 
cient sense of their commercial interests not to abandon 
the whole field of negotiation and trade. They con- 
cluded with the sultan of Perak on the Peninsula, a 
treaty providing against any Netherlands monopoly, 
and securing to the British the rights of the most fa- 
voured nations, 3 In other directions Sir Stamford 
Raffles might have created fine markets for the pro- 
ducts of our industry, had his designs been appreciated 
by the imperial government of the day. He required, 
he said, neither territories nor population. All he 
wished for was permission to anchor a British line 
of battle ship with the British flag flying, at the mouth 
of the Straits of Sunda or Malacca, which would 
break up the Dutch monopoly, and guarantee liberty 
for English trade. 4 This was assailed by many insi- 



1 Newbold, Settlements in Malacca, i. 134. 

2 Low, Journ. Ind. Arch. iv. 21. 
4 Baffles, Memoirs. 



Newbold. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 61 

dious arts, as when the restrictive system was enforced 
under pretence of protection to general commerce. 
Thus, during the expedition to Ceram and Saparoa in 
1818, as well as that to the Moluccas in the same year, 
the Dutch declared themselves to be armed against 
pirates, and against those who sold military stores to 
the rebellious tribes, but included in their operations a 
fierce crusade against contraband traffickers, by which 
they signified the masters of all vessels not under the 
Netherlands' flag. l 

The British submitted, perhaps with more forbear- Forbear- 

. . , , . . , ,. ance of the 

ance than wisdom, to many acts, equivocal in point ot English. 

faith, and unmistakeable in point of feeling, from the 
Dutch ; but they were not inclined to acquiesce alto- 
gether in arrangements which degraded their national 
flag, and were destructive to the progress of their com- 
merce throughout the Archipelago. It was resolved to Resolve to 
open a port in the straits, or somewhere else in those ^" a fl 
seas, which might secure the great highways of mari- 
time adventure. Pinang and Bencoolen were, indeed, 
possessed, but another settlement was required, and the 
region was explored in search of a favourable spot. 
Negotiations were commenced with the independent Dutch 
Rajah of Rhio, for the establishment of a factory in his 
dominions, but the Dutch terrified him into a refusal, 
and bound him by a treaty to admit no European ships 
except their own. The chiefs of Linging, Siak, Johore, 
and Pahang, under similar influence, came to a similar 
resolution. 2 Clearing these waters the English next Search for a 

place of 

visited the shores of Borneo, but were followed by the settlement 
persevering jealousy of their rivals, and when a vessel 
appeared off Pontianah, with the design of examining 
the capabilities of the Karimata isles, a squadron of seven 

1 Kolff, Voyage of the Dourga. 2 Wilson, History of India. 



62 THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 

small Dutch men-of-war sailed thither in a threatening: 

O 

attitude, which deterred our countrymen from any fur- 
ther prosecution of the enterprise. The apparition of 
the Netherlands flag was, according to their own testi- 
mony, welcomed with great favour along the coasts of 
Borneo, where the people suffered much from the 
numbers and turbulence of Chinese settlers. The old 
rights of Holland at Sambas, Mampawa, and Pontiana, 
with various other places, were then peacefully resumed. 1 
A. D. 1819. The British, therefore, were again forced to search 
in the Straits of Malacca for the site of a new settle- 
ment. Java had been unconditionally surrendered to 
the Dutch, against the advice of statesmen, and against 
the interests of Great Britain. Holland, indeed, could 
not be answerable for the crimes of ambition perpetrated 
by Napoleon, but it was clearly impolitic, and by no 
means just, to restore all her former possessions without 
some reserve in favour of that commerce which had suf- 
fered while our fleets were restoring the Netherlands to 
independence. She had refused to reciprocate the libe- 
rality which had given her back her Indian empire. 
Monopo- No sooner was she reinstated in Java than she en- 
of Holland' 7 deavoured to monopolise the whole trade of that region, 
to shut out the English from every native port, to close 
all direct communication between India and China, and 
thus to injure a valuable and increasing commerce. 
Sir Stamford Raffles, with a watchful and patriotic 
energy, too little remembered by his country, resisted 
this encroaching spirit. He was appointed governor of 
Bencoolen in Sumatra, and arrived there on the 22nd of 
March, 1818. Within ten days he was at issue with 
the Dutch. Seeking to establish the influence of his 
nation in the island and to open a port on the southern 

1 Temminck, ii. 



ITS HISTOEY AND PRESENT STATE. 63 

coast that might command one avenue to the Archi- 
pelago, he found a country exceedingly rich, and a 
people willing to assist his plans. 1 Traversing all the 
provinces he entered into conventions with chiefs who 
had never before carried on any communication with 
white men, and commenced a settlement at Surikanka 
Bay. The government of Bengal, however, with that 
improvident timidity which sacrifices a great prospect 
to escape a trifling risk, refused to support Raffles 
against the Dutch, annulled his proceedings, and re- 
ferred all disputed questions to England. 2 

Suddenly, however, a new British settlement sprang New British 
up, in spite of Dutch intrigue. The little island of Singapore. 
Singapore had long been viewed by Raffles as a favour- 
able spot for the formation of a commercial settlement. 
It lies off the head of the peninsula, at the south- Situation, 
eastern entrance of the straits, and is separated from the 
mainland by a narrow channel. An excellent harbour, 
in the direct trading route, six days' sail from China, a 
central position in a mercantile as well as a political 
point of view, promised many advantages. 3 The trans- 
action which included Singapore among our possessions 
forms one of the most important episodes of our history 
in the remoter parts of Asia. 

The island, elliptical in form, is about twenty-seven Shape. 
miles long at its greatest length, and fifteen at its Extent< 
greatest breadth, with an area of about 270 miles. 
Around it nearly fifty desert islets were included under Surround- 
its name, while the sea, within ten miles in every direc- lug group - 
tion, is comprehended within its political jurisdiction. 
Separated from the peninsula by a narrow strait, it is 
enclosed by a maze of isles, still wild and lonely, though 

1 Raffles, Memoirs, 2 Wilson, History of India, viii. 458. 

3 Wilson, India, viii. 



64 



THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



Produc- 
tions. 



Animals. 



overlooking one of the most crowded maritime high- 
Surface, ways in the East. The island has an undulating sur- 
face, generally less than 100, and nowhere more than 
200 feet above the level of the sea. The intervening 
flats are narrow, and rather swampy. 1 It produces no 
metal except iron, has only a few shallow streams, and 
was then covered with unbroken masses of forest. Its 
deep creeks, however, gave advantages for trade, and its 
timber for boat and house-building. A few living 
creatures, such as the delicate hornless deer, and the 
Indian roe, inhabited its little solitudes, while the duyong 
or mermaid haunts its shores and is frequently caught ; 
but none of the larger animals, commonly found in 
Asiatic islands of similar extent, are met with in Singa- 
pore. Birds, however, abound, though not those of 
prey, or of the gallinaceous species, but the whistling 
teal and others, remarkable for the brilliant tints of 
their plumage, swarm in flocks along its banks, and in 
its jungles. Snakes are numerous, though not many of 
a deadly nature, while reptiles abound. 

Climate. Singapore lies little more than eighty miles from the 

equator : its seasons are, therefore, monotonous ; rain 
abounds, especially in the last and the first months of 
the year, but is frequent at all times. The rainiest 
period is the coldest, while April and May, being most 
dry, are most sultry, the thermometer ranging from 7 1 
to 89. 

The town. A healthy site was chosen for the town, and the 
dwellings in the suburbs perched each on the summit 
of a hillock, and encircled by richly ornamented grounds, 
present an aspect the most picturesque. 2 The general 

1 See, for geology, Lieut.-Col. Low, Journ. Ind. Arch. i. 83. ; 
for conchology and malacology, the remarkable paper by William 
Traill, M. D. J. I. A. i. 225. 

8 MS. Notes of a Resident. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 65 

surface of the island, however, is naturally not fertile, 
and the whole is unfit for the growth of corn. Coffee Agricui. 
is cultivated, with cloves and nutmegs, besides pepper. 
Gambier thrives luxuriantly, yielding the terra ja- 
ponica, a profitable article of trade. Tropical fruits 
abound with materials of farinaceous food ; and the 
capacities of the island, improved by art, annually ex- 
hibit themselves more favourably to our contemplation. 

This place, commanding an important approach to 
the regions of the further East, was destined to be the 
emporium of British trade in that part of the Archipe- 
lago. When the design was formed of establishing a Founders of 
new settlement, Sir Stamford Baffles, and Colonel Far- Sin a P re - 
quhar both entitled to share the honour were com- 
missioned to choose a place. Rhio was at first proposed, 
but the Dutch occupied it themselves. The Carimon 
islands were next visited. They command the main 
avenues of the straits, are good in a military point of 
view, possess rich mines of tin and a soil of superior 
fertility, with great advantages in climate, shelter, and 
anchorage ; but they were rejected, and Johore the 
ancient city of the Malay empire, now fallen to ruins, 
was fortunately also passed by. Farquhar's attention 
was then directed to Singapore. The expedition touched 
there in February 1819, and negotiations were at once 
commenced. 1 

Nearly a hundred years previously, the king of Johore Cession of 
had granted the island to an English traveller, who at *' 
once appreciated its commercial value, but rejected it 
as useless to a private person. 2 

The English at first only agreed for permission to its occu- 
build a fort and factory, and to occupy a territory on patlon - 
the north shore, two miles in length, and as wide as a 

1 Crawfurd, Siam, ii. 401. 2 Hamilton, New Account. 

VOL. II. F 



66 



THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



Politics of 
Johore. 



Population 
of the 
island. 



cannon's range. The native chief retained his privileges 
as lord of the soil ; but these were found inconvenient, 
and a new arrangement was proposed. 

Singapore had belonged to Johore, a state whose 
consequence was now miserably decayed. The last 
prince died in 1810, when, no heir succeeding, his do- 
minions were dismembered by various chiefs. His first 
minister took Pahangan on the East, and held it as 
Rajah, while his chief judge took the western side, with 
the adjacent isles Singapore among them. Two bas- 
tard sons of the late Sultan, however, rose to contend 
for the ancient throne of Johore. The Dutch took part 
with one, the English with the other ; the English can- 
didate was successful, and from him and the chief judge 
the cession of Singapore was obtained. The sovereignty 
and fee simple of the island, as well as of all the seas, 
straits, and isles within ten miles of it, were purchased 
for 60,000 dollars, besides an annuity to the two chiefs 
of 24,000 dollars, to be paid during the whole of their 
lives. It was agreed also, that they should receive a 
donation of 35,000 dollars, whenever they desired to 
give up their pensioned residence within the British 
territories. The abolition of the slave trade, and the 
facilitating of lawful commerce, were particular objects 
of the treaty. 1 

The right of the Malay prince to transfer Singapore, 
though in reality indisputable, was disputed by the 
Dutch. While the negotiations proceeded, Sir Stamford 
Raffles occupied the island, which was then peopled by 
about 150 fishermen, who had built their rude huts 
on the skirts of this little insular wilderness. They 
were under the jurisdiction of an officer, entitled Tu- 
mangong, who held his office from the Sultan of Johore. 2 



Crawfurd, Stem, ii. 405. 



Newbold, Settlements. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 67 

Thirty of these settlers were Chinese, the rest Malays. 

In one year the population increased to nearly 5000, its rapid 

and that number was doubled by 1822. 1 Singapore increase - 

was the first port where, in modern times, the principles 

of free trade were carried into effect. 2 The British flag 

was hoisted, and placed under the protection of an 

armed force. It would have argued some temerity on Dutch 

the part of the governor of Batavia, to attempt wresting 

the island from its new possessors ; but he complained 

to the Bengal government, protested and declared that 

its occupation contravened a treaty between his nation 

and the Sultan of Lingin. That prince, he said, was 

lawful possessor of Singapore, and he had engaged never 

to alienate any portion of this territory to an European 

power without permission from the Dutch. 3 

The reply of the British government was prompt and Negotia- 
manly. They intended to resist, they said, the exclusive tlons * 
grasping spirit of the Dutch, to protect their commerce 
from jealousy and injustice, and they denied the right 
of Holland to demand the restitution of Singapore, 
which had never belonged to them, as well as to make 
vassals of native princes in the islands, whom the British 
government had treated as independent. They had 
assumed unlawfully the privilege of forcing those 
sovereigns into treaties which shut out English ships 
from their ports, and the British government therefore, 
though it had not yet sanctioned the occupation of 
Singapore, would not withdraw on account of a Dutch 
demand. 4 

Holland was naturally alarmed at this encroachment 
on the haughty licence she had assumed of giving laws 

1 Raffles, Memoirs. 2 Newbold, Settlements. 

3 See the able sketch of Lieut.-Col. Low, in Journ. of Ind. 
Arch. iv. 23. 

4 Wilson, History of India. 

F 2 



68 



THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



Dutch 
malignity. 



Their 



to the commerce of all insular Asia. She was now no 
longer exclusive ruler over those seas. The British 
flag was hoisted within the ruined ramparts of the 
ancient city of Singhapura, and there, amid the decaying 
relics of an empire founded six centuries before, Raffles 
established a new Malta in the East. Nothing remained 
to the Dutch but to revenge on him the injury he had 
inflicted on their monopoly. One anecdote may illus- 
trate the character of that spirit which would follow a 
great man into the most common occasions of his life, 
to wreak on him the revenge of exasperated malice. Sir 
Stamford and Lady Raffles, with an infant only four 
months old, were once exposed as well to weariness as 
privation, when, during a voyage to Bencoolen, their 
vessel struck on a reef. To lighten her all the water 
was thrown overboard, and the loss of that precious part 
of the cargo reduced the whole company, especially the 
woman, with her child, to an extremity of suffering. 
At Rhio there was a Dutch settlement a settlement 
of white men, professing to be civilised ; but when Sir 
Stamford applied to them for a little water, they said 
he was a spy, and refused to fill one barrel. For- 
tunately, an American ship shortly passed, and her 
captain, at great risk, stopped his course, and gave the 
assistance needed. 1 

No person connected with Raffles was afterwards 
allowed to enter Java without molestation ; but he 
was too generous to remember this persecution. When, 
some years later, the Dutch endeavoured to raise a 
loan of thirty lacs in Bengal, no capitalist would take it 
up, and on examination, it was found that the only 
name subscribed was that of Sir Stamford Raffles. * 

The Dutch were never in amity, either with other 



1 Raffles, Memoirs. 



* Ibid. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 69 

Europeans or with the native races. In Timor they quarrels in 
came into collision with the Portuguese ; in Celebes 
their subjects broke out in fiery insurrection l ; in Palem- in Sumatra; 
bang, the sultan continued to harass them by his hos- 
tile conduct ; in Banca a revolt took place which raged in Banca. 
for two years 2 ; while at Banjarmassin, though commis- 
sioners had been employed to construct new forts, and 
frame additional rules for the administration of affairs, 
the temper of the sultan rebelled against every plan to 
organise the resources of his state. While the Dutch 
functionaries were in his presence he yielded to their 
desires ; but no sooner were they gone than his inve- 
terate spirit resumed its influence, and like a Sindhian 
amir, he desolated the country to provide for his own 
hunting predilections. 3 

Up to this period, the Netherlands' Indian possessions 
were administered by three commissioners, charged t -.. ; 
from Prince William I. to resume authority in the 
islands. When the formal resumption had taken place, 
they sent deputations to the two principal courts of 
Java, announcing the events which had occurred. They New go- 
guaranteed adherence to the terms of all treaties those O f tne jje- 
powers might have concluded with the English, as long therlands' 
as they continued faithful and obedient to the govern- 
ment which now came to restore an influence long 
eclipsed by the tyranny of Napoleon. The commis- 
saries, when they had thus settled on general grounds 
the principles of the new administration, resigned their 
authority, on the 16th of June 1819, into the hands of 
Baron van der Capellen, Governor-general of the re- 
stored Netherlands' East Indies. 4 



' Moniteur, i. 84. 

2 Dr. Epps, Schilderungen. Jour. Ind. Ar, 

3 Capellen, Moniteur, i. 165. 4 Temminck, i. 113. 

F 3 



70 THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 

The acts of the commissioners, paraded in the 
forms of peace, and announced with all the professions 
of amity, bequeathed to Capellen the causes of many 
complications. The native sultans, considered by the 
English as independent, had been treated as tributaries 
by the Dutch. The one had required from them the 
observance of a friendly compact, as by an ally ; the 
other had exacted the allegiance and submission of 
viceroys. Nevertheless, amicable relations continued 
for a short period to exist. The Governor -general 
visited the native courts in 1819, and from the sul- 
tan at Surakarta, received every flattering expression 
of respect. Pakubowono II., however, even during 
the British reign, had evinced an unmitigated aversion 
to European control, not unnatural, as one whose an- 
cestors had filled the predominant throne of Java. 
Capeiien's Therefore, though he welcomed Capellen with every 
policy ' assurance of frank and cordial feeling, he speedily began 
to chafe under the yoke they had imposed upon him. 
He declared to his ministers that he still enjoyed the 
ancient prerogatives recognised by the Company in his 
predecessor, an announcement which, according t6 the 
usual meaning of Oriental phraseology, indicated an 
intention of recovering them. The Dutch were warned 
of this foreshadowed design, and hastened to secure 
themselves against its development ; but the sultan 
was already feeling the approach of death, which re- 
strained the pursuit of his ambitious views. l Probably, 
also, he comprehended the aspect of the times ; he 
knew the natui'e of that revolution, which throughout 
India, on both sides of the Ganges, had broken up the 
ancient monarchies, while the masters of Europe had 
acquirecf the dominion of Asia, In all parts of the 

1 Temminck, i. 119. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 71 

Archipelago Holland had succeeded to the sway of 
many powerful states ; and of the few independent 
sovereignties which still remained, none preserved, the 
limits of territory or the lustre of renown that made 
them eminent in former days. In Sumatra a con- 
spicuous example offered itself, glaring enough to force 
philosophy on an Asiatic prince. The sultan of Achin, Achin ; 
whose rule had been acknowledged by immense tracts 
of country, whose wealth and power had been cele- 
brated in all the further East, and whose favour had 
been solicited by remote and formidable states, now 
held a precarious authority over a restricted and im- u s fallen 
poverished dominion. He could no longer crowd the condltlon - 
straits with his fleets, or assail Malacca with barbarian 
legions innumerable. He no longer reigned over 
nearly half of the second island in the world ; his 
power had shrunken to its source, and a small tract 
in the north of Sumatra was all that acknowledged 
his rule. Long haughty to every European flag, he Relations 
was now compelled to accept aid from the English, English. 
to whom, indeed, his predecessors had always been 
more favourably inclined than to the Dutch or Por- 
tuguese. Established on his throne by their aid, he 
engaged in return to receive a British resident at Achin ; 
to allow free trade ; and form no treaties with other 
European powers, unless with the consent of the British 
government. There was a narrowness in this policy, Monopoly. 
inconsistent with the liberal spirit which had thrown 
Singapore open to the commerce of all the world ; but 
Holland, which had displayed the example, could not 
complain that her own teaching had been obeyed. l 
Nor was it, perhaps false policy; because the Dutch A.D. 1820. 
seldom made free conventions which did not annul any 

1 Wilson, History of India, 
v 4 



72 



THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



that previously existed with us, and the free trade of 
the settlement was not dependent on the good faith of 
any native prince. Already there, however, the ge- 
nerous system of Sir Stamford Raffles was commen- 
cing the display of fruits ; and the founder, confirmed 
in his achievement by the approval of the imperial 
authority, confided Singapore to the able administration 
of Colonel Farquhar, who was responsible to him for his 
proceedings. 1 The political proceedings of the Eng- 
lish at that period, however, were characterised by 
less wisdom ; for in attempting to force upon the people 
of Achin a king whom they had dethroned, and who 
had behaved contumeliously to the British government, 
a false and ineffectual course of action was entered 
upon. Happily, it was speedily arrested, and our inter- 
course closed with that ancient and famous kingdom, 
now dwindled to insignificance, and demoralised by 
alternate anarchy and oppression. 2 

In Java the Dutch enjoyed little intermission from 
the cares of threatened or actual war. In 1820, the 
sultan of Surakarta dying, the succession was secured 
to his eldest son, with the style of Pakubowono V., 
Ornament of the World, Leader of the Armies, Cha- 
ritable Servant of God, and Interpreter of the Faith. 
The deceased prince was fifty-four years of age, had 
reigned thirty-three years, had fifty-six children and 
146 grandchildren ; all of them nobles, and most of 
Politics of them intriguers. The Dutch, therefore, were per- 
petually engaged in observing and counteracting the 
machination of enemies at the native courts, as well 
as the plots of the disaffected in their own dominions, 
while they proceeded with tasks of administrative and 

1 Newbold, Settlements in Malacca. 

1 Lieut-Col. J. Low, J. Ind. Arch. iv. 20. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 73 

fiscal reform. The duties of the residents were ex- Adminis- 
tended and defined ; the police was more effectually j ava> 
organised ; the health of the island was improved by 
sanitary regulations, which, properly developed, might 
suffice to change the artificial climate engendered by 
stagnant swamps and decaying vegetation ; vaccination 
was recommended to the people ; bridges, canals, roads, 
and means of irrigation, were multiplied, and several 
liberal plans were conceived to conciliate the temper, as 
well as to improve the condition of the native race. 
Yet the old barbarism of the Netherlands' policy still 
presided over the Council of Batavia. Prohibitory Police laws, 
enactments supplied the place of corrective laws. The 
settlement of the Chinese in all the residencies had 
been subjected to restrictions ; but now, pretending 
that their location in the interior was a grievance to 
the native inhabitants, the Governor-general decreed 
that no more Chinese should proceed inland, without 
special authorisation. 1 Turbulent and truculent as the 
lower class emigrants of that race invariably are, it 
indicated a weak machinery of government to confine 
the limits of their settlement, in order to hold them in 
subjection ; but the instruments of rule were then 
confessedly inferior. An attempt was made to improve Politic 
them, by a very salutary regulation, that all persons enactments - 
aspiring to honourable appointments under the Dutch 
East Indian Council should possess a knowledge of the 
native language. 2 Continual troubles interrupted the 
attention of Capellen, and in this year an insurrection 
among the Bugis in Rhio aided in extending the 
long series of revolts which followed the restoration of 
Holland to her Asiatic colonies. 3 



1 Temminck, i. 120. 8 Ibid. 121. 

3 Moniteur, i. 84. 



74 



THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



A. D. 1821. 
Last strug- 
gle of Pa- 
lembang; 



and of 
Banca. 



bang, 



A.D. 1822. 
Other in- 
surrections. 



In succession to this was the last conflict with Palem- 
which reduced that ancient sultanate beneath 
the sway of the Dutch. They had frequently been in 
collision with its sovereign, who had once defeated a 
squadron under their flag ; but it was now resolved to 
dethrone him, replace him by a successor who would 
declare his allegiance to them, and end a conflict which 
threatened to be prolonged for ever. 1 The expedition 
succeeded with considerable eclat, Kolff first planting 
a standard in the breach ; the city was' captured, and 
the Dutch authority firmly established. 2 At the same 
time terms were effected with the revolted chief of 
Banca, and that island was restored to a short peace. 
Nevertheless, it continued to remain for years the scene 
of commotion ; and remains to this day, thinly peopled, 
poor, and uncivilised, with a small European commu- 
nity lounging away their lives in straw hats and white 
jackets, while the natural resources of the soil still wait 
for the industry which could develope them into trea- 
sures of mineral wealth. 3 In this year, the Rajah of 
Keddah, driven from his territories by an invasion of 
Siamese from Ligin, took refuge at Pinang. There he 
enjoyed an asylum ; but his claims to assistance, which 
were undeniable, (for he had suffered from granting us 
the cession of Pinang,) were not fairly acknowledged. 4 

Among the Padries of Sumatra, the Chinese on 
the west coast of Borneo, and in other parts of their 
dominions the Dutch continued to be harassed by 
insurrectionary outbreaks 6 , though by missions and 



1 Temminck, ii. 14. 
3 Epps, Schildernugen. 



2 Kolff, Voyage of the Dourga. 
Journ. Ind. Arch. 

I do not dwell on the politics of Keddau, because to explain 
them would require a fulness of details which would be tedious to 
the English reader. 
3 Moniteur, i. (5.) 84. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 75 

negotiations they endeavoured to secure themselves 
against the hostility of the disaffected especially at 
Matang and Sim pang, where their envoy announced 
every liberal purpose to the native princes. 1 But the 
main object of their solicitude was the fertile and 
wealthy island of Java, on which, as the crown of their 
Indian dominions, they concentrated their peculiar care. 
Previously, by the confession of their own writers, it Long ncg- 
had been neglected, amid the confusions of war and the lectof Java - 
schemes of further conquest. From that period date 
most of its public institutions for the social advance- 
ment of the people. Capellen's administration, indeed, 
was honourable to himself and beneficial to the Javanese, 
who still preserve with affection and respect the me- 
mory of his name. His administrative decrees displayed 
an aim of conciliating the Malays by friendliness, rather 
than coercing them by force. His financial scheme was 
liberal; and his whole conduct respectful towards the 
feelings, prejudices, and opinions of the susceptible 
population he was commissioned to rule. Native 
chiefs were confirmed in their privileges, and the 
plans of government were reconciled, to some extent, 
with the ancient and inveterate usages of the island. 
Yet a Nemesis appeared long to haunt the country 
which had witnessed so many disasters and so many 
crimes ; for the authority of the Dutch, though they 
sought to secure it by temperate laws, required con- 
tinually the support of arms. 2 In Sumatra they at 
length gained from the English all their settlements on 
the western coast. 3 But there also quietude was never 

1 Temminck, ii. 2 Ibid. i. 1 15. 

3 The rajah of Kalatan in the Peninsula, in 1822, offered the 
British all his country, if they would grant him half the revenues ; 
but they refused. A territory in Borneo also was now at their 
disposal, and Kaffles desired to occupy it ; but the establishment of 



76 



THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



Spread of 
Influence. 



A. D.I 823. 

Mission to 
Japan. 

Exertion in 
Borneo. 



Chinese in 
Borneo. 



enjoyed ; while in some provinces of Java armed bands 
of marauders scoured the country from village to village, 
with robbery and murder, until numbers of their chiefs 
were captured and executed. This happened especially 
in Cheribon, where the titular prince was induced to 
yield up his patrimonial domains in consideration of an 
annual pension to the amount of 18,000 florins. 1 

While their savans were, in 1823, engaged in a 
humble mission to Japan 2 , their factors on the coast 
of Borneo were laboriously occupied with schemes of 
commercial profit. They renewed the settlement at 
Pontiana on the western coast, and purchased a mono- 
poly of the diamond mines there, but the enterprise was 
less lucrative than they expected. When this was dis- 
covered, they sought to secure the mines worked by a 
Chinese colony, on lands contiguous to their own, and 
this not by treaty but by force of arms. Their troops, 
however, were defeated, not in open field indeed, but by 
the savage device of poisoned water. Another plan was 
then adopted. The Dutch applied to the sultan of 
Sambas for permission to settle in his territory. He 
sold them the privilege, and they immediately took 
advantage of it. Thus the Chinese were enclosed be- 
tween the territories of an enemy on each side, 
while open boats patrolled the sea, preventing them at 
once from leaving the neighbourhood or pursuing their 
trade. They held out many years against this piratical 
invasion of their rights ; but the phlegm of the Hol- 
landers at length overcame the obstinacy of the Chinese, 
who consented to trade only through Dutch ports. 
Whilst shut up, however, they had learned to subsist 
without commerce, so that little advantage was derived 



our influence there was reserved for Sir James Brooke. 
Journ. Ind. Arch. iv. 109. 

1 Temminck, i. 117. * Moniteur, i. 84. 



Low, 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 77 

from the new relations with them. Previously to the 
arrival of the Dutch, an extensive traffic had circulated 
between that coast and the rest of the Archipelago, 
Western India, Cochin China, Arabia, and the Celes- 
tial Empire. It now sunk into insignificance, and the False policy 
European establishments were maintained at a loss. ^ er ^ e set " 
Hitherto 3000 Chinese had annually arrived to settle 
there; but now the stream dwindled away, and for 
some time was wholly dried up. 1 So true is it that 
no people can be coerced into enterprise, or com- 
pelled to become profitable allies. Disappointed in 
their own attempt, they would permit no other nation 
to succeed ; and though not absolutely blockading the 
coast, exposed the private trader to so many insults 
and grievances, that for some years no English ship 
from Singapore visited the western coast of Borneo. 2 

Meanwhile in Java, amid the confusion of politics Threatened 
in the two dependent native states, the materials of i^javat" 4 
future disturbance rapidly accumulated. The machi- 
nations of princes stimulated by the intrigues of their 
ministers, embarrassments and losses caused by the 
revocation of privileges granted to several Chinese and 
European speculators, the confidence afforded to persons 
of foreign blood in Yugyacarta, and the general dis- 
armament of Java by expedition to Celebes (which 
drained away all its military resources), encouraged the 
designs of the disaffected. Complaints arose all over Causes of 
the island ; the number of malcontents increased ; the 
disruption of the finances bewildered the Governor-gene- 
ral ; a conscious conspiracy lurked in the hearts of the 
people, animated by recollections of former times when 
the provinces of Java were independent. Neither the 
sultan of Surakarta nor the sultan of Yugyacarta, 

1 Earl, Eastern Seas. 2 Ibid. 



78 THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 

possessed the confidence of the tribes or the Elders, so 
that every circumstance promoted the explosion of those 
ingredients which, ever since the fall of Mataram, had 
been compounding among the native states of Java. 
A strange power, foreign to the soil, to the manners, 
to the blood and religion of the island, was hourly en- 
croaching on its customs, faith, and institutions, as well 
not only on the estates, as on the very means of sub- 
sistence enjoyed in prescriptive right by the chiefs and 
other dignitaries, hitherto lords of the soil. To the 
great horde of malcontents, therefore, there needed only 
a leader ; for the heat of faction, and the frenzy of re- 
ligious zeal, were combined to exasperate the popu- 
lation. 1 Nor was Java the only theatre of approaching 
commotion ; a general storm of insurrection and war 
was blackening over the whole Archipelago. 
Wretched In the Moluccas, since the treaty of Tello, in 1668, 
MohfccL. C the Dutch had maintained their influence over the chiefs 
of states included in the federative compact ; and under 
the Company, too often abused that power. Industry 
had thus been injured, and the aborigines destroyed. 
Their operations indeed, were confessedly pursued on 
principles the most immoral. To strengthen their ascend- 
ancy over the island princes, they encouraged and pro- 
pagated jealousies and hatreds among them, which 
assisted that exterminating process celebrated as the 
Transac- work of Holland in that part of the Archipelago. In 
icbes in Celebes a similar plan was followed : the inveterate 
rivalry between Boni and Goa was fomented, until 
the consequences of the struggle recoiled on the pro- 
moters of it. The sovereign of Boni, like the Peishwa 
among the Mahrattas, claimed to be recognised as head 
of the Celebes' confederation ; and in all political trans- 

1 Temminck, i. 127. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 79 

actions, assumed a right to lead the negotiations in 
the names of the other princes. During several years 
his haughty conduct attracted little notice from the 
Dutch, until in 1823, the king died, and his sister, 
Arong Datu, was elected to the throne. Envoys then 
came, requesting their sanction to the choice of a 
monarch. Flattered by this token of homage, they 
imagined a return of the old days undisputed authority 
on their part, and on the part of the natives unqualified 
submission. 1 

Nevertheless, the government of Boni yielded none A. n. 1824. 
of its arrogant pretensions ; and when, in 1824, Capellen, 
visiting those seas, held audience at Goa, it sent an envoy 
refusing a treaty which he had dictated for its acceptance. 
The Dutch, indeed, displayed an assumption of imperial 
prerogative, to which the queen of Boni was naturally 
reluctant to submit. They offered fifteen days for the 
assent to be given ; they declared that Boni should no 
longer be tolerated in its haughty demeanour towards 
other states of the island ; demanded the restitution of 
some districts which had been encroached upon ; and 
required that the princes of Tanette and Soepa should 
be severely punished, for manifesting an inclination to 
league with the Bugis in their revolt against the Nether- 
lands' authority. 

During the British occupation of Celebes in 1814 Celebes, 
and 1815, Tanette and Soepa had been allies of Boni, 
and fought against the English, occupying three pro- 
vinces once belonging to the Dutch Company. When 
the Netherlands' restoration took place, the restitution 
of these territories had been demanded, but the demand 
under various pretences had been evaded. Adverse 
from plunging Celebes into war, they refrained from 

1 Temininck, iii. 23, 



80 THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 

enforcing the claim, until Capellen in 1824, before 
quitting the island ordered a squadron to force from 
Tanette a fulfilment of the terms to which by treaty 
it was engaged. A summons on one side, with a de- 
fiance on the other, was followed by a bombardment 
of the town. But the people saw no advantage in bury- 
ing themselves under the ruins of their houses, because 
Conquests their sovereign persisted in breaking faith. They con- 
n that is- sequently deposed him, elected his sister to the throne, 
and made their submission to the Dutch. The disputed 
country was then occupied, at little cost of time or 
blood. At Soepa, however, the expedition encountered 
a more formidable resistance. Twice repulsed, they 
were in return forced to become defenders of the position 
they had taken upon shore, for the Bugis swarmed in 
delight to the insurrectionary standard, and would gladly 
have obliterated the traces of European domination from 
the soil of their country. Reinforcements from Ma- 
kassar, however, saved the Dutch from destruction, 
though on all sides dangers appeared to grow, which 
threatened the very existence of their Asiatic do- 
The English minions. 1 And while they were struggling for the 
perpetuity of their influence, the English in Singapore 
were flourishing peacefully, in the promise of a thriving 
trade ; and had already, in the true national spirit, esta- 
blished a newspaper as the organ of the community. 2 
Yet this little offspring of the press, first shedding its 
Sibylline leaves in that remote island of Asia, suffered 
at first under censorship, the blighting influence of 
which continued, during four years, to stint its growth 
and sallow its complexion. 

1 Temminck, iii. 26. 2 Singapore Chronicle, 1823. 



in Singa- 
pore. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 81 



CHAPTER IV. 

year 1824 was rendered conspicuous in the history A.D. 1824. 
of the Indian Archipelago by the treaty then concluded 



between Great Britain and Holland. 1 The two countries, 
since the treaty of Vienna, had been separated by com- 
mercial jealousy, and mutual recrimination rendered a 
new settlement essential. The Dutch had persevered 
in numerous infractions of the engagement, which secured 
them the recovery of their possessions. The English 
were not satisfied with the equivocal situation of affairs. 
Much diplomatic negotiation had taken place, and at 
length, on 17th of March 1824, a new treaty was signed 
at London by Canning on the part of Great Britain, 
and Baron Fagel on the part of the Netherlands. 

The preamble of this convention set forth, that it Spirit of the 
was concluded from a desire to terminate the mutual treat> - 
differences and jealousies which had long interrupted 
the harmony of the two states. The treaty consisted 
of seventeen articles, and was expressed in distinct 
terms. The contracting powers engaged mutually, each 
to admit the subjects of the other to trade at all the 
ports in their Eastern possessions, whether in India, 
Ceylon, or the Archipelago, and neither to exact from the 
subjects and vessels of the other nation any duties at a 
rate more than double that which their own subjects and 
vessels paid. On Dutch articles, to which no duty was 
attached when imported or exported by the subjects 
or in the vessels of the nations to which the port be- 

1 Moniteur, i. 84. 
VOL. II. G 



82 THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 

longed, the charge on the subjects or vessels of the other 
was in no case to exceed six per cent. 

Both high contracting parties engaged that no treaty 
should in future be made with any native power in the 
Eastern seas, directly by stipulation, or indirectly by 
the imposition of unequal duties, excluding the trade 
of the other from any of its ports. All articles in 
former treaties tending to this effect were to be abro- 
gated from the date of this convention. It was under- 
stood that all the compacts existing between either and 
any native powers had been reciprocally made known, 
while it was agreed that all contracted in future should 
be mutually communicated without delay. Both en- 
gaged to permit and defend the freedom of trade in the 
Archipelago, to concur in their efforts for the repression 
of piracy, to grant no asylum to piratical vessels, and 
allow no captured ships or plundered merchandise to be 
sold in the ports of their respective possessions. 
' The Dutch secured themselves favourable stipulations 
in this treaty. They provided against the recurrence 
of an event like that of the occupation of Singapore, 
which was first effected by Raffles, and afterwards 
authorised by his government. It was agreed that the 
officers and agents of neither nation should form any 
new settlement in the Eastern seas, without previous 
authority from their respective governments in Europe. 
They also procured the exemption of the Molucca 
islands, especially Banda, Amboyna, and Ternate, from 
the operation of the first three articles, securing liberty 
of trade, until Holland should think fit to abandon the 
monopoly of spices, though consenting that if any other 
than a native Asiatic power were ever admitted to carry 
on commercial intercourse with that group, the subjects 
of Greaf Britain should be immediately received on a 
footing precisely similar. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 83 

The Netherlands ceded to Great Britain all their 
establishments, with the attendant privileges and exemp- 
tions on the continent of India. In return they re- 
ceived Fort Marlborough, and all the English pos- 
sessions in Sumatra, with an agreement that no British 
settlement should be formed, and no treaty concluded 
with any native prince, chief, or state in that island. 
Malacca, with its dependencies, was obtained from the 
Dutch, who engaged to abstain in a similar manner 
from all political intercourse with the peninsula. Fur- 
ther, the British government withdrew its objection to 
the occupation of Biliton by the Dutch, and the Dutch 
to the occupation of Biliton by the English, while the 
English agreed " that no British establishment shall 
be made on the Carimon isles, or on the islands of Bat- 
tarn, Bintang, Lingin, or any of the other islands south 
of the straits of Singapore, nor any treaty concluded by 
British authority with the chiefs of those islands." 
Neither power, however, retained the right of trans- 
ferring the territories it had exchanged to any other 
government. In case of any of these possessions being 
abandoned by one, the right of occupying them im- 
mediately passed to the other. These, with the payment 
of 100,0007. sterling indemnity by the Dutch, for ac- 
counts and reclamations arising from the restoration of 
their power in the East Indies, and some unimportant 
provisions to secure the fulfilment of the engagements, 
constituted the stipulations of this famous treaty. Great Value of the 
Britain, undoubtedly, sacrificed large interests by her 
concessions to the Dutch, by yielding Sumatra entirely 
to their influence, while by rendering unlawful the alie- 
nation of the ceded territories to any other power, she 
bestowed a favour on them. Generosity of this kind 
involves injustice to our own trade, which has suffered 

G 2 



84 THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 

greatly under the provisions of that engagement. 1 
Thenceforward, however, there was at least a clear 
and unequivocal compact to refer to, when differences 
arose, though the diplomatists of Holland have not failed 
to misinterpret some of the articles in order to pursue 
their scheme of commercial and political supremacy in 
the Archipelago. 

The Moluccas especially were explicitly described in 
a subsequent note of the British to the Netherlands' 
plenipotentiaries. The term applied to the cluster of 
islands which has Celebes to the westward, New Guinea 
to the eastward, and Timor to the southward, these 
three islands, however, not being included in the ex- 
ception, nor would Ceram so have been included had 
it not been considered that its situation in reference 
to Amboyna and Banda required a prohibition of in- 
tercourse with it, so long as the monopoly of spices 
was maintained. 2 The Dutch were then engaged in 
consolidating their political authority in these isles 
which had been shaken by revolt. By a decree of the 
governor-general, the resident appointed from Batavia 
to Teruate had his jurisdiction extended from that 
island to Tidor, Halmahera or Gilolo, Batjan, Riow, and 
Mortal, on the north, to the Xulla isles, the Papu groups, 
Waidja, Salwatti, Mysol, a part of the eastern coast 
of Celebes to the south of Cape Walch, with the dis- 
tricts of Balante, Mondango, Takungku, and the isles of 
Taliabo, and Bongai. This civil and military func- 
tionary was responsible to the governor of Amboyna, 
who held his authority directly from the governor- 
general. 3 

In the meanwhile, though the Dutch were engaged 



1 Low, Journ. Ind. Arch. iv. 111. * March 17th, 1824. 

3 Temminck, iii. 31. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 85 

in laying the foundations for an amicable intercourse Dutch pro- 
with their rivals in the Archipelago, and for a peaceful j^** 
administration of their territories, the war in Celebes 
continued to require all their vigilance and vigour. At 
Soepa the Bugis met them hand to hand, crossed 
the Kriss and the Klewang, with the bayonet and 
the sword, and forced their assailants to retire. The 
squadron, which had been commissioned to carry the place 
by assault, was forced to adopt the expedient of a 
blockade, since on land the enemy grew more formidable 
every day. All the tribes to the north of Makassar, 
encouraged by these occurrences, rose in arms- Their 
martial spirit was excited by any prospect of defeating 
those Europeans who had stained the pride of that 
independence which Celebes had long enjoyed. Fear, 
however, furnished to the Dutch resources that which their 
deliberations had not been able to provide. With an 
authority shaken throughout the island, and new perils 
continually appearing to blacken the horizon of their 
fortunes, they swept Java of its military defences, 
launched a powerful squadron, filled it with troops, and 
carried war along the coasts of Celebes, as once their 
nation had done along the coasts of Malabar. Makassar 
was relieved, Soepa was stormed, the maritime provinces 
were occupied, and the enemy driven into the interior. 
Still the victory was barren. It procured a brief in- 
terval of tranquillity, but the cause of the danger was 
not destroyed, and before it could effectually com- 
plete its task, the invading force was summoned to 
rescue from utter ruin the dominion of Holland in 
Java. 1 A ship was at the same time despatched to take 
formal possession of the Karimata isles 2 , and an ex- 
pedition under Major Miiller was sent to explore the A. D. 1 825. 

1 Kolff', Voyage of the Dourga. 2 Temminck. 

G 3 



86 



THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



Mercantile 
enterprize 
of the 
Dutch. 



Koti river on the eastern coast of Borneo. It met, 
however, with a disastrous fate. The savage tribes of 
the border attacked the party, and only a few Javanese 
escaped. 1 

Nevertheless, in their anxiety to extend the in- 
fluence which in the heart of their own possessions 
they saw decaying, the Dutch searched everywhere for 
new fields of political operation. During the flourish- 
ing period of the old East India Company, the islands 
between Timor and New Guinea had been explored, 
and taken possession of in the name of the States- 
General. Factories and forts had been erected on 
them to store spices, and to defend the seas of the 
neighbouring Archipelago, which to Holland was the 
richest prize of discovery. They had long, however, 
been neglected, and at length abandoned. Notwith- 
standing, when the English were in possession of the Mo- 
luccas, and when Holland as an independent state had 
ceased to exist, her flag in Japan continued flying, and 
in these islands her influence was acknowledged, 
expedition. Their simple population knew nothing of the political 
dramas then exciting Europe, and never forgot to respect 
the authority which had once been paramount over 
them. Lieutenant Kolff was now instructed to pro- 
ceed into those seas, and search for the remains of 
forts in the isles of Arru, Tenimber and Serwatty 2 , to 
establish friendly relations with the people and invite 
them to traffic. At Kissa the natives received them 
well, showed them the old buildings of the Company 
unimpaired, and faithfully preserved and acknowledged 
the supremacy of the Netherlands' government. Their 
chiefs were presented with wands of office, and the 

1 Earl, Eastern Seas, 

8 Probably, says Mr. Earl, a corruption of the Dutch Zuid 
Westr, or south-western. Kolff. 



KolfTs 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 87 

same process was repeated throughout that interesting 
family of islands. 

The groups known as the islands of the Arafura The Ara- 
sea consist of the Tenimber, the Ki and the Arru furalsles - 
groups, with others of inferior significance. They 
are scattered over a considerable space of sea, and vary 
in size from seventy miles in length to mere tufts 
of verdure floating on the sea, like baskets of grass and 
flowers, crowned by tall clumps of palm, and dispersing 
through the atmosphere a fragrance like that of the 
cinnamon gardens in Ceylon. 

The Serwatty isles 1 consist of Wetta, Kissa, Lette, The Ser ~ 
Moa, Roma, Nusa, Midka, Damma, Lakor, Luan, 
Baba, Semata, Zeon, and Nila, with others, too many 
and too small to particularise. They are situated a 
little to the south-west of Timor, directly north of Cain- 
bridge Gulf in New Holland. Clusters of hillocks co- 
vered with green rise in harmonious arrangement amid 
cultivated fields, where neat wood-built villages are 
sprinkled at intervals among groves of trees and crops 
of rice and maize. Beautiful little edifices have been Description 
built on them, which are regularly attended by con- rn S " 
gregations of men, women and children, dressed partly 
in old European fashions, partly in their ancient cos- 
tume, but in pious simplicity, accepting the interpreta- 
tion of the Christian faith. School-houses and other 
structures diversify the aspect of the hamlets. All the 
buildings are neat; all the people are industrious. 
Every dwelling has its garden, tastefully laid out with 
beds of Indian corn, tobacco, cabbages, and other pro- 
ductions shaded by lines of trees. In the fat pastures 
of the vallies herds of cattle graze, and the whole face 

1 See a beautiful sketch by George Windsor Earl. Journ. Ind. 
Arch. iv. 172. 

G 4 



88 



THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



Account of 
Dam ma. 



of the groups is happy, primitive, and picturesque. In 
Roma is a beautiful village, seated below a crescent 
curve of hills glowing to the peak with red and golden 
tints from a thousand uncultivated flowers, which 
spring up amid the grass. On this feed flocks of goats 
and sheep, and other animals, while the eye ranges 
from coast to coast over plantations of rice and maize : 
clusters of fruit trees ornament the corners of the fields, 
and among their branches the bees hang their immense 
nests, which supply honey and wax in abundance to 
the pastoral inhabitants of the island. They trade in 
boats of various dimensions, exchanging their produce 
one with another, or bartering it with the Dutch for 
clothes and other commodities. 

In Damma, however, this picture of prosperity 
belongs to a former day. Jungles grow over its fields, 
Changes in once clothed with harvests of grain, Miserable assem- 
its aspect, blages of huts contrast with the neat and bright vil- 
lages of Kissa, "Wetta, and Roma. Lakor, again, has 
the appearance of a huge coral bank raised about twenty 
feet above the sea, with a few patches of sand scat- 
tered over its surface, and an occasional bed of mould, 
affording sustenance to stunted clumps of the cocoa- 
palm, to yams, and to other humble roots, which con- 
tribute to the support of a scanty population. Some of 
the islands are uninhabited ; while others, like Nila, 
afford a home to a few poor heathens, who tend their 
hogs and fowls under the shade of its cocoa trees. These, 
at the changing of the monsoons, they barter for clothes 
and various descriptions of food, while some of them 
eke out their spare means of life by joining the pira- 
tical expeditions which have ever devastated these seas. 
The Tenimber group consists of many islands, in- 
habited by a curious race of people, half savage in 
manners, whose villages, built on limestone hills near 



Trade. 



The Tenim- 
ber Isles. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 89 

the shore, combine with the varying outlines of the 
surface, the fresh and green aspect of the interior 
slopes, and the blue water in the channels between, to 
present a graceful prospect to the navigator's eye, 
equal in brilliance, and in variety superior to those 
mingled enchantments of sea and land which fascinate 
a voyager in the -ZEgean. 

The Arru group is divided into the western and The AITU 
the eastern Wama, Wakan, and Maykor. In the group ' 
former are Christians and Mohammedans, while in the 
eastern, and subject to them, are heathen Arafuras. 

Viewed from the sea these islands are low, with small Aspect. 
green hills of smooth outline, displaying themselves 
behind clusters of limestone rock. The aborigines inhabitants, 
dwell in villages of ten or twelve houses each, ruled by 
an elder of the tribe. They are half barbarians, ad- 
dicted to industry, and slightly inclined to trade. 1 There 
is great harmony among them, as well as the promise of 
future civilisation. Art, as well as the humbler forms 
of mechanical application, has made some progress among 
them, for elaborate carvings and interesting though 
quaint devices of decoration in their houses, tombs, and 
public edifices, testify to an inventive and creative in- 
genuity. 2 The islands have always been much visited by 
native merchants for the trepang of twenty sorts 
the tortoiseshell, the edible birds' nests, and pearls which 
they afford. At Dobbo a mart is held, which congre- The mart of 
gates the traders of all the surrounding region. 3 The 
chief of this place bears the silver-headed wand of office, 
presented to him by the Dutch, who have several sub- 
stantial and richly stored warehouses on the spot of 
land where the annual mart is held. Dobbo is on the 

1 Kolff, Voyage of the Dourga. 

2 Stanley. Stokes, Discovery. 3 Kolff, Dourga. 



90 THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 

island of Braunna. The fair is continued during nine 
months in the year. Numerous sheds, thatched with 
atap, are scattered along the beach, intended to shelter 
the traders' vessels, which are drawn up beneath them, 
and thus defended from the sun. Early in the season 
a number of brigs from the port of Java repair to this 
spot of land, with paddakans from Celebes, and a crowd 
of smaller craft from the Ki islands. Having houses 
for the disposal of their merchandise, they plant cannon 
around them, and remain until the cargo is sold. As 
each vessel is lightened of its freight, it is despatched to 
the more remote groups in search of trepang, edible 
birds' nests, tortoiseshell, and mother of pearl ; for the 
Arru do not produce all these commodities, serving 
rather as a depot for them. Gradually *he resort grows 
thicker, and Bugis, Javanese, Malays, Chinamen, Papu- 
ans, Manilla people, and perhaps hordes of the wandering 
Biajus, are collected at Dobbo, armed and accoutred like 
warriors, but intent on peaceful trade. A great accu- 
mulation of property then takes place *, amid which, in 
proximity to the products of Indian industry, we may 
perceive the shawls of Paisley and Glasgow, the cottons 
and cloths of Manchester, and the hardware of our 
northern cities. 2 

ceram, The Ceram Laut, and Goram are other islands of 

Laut, and that sea, seldom visited by Europeans, but of a very 

Goram. . . _/ , r . ... 

interesting character. JLhe K.I appear like so many 
isolated mountains, thinly peopled, one of which is fa- 
mous for its potteries. At another are built prahus 
celebrated for their sailing qualities and strength among 
the mariners of Banda and Ceram. The people are 
mild and peaceful, though addicted to wrecking, when 

1 Earl, Trading Ports, Journ. Lid. Arch. iv. 492. 

2 Stanley. Stokes, Discovery. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 

a ship is stranded on their coast. 1 No influence was ever 
established by the English in that remote and beautiful 
Archipelago, and the Dutch, though they now claimed 
its sovereignty for their flag, failed to create in it any 
active or fructifying principles of civilisation. 

While they diligently pursued their enterprises there, 
the English once more became possessors of the oldest 
European settlement in the Archipelago. Their flag 

i i -HIT i-i n j of Malacca 

was hoisted at Malacca, which, like Singapore, was de- to the Eng- 
clared free to the commerce of the world. One excep- Ush - 
tion, through a diplomatic error, was left. , These 
ports not being included in the commercial treaty with 
America, signed in 1815, were closed against that na- 
tion, the former being then about to be delivered to 
the Dutch, the latter being not yet established. The American 
Americans, however, carried on a clandestine traffic, 
and in 1825 one of their traders was seized, that the 
provisions of international law might be asserted. 2 

With Malacca the English regained Naning, an inland Naning. 
territory in the Malay Peninsula 3 , in length about forty, 
and in breadth about ten miles, to the north of the old 
Portuguese capital. It is an undulating district, com- 
posed of jungly knolls and round valleys inhabited 
chiefly by Malays about 6000 in number. They its people. 
dwell in rudely built villages, and profess the Moham- 
medan religion, though they sacrifice the buffalo to 
Allah, in defiance of his prophet's law. Their country Gold Mines. 
has gold mines and many valuable productions ; but its 
resources have never yet been well developed. 4 It was 
offered to a native chief, but he refused the stipulations 
which the British government required to be fulfilled. 5 

1 Kolff, Voyage of the Dourga. 

2 Newbold, Settlements. 3 Ibid. i. 190. 

4 MS. Account of Naning. 

5 Newbold, i. 226. 



92 



THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



The Straits 
Settlement. 



Great war 
of Java. 



Summary 
of Javan 
politics. 



The settlements on the Peninsula then became a de- 
pendency of Bengal, though in the next year they re- 
lapsed under the Straits government. 1 

I shall now notice the great war in Java, describe 
its origin, and pass on to its conclusion, leaving other 
incidents occurring during that period to be spoken of 
afterwards. 

We have already seen, that at the end of the great 
conflict between Mangkubumi and Pakubowono, in 
1 745, the independent territories of Java the ancient 
monarchy of Mataram were divided into two states 
Surakarta and Yugyacarta. This partition relieved 
the island from a dreadful war, and seemed to create 
two equal and rival powers, whose mutual jealousies 
would secure the Dutch against their confederated hos- 
tility. Mangkubumi was elevated to the sultanate of 
Yagyacarta, dwelling in the city of that name, with 
the title and style of Hamangku Buwoni I., Who holds 
the Earth on his Knees, Chief of the Armies, Charitable 
Servant of the True Faith, Interpreter of Religion, and 
Minister of God. He reigned thirty-seven years, with- 
out engaging in any wars, or provoking his own sub- 
jects to rebellion. A prudent and honest man, with a 
cultivated mind, a vigorous understanding, and a cha- 
racter respected by the Javanese, he deserves to be 
included among the most illustrious princes the island 
had produced. An excessive vanity, however, blemished 
his nature, as well as an implacable hatred of a chief 
who had offended his pride. Nevertheless, under his 
rule Yugyacarta enjoyed a constant and increasing 
prosperity, and he continued to hold the most friendly 
intercourse with the Dutch. Indeed, after seventeen 
years from his accession, he proposed to contract with 



Newbold, i. 135. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 93 

them a loan of 5000 piastres, which he desired to lay 
out in purchasing cattle and implements to promote 
agriculture in his dominions. 

The Company, at his request, nominated as heir to 
the throne his legitimate son, eldest issue of his second 
wife, Adhipati Hunum Mangkunegoro. This prince 
dissimulated feelings very contrary to those of his 
father, but in a few years after his accession mani- 
fested them without much reserve. The policy of the 
state was changed, and the influence of the Company 
was considered as a yoke only to be borne until an op- 
portunity arrived for throwing it off. He succeeded in 
1792, at the age of forty- four. The society of his women 
and his slaves, the luxury and number of his palaces, 
and the extravagant profusion of his whole life, drained 
away the accumulated treasures of the kingdom, and 
new taxes were imposed. Many of these were oppres- 
sive and vexatious, and the people murmured audibly 
against them, so that the causes of rebellion were early 
engendered under his administration. 

Hostile as he was to the Company, however, he con- Remote on- 
eluded a new treaty with it, though never ceasing to ^ r the 
infringe the terms of his own authority by encroach- 
ments on territories and populations over which he 
had no claim to rule. On the other hand, the Dutch 
were eager to promote the growth of their own in- 
fluence in the island, and conceived the idea of a new 
distribution of lands between the sultan and the Su- 
sunan, but the fierce opposition encountered induced 
them to desist. If their design was aggressive, nothing 
could be more impolitic than their abandonment of it. 
Indeed, this imbecility of purpose, this retreat from its 
own enterprise, is enumerated by the historians of the 
Company as a symptom and precursor, if not one cause 
of its downfall. That downfall rapidly approached. A 



94 THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 

multiplication of circumstances in India, the rising 
storm of revolution in Europe, the state of its own 
finances, and the general paralysis of commerce, fore- 
shadowed and accelerated its ruin. As it travelled more 
swiftly down its long decline, the duties of power were 
neglected with more indifference than ever a sign of 
approaching dissolution, never deceptive. 

While Marshal Daendels, after the fall of the Com- 
pany in 1798, administered the Dutch East India pos- 
sessions, a new series of regulations with reference to 
intercourse with the native courts was framed ; but it 
was not until 1810 that the Sultan of Yugyacarta ac- 
corded his consent to the plan. Even then it was a 
doubtful assent, for the spirit of hostility had sprung 
up and deeply impregnated the councils of the state. 
Conspiracy. Meanwhile, in the kingdom of Bantam, a conspiracy 
Outrage on was formed against the Dutch ; some of their officers 
and soldiers were murdered, and the sultan was, in 
retaliation, attacked in his palace. The palace was 
captured ; the sultan, with his family, was transported 
to Amboyna ; his minister was shot, his treasures were 
taken as booty, and the territory annexed. 1 

This success inflating the pride of the Marshal, who, 
in other parts of the Archipelago, disgraced his nation 
as much as he aggrandised it in Java, stimulated him 
Causes of to new achievements. It was the custom for the 
Europeans to pay homage at the native courts in a 
manner which he considered humiliating, and which, 
indeed, was anomalous, when we consider the relative 
power of the sultans and the men who acted the cere- 
monial of obeisance. It was as though the East India 
Company should swear allegiance to the wretched prince 
of Hydrabad. Daendels therefore abolished the practice, 

1 Temminck, i. 146. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 95 

which contributed, no doubt, to fan the flame of hatred 
which had long burnt secretly in the breast of the 
sultan. That sovereign, ruled by the caprice of a 
beautiful wife, was carried along by the stream of 
intrigue which took its origin in his court. Schemes 
to determine the succession for the favourite of a party 
absorbed every mind, and, while factions conflicted, the 
duties of government were left in the hands of those 
who cared not to perform them. Curses arose from 
the people ; sullen and angry menaces passed from 
mouth to mouth; and while the promoters of the 
danger were idly and stupidly dreaming over their own 
conspiracies, the materials of a general combustion were 
accumulating in all the provinces of the kingdom. 

At this time the Susunan made an irruption within Anarchy of 
the frontiers of the sultan ; armed bands began to cross ava ' 
the boundaries ; the Dutch residences were threatened, 
and an army of 13,000 men were collected around the 
palace at Yugyacarta. Immediately an European force 
was prepared, a demonstration was made to intimidate 
the disaffected people, and the sultan was compelled to 
sign a new treaty, dated the 10th of September, 1810. 
It forced him to recall a discarded minister, and to 
exile three turbulent chiefs. Two of these were cap- 
tured by the Dutch, and transported to Makassar; 
but the third escaped with several of his partisans. 
He fled to the south coast, rallied great numbers to his 
flag, took the title of Susunan, declared himself at war 
with the sultan, but lost his life in an engagement with 
the Dutch. They, not satisfied with every concession Dutch in- 
of the sultan, deposed him, elected his eldest son to terp0blUon ' 
the throne, and dictated a new treaty to the wretched 
princes who now alone represented the native govern- 
ment of Java. Territories with half a million of in- 
habitants were thus acquired. 



96 THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 

The new Sultan, Hamangku Buwoni III., while 
Holland was incorporated by Napoleon in the immense 
map of the French empire, and while the English held 
possession of Java, submitted to the return of his father, 
under whom he reigned as prince regent. The old 
sovereign, however, no sooner recovered his power than 
he displayed himself in an hostile attitude to the Eng- 
lish, who attacked him in his palace, where he was 
captured sword in hand. The son was again enthroned, 
and the fallen monarch carried to Pinang. Hamangku 
Buwoni essayed to restore the former prosperity of the 
state. Agriculture was encouraged under him, but in 
1814 he died, and was succeeded by his son, the fourth 
of the name, then only thirteen years old. He was 
placed under tutorship until 1820, when he assumed 
the administration for himself. The country was then 
in peace, but the population, under an arbitrary yoke, 
found itself far less happy than the inhabitants of the 
maritime provinces, for the genius of European civilisa- 
tion, however defaced as it has been in some part of 
the Archipelago, was still preferable to the ignorant and 
rapacious tyranny of the native princes. 

Direct The circumstance, however, which kindled the great 

war was one of political economy. The plan of farming 
out lands on emphytiotic leases was introduced by the 
new prince, and the estates became so valuable that 
European and Chinese capitalists began to speculate in 
them. This system had many supporters, but many 
others condemned it as opposed to the general policy 
of the Dutch, who decided to resist its extension. 
They procured, therefore, from the two native princes 
a decree, dated the 6th of May, 1823, which declared 
null, from the 31st of January, 1824, all grants of 
leases, not authorised by them. This arbitrary pro- 
ceeding, contrary to good faith and honourable prin- 



cause of the 
war. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 97 

ciples, provoked a tempest of indignation, and when 
too late was in 1827 partially revised, while finally 
the original plan was allowed to be developed in full 
integrity. 

This decree was probably not the only cause of the 
revolt, but it was incontestably the principal. That the 
assent of the native princes was obtained to it is nothing : 
it is common for Oriental princes to accept a treaty 
which they never intend to fulfil. That the Court of 
Surakarta, equally concerned with that of Yugyacarta 
in the effects of the edict, refused to join the rebels, is 
also unimportant, because it simply proves that the Su- 
sunan was not sufficiently infuriated to join in a des- 
perate encounter with enemies whom he probably fore- 
saw would crush every opponent. That the storm was 
not allayed by the partial revocation of the law, is the 
least convincing of the arguments to show that a pro- 
hibition to farm land was not the main incitement to 
the war. When a nation is once provoked to rebellion it 
is seldom in the power of its oppressor to allay the hur- 
ricane by yielding the original point in dispute. 

While the ferment was rising which this decree pro- Agitation of 
duced, Hamangku Buwono IV. died, beloved, it is said, the 1: 
by his people, and respected by the Dutch. It was 
rumoured that he had been poisoned by his uncle 
Dhipo Negoro, whose hatred of him was notorious, and 
who was declared to have exclaimed amid the mourning 
assemblage kneeling round the body of the dead king, 
" Now God be praised, affairs will go well in Yugya- 
carta ! " 

This man however was, with three colleagues, nomi- 
nated as tutor to the new sultan, until his majority. 
He was also appointed to administer the royal revenues 
100,000 piastres but restrained from interfering in 

VOL. II. H 



98 



THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



the conduct of public affairs. These were entrusted to 
a minister controlled by the Dutch resident. 

When, however, the question of compensation to the 
farmers of land was brought before the Dutch and 
native authorities for settlement, disputes and jealousies 
arose, the intricacies of which would confound, without 
interesting the English reader. Little regard was had 
to the pride, to the prejudice, to the dignity or the 
rights of Dhipo Negoro, who, galled to the heart by an 

Conspiracy outrage confessedly gross 1 , plunged into a conspiracy 
f r rootm g out t ne Netherlands' power in Java. His 
name in the native language signified " The Torch of 
the Nation," his descent lineally from the ancient sove- 
reigns of Mataram inspired him with a confidence in 
fortune ; his hatred of the Europeans was aggravated 
by their treatment of him, and his ambition, aiming at 
the throne, saw no chance of attaining its object except 
through the bloody and dangerous paths of civil war. 
He was then forty-seven years of age, common in ap- 
pearance, but in force of character superior to most of 
the personages who had acted in the long drama of the 
Javanese revolution. By the aid of an intriguing 
priest, he animated the population in his cause ; by his 
chivalrous bearing and liberal engagements, he attracted 
the fiery chiefs, who burned with the aspiration of once 

Kindling of more possessing an independent country ; and by play- 

the rebel- j n g we jj U p 0n a disaffection already widely spread, he 
kindled one of the most sanguinary and formidable 
struggles that ever devastated Java. The revolt broke 
out in 1825 ; it soon took the aspect of a regular war ; 
the season closed in, leaving no advantage to either 

A. D. 1826. side, and when Capellen, in 1826, quitted his post, to 



Dhipo Ne- 



1 Temminek, i. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 99 

be succeeded by De Ghisignies, the whole of the inde- 
pendent state was divided into two camps. 

We shall not follow this war through its innumerable The war. 
and monotonous details. From province to province, 
from village to village, from house to house, the flames 
of insurrection spread ; battles took place, some favour- 
able, some adverse to the rebellious hordes ; but blood 
was poured out like water, and the accumulated fruits 
of a long and comparatively prosperous peace were 
scattered and wasted in the fury of a five years' war. 
At the end of 1826, some provinces were tranquillised, A - 
and the next year a more effectual plan of military 



operations was adopted. On every spot where the The 
Dutch obtained a success, they built a fort; they 
formed eight divisions of native auxiliaries ; they enfi- 
laded the principal roads and passes with artillery ; they 
strengthened their army, and vigorously pursued the 
campaign. Yet the time went on ; the natives, though 
defeated, offered no submission, and the year closed, 
having consumed 3000 European troops, while more 
than a thousand besides, were in the hospitals. It was A. D. 1828. 
not until 1830 that the gallant and unfortunate Dhipo 



Negoro, abandoned by his friends, pressed by his ene- tured. 

mies, hunted from mountain to mountain, and driven at 

length into a rocky desert in the south, was captured 

and transported as a prisoner to the fortress of Rotter- 

dam in Makassar. The war was then over. It had End of the 

cost more than 25,000,000 florins ; it had shed the 

blood of 15,000 combatants, more than half of whom 

were Europeans; and it remained to heal, if healed 

they could be, the wounds which it had inflicted. The 

Dutch were undisputed masters of Java, and a new 

governor-general, Van Den Bosch, was commissioned 

to the task. By a treaty dated the 27th of September, Pacification 

1830, the Susunan of Surakarta, and the sultan of Yu- 

H2 



100 



THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



Dutch ac- 
quisition. 



gyacarta, were confirmed in their respective dignities ; 
but their territorial rights were more distinctly defined, 
and the provinces of Pajang and Sukuwati, were given 
to the former prince, while all Mataram-and Gunong 
Kudel were conceded to the latter. 

The richest territories of their kingdoms however 
were appropriated by the Dutch, and very reasonably, 
to compensate them in some degree for the cost of the 
war. Their aggregate population amounted to about 
1,000,000, and they were distributed into the four 
residencies of Bagelan, Banjumas, Madion and Ke- 
diri, which have recently improved to a high extent, 
under the Netherlands administration. 1 It is a truth, 
honourable to the Dutch, and one to inspire them 
with legitimate pride, that during this long war none 
of their own subjects, even in the populous districts 
once most frequently disturbed by insurrectionary 
commotion, displayed any inclination to join the stand- 
Subsequent ard of Dhipo Negoro. 2 From that time, moreover, 
J ava nas enjoyed a tranquillity, which enabled the 
Dutch to consolidate many places by administrative 
liberality ; and the historian must turn with pleasure 
from the narrative of intrigue, atrocity, and aggression 
to the view of those more glorious conquests, which 
brought Holland an empire, and made her worthy of it 
founded in just laws, and presided over by the amenities 
of civilisation. 



1 Temminck, i. 191. Moniteur, i. 85. 
account of the campaign. 

2 Hogendorp, Java. 



Major Stuer wrote a full 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 101 



CHAPTER V. 

THOUGH the Javan war absorbed all the military A.D.I 825. 
resources of the Dutch, they spared sufficient energy 
to continue their political negotiations in other parts of 
the Archipelago. In 1823, they had made a new treaty 
with the sultan of Banjarmassim in Borneo. His au- Dutch in- 
thority was greatly circumscribed ; all criminal punish- Banjarmas- 
ments necessitating mutilation of the person were sira - 
abolished ; the revenues were more equitably collected, 
and the pepper plantations were placed under more 
provident and skilful management. Tarnuah was ceded 
to the Dutch by the sultan ; but that prince died be- 
fore he could fulfil all his engagements to them. There- 
fore when his son Adam succeeded him, another con- 
vention was signed, confirming the old stipulations, and 
designed to protect the people from the rapacity of the 
nobles. The whole defence of the country was con- 
fided to the Dutch, who provided effectually by these 
and other means for their own supremacy. l 

In 1826, they extended the theatre of their colonial A.D. 1826. 

,. , , . D ,, Settlement 

operations, taking possession ot the western part ot in New 
New Guinea, where a settlement was founded. Pro- Guinea, 
bably their progress in that huge and little known 
island would have been more considerable, but for 
events which then called their attention to the Moluccas. 
The Alfoeras of Ternate and Tidor were among the 
most gallant of the native troops, who fought in the 
bloody war against Dhipo Negoro. 2 In other islands 

1 Capellen. Moniteur, i. 166. 2 Temminck, iii. 127, 

ii 3 



102 



THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



Peace in 
Celebes. 



A. B. 1827. 
Revolt in 
Borneo. 
A. D. 1828. 

Agriculture 
of Java im- 
proved. 



A.D. 1829. 



the Dutch could tyrannise with facility over a timid 
and feeble race, but here the valour of the people, 
stimulated by a spirit of unquenchable pride, roused 
them to new revolt, and a formidable disaffection threat- 
ened the foreign possessors of their soil. 1 It was 
subdued, however, and the Dutch appear to have con- 
sented from that time to incline more to conciliation 
than to the barbarian rhetoric of the sword. A similar 
policy in Celebes produced a similar effect, for since 
the war with Boni in 1825, no conflict had broken 
out with the people 2 , and the inhabitants of the Dutch 
possessions live in comparative happiness under the 
Netherlands' flag. In Borneo, however, the incorrigible 
character of the Malay princes, incurably vicious as 
their governments are, enforced continual collisions, 
and in 1827 a sanguinary struggle took place with the 
sultan of Mataram, who in 1828 submitted to the 
supremacy of Holland. In that year also, though Java 
was blazing with war, the cultivation of coffee, indigo, 
tobacco, cotton, and other products was largely in- 
creased, and the culture of cochineal introduced into 
the European provinces. 3 Tea also was introduced 4 , 
a plant which thrives well there, and is of excellent 
flavour. 6 

The final settlement of Banca, which had long been 
vexed by the turbulence of its chiefs, was in this year 
effected. 6 

The British settlements during this period occupy 



1 In 1829 a new conspiracy was discovered in the Moluccas. 
Voyages dans les Moluques, 102. 

2 Temminck, iii. 27. * Moniteur. Chronologic, i. 85. 
4 Temminck. 

6 Some specimens have been imported into England. The Java 
tea I have tasted is exceedingly well flavoured. 
6 Epps, Joum. Ind. Arch. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 103 

little space in the narrative, because they filled, though 
an useful, not an illustrious part. Singapore flourished Progress of 
on its free trade, growing daily in wealth, population, 
and importance. 1 In 1829, Lord William Bentinck, 
the philanthropic and liberal Governor-General of 
India, visited the Straits settlements, and projected a 
plan for the reform of their administration. They were A. D. 1830. 
made subordinate to Bengal, and their finances were 
improved by the introduction of economical measures. 2 
It was long since the peace of the Archipelago had 
been disturbed by the British arms, unless when di- 
rected at irregular intervals against the piratical system. 
An insignificant war was now occasioned by a change A. D. issi. 
of financial policy at Malacca. Lying a little to the Events in 
north of that district is Naning, an inland terri- ling ' 
tory about forty miles in length, with an average 
breadth of ten. Its surface is undulating, now rising 
in piles of hills covered with jungle, and now sinking 
into valleys or flats overgrown with grassy swamps or 
paddi a wild, picturesque country, unhealthy at pre- 
sent, except in the neighbourhood of Tabo Town. 2 
This small district had been reduced by the Portu- 
guese soon after their conquest of Malacca, had passed 
from them to the Dutch, and from the Dutch to the 
English. And a considerable annual payment, with 
the right of appointing the chief, or confirming him on 
his accession, were the only recognition of a foreign au- 
thority. While this arrangement remained undisturbed 
tranquillity existed. In 1828, however, when a new 
plan of administration was established at Malacca, the 
Panghulu of Naning was required to accede to the 



1 See J. Balestier (Journ. Ind. Arch. ii. 139.) for the agriculture 
of the Straits settlements. 

2 Wilson, History of India. 3 Newbold, Malacca Settlements. 

ii 4 



104 



THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



Military ex- 
pedition in 

.Nailing, 



A. D. 1832. 
Success of 
the expe- 
dition. 



revenue regulations of the English province, of which 
his own was a dependency, to pay as tribute a tenth 
part of his produce, to accept a pecuniary compen- 
sation for the surrender of his claims, to allow a census 
of the people to be taken, and to submit criminals, 
charged with serious offences, to the supreme jurisdic- 
tion of Malacca. 

The tithe tribute, though once acknowledged to the 
Dutch, and the limitation of his power, were resisted 
by the governor of Naning. Confiding in the attach- 
ment of the people, who would follow him in a struggle 
with his foreign masters, he refused to obey, and de- 
clined to visit the British functionaries at the city. 
He plundered a district within the boundary of Ma- 
lacca belonging to a British subject, from whom he 
claimed tribute. He was consequently proclaimed a 
rebel, and a hundred and fifty Sipahis, under Captain 
Wyllie, entered his country. On the 16th of August, 
1831, they marched to a village near his residence at 
Tabo, but the people rose, and the detachment was 
forced to retreat. Malacca even was alarmed. Rein- 
forcements were despatched from Madras, and in 1832 a 
larger force was marched : this time it was successful. 
The Panghulu was forced to surrender, and allowed 
to live in Malacca on a pension, on giving security 
for good behaviour. Too much blood was undoubtedly 
spilled in this transaction. All that was obtained by war 
might, probably, have been obtained by treaty; but 
when a conflict was resolved upon, it should have been 
prosecuted on a grander scale. 1 However, the annexa- 
tion of Naning was politically advantageous to the 
English, and a social benefit to its own people. 2 A new 



1 Lieut.-Col. J. Low, Journ. Ind. Arch. iv. 369. 
* Wilson, India, ix. 331. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 105 

system of government was at once established, in place 
of the wretched Malay rule which had demoralised and 
impoverished a territory naturally productive, with 
inhabitants accessible to the higher influences of civili- 
sation. 1 The new plan was partly feudal, partly patriar- 
chal, fifteen chiefs being appointed under a British 
governor, to administer the domestic affairs of the pro- 
vince. 
Whatever the character of English policy in the *e* ' 

. . ! . i -i the strai ts 

btraits it was successful. Malacca, indeed, continued settlements. 
to decline, but because the island settlements prospered 
so well. In them all was promise for the future ; in 
many of the Dutch possessions all was a poor reflection 
of the past. In Java, the ancient cities, centres of 
commerce, had decayed from year to year. The sultan of Condition 

i i i n of Java - 

Bantam, not yet taught that submission only could now 
preserve him a relic of his former prerogative, en- 
gaged anew in insurrectionary movements ; and expi- 
ated the attempt by being seized, stripped of his titular 
dignity, and exiled to Surabaya. 2 His state, formerly 
one of the most important in Java, was now fallen to 
a level with the smallest residency on the coast. 3 In 
Madura at the same time, to contrast the treatment of 
faithful allies with that of an unfortunate rebel, the 
three princes were confirmed in the honours secured to 
them for their devoted allegiance to the old company, 
and appointed to the command of troops under the 
Netherlands flag. The Panambahan of Sumanap, who 
had rendered effectual assistance in the Boni war, was 
rewarded with the title of sultan, and a perpetual re- 
mission of his tribute. 4 

In 1833, the European communities in the Archi- A. D. 1833. 

, ., , * . . Rumours of 

pelago were excited by rumours or an approaching war wa r in Eu- 
rope. 

1 Newbold. 2 Temminck, i. 117. 

3 Earl, Eastern Seas. 4 Teminluck, i. 117. See also ii. 35. 



106 THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 

between Great Britain and the Netherlands. So far, 
indeed, did the intelligence appear to be confirmed, that 
many Dutch vessels crowded into the spacious and com- 
modious harbour of Surabaya, to be out of reach of the 
English cruizers shortly expected to appear in those 
seas. 1 Happily, however, better counsels prevailed in 
Europe. The disputes of the two governments were 
accommodated by negotiation, and the trade of the 
further East was uninterrupted. War at that period 
might have been peculiarly disastrous to the Dutch, 
engaged as they were in a sanguinary war with the 
Padris of Sumatra 2 ; but especially in checking the 
increasing fortunes of the British flag at Singapore, 
where already a population of 21,000 was established. 
Town of The fishing village had disappeared. A handsome town 

f If 1834 had ^en erected ; the Scant 7 tribe of half-clad bar- 
barians was succeeded by a prosperous and civilised 
community ; and the little flotilla of native barges had 
given place to a crowd of shipping English, Dutch, 
and Spanish, the mighty junks of China, the little rice 
boats of Rhio, and the Sampans of the Malays. 

Conscious that this flourishing settlement derived its 
prosperity from the freedom of trade, the Dutch en- 
deavoured at Rhio to emulate the liberal policy of the 
Free Trade English. They declared it an open port; but their 
at Rhio. experiment resulted in very equivocal success. Fleet 
after fleet of native boats passed by under a heavy 
press of sail, bound for Singapore, which is forty miles 
distant. There were few merchants there, an expensive 
establishment, and very little trade ; for the memory of 
the old system remained to stint their commercial nego- 
tiations. At Singapore, on the other hand, success 
attended the projects of the mercantile speculators 

1 Earl, Eastern Seas. 2 Temminck, ii. 14. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 107 

unless, indeed, when resisted by the jealousy of Hol- 
land. In 1834, intelligence arrived that the Chinese Chinese in 
colony on the western coast of Borneo desired com- 
mercial intercourse with the British factors. It was 
determined to send an expedition to open it up. The 
well-informed traveller and able writer, Mr. George 
Windsor Earl, was placed in command, and he sailed 
with a freight for the colony lying between Pontiana 
and Sambas, where the Dutch had establishments. He 
failed, however, to create the basis of any new trade, 
not from the disposition of the Chinese, not from a 
want of resources in the country, not from any in- 
feriority of vigour and capacity in himself, but through 
the machinations of the Dutch. 1 

The year 1835 is distinguished in the history of A - D - 1835 - 
. '. i.ii The " sln - 

bingapore, as that in which the Free Press was esta- gapore Free 

blished. It is among the ablest and most influential Press> " 
journals in the East, conducted with remarkable vigour, 
and animated always by the spirit of genuine liberality. 
It has made, indeed, an European reputation among 
all, I mean, who turn their attention to the politics, 
commerce, or social progress of the British settlements 
in that remote quarter of the world. 

Singapore and Malacca were now formally opened, A.D.I 836. 
under due restrictions, to the American trade. Trade. *' 

In this year a circumstance occurred, which requires Transac- 
a succinct notice of the relations between the British 1 

government and the king of Keddah ; a flat and fertile 
country on the Peninsula, famous for its breed of turtle- 
doves delicious food for the epicure. 2 When that 
prince ceded Pinang to us, he represented himself as 
independent, and as such was treated by the English. 
The king of Siam, however, afterwards declared that 

i Earl, Eastern Seas. 2 Sonnerat, ii. 177. 



108 THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 

Kcddah was his dependency, and to punish its sovereign 
for many acts of the authority which he had assumed 
the cession, among the rest, of Pinang, invaded his terri- 
tory and drove him from his throne. He fled to our 
settlement, and took asylum under our flag, which ought 
clearly, not only to have protected him, but to have 
been raised in his cause to reinstate him on his throne. 1 
The Malay kings of Keddah were not subject to Siam, 
and the new prince set up was an usurper. Conse- 
quently, when in 1836 a Siamese fleet appeared in the 
straits to invade Keddah, the fugitive king, who made 
many vain efforts to regain his crown 2 , ought to have 
been assisted against this unprincipled enemy. Instead 
of this, however, the English referred to their engage- 
ments with Siam, as though their duty to the king of 
Keddah was not equally imperative 3 , and, to prevent 
that prince from asserting his claim, seized him, and 
forced him to live on a pension at Singapore. (1832.) 

Insignificant as these episodes are in the general 
body of history, they, nevertheless, possesss an im- 
portance of their own. One little incident may supply 
the commentary to a great transaction. They who 
break faith with others, can scarcely appeal to the prin- 
ciples of national law, when they desire to redress 
Bad faith of themselves. The English behaved with little honour 
the English. to the f ug i t i ve prince of Keddah : they could, there- 
fore, with less confidence declare against the delin- 
quencies of the Dutch. Those delinquencies, however, 
systematically repeated since the treaty of 1824, in- 
volved the interests of the whole commercial body 
engaged in trade between the British possessions and 



1 Bedford, Description of the Tin Countries. Unpublished MS. 

z Newbold, Settlements. 

3 Bedford, Description of the Tin Countries. Unpublished MS. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 109 

the ports of insular Asia. Continued infractions of the 

treaty at length attracted notice in Parliament at home. 

A petition was presented in June 1836, and in August 

a discussion arose upon the subject. Lord Palmerston Forbearance 

avowed his conviction, that the Dutch government had s 1 



for a long series of years grossly violated a solemn com- Lord Pai- 
pact, though they were then evincing a disposition to opinion. 
amend their policy. Mr. Hume, however, blamed the Belligerent 
ministers for refusing to adopt a more hostile and ^ e< ^ ^ 
threatening demeanour, exclaiming that America would Hume. 
long before have made war on Holland for her flagrant 
abuse of faith. 1 

Among other acts committed by the Dutch was the Du t c . h pro- 
prohibition of British goods being brought into the 
native ports on the western coast of Borneo. The 
nakodahs, or masters of all prahus having such mer- 
chandise on board, lost them, and frequently paid a fine, 
four times the value of their freight. 2 Regulations also 
were enacted, prohibiting the importation from Singa- 
pore of any cotton or woollens of British manufacture 
at Palembang, Minto, Makassar, or any Dutch outport 
except through Batavia, or some other Javan port, 
where they suffered under an ad valorem duty of thirty- 
five per cent. 3 In Holland, indeed, there was an ap- 
peal against these charges, or rather a vindication of 
the measures blamed. The statement however was 
equally discreditable with the policy it defended, and 
displayed no justification of the arrogant and illiberal 
pretensions of the Netherlands government. 4 The di- 
plomatic war, nevertheless, ended in a concession to 
Holland of the privilege to strain her monopoly to the 

1 Singapore Chronicle, Jan. 14th, 1837. See Hansard. 

2 Ibid. 3 Free Press, Feb. 16th, 1836. 

4 Appel de la Hollande a la Justice et la Raison de Grande 
Bretagne. La Haye, 1836. 



110 THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 

detriment of British commerce ; for though some relax- 
ations of the restrictive laws were for a while obtained, 
the whole negotiation ended in unfruitful protests, 
from which little lasting benefit was derived by the 
commerce of Great Britain. 

A. . 1837. To conclude this notice of the historical occurrences 
in the Archipelago between 1816 and 1838, I may 
state that the Dutch continued in Sumatra their war 
against the Padri population, who were not subdued 
The Spanish until 1840 *; and that the Spanish possessions in the 
possessions. Philippines were during that period generally tranquil 
and comparatively prosperous. The sudden rise of their 
finances in 1837, indeed, displayed an improvement in 
the condition of the people, and the system of rule, 
very creditable to the representatives of Spain in that 
quarter of the world. 2 The next period in the history 
is that in which Sir James Brooke plays the most pro- 
minent part, and this I propose to introduce after a 
description of the piratical system so characteristic of 
the Archipelago. It is a subject long neglected, and 
imperfectly known ; but sufficient accounts are scattered 
in various depositories, to enable us to offer at least an 
interesting and useful view. 

1 Temminck, ii. 37. s Calcutta Courier, Feb. 1. 1837. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. Ill 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE PIRATES OP THE ARCHIPELAGO. 

" Piracy is just as common, and as openly pursued, in the 
Malay seas, as robbery in the deserts of Arabia." Edinburgh 
Review, xxix. 50. 



To trace in detail the progress of the piratical system The pirati- 
in the Archipelago, to illustrate all its characteristics, c ll systera> 
and to describe the influence it has exercised upon the 
native races, would occupy more space than the whole 
of this narrative fills. Ancient, extended, and various 
in its forms, it affords the materials of a very remark- 
able history ; but I can now attempt no more than a 
general view. This may serve to exhibit the basis 
upon which the recent operations have been conducted ; 
for it is only necessary to show the character and influ- 
ence of the piratical system, to prove that the interests 
of humanity require its total extirpation. 

Since the Indian Archipelago was discovered, piracy its anti- 
has been the scourge of all its peaceful and industrious q 
populations, a corrupting influence over the whole 
Malayan race. 1 When the early voyager navigated its 
close seas and narrow channels, where only the rude 
prahu, or the junk of China, carried on traffic among 
the islands, fierce and savage marauders made their way 
from coast to coast, pillaging the hamlets, and carrying 

1 Raffles, Memoirs, \. 91. 



112 



THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



Inveterate 
character of 
the evil. 



Freebooting 
princes. 



Early ac- 
counts of 
piracy. 



The Mo- 
lucca buc- 
caneers. 



off their inhabitants as slaves. 1 Now, when the re- 
sources, politics, and civilisation of the Archipelago have 
become objects of European inquiry, the same curse still 
attends the industry and trade of that wealthy, but long 
neglected region. In the antiquity of its annals, we 
find piracy openly carried on by the princes whose 
descendants now secretly encourage or tolerate it 
whether through feebleness or bad faith ; for it is 
certain that few, if any of them, have ever energetically 
applied their care to its extirpation. In a history of 
the Malayan empire previous to the arrival of the Por- 
tuguese, we learn that before the end of the fifteenth 
century," the coasts of Malacca were harassed by the 
freebooters from the Sea of Celebes ; and that from the 
leaders of those marauding bands have sprung many 
dynasties of Indian kings. 2 The piratical character of 
many communities in Celebes has long been known 3 ; 
indeed, among the most barbarous in the Archipe- 
lago are the Tobellorais, seated in the Bay of Tolo, 
and dispersed over the islets of the Molucca group. 4 

In the middle of the seventeenth century, these 
pirates of the Moluccas were celebrated for their depre- 
dations. 5 The Malay colonists also, on various shores, 
already flourished on the accumulated fruits of rapine 
and murder, while beyond the limits of the Archipe- 
lago the head-hunting buccaneers of Formosa offered a 
parallel to the Dyaks, notorious in a later day. 6 The 



1 It is just, however, to remember that among the earliest acts 
of Englishmen in those seas was firing upon a flotilla of canoes, 
merely because the poor savages haunted the ships and clamoured 
for barter. Hakluyt, iv. 333. 

1 Tidschrift. Groot, Moniteur, i. 159. 

3 Dampier, Voyages, i. 456. 4 Groot, Moniteur, i. 160. 

5 Heylyn, Cosmography, 919, 920. 

6 Candidius, Voyage. Churchill, i. 406. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 113 

Malays, indeed, as a race, are celebrated as piratical. Piratical 
Their treachery was in former times so proverbial, that 
the owners of European vessels forbade their employ- 
ment as sailors, lest they should massacre the company 
and turn freebooters. European vessels of considerable 
tonnage were, in the early ages of intercourse with the 
Archipelago, frequently surprised and captured. 1 In 
other parts of that ocean, where the prodigality of the 
soil invited the cares of its inhabitants, all cultivation 
was prevented by the continual ravages of the bucca- 
neering hordes. 2 

The freebooting communities of the Archipelago, classes of 
though all included under one general description, belong P irates - 
to several different classes. The haughty and rich ma- The power- 
rauders, with princes as their chiefs, large islands as ful tnbes ' 
their possessions, cities as their places of resort, and 
whole countries as the objects of their plunder, resem- 
ble rather the Algerines of the sixteenth century, than 
the petty tribes of robbers dwelling close in their neigh- 
bourhood. The inclination to plunder and massacre 
has, among the Arab sheikhs and seids, been fostered as 
a merit. 3 From the powerful piratical state equipping 
great fleets for an uninterrupted cruise of years, to 
ravage coasts, burn towns, and infest the highways of 
maritime traffic, down to the wretched thief stealing forth p e tt y prow- 
at night in a canoe, to take the head of some unguarded krs - 
fisher, descends in gradation a series of buccaneers 
all alike however, lawless, incorrigible, and the enemies 
of civilisation as well as trade. The map of the Archi- 
pelago shows that region to be peculiarly favourable to 
the adventures of pirates. The clustering islands, lying Facilities in 
in the great route between Europe and the remoter the Arcbi " 



1 Le Poivre, Voyages d'un Philosophe, 67. 78. 

2 Pennant, View, iv. 72. 3 Raffles, Memoirs, i. 94. 
VOL. II. I 



114 THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 

peiago for shores of Asia, afford innumerable retreats indented 
coasts, estuaries, deep creeks, navigable rivers, narrow 
tortuous channels, with every facility for concealment 
or escape. With such advantages the Moors would 
have rendered the whole sea impassable, as indeed 
many of its passages have been rendered by the Malays. 
General de- The pirates themselves belong naturally to the more 
scnption of j n( ] o l en t and nomadic classes of the island population 
not the agricultural tribes of Java or Sumatra, or the 
traders of Celebes ; but the genuine Malays scattered 
through the little groups, from the Dingding to the Kar- 
rimata, the coast communities of the northern isles, and 
the subjects of half-bred Arabian chiefs, who bring to 
this part of the world only the roving and plundering 
predilections, with little of the chivalry or virtue, of the 
original desert-dwelling race. 1 These attract into the 
number of their followers the Malays, as naturally ad- 
dicted to roam the seas in their prahus, as the Tatars 
to wander with their flocks and tents. As it is impos- 
sible to crib the Bedouin in a village, so is it to restrain 
the coast-people from fishing, trade, piracy, or some 
other wandering and uncertain occupation the most 
exciting, the most agreeable to them. 2 

Circum- In the physical character of the region, therefore, and 

stances fa- j ^ moral and social character of its inhabitants 3 , 

vourable to 

piracy. we discover circumstances which promoted the pira- 
tical system, until it became, at one period, the ruling 
influence of the Archipelago. Among these has been 
the multiplication of petty chiefs, without dominions to 
rule, who have led their followers to collect, not tribute, 
but booty, from the feebler population. 4 The distribu- 

1 Singapore Chronicle, No. V. Mr. Crawfurd's, it is said. 
Journ. of Ind. Arch. iv. 45. 

2 Tidschrift, i. ii. 3 Lacepcde, Ages de la Nature, i. 241. 
4 Montesquieu, Esprit des Loix, xxx. 12. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 115 

tion of its haunts is remarkably extensive. From the Ancient 
most northerly point of Luconia, to the southern shores piracy. 
of Timor ; from the Arru group to the Bay of Bengal, 
it has been discovered, though the introduction of Eu- 
ropean power has contracted its range within a narrower 
circle ; Magindanao, the Moluccas, the south-eastern 
isles, Celebes, Borneo, Biliton, Banka, Sumatra, the 
islands along the coast of Java, with the innumerable 
groups spread along the Straits of Malacca, and the 
shores of the Malay Peninsula, have afforded refuge to 
hordes whose fleets make annual havoc on the native 
commerce a terrible scourge, only not fatal to all en- 
terprise and all industry throughout this vast and 
wealthy Archipelago. 1 Long renowned, they were 
long permitted to exercise undisturbed, their destruc- 
tive energies. No law but that of power has reigned 
among them ; and every encouragement the love of 
war, the thirst of gain, the desire for authority, the in- 
clination to enjoy life without servile labour has 
tempted them in the pursuit of their vocation, as in all 
times and all parts of the world, we invariably find was 
true. Honourable in the heroic ages, piracy has ever 
since been regarded as a flagrant crime an infringe- 
ment of the general compact among nations, though the 
practice, covered under a false name, has frequently 
been carried on by states aspiring to the dignity of civi- 
lisation. However this may have been, certain it is, Law of na- 



that the laws of Europe esteem the suppression of piracy ^ " 8 
as an object honourable for all to pursue, whether we 
accept the authority of the ancient political moralist 2 ; 
or that of the early Christian Theologian, who urged 
their punishment and destruction 3 ; or that of the Delft- 

1 " Ce terrible fleau," Temminck, ii. 240, 241. 

2 Isocrates, JDanathen, 460. 

3 St. Augustine, De Civitate Dei, i. 5. 

I '2 



116 



THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



Parallel 
with Euro- 
pean piracy. 



Lanuns of 
Maginda- 
nao ; 



their re- 
nown ; 



land theorist, who laid down that pirates were to be 
treated rather as beasts than as men, and to be hunted 
from all parts of the world. 1 

The piracy of the Indian Archipelago is a peculiar 
system, resembling little that of the Western states of 
Europe, but more that of antiquity. There were an- 
cient peoples, giving themselves up altogether to this 
vocation. 2 In the isles of the Ionian Sea dwelt com- 
munities, dividing their time between tillage, trade, and 
plunder 3 , brigandising one on the other and is- 
landers above all have been famous for being addicted 
to this pursuit. 4 The condition of the various states of 
the Archipelago, the freedom from restraint, the na- 
tural facilities of the region, encouraged the growth of 
the system, which became interwoven, as it were, with 
the social organisation of this part of Asia. 

The most formidable among the pirates of the Archi- 
pelago are the Lanuns of Magindauao 6 , or the " country 
around the lagoon," inhabited by the "people of the 
lake," 6 by the Spaniards called a Philippine though 
one of their own authors separates it from the group 7 , 
which, indeed, it is by many considered to join 8 , though 
once expressly excluded from the number. 9 The 
depredations of these islanders have made their name a 
word of terror to all the neighbouring races. 10 Their 



1 Grotius, De Jure Belli et Pacts, ii. 20 40. 

s Fluet, Histoire de Commerce, xvi. 

3 Azuni, de la Piraterie, 5. Hepworth Dixon (Life of Blake) 
gives a graphic picture of the depredations of pirates from 
Northern Africa. 

* Thucydides, i. 31. 

. s The natives of Mindanao are described by Dampier as a most 
hospitable race, 5. 358, ?59. 

6 Coombe, History. Forrest, 173. ' Ley, Recapitulada, 6. 

8 Dalrymple, Proofs, 28. 9 Hist. Gen. de VAsie, 909. 

10 Raffles, Memoirs, i. 63. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 117 

vessels are known on every coast, and innumerable 
anecdotes of their daring and atrocity have been pre- 
served. Familiar to the Spaniards in the Philippine 
group, under the appellation of Moors they form a 
distinct nation, dwelling round the shores of the great 
bay of Illanun, on the southern port of Magindanao 
an island of beautiful aspect, with graceful undulating 
hills, shaded with park-like groves, and alternating with 
brilliant green savannahs. 1 They have there built a their la- 
city where their sultan reigns, and in those waters even 
Europeans have at times been entertained with hos- 
pitality and faithfully protected. A hatred of continuous 
labour, however, and a love of luxury which their whole 
race evinces 2 , render them incorrigibly piratical. The NhmmT f 
bay is of immense extent, stretching out its arms as 
peninsulas, and is thickly wooded along its shores with 
mangroves. These run out, in most instances, six 
or nine feet into the water, and vessels of light 
draught may under them find adequate shelter and con- 
cealment. Divided from the bay by a narrow strip of 
swampy earth covered over in this manner, is a spacious 
lagoon, whence the community has taken its name the 
Pirates of the Lake. It is supposed that there a chief, Political re- 

T -i i 11 11 lations of 

sometimes pretending to independence, acknowleges alle- the pirates, 
giance to the sultan of Magindanao, who to exonerate 
himself from complicity in the freebooting transactions of 
the Lanuns feigns to absolve 1 hem from fealty to him. 3 
Notoriously, however, the relations of that prince with 
the piratical tribes of the lagoon, are of a very intimate 
character ; for he has frequently been made, not only 
the medium of communication with them, but the arbi- 

1 Dalrymple, Journ. of Ship " London," 5. 

2 Lacepede, i. 318. 

3 Belcher, Voyage of the Samarang, i. 263. 

I 3 



118 



Economy of 
tbe pirate 
city. 



Ingenious 
" escapes." 



Mode of 
flight. 



Adroitness 
of the pi- 
rates. 



THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 

ter between them and their victims, in transactions 
of ransom. They stand towards him, indeed, in the 
relation of feudal chiefs, holding the banks of the great 
lake, a tract of country lying southwards towards the 
hills, and all the shores of the bay. Many personages 
claiming the titles of sultan and rajah, rule tribes in the 
territory ; but they are all piratical. 1 

The economy of this pirate haunt is of the most 
singular description. Throughout the range of the 
vast bay there have been constructed a number of in- 
genious machines or tramways of timber, over which, 
in case of sudden and hot pursuit, a vessel may be 
hauled across the slip of land into the interior waters. 
Strong trees of an elastic wood are driven obliquely 
into the earth, and their upper ends are securely lashed 
to others of the same species still left to grow. Thus a 
V-shaped frame is constructed at an angle of 120. The 
end is carried into deep water with a gradual inclination, 
while the other leads towards the launching- place on 
the lake. Stripped of their bark, these trees are kept 
slippery, by the constant and spontaneous exudation of 
a mucilaginous liquid, which renders them still better 
adapted to the purpose they are designed to serve. A 
Lanun vessel hotly pressed makes for one of these 
escapes. The whole line of the bay being watched by 
sentinels ensconced in little houses amid the foliage of 
lofty trees, an alarm is given to the population on 
the lake. They immediately crowd to the point 
which their fugitive confederates are expected to make 
for; the bushes are pushed aside; an opening is cleared; 
and the Spanish or Dutch cruizers, unless accustomed 
to these incidents, are startled by seeing the chase 
press stem on, for the land ; lift herself by one simul- 



1 Forrest, 1'oyage, 174302. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 119 

taneous stroke of all the oars, upon the slippery way; 
fly through the grass, and disappear amid the foliage 
which closes behind her. A hundred ropes are, with 
amazing celerity, attached to her sides ; a host of 
men are in an instant yoked to her ; and she is with- 
out a pause dragged over the spit of land, and triumph- 
antly launched upon the interior waters. 

Should her pursuers venture near the shore, to inves- Their bat- 
tigate the secret of this mano3uvre, a storm of round tenes> 
and grape shot salutes them from the batteries of heavy 
brass guns, masked by this dangerous jungle. 

The vessels employed by those bold and ingenious Their ves- 
marauders in their enterprises of plunder, are formi- 
dable, not only to the superior craft of the natives, but 
to European trade. 1 Generally they are built very 
sharp, wide in the beam, and more than ninety feet in 
length long for the breadth, but broad for the depth 
of water. 2 A double tier of oars is worked by a hun- 
dred rowers usually slaves, who never fight unless Slaves - 
an extremity of danger presses, when every man is 
called to action. The fighting-men of the free and Fighting- 

, . i i men. 

dominant class amount to thirty or forty , though 
prahus of the largest size carry from fifty to eighty. 4 
For their use there is a raised deck, above a cabin The cabin -/ 
which occupies about three-fifths of the length and two- 
thirds of the beam. At the bow it is solidly built out 
to the whole width, and fortified with hard wooden 
baulks, capable of resisting a six-pounder shot. Here Guns. 
a very narrow embrasure admits of a gun varying in 
size from a six to a large twenty-four pounder, gene- 
rally of brass. In addition to this, the armament con- Swivels. 
sists of numerous lelahs or swivel pieces, of from one to 



1 Belcher, i. 265. 2 Forrest, 184. 

3 Belcher, i. 265. 4 Eysinga, Handbook 1841, 283. 

i 4 



120 



THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



Costume of 
the war- 
riors. 

Armour. 
Weapons. 



Signs of pi- 
racy. 



The prahus . 



their deco- 
rations. 



twenty-four pounds calibre, longer in proportion than 
rther cannon, and bell- mouthed. 1 The smaller sizes are 
habitually used in native prahus, mounted in solid up- 
rights secured about the bulwarks, and fought by the 
chiefs themselves. These, immediately on any pro- 
spect of battle, attire themselves in scarlet clothes 
a colour which distinguishes the Lanun pirates from the 
honest tribes of the Archipelago. They wear also 
armour of steel plate or ring chain, or shirts of mail. 
Personally, they are accoutred with the kriss and spear, 
in addition generally to a huge two-handed sword. 
They also carry muskets, and the vessel is supplied for 
close engagements with an abundance of wooden lances, 
hardened at the point by fire. 2 When Captain Belcher 
was attacked by them in 1844, he found on board large 
stores of arms and ammunition, many swivels, heavy 
brass guns too ponderous for an English gig to carry, 
and English muskets with the Tower mark. 3 These 
warlike munitions are invariably evidences of a piratical 
character, as well as the tight scarlet clothes, which are 
only worn by them ; for the peaceful traders attire 
themselves in dull-coloured clothes of native manu- 
facture. 4 

There is no fixed mast to the prahu ; but instead, a 
pair of sheers capable of being raised or lowered with 
great rapidity, and bearing an immense mainsail. The 
vessels are very swift and mano3uvred with remarkable 
skill. They have high stem and stern posts prettily 
ornamented with what at a distance show like long tufts 
of white feathers, but in reality are streamers of the 
bleached palmetto leaf; with small triangular flags, and 
a bright ensign flying from the mast. 



1 Belcher, i. 226. 265. 
1 Belcher, i. 143. 



1 Kolff, Rapport, 1828. 
4 Ibid. i. 136 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 121 

Another class of vessels built in this lagoon are the other ves- 
sel* 
lanongs, the largest in size, but the least formidable. 

They were formerly launched also in the Brune river, 

and from some building establishments in that vicinage. 

They usually carried two pieces of cannon forward, and 

some swivels ; were from sixty to ninety feet long, with 

two or three banks of oars. Unlike the more famous 

prahus of the Lanun, and like the koracoros of the 

Molucca group, they draw much water, and move 

slowly, whether propelled by the wind, or by the efforts 

of the rowers. They have rarely been seen to the south 

of Borneo, and are little known to mariners. Their Their use. 

general use is to hover about the river mouths in the 

southern parts of the Philippine group, and protect the 

residences of those chiefs who favoured their piratical 

habits. 1 Some of the Lanun boats are very slender 

fifty feet long, and no more than a yard in breadth, with 

wide outriggers lying over the water. In bad weather Moorings. 

they throw out a wooden anchor, and veer away a cable 

of twisted rattans, which keeps their head to the sea. 

Sometimes, when in extremity, the crew jump over- Navigation. 

board and swim, clinging to the outriggers for support, 

in order to ease the prahu. When their vessel is large Retreats. 

she is hidden among rocks, shoals, islands, or in the 

woods up some creek. Small canoes are then detached 

to pillage what they can, ashore and afloat, and bring 

it to the heavier boat, which goes home when laden with 

slaves and plunder. 2 

The Lanun fleets are under a peculiar constitution ; Constitu- 
the chief, usually a man of considerable rank, commands p^te fleets. 
the whole forces. Each boat has two captains, and gene- 
rally from five to fifty free men his relatives ; the rest 
are slaves, more or less under compulsion to pursue this 

1 Kolff, Rapport, 1831. Forrest, Voyage, 302. 



122 



THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



Divisions of 
booty. 



Laws of the 
pirates. 

Music in 
the boats. 



Pirate 
songs. 



Light gal- 
leys. 



Strength of 
the fleets. 



Places of 
conceal- 
ment 



mode of life. Captives, guns, money, and the finest 
description of silks and clothes, belong to the lordly 
class; the rest may be seized indiscriminately by the 
crew, who from this licence of pillage become attached 
to their service. 1 Particular laws govern the fleet upon 
its cruise, and a regular discipline is maintained. While 
at their labour, however, the rowers sing, and play on 
timbrels of brass, which operate, with a pleasing power, 
what no promise of reward or threat of punishment 
could enforce; and thus with song and oar the pirate 
galley moves under the hands of its crew who, led by 
one melodious voice, tune their strokes to the sound and 
find their toil relieved. The weariness of the barbarian 
slave is soothed by however rude a modulation; and 
so with ditties, resembling in harmony the plaintive 
Proven9al songs, and in character the Celeusma of the 
ancient sailors. Thus these hordes of freebooters travel 
through their Archipelago, conspiring, amid the sunny 
and tranquil waves, enterprises of murder and desolation 
against the inhabitants of the coasts around. 2 

The Lanuns, in the architecture of their fleets, have 
passed through several variations. Formerly they em- 
ployed light galleys, constructed of thin ribs and planks, 
easy in draught and manoeuvred with great facility. 
The few guns they then used were inefficient, because 
hung on slings ; but the blades of their large well 
tempered swords were dreaded, even by soldiers from 
the country of the Cid. They frequently assembled 
no fewer than 200 of these galleys, and navigated 
the whole neighbouring ocean in quest of plunder. 
When pressed by pursuit they either fled into rivers, 
or grounded their vessels in the creeks, deriding their 
enemies from the shelter of thickets and jungles. As 



Keppel t ii. 196. 



2 Forrest, Voyage, 303. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 123 

soon as the danger had withdrawn, they once more 
collected their flotilla and put to sea. 1 

The same tactics are still pursued, though superior Pirate tac- 
power inspires the Lanuns with more fearless audacity. tics> 
The trader or ship of war, coming upon the mouth of River 
some beautiful river, with clusters of white rocks form- 
ing gates to its approach, may discern a number of 
prahus drawn up under the trees, and groups of men 
around them, disguised in humble costume and repre- 
senting themselves by signs and gestures to be the poor 
wandering peaceable Biajus, or sea gipsies; but a 
closer examination may detect among them the glitter 
of the great Lanun sword, or some other unmistakeable 
evidence of their vocation, as Sir Edward Belcher 
noticed in an encampment on Pirate River in Borneo. 2 

Of the interior economy of the Lanun pirate com- The P ira * e 
munity, no authentic accounts exist. Slaves, however, 
who have escaped, declare that their captors have ex- 
tensive works for building prahus, and are powerfully 
armed in readiness for any attack. Detached villages Villages. 
are said to be scattered on the shallows of the lake, 
like those in the vicinity of Bonne, erected on posts 
from fourteen to twenty feet high and the people 
are reckoned at 30,000, besides great numbers of 
Arafura captives. 3 Instead, however, of houses built Floating 
along the shore, or on piles, they dwell for the most dwellin s s - 
part in their old vessels, which are moored in squadrons, 
flank to flank, ready to convey their wives, families, and 
treasure, in case of sudden danger, to some distant part 
of the lagoon. The life they lead resembles that of Life in the 
the Tatars in the Tanka boats of China, an isolated Ias on ' 
and distinct community, subject only to the rule of 

1 De Comyn, Philippines, 242. 2 Belcher, ii. 132. 

3 Pennant, India extra Gangem, ii. 75. 



124 



THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



Number of 
Lanuns. 



Pirate 
cruizes. 



Their 
extent. 



Seasons for 
pillage. 



their admirals, with whom they proceed to sea in divisions, 
which occasionally unite and form a fleet of as many 
as 400 sail. 1 The number of fighting-men among the 
Lanuns was estimated by Sir Stamford Raffies at 
least 10,000. 2 

The cruises of these audacious marauders extend 
through all the seas in the neigbourhood of their island, 
and last often for several years. They have been known 
to sail all round New Guinea on the east, through the 
straits, and along the southern coasts of Java, under the 
high shores of Sumatra, and even to Rangoon, on the 
Delta of the Irawaddy, ranging along the Malay penin- 
sula, and periodically troubling the isle of Bintang and 
neighbouring groups in the sea of Linga, the islands 
lying between Borneo and Johore Pulo Anner, 
Siantan, Bunguran, Ting-Laut, and Tauvella. 3 On 
their return they spread terror and devastation through 
the Philippines. Generally the Lanuns are in activity 
from the 1st of May to the end of November. The 
rest of the year, while the westerly monsoon is blowing, 
they make preparations for the next season, whether in 
their regular retreat within the lagoon, or at the spot 
where their last equipment took place ; for they have 
stations in various parts of the Archipelago. Many, 
however, start on their way to the winter haunt in the 
middle of the east monsoon, especially when they have 
been fortunate in the collection of booty ; but in this 
case they undertake a new cruise during October and 
November. 4 Sometimes these irregular expeditions 
join the fleets of other communities, as the Malukas of 
Gilolo, and remain absent from their great station more 

1 Belcher, i. 267. 

1 Spenser St. John, Journ. Ind. Arch. iii. 253. 

3 Cornet de Groots, Moniteur, i. 160. 

4 Kolff, Rapport, 1831. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 125 

than three years, forming, as it were, floating camps, floating 
the prahu of the pirate being to him what his tent is 
to the predatory Bedouin. 1 

In the ordinary course of their operations, however, plan of an 

11 i . . , f.i-11 i expedition, 

they leave their stationary places of abode about the 
middle of April, and direct their route along the 
eastern and western coast of Borneo, towards the 
shores of the Straits of Banca and Biliton, where they 
arrive about the middle of May. Their fleet then Routes, 
breaks into little divisions, some steering to conduct 
their brigandage along the eastern coast of Sumatra 
as far as Reteh, among the waters of Linga and Bin- 
tang and the scattered groups extending thence as far 
as Cape Romania. Towards the month of June this 
division usually assembles at Pulo Tingi, where they 
are habitually successful in capturing many trading 
boats from Pahang, Tringanu, Cambodia, and Kalam- 
bang on the mainland. In September or October, they 
quit those channels and steer towards their insular 
stronghold in Mindanao ; but find leisure on their way 
to make plundering descents on the coasts of Siantan, 
Pulo Laut, and Tamelan. The apparition of their fleet Terror of 
is beheld with dismay by the miserable people, whose i an d er s. 
light boats and poorly defended villages offer nothing to 
resist the assaults of those warlike savages. 2 

Through the Straits of Makassar, however, pass the Audacity of 
largest flotillas of the Magindanese buccaneers. They 
sail towards the end of the westerly monsoon, so as to 
profit by the northerly winds then prevailing along the 
whole of the channel between Celebes and Borneo, to 
reach the southern coast of the former island. They 
often visit the bay of Makassar ; and the little islands 

1 Eeppel, i. 195. 2 Cornet de Groots, Moniteur, i. 160. 



126 



THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



Their 

formidable 

character. 



Mode of 
warfare. 



situated at the depth of its arc, affords them excellent 
anchorage, and a point whence to extend their observa- 
tion along the whole of the neighbouring shore. The 
population here was lately well disposed in their favour, 
or at least, whether through weakness or from sharing 
their predilections, made no effort to check their ravages. 
Arrived as far as the Straits of Salayer, the most southern 
of the three isles furnish another point favourable to 
their enterprises of depredation. About this season a 
great many of their prahus are accustomed to rove in 
the bay of Boni, frequently stretching towards the 
south-eastern peninsula of Celebes to the islet of Kam- 
byan, and on to the Bouton group, as far as Pulo Labuan 
Belenda. As these waters are resorted to by many 
trading prahus, and the chances of plunder are by no 
means rare, they are continually visited by the Lanun 
marauders. 1 

Not only are petty fishing-craft and trading-boats 
attacked : the armed cruisers of Java have frequently 
been compelled to fly before a squadron of Lanun buc- 
caneers, though in general great caution, if not timidity, 
is displayed on the approach of a square-rigged vessel ; 
for though able to distinguish a merchantman from a 
ship of war by the colour of the canvas and the general 
appointments, they have so often been deceived by dis- 
guises that their circumspection has improved from ex- 
perience. When, however, they find a body of Euro- 
peans in boats, away from their ship, or watering on 
shore, their pride is in the capture or destruction of 
such a prey. Endeavouring by manoeuvres to cut off 
all escape, they advance in martial attitude, with 
threatening gestures, shouting, whirling through the 
evolutions of their war dance, and hurling their spears 



Vosmaer, Rapport, 1833. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 127 

before them. 1 When sure of their prize, they aggra- Battle 

vate their yells, their gesticulations, and their fury, 

beating gongs to a loud and stirring tune 2 , and often 

in the strength of more than 1000 men. 3 Their fine 

athletic forms are displayed in magnificent attitudes, as 

they move with the bearing of warriors to the attack. 4 

But when, on the contrary, a force appears in sight too Their cun - 

powerful to be overcome, and when there is no chance 

of plundering safely, they descend for a time from their 

haughty occupation to the humble and more honest 

calling of traders and fishers. 5 

It is, however, among the barbarous populations that Horrible 
they appear most truly the savage masters of the sea ; ^ &r ^" 
they sweep the waters with adroit audacity, move with visitations. 
sails and oars along the coast, and make a descent 
wherever an unprotected village appears in view. It 
is sacked and burned, any defenders who resist the 
attack are killed, the young persons of both sexes are 
made captives, the old and helpless are murdered, and 
the spot is left to solitude and desolation. 6 In this way 
all the unprotected towns and settlements lying in their 
route experience the cruelty of their arms, for their 
mode of warfare is barbarous in the extreme. They 
slaughter the cattle, ravage the plantations, sweep away 
all the movable property, and with gratuitous cruelty 
wound and maim the victims of their power. Slaves 
in hundreds are carried away. 7 Captives, indeed, are 
the principal objects of pursuit the most valuable in 
themselves and the most readily disposed of. When 
an island is attacked, the women and children, with as 
many of the young men as are required, or as will not 

1 Belcher, i. 136. z Marryat, Borneo, 48. 

3 Dr. Addams, Plea in Admiralty Court, 1848, 1849. 

4 Keppel, i. 194. 5 Forrest, i. 184. 

6 Belcher, i. 268. 7 De Comyn, Philippines, 243. 



128 



THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



Slave trade. 



Anecdote. 



Resistance 
of the is- 
landers. 



European 
victims. 



Kidnapping 
Spaniards. 



Force of the 
Lanuns. 



die fighting, are ravished away. When the prahu is 
full, laden with this freight of human misery, it quits 
that coast to sell them on another. A cargo of slaves 
captured on the east of Borneo is sold on the west; the 
victims of the south are readily purchased in the north ; 
and the woolly-haired Ethiops of Papua, who are uni- 
versally prized, are offered at a high rate to the chief- 
tains and princes all over the Archipelago. 1 Wherever, 
indeed, a scanty undefended population exists, it be- 
comes the prey of the freebooters. In 1834, a horde of 
Lanuns swept with a fleet round the coasts of a small 
island near the Straits of Rhio, and carried off every 
one of the inhabitants. 2 In June 1845, a Lanun prahu, 
watering near Menado, was captured, and the pirates, 
refusing to surrender, were killed in action. Twenty 
prisoners were found on board and released. 3 

Some of the Indian tribes, nevertheless, value their 
independence and sell it dear. Many a bloody struggle 
has taken place, ending in the extermination of one of 
the belligerent forces, though the pirates generally pre- 
vail. Formerly, indeed, when the Spaniards them- 
selves were imprudent enough to undertake enterprises 
in small numbers, they sometimes fell victims to their 
rashness. An officer, though furnished with a safe con- 
duct by the sultan of Mindanao, was in 1791, murdered 
by the pirates, who flayed his body and hung the skin 
upon a banner. 4 Sometimes even now, a Spanish priest 
is kidnapped for the ransom of a thousand dollars or 
more, which he is sure to command. 8 

The force in which the Lanuns range the Archi- 
pelago, is, indeed, overwhelming to the ordinary native 



1 Keppel, ii. 199. 

3 Hugh Low, Sarawak, 128. 

5 Belcher, i. 268. 



2 Earl, Eastern Seas, 313. 
4 De Cornyn, Philippines, 243. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 129 

settlements. A fleet of eighteen vessels, examined by 

Sir James Brooke, contained from 500 to 600 men. It Account of 



cruised among the Moluccas and the islands lying to 
the eastward, had pillaged the Bay of Boni and other 
places in Celebes, and passed through the Straits of 
Makassar. They had lost or worn out many of their 
own boats, but were continuing the cruise in prizes 
which they had captured, and fitted up for warlike pur- 
poses. They had attacked one of the Tambelan isles, 
where the people had repulsed them, and were pre- 
paring for a descent on Sirhassan, one of the southern 
Natunas. The huge boats of the Bugis are too heavy Bugis Boats. 
to be swift, but carry many guns, swivels, and mus- 
kets. Each is divided into three compartments, and . 
fortified by strong planks, one behind the bow, one in 
the middle, and one near the stern. Women and 
children are crammed below, where the miserable pri- 
soners are confined during action. In attacking a Hans of 
vessel at sea their usual plan is to board her, and over- 
whelm the crew by their numbers. Merchantmen, with 
the guns badly fought, fare ill; but a steady fire of 
grape and canister usually daunts the assailants midway 
in their approach. Such attempts are never made ex- 
cept during calms, for in a breeze they will not venture 
to engage a square-rigged vessel, or even to sail far from 
the shore while there is one in view. 1 

Nevertheless the daring of the Lanuns is such as to 
appear incredible in a part of the world where piracy is 
only known by tradition. They have ventured into the 
very Bay of Manilla, as far as Cavite, and captured the 
fishing-boats there. Once the Spanish gun-boats, com- Anecdote. 
manded by an Englishman, came out to meet them in 



1 Keppel, i. 396. 
VOL. II. K 



130 



THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



Attacks on 
coast vil- 
lages. 



Choice of 
plunder. 



Ravages in 
the Philip- 
pines. 



Conflicts 
with the 
pirates. 
Fort at 
Sambo- 
angan. 



these waters, and after a desperate action retired com- 
pletely crippled, only the commander in fact himself 
severely wounded being left to serve a gun. Villages 
in the bays along the shore are very much exposed to 
their attacks, and less than most others, are able to 
defend themselves ; for the Spaniards, employing the 
barbarous expedient of preventing their subjects from 
rising, by depriving them of all the means of action, 
forbade them the use of firearms. 1 

Nor do the Lanuns fight for vulgar plunder. They 
reject, but invariably destroy, all rough and common 
merchandise, as well as articles which cannot, easily be 
disposed of; preferring for themselves gold, silver, arms, 
and ammunition, with such costly and portable commo- 
dities as these, of which they levy a regular tribute on 
the people of that group. Indeed, from the first esta- 
blishment of the Spaniards in the Philippines, they 
were harassed by the agents of this destructive system, 
suffering, with scarcely a year's remission, from the at- 
tacks of the pirates, whose haunts in the Bay of Illanun 
were notorious as early as 1629. Intelligence of dis- 
asters, of murder, of pillage, of fire, and violation con- 
tinually arrived at Manilla, and the depredators were 
from time to time chastised; but the intermittent efforts 
of the settlers were ineffectual to oppose the systematic, 
pervading influence of piracy. 2 The Spaniards, in 1 639, 
established a fortified post at Samboangan, on the 
south-western coast of Mindanao, to impose a per- 
manent restraint on the enemies of their commerce. It 
exists still, but its authority was never formidable to 
the buccaneers. Expeditions also were from time to 
time despatched to various ports in the island, and some 
piratical haunts were destroyed ; but the breeding nest 



Forrest, Voyage, 302. 



2 Chinese Repository, vii. 588. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 131 

was left to propagate its swarms over the Archipelago. 1 
The Mindanese continued to be, with the people of Longstrug- 
Basilan and Jolo, the bane and terror of the region, 
Military posts were established at intervals along their 
shores; but were insulted and defied. Instead of shrink- 
ing from a struggle with the strength of civilisation, 
the pirates attacked its stronghold, and 5000 of them 
laid siege to Samboangan. They were, it is true, re- 
pulsed, and suffered much loss from the Spaniards, as 
between 1731 and 1734, when numbers of their forts, 
villages, and prahus were destroyed by the sudden but 
evanescent zeal of their enemies. 2 

The native princes of Mindanao always exhibited Princes of 
themselves in one character with duplicity equal to 
their hardihood. They were the avowed repudiators 
but the actual promoters of the piratical system. Dis- 
owning the flagitious conduct of their people, they 
encouraged them secretly, and divided the spoil they 
acquired. " Sooner," said a Jesuit missionary, " will a Jesuit ac- 
hawk release the prey from his talons, than they put an ^em* Ol 
end to their piracies." 3 Lulled often by their profes- Their 
sions couched in specious phrases, the Europeans allowed 
themselves to wait for the fulfilment of a promise, while 
it was continually broken and falsified before their eyes. 
Decrees were issued; a few gun-boats patrolled the 
channels of the group ; the settlements were fortified 
by entrenchments, walls, and palisades, with small 
castles of wood or stone; but even these were fre- 
quently destroyed and ravaged. 4 To this day the 
Spaniards have at Samboangan a considerable force of 
armed vessels, commanded by expert officers, who are 



1 Chinese Repository, vii. 529. 2 De Comyn, Philippines, 233. 

3 Angelos, Letter, 24th Sept. 1748. 

4 De Comyn, Philippines, 230. 

K 2 



132 



THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



Their skill. 



Other La- 
nun com- 
munities. 



Their great 
fleets. 



Their cou- 
rage. 



stimulated to zeal by rewards. Nevertheless, they 
rarely succeed in bringing the Lanuns to an engage- 
ment, unless under circumstances most favourable to 
themselves. Skilled in the pursuit of their hereditary 
calling, they are as ready in flight as in attack ; they are 
bold, and, in the safe seclusion of their lake, are con- 
cealed from all pursuit. Sometimes, when the mouth 
of their bay is too closely watched to admit of their 
putting to sea, they drag their prahus one by one across 
the neck of the peninsula, launch them from the north- 
eastern coast, and while the Spanish force is deceived 
by an appearance of preparation at the usual place of 
embarkment, make away on their cruise, and spread on 
all sides the fame and terror of their lawless arms. 1 

Under the appellation of Lanuns are included, not 
only the pirates of Magindanao, but communities of the 
same race and the same profession in Sulu and some 
places on the island of Borneo, as Tuwassa, Tumbassu, 
and Mangala. They equipped, it was thought, in 1818, 
100 prahus at their great establishment on the Lagoon 
and in Sulu, fifty at Tuwassa, twenty at Tumbassu, 
and twenty at Mangala. Five or six also went regularly 
from Sumroko in the territories of Brune, near Tanjong 
Datu ; so that nearly 200 Lanun vessels, armed solely 
for piratical purposes, were then preying on the com- 
merce and industry of the Archipelago ; and it is im- 
possible not to believe that the subsistence, the savings, 
the peace, and happiness of thousands were destroyed, 
and blood in terrible profusion shed, to support this 
spoliating system. 2 When the Dutch, to protect the 
Moluccas, stationed gun-boats at Ternate, they were 
scarcely noticed by the Lanun marauders, being neither 



1 Belcher, i. 268. 



2 Comet de Groots, Moniteur, i. 232. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 133 

powerful nor swift enough to cope with them. 1 Not 
only stout merchantmen, but government cruisers be- 
longing to that nation, have been captured by these 
formidable rovers. 2 

While the warriors are absent, the women and children Battles with 
remain in charge of the villages ; and not unfrequently 
the defence of their haunts, by an Amazonian garrison, 
has been fierce and successful. 3 In Mindanao, how- Security of 
ever, the natural difficulty of approach, with the fame ^* La - 
of its powerful defences, has hitherto rendered the pirate 
city impregnable ; and the whole of the fighting men 
are seldom away at one time. At particular seasons Seas <>ns of 
the place is crowded with its possessors. In their re- 
treat on the lake, they pass their hours, partly in 
superintending the equipage of new fleets, partly in the 
Sybaritic enjoyment of their season's gains, debauch, Pirate or - 
opium-smoking, cock-fighting, and festivals of bar- 
barian character. War dances they delight in ; and, \v a r dance, 
whirling through its evolutions, the Lanun appears no 
poor image of manly grace. He is dressed in a fine T h e pirate's 
helmet, with plumes from the bird of paradise, and P ers o- 
decorated with gold belts and silk sashes of variegated 
dye. His sword is adorned with streamers of red cloth, 
his long upright shield jingles a number of brazen rings; 
and so accoutred he rages in the excitement of the per- 
formance so wildly as often to fall exhausted at the end. 4 
At other times, however, the demeanour of the Lamm, 
though polite, is grave, with an affectation of priestly 
composure. 5 

Such are the Lanuns of Magindanao, described in TheLanuns 
the Dutch reports as the people inhabiting the Lagoon, 

1 Belcher, i. 145. 

2 Spenser St. John, Journ. Ind, Arch. iii. 256. 

3 Earl, Eastern Seas, 314. 4 Keppel, ii. 199. 
5 Ibid. i. 84. 



134 



THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



Pirates of 
Borica. 



Account of 
Mindoro. 



Its former 
prosperity. 



Its rich cul- 
tivation. . 



Sulu, and the southern coast of Borneo, and probably 
the only pirates upon whom a more liberal commercial 
system would not exercise a humanising influence. To 
subdue them, nothing but the force of arms can prove 
effectual. 1 In this category, a more familiar acquaint- 
ance with the system has placed many other freebooting 
communities. 

Besides the tribes located in Borneo and Sulu, there 
was formerly a settlement of them in Borica, in the 
heart of the Philippines 2 , which they held for several 
years. The Spaniards long endeavoured to dislodge 
them, but without success, for their island was sur- 
rounded with reefs and shoals which made it dangerous 
of approach. 3 Another settlement of the Moros, or 
Moors, probably so called by the Spaniards from their 
professing the same religion with the former invaders of 
Gra&ada, was in Mindoro, a Philippine island. Few years 
have passed since it was a colony of pirates. About the 
middle of the last century, a horde of Lanuns descended 
on its coasts, slaughtering or enslaving the aborigines ; 
building villages on the rivers, bays, and creeks, and 
flourishing on the spoil of the population. Traces still 
remain to show that the soil was once cultured, and 
that its tenants were prosperous. More than twenty 
species of rice were grown in the fields ; some so soft 
and white and delicately flavoured as to be in repute 
all over the region. All rice, when winnowing, exhales 
a pleasant odour; but the fragrance of this kind is like 
the smell of new pure bread. So richly tilled, indeed, 
was Mindoro, as to be called the Granary of the Islands, 
vegetation abounding all over its surface, wealth pro- 
fuse among its inhabitants, and a dense population oc- 



1 Tobias, Rapport, 1822. Monitevr, i. 232. 

s I)e Comyn, Philippines, 230. n Forrest, Voyage, 302. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 135 

cupying its fertile valleys and plains. But the living 
beauty and abounding capabilities of this unhappy 
island now waste themselves in neglect, decay, and 
desolation. No living thing is to be seen near the coast its actual 
except swarms of bees, and once a year a few savages desolatlon - 
come to collect the honey.. The ruins of a handsome 
church remain, but who formed its congregation is 
unknown. The Lanun pirates, in their bloody and Lanun in- 
destructive invasion, swept before them every work of Vdsion> 
industry, leaving only an occasional ruin as the me- 
morial of their fury. They still live who remember 
the horrors of the invasion ; how a swarm of savages 
landed, settled along the coast, hunted down the people, 
drove them from spot to spot, and cut, them to pieces, Extermina- 
until a poor remnant alone remained, to escape into tlonoflts 

1 * people. 

the solitudes of the interior. There they still wander, 
five or six thousand in number, a tribe of degenerate 
barbarians. Their country is extensive, rich in natural 
productions, near Manilla, and close to the populous 
and industrious island of Panay. Yet it is a desert ; Curse of 
and the Spanish writers l ascribe this to the incursion F 
of the Lanun pirates, who prevent the cultivation of 
the islands, many districts of which are thus rendered 
unhealthy. 

Year after year the Spaniards contest the coasts of 
Mindoro against the " Moors," but year after year the 
piratical inroads are invariably renewed. The island 
affords them many commodious places of shelter for 
their lighter prahus, in groups of uninhabited islets on 
the north and west. They furl their mat sails, pay out 
five or six fathoms of cable to prevent their boats being 
dashed against the rocks, and then sleep amid a furious 
commotion of the waves, as calmly as though the 

1 Diario de Manila, August and September, 1848. 
K 4 



136 THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 

foundations of a continent supported them. The in- 
habitants are quite unable to cultivate any land near 
the coast, from the fear of these marauders ; so that 
Mindoro, one of the most rich and beautiful islands in 
the Archipelago, is made a wilderness by piracy. 1 

Lanun set- I n Borneo, the Lanun settlements have been esta- 

Bomeo. Wished principally on the north-east coast. The recent 
aspect of the piratical system there was no less formid- 
able than in the early days of maritime adventure. 
Long immunity in the perpetration of outrage enabled 
the Lanun freebooters to establish themselves in se- 

Seciuded eluded strongholds, where they enjoyed not only com- 
jnghoids. ortg> j^f. abundance, on the fruits of piracy, to which, 

Pirate in- indeed, their own industry, or that of their slaves, con- 
tributed in seasons unfavourable to marauding enter- 
prise. The Malay princes of Borneo were so many 

Freebooting magnates of the scattered pirate commonwealth. Thirty- 
four years ago, the sultan of Matauran equipped ha- 
bitually and supported three large buccaneering prahus, 
from ten to twelve tons burden each, which, after a 
cruise along the western coast of Celebes during the 
westerly monsoon, were accustomed to make three 

Cruises to enterprises along the waters of Java. They left, like 
their accomplices of Biliton and Karimata, in the month 
of June, and pillaged on their way home, whenever an 
opportunity occurred. 2 

Kottann- Kottaringin is famous as another old nest of piracy. 
The chiefs of the place declared, when a Dutch com- 
missioner visited them in 1824, that some months pre- 
viously a number of pirates, under the command of a 
renowned leader, came to demand an asylum of their 
prince. He yielded what it would have been futile to 



1 Journ. Ind. Arch. iii. 756766. 

2 Muntinghe, Rapport, 1818. 



ITS HISTORY AND PKESENT STATE. 137 

refuse, because they came in force enough to extort 
from his fear all that they could solicit from his hospi- 
tality. They had with them thirty vessels, a hundred 
women, and fifty children, which exhibits in an in- 
teresting manner the foundation of a pirate colony. A pirate 
With their light and swift prahus they appeared to be 
in little dread of European ships of war. An air of 
uncompromising audacity was displayed in all their 
behaviour. Could they have been chased from their 
river retreat to the open sea, the cruisers would in- 
fallibly have destroyed their flotilla ; but the savage is a 
skilful tactician, and the native prince, no doubt, pre- 
tended far more anger than he felt at the arrival of this 
tribe of plunderers within his dominion. Pirates who intercourse 
hold this kind of intercourse with the princes of Borneo, B 0rnean 
cede them a part of the booty they have acquired, or princes, 
sell them at an advantageous rate the prisoners they 
have captured. The prahus of Kottaringin were ge- 
nerally armed with one heavy gun, and manoauvred 
by a skilful crew. 

Malludu Bay, on the east coast of Borneo, was lately Maiiudu 
a great haunt of pirates. The Lanuns of this and other 
settlements in the islands are distinct from the Sherrifs 
of mixed Arabian blood, who, occupying the territory 
of some Malay state, form a rendezvous for pirates, and 
markets for the roving fleets ; and though occasionally 
equipping their own followers to an enterprise of the 
kind, more frequently gain a revenue by advancing 
arms, food, and ammunition, to be paid for, with ex- 
orbitant usury, in slaves. 1 The Lanuns engage more 
directly in their vocation. The rajah Muda of Ta- History of 
warrun, on the northern coast, was in 1837 chief of a m unity. 
community living in friendly intercourse with Brune, 

1 Brooke, Memoir. Keppel, ii. 191. 



138 THE INDIAN AECHIPELAGO, 

whose people he never molested. He served as pilot 
in that year to the " Himaley," an American brig, and 
boasted that he had recently captured ninety Castil- 
lians, or Spanish Philippine subjects, whom he had 
sold in the capital city of Borneo Proper. 1 

Tuluk Serban, a bay inside of Tanjong Datu, and 
opposite the turtle-breeding island of Talang-Talang, is 
a station occupied during the south-west monsoon by 
pirates from Magindanao, as well as from Sulu. There 
they anchor the great fleets, while small boats are dis- 
patched to reconnoitre for a sail; and when one con- 
sidered safe to attack is discovered, they send a force to 

Devastation capture it. If coming from a distance, her cargo was 

coast. f ormer iy gen t to the Sarawak or Sadong rivers, where 

the chiefs plundered those pirates to whom they had 

made advances of money. Thus the whole trade of the 

Tawarrun. coast was destroyed. 2 The chief of Tawarrun, as well as 
of this place, lately retained a piratical character, going 
to other rivers to superintend the building of war 
prahus. His pursuits were, indeed, spoken of by the 
people without disguise 3 , as identical with those of the 
former rajahs, catching the Dyaks whenever he could, 
and selling them as slaves. 4 Nor were the ravages and 
depredations of Tawarrun confined to the native trade. 

Tampassuk. At Tampassuk was, until very recently, a mixed 
community of Lanuns and Biajus, located a few miles 
up a small river, not formidable in numbers but making 
incursions into the Spanish territory, and up to a late 
period finding a market for their plunder at Brune. 

Mercenary They sometimes engaged themselves in a body to the 
half-bred Arab ruler at Malludu Bay where an 
ancient Malay state had been seized by these law loss 



1 Chinese Repository, vii. 122. s Keppel, i. 84. 

3 Ibid. i. 85. 4 Hunt, Sketch of Borneo. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 139 

adventurers having no pretension to the land, and 

only enforcing authority through the terror of his 

arms. He had about 2000 men ; and, not many years 

since, captured and bartered into slavery a boat's crew 

of about twenty men of the " Sultana," a merchant 

ship, which had been burned in the Palawan passage. 

Within a few years, also, he pillaged and fired an career of a 

European vessel, stranded near the Mangai isles, and chief - 

threatened to attack Brune, when the sovereign of that 

state consented to a British alliance for the repression 

of buccaneers. He sold Bornean slaves for 100 rupees 

each to Bornean chiefs, who resold them to their 

relatives for 200. Arrogating the rights of a prince, 

defying every authority, denying every principle, he 

made himself the fear and curse of the island. 1 At 

Malludu Bay he entrenched himself beyond a sudden Defences of 

bend in the river, erecting a number of forts on a haunt'* 1 

tongue of land commanding the stream, throwing across 

it a floating battery, and a boom composed of two huge 

trees, each supporting a chain cable equal to ten or 

twelve inches, firmly bolted and secured to two upright 

living trees on either bank. A cut in the right bank 

allowed the entrance of a canoe, but was impassable to 

European boats. All the guns were laid for this boom, Booms. 

while stockades surrounded the town. 2 Elsewhere, 

travellers have seen on the waters of a reach a long 

way from the coast, Lanun boats of heavy burden, 

though how they were brought up was a mystery 

many of the water-passages being known only to the 

pirates themselves. 3 

An instance of the destructive influence of this system Fate of 
was displayed to recent travellers at Ambong. The ter- Ambong - 

1 Brooke. Keppel, ii. 195. 

2 Talbot, Dispatch to Coclirane, Aug. 2. 1845. 

3 Adams, in Belcher, ii. 503. 



140 



THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



Its former 
beauty. 



Pirate set- 
tlement. 



ritory eastward of the pirate community at Malludu Bay 
contained, in 1844, a beautiful town. It sat in the 
extreme depth of a valley, or cul-de-sac of hills, which 
rose with smooth surfaces around, dotted with a few 
clustering* groves, and with their living verdure re- 
freshed from copious streams. A graceful bay brought 
its waters to the bosom of the valley, and the town dis- 
played an assemblage of picturesque dwellings, in har- 
mony with the natural attractions of the scene. A 
brisk traffic employed its people; many villages dis- 
played glimpses of their simplicity and peace through 
the foliage of banana groves. A short distance from 
Ambong, however, was the piratical river of Tampas- 
suk, where the Lanuns had settled. When Sir Edward 
Belcher passed up that coast, he discerned on the shore 
groups of people, evidently not the harmless gipsies of 
the sea ; for the glittering barrels of muskets, with the 
blades of swords and spears, and shields flashing their 
polished discs, amid scarlet costumes, discovered their 
freebooting character. There were about 200 of them, 
living in seven or eight wooden forts on a sandy tongue 
of land some wearing shirts of mail, and pieces of 
quaint armour, in which they paraded ostentatiously 
along the beach. 

The inhabitants of Ambong then complained of their 
position with regard to these pirates especially the 
Malludu chief, whose extortions spread from his strong- 
hold to Brune. He had even forced them to send a 
prahu to join his fleet of 200 sail, then starting to levy 
tribute along the coasts of Palawan. 1 In 1846, the able 
seaman and gallant officer, Captain Rodney Mundy, 
Ambong in visited Ambong ; the town was to be remembered only 
by its ruina. A chief came down from a fortified vil- 



ruins. 



1 Belcher, i. 194. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 141 

lage newly-built among the hills, and related that the 
Lanuns had sworn vengeance on his people for commu- 
nicating with the English, had attacked them several 
times, and at length, coining with a powerful flotilla, 
had sacked and destroyed all the habitations, driven 
their tenants into the jungle, and declared that so 
should every community suffer which traded with the 
white men. 1 Abai, also, a town and harbour forty 
miles from the northern point of Borneo, and once a 
great resort of traders, has dwindled to a miserable 
hamlet, under the attacks of the Lanun pirates. 2 

These Lanun marauders, whose vocation was to obli- 
terate from amid the varied and attractive scenery 
of the Bornean coasts all traces of human happiness, 
ingenuity, or industry, showed in themselves, neverthe- Destruction 
less, an appreciation, not only of the comforts, but 
of the luxuries, and even of the poetical elegances of 
life. Beyond a line of protecting marshes, the free- Picturesque 
booters of Pandassan dwelt in a fertile plain, with de- treafat 6 " 
tached houses and gardens ; fowls, goats, and pigs Pandassan. 
abounded ; sugar canes, banana, and Indian corn flou- 
rished in luxuriance ; and herds of cattle, driven off at 
the approach of an enemy, browsed on the pastures. 
When the piratical town of Tampassuk was destroyed, 
every fancy was charmed by its position and adorn- 
ments; and its chiefs on horseback moved to and fro The pirates 
on the skirts of the jungle, brandishing their spears, S uk. 
and shaking the savage trappings of their martial pomp, 
while their stately dwellings burned, and their retreat 
was turned into a wilderness and a solitude. 3 

Brune, itself, the capital of Borneo Proper, was long Piracy in, 

' Brune. 

1 Mundy, ii. 188. 

2 Earl, Trading Ports of the Archipelago. Journ. Ind. Arch. 
iv. 240. 

3 Mundy, ii. 193-195. 



142 



THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



and lately notorious as a refuge of piracy. The sultan, 
perhaps, was never literally a buccaneer himself; but 
the chiefs who followed that vocation, bribed him by a 
tribute to assist them. 1 In 1837, piracy was no longer 
actually carried on there by the real subjects of the 
Traffic with state 2 ; but its port was open to the flotillas laden with 
buccaneers. pi un ^ er from all neighbouring shores and seas, which 
disposed of their cargoes there, and supplied themselves 
with warlike stores and provisions. A few years pre- 
viously, the Brune people themselves visited the Philip- 
pines on a marauding enterprise 3 ; while formerly ships 
richly freighted and not fishing-boats only, or packs of 
native slaves were openly sold within view of the 
sultan's palace. 4 

Sambas and Succadana are celebrated as ancient 
piratical stations. To repress this system, the Dutch 
made many ineffectual attempts. In 1819, the sultan 
of Pontianah agreed that they should maintain, on the 
coast of Borneo, a flotilla of small vessels to protect and 
secure the general trade ; promising, besides, to use all 
his influence towards eradicating the evil. In the same 
year a treaty was concluded with the sultan of Sambas, 
by which it was stipulated that all trading boats from 
that kingdom should be furnished with passes from the 
Dutch, whenever they traded on the high seas, or in 
foreign ports. There was, indeed, strict necessity for 
measures of a repressive tendency. The schooner " Lu- 
cifer " was in May of that year attacked near the " Isles 
of Little Trees," twenty leagues from Batavia, by three 
Bornean prahus from Kottaringin, while four others 
lay at a distance, ready to come up if their aid was re- 
quired. The ship was closely pressed, the assailants 



Other 

Bornean 

pirates. 



Treaties 
to repress 
them. 



1 Chinese Repository, vii. 123. 2 Harris, i. 787. 

3 Ibid. vii. 187, 188. 4 Pennant, India extra GaJigcm, ii. 72. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 143 

exclaiming, that neither they, nor their master the 
sultan, feared the Company's arms; and the "Antelope" 
only escaped with the favour of a strong wind. 1 

The repression of the piratical system was made the 
subject of a special clause in the convention signed in 
June, 1823, with the sultan of Matam, and the Panam- 
bahan of Simpang, on the western coast. 2 A military 
establishment at Succadana, or on the Karimatas, was The Kari - 

,,, , r- -i 11 mata isles. 

recommended ; but the pront, it was said, would not 
cover the expense. The population was so thinly scat- 
tered, or poor, and naturally so indolent, that little 
could be expected from the passing generation. Never- 
theless, a settlement was shortly afterwards made. It 
was not without reason that the sultan of Matam was 
bound by a treaty to abstain from piracy. He was 
suspected, on fair evidence, of acting in guilty compli- 
city with the marauders who captured the ship " General 
Koch," and murdered her master. 3 It was to root up 
this system that the Dutch ostensibly founded their 
establishment on the western coasts of Borneo. The 
princes of that island, it was known, participated in all 
the commercial interests of their subjects ; and wher- 
ever, as at Sambas, the people were inclined to piratical 
pursuits, their sultan obviously encouraged them. Ves- Sambas 
sels were built for the ports, expressly for adventures of P irates< 
this kind; and at Pontianah, an aged chief with the 
sovereign, were, thirty years ago, confessed pirates, 
though they abandoned that occupation, and became the 
principal merchants of the place. 4 

The policy of the Netherlands' government in Borneo Dutch 
was, however, as much directed to extend her political P lic y- 
influence, as to promote the general security of trade. 



1 Groot, Moniteur, i. 198. 2 Tobias, Rapport Generate, 1823. 
3 Groot, Moniteur, i. 202. 4 Muntinghe, Rapport, 1821. 



144 THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 

Means of It was proposed at the same period to contract alliances 
with a number of the petty chiefs to the north of Sam- 
bas, which then still remained in savage independence, 
Sarawak, Kaluku, Moka, Serebas, and Palo ; while 
to the southward were pointed out the ancient state of 
Succadana, Matam, and the isles of Manhass, Karimata, 
Panumbangano, and Seratoe. It was proposed to no- 
minate a governor for the coast of Borneo, to hold au- 
thority over the residences at Pontianah, Sambas, and 
Mampawa, to confide to him the care of selecting 
natives for the collection of birds' nests along the shores 
and in the neighbouring isles, and the fishery of keren, 
agar-agar, and trepang, in preference to the people of 
Biliton, Linga, Rhio, Seratoe, and Karimata ; and thus 
to substitute for piracy an honest and profitable means 
of life. 1 

Measures were at once taken to reduce from piracy 
the people of Sambas and other states, and to engage 
them in the legitimate pursuits of industry; for it 
was declared in all the Dutch reports that the exten- 
sion of commerce would serve, infinitely more than the 
scourge of arms, to diminish the ravages of the free- 
booting system. Since the decline of European trade 
in those seas, the evil had largely increased. 2 At 
Matam, in Succadana, there were in 1818 seven or 
eight large war prahus, built for piracy, and another 
squadron of similar strength at Karimata; but the 
Robbers people of those isles, it was said, were robbers from 
from neces- necessity. It was only necessary to offer them a better 
mode of life to withdraw their energies from this vile 
pursuit a theory adopted by a distinguished geogra- 
pher with reference to the extirpation of the slave- 
trade in Western Africa. 3 The general sum of the 

1 Groot, Moniteur, \. 232. * Tobias, Rapport, 1822. 

3 Macqueen, Geographical Survey. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 145 

piracies, indeed, committed by the Malay population of 
Borneo, have been ascribed to poverty, because it was 
not the only or habitual occupation of many who fol- 
lowed it. Indolence among themselves, tyranny in Theories of 
their rulers, and barbarism among both, may be added cnme> 
as reasons ; but this only proves that one evil springs 
from another, for if it be accepted as a palliation 
of the pirates' crime, all human law is dispersed in 
clouds of metaphysical folly. The idle and turbulent, 
when their own resources failed, made free quarters on 
the industry of the more peaceful tribes ; and humanity 
can never regret the blood which was shed in defence 
of commerce, tranquillity, and the general welfare of 
civilisation. J 

Flattering themselves that all the other pirate com- The La- 
munities would speedily yield to the humanising in- """^l" ~ f 
fluences of trade, the Dutch, discovered, nevertheless, reciama- 
that with the Lanuns only gunpowder and steel could 
prevail. 2 The Captain of the English ship, Sea Flower, Anecdote, 
met, in 1818, with an adventure similar to that en- 
countered by the Dolphin in 1851. One of the Lamm 
chiefs having sojourned eight days on board the vessel, 
eat all the while at the Captain's table, slept in his 
cabin, and then attempted with a powerful gang of 
confederates to make a prize of the Avhole. He indeed, 
with a dozen of his men was killed ; but the Europeans, 
on the other hand, lost four of their number, besides 
many wounded. The Sea Flower mounted sixteen 
guns with sixty men, nearly all of whom were whites, 
indeed, throughout the progress of Dutch relations with 
the princes of Borneo, evidence continually revealed 
itself, that Europeans were the frequent victims of 
the piratical system. The very chiefs who pretended 

1 Muntinghe, Rapport^ 1818, 2 Groot, Moniteur, i. 232. 

VOL. II L 



146 



THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



to co -operate for the repression of these outrages, per- 
petrated or encouraged them. 

Anecdote. In 1827, the sultan of Matam made an armed de- 
scent on the island of Karimata, to capture a wreck 
which had lately been stranded there. He murdered 
the commander, and carried away the Dutch flag. But 
the punishment of his offence was speedy ; a frigate 
was sent to dethrone him, and Rajah Akil, a chief who 
had frequently distinguished himself as an auxiliary in 
the crusade against the pirates was elevated to the 
sultanate of Succadana. l Thus was destroyed a great 
haunt, which had for many years harassed and obstructed 
the commerce of the neighbouring seas. The new 
prince remained faithful to his engagements from 
gratitude, let us suppose, as well as policy. 

Instances of piratical outrages perpetrated on the 
coasts of Borneo, could be multiplied into a catalogue ; 
but the detail would be monotonous, and serve no valu- 
able purpose. One or two incidents are sufficient to 
illustrate the character of the influence exerted on 

Anecdotes, trade, industry, and civilisation. In 1788, the ship 
May of Calcutta, 450 tons burden, was cut off at 
Brune\ Invited up to the town her captain, three 
other officers, and ten Europeans were murdered ; the 
lascars made slaves, the cargo plundered, and the 
vessel burnt. In 1803, the Susanna from the same 
port was cut off at Pontianah, by the Sambas and 
Brune pirates; the Europeans were all massacred, and 
the ship was taken. In 1769, the Sambas people 
murdered Captain Saddler and a boat's crew off Mam- 
pawa, for the sake of some gold dust they possessed, 
but failed in capturing the vessel. Mr. Hopkins and 
the crew of the Commerce were, in 1806, murdered by 



Groot, Moniteur, i. 240. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 147 

the Brune pirates in conjunction with those of Sambas. 
In 1810, Captain Boss was cut off in 1811, Captain 
Graves 1 , by the people of Passir, while at the same 
time a Chinese junk with a valuable cargo was 
captured on the bar of the Pontianah river. 2 The Chinese at- 
traders of the Celestial empire, indeed, have frequently tj | cked b 7 
fallen victims to the piratical hordes of Borneo, as 
well as those of the Lanun Lake 3 , and the Balanini. 3 

1 Hunt, Sketch of Borneo. 2 Raffles, Memoirs^ 47. 

3 Spenser St. John, Journ. Ind. Ar. iii. 252. 



148 



THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



CHAPTER VII. 



The Bala- 
nini pirates; 



their is- 
lands ; 

defences. 



Anecdote. 



Political 
relations of 
the Bala- 

nini. 



THE Balanini rank third in the scale of pirates in the 
Indian Archipelago with those of the Sulu group, 
where the Lanuns also have settled in considerable 
numbers. 1 On the island of Balanini or Bangene the 
pirates enjoyed long a security almost equal to that of 
their secluded haunt on the Mindanese lagoon. Their 
stronghold is unassailable by the ordinary means. Around 
it lie coral reefs, thickly sown, with no anchorage near 
them, and the island itself has a lagoon in the centre. 
The entrance is narrow, and is so fortified by stakes, 
that only one vessel can enter at a time. To do this she 
must keep her keel in the very centre, which only the 
pirates from practice are expert enough to do. The 
Spanish cruizers, therefore, are unable to pass; and 
doubly to insure this, more than a hundred guns are 
laid for the only open way. It is supposed that about 
May or June is the season when the Balanini quit their 
reef-bound haunt among the waves, to join their allies 
in great cruises, leaving the old, the crippled, and the 
women to defend their homes. On one of these occa- 
sions two Spanish feluccas by an accidental fortune found 
the passage and entered the lagoon. Once within it, 
however, they were possessed by a sudden panic, and 
retired without firing a shot. 

The Balanini are considered to be under the jurisdiction, 
to some degree, of the Mindanese in their Lake capital. 
They had many other haunts in the Sulu Archipelago, 



See MacMicking, Recollections of the Philippines, 247. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 149 

especially at Malaya and other ports in the isle of 
Basilan, whence they sent their flotillas to pillage the 
Spanish Philippine settlements. They held intercourse Pirate 
with the old piratical states of Borneo Tambassan, eagues - 
Malludu, Tampassuk, Brune, the isle of Balaguey 
and Balabac, and all the coasts as far south as Banjar- 
massin. Strong family ties connected them ; and though 
feuds occasionally arose, a common cause united all 
again, and one chief led great fleets to sea. Some 
leaving their war boats at the Natunas or Anambas, 
traded in smaller prahus to Singapore. 1 

The sultan of Sulu 2 was long suspected of complicity Suiu. 
in the proceedings of the Balanini; and undoubtedly 
tolerated them and profited by their results. It is said 
that originally it was to revenge some acts of the 
Spaniards, that he declared his ports open to all piratical 
adventurers 3 ; and the depredations of those pirates were 
actually most injurious to the Spanish factors. 4 The Biiianini 
Balanini, properly so called, now inhabit a small cluster 
of islands off the N. E. coast of Borneo, and equip an- 
nually considerable fleets to capture trading vessels bound 
to Singapore or the Straits, and after pillaging them, 
reduce their crews to slavery to be crowded for months 
in the bottom of the pirate vessels in which the horrors 
of the middle passage are exceeded. 5 Marundum was 
formerly one of their favourite places of rendezvous. 
Their prahus are built like those of the Lanuns, with tneir 

, . i /> vessels. 

strong bulwarks or barricades, grape-shot proof across 
the forepart, with ports for working the guns. Eu- 
ropeans employ round shot, to cut these defences away 

1 Belcher, i. 270. 

2 The Sulus are reputed to be a vicious race. Raffles, Memoirs, 
i. 62. 

3 Pennant, ii. 83. 4 Sonnerat, Voyage to Spice Isles, 34. 
5 Keppel, ii. 4. 

L 3 



150 



THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



Armament. 



Their 
origin. 



Smaller 
boats. 



Swivels. 



Other 
weapons. 



Rowing 
boats. 



Cruises of 
the Bala- 
nini. 



Account of 
a cruise. 



before the musketry can tell. Each boat has from fifty 
to sixty men, the largest a hundred ; and heroes like 
those of Norse and Scandinia, in physical beauty and 
development, in courage and demeanour, are found 
among them. 1 Sometimes their origin has been referred 
to the Biaju, or sea-gipsy race ; but it is in reality un- 
known. They never seem to have been actually subjects 
of the king of Sulu, though encouraged by the rajahs 
there, with a convenient market for their plunder. To 
each of their large prahus a little sampan is attached as 
a tender capable of carrying on emergency, from ten 
to fifteen men. The Balanini seldom use heavy guns, 
such as those which the Lanuns of the Lake employ ; 
but instead of these, brass pieces, carrying balls of from 
one to three pounds ; besides swords, spears, and long 
poles armed with barbed iron heads, to grapple with an 
enemy during close engagement. 

The small swift boats which accompany the more 
ponderous craft, enable the pirates to capture any little 
prahu, which breaks the horizon as they rove along, 
searching for victims. One or two men, disguised as 
fishers or traders, sit at the oars, while the others crouch 
at the bottom, so that many vessels are surprised in 
broad day light at the mouths of creeks and streams. 
Sometimes the dress of Chinamen is assumed, and large 
numbers of that nation are carried of from the Pon- 
tianah and Sambas rivers. The cruising grounds of 
Balanini are very extensive the whole circuit of Borneo, 
as far as the south of Celebes on one hand, and on the 
other Tringanu, Kalantan, and Patani on the Malay 
peninsula. Annually they visit Gilolo, the Spice Islands, 
and the savage coasts of New Guinea. 2 In 1847, 
from forty to sixty prahus issued from their haunts, 



Keppel, ii. 23. 



Brooke, Memoirs. Keppel, ii. 196. 



THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 151 

ravaged a great portion of the Archipelago, laid waste 

the borders of the straits of Banka, burnt a village not 

far from Singapore, carried a number of the inhabitants 

into slavery, and fired upon a Dutch fortress on the 

coast of Borneo. 1 Before the British establishment on Labuan 

Labuan, a fleet of pirates from Balanini continually 

hovered about that group, to cut off the trade and harass 

the people of Brune. So celebrated, indeed, were they, The pirates' 

that the easterly gale which brought them, was called 

among the people of that coast, the Pirates' Wind. About 

the middle of March they appeared on the north-west, 

and near the end of November returned to the eastern 

shores of the island. 2 

In May 1847, an engagement took place between the Battle with 
Nemesis, that British iron war steamer which made pir ' es - 
such terrific havoc among the imperial armaments of 
China and eleven Balanini prahus. When attacked 
they anchored with their sterns to seaward, between 
the horns of a small bay, connecting their craft with 
hawsers, as the barbarians of Gaul were accustomed to 
link whole battalions together by a chain. The action 
was desperate, and lasted eight hours; six vessels escaped 
the others were sunk or taken. The largest of these 
was eighty feet long, with a full complement of eighty 
men. The first class prahus mounted one iron nine or 
ten pounder, besides six or eight smaller pieces, and an 
abundance of rifles and muskets well used, according 
to the evidence afforded by the dead and wounded in 
the English boats The pirates had musket proof bul- 
warks ; but they lost many of their number. This was 
the fleet which had devastated the straits of Banka. 
On board those vessels which were captured, were 

1 Spenser St. John, Journ. Ind. Arch. iii. 253. From Dutch 
official authority. 

2 Brooke, Memoirs. Keppel, ii. 196. 

L 4 



152 



THK INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



Courage of 
the bucca- 
neers. 

Guilt of the 
sultan of 
Sulu. 



Season of 
their adven- 
tures. 



Anecdotes. 



The Jolo 
pirates ; 



found a hundred captives, chained in couples with yokes 
of rattan. They had been forced to come on deck while 
the battle lasted, and many were killed. The buccaneers 
themselves refused to be taken alive, and fought with 
surprising valour. 1 

Whether or not the sultan of Sulu accredited the 
people of his territories in complicity with this or any 
other piratical enterprise, is not strictly to be proved ; 
but it is certain, that from the Sulu group long con- 
tinued to issue annual swarms of marauders. They 
left their island retreats about the middle of the north- 
westerly monsoon, sailed round Borneo with a favour- 
able wind, ranged away to Java, Banka, Singapore, and 
the peninsula, visited all the defenceless places in their 
way, attacked any trading prahu that fell across their 
track, and frequently descending on some unprotected 
village swept away all its inhabitants. No less than 
six flotillas of from five to eleven prahus each, were 
seen to pass the Sarawak river in 1847. A large native 
vessel belonging to a merchant of that vicinity, was 
captured in the neighbouring waters; her crew saved 
themselves in boats, but her valuable cargo being taken, 
she was scuttled and sunk. Another prahu from the 
Natunas to Singapore, with a lading of oil, was chased 
by five pirates to the isle of Salang, near the Sarawak 
river, and two large boats maintained a close action ; but 
being well armed and bravely manned they escaped 
pillage. 2 

Formerly Jolo, in the Philippine group, was the haunt 
of a renowned and dreaded community of buccaneers. In 
1798, the Spanish schooner, San Jose, lay at anchor 
at Tabita, near this island, and the captain prepared to 
go on shore. The sons-in-law and nephews of the 



1 Mundy, ii. 364. 



8 Hugh Low, Sarawak, 129, 130. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 153 

sultan came out to meet him, displaying every symbol 
of peace, sent a boat forward with refreshments, and in- 
vited him to visit them. Deceived by their frank de- anecdote 
meanour, nattered by their dignity, the captain went 
accompanied only by two sailors. He stepped on board 
one of the native vessels, and was immediately seized 
and threatened with death, unless he surrendered his 
ship. He complied with a hope of sparing the effusion 
of blood ; but the two sailors, nevertheless, were savagely 
murdered before his eyes. The San Jose was then 
piloted to Jolo, and sold with her cargo and crew. The 
sultan knew and sanctioned the whole proceeding, re- 
fusing all apology or reparation which the Spaniards 
were too timid, feeble, or indifferent to extort by force 
of arms. The piratical sultan, indeed, was powerful Piratical 
enough to defy a common enemy. He was entrenched 
in a large city, fortified by thick walls and towers, and 
defended by a numerous and martial population. He 
possessed also many vessels capable of mounting heavy 
guns ; and so dreaded was his name, that embassies from 
the remotest coasts of the Red Sea came to his court, 
with gifts of precious commodities to conciliate his 
favour. 1 

Casting a general view over the rest of the Archi- 
pelago, we find it swarming in all parts with these 
maritime robbers. Generally among the inferior classes, Economy of 
the population on the sea-board addicting themselves ]if p , pl 
to this pursuit, unite with it the vocation of fishers. 
Living in their prahus during the greater part of the 
year, they only retire at particular seasons to their land 
retreats, where new enterprises are prepared. They are 
scattered along the southern or eastern coast of Sumatra, 
among the Linga isles, on the shores of Celebes, on some 

1 De Comyn, Philippines, 244 247. 



154 THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 

of the uncolonised Moluccas, and lately existed even in 
the straits of Sunda between the Bay of Batavia and 
the Banka Channel, as well as along the whole extent 
of Java, where a multitude of small islands still afford 
them places of shelter and abode. Their prahus are, 
for the most part, equipped by from forty to fifty men, 
armed with small brass pieces, pikes, and sabres. They 
commonly assemble six or eight of these vessels some- 
times, however, as many as twenty or thirty, and on 
extraordinary occasions no fewer than a hundred ; and 
combining the power of sails and oars, pursue their prey, 
or escape their enemies with surprising adroitness and 
agility. 1 

Prefer flight When brought to close conflict, they fight with deter- 

coaflict ; mma ti on ; b u t w hen their inferiority of force is obvious, 

they seek refuge in flight to retreats only accessible to 

them. Little groups so surrounded by sunken patches 

of coral reef as to be almost unapproachable, serve 

tbeir them as places of security. From the midst of these 

attacks. fa e y emer g e an( j attack, not only native boats but 
European traders, profiting by calms, contrary winds, 

Cmdty. or the weakness of those whom they assail. When no 
prospect appears of gaining by the sale of their prisoners, 
or there is a chance of detection, they kill without mercy, 
not only the men, but the women and children who fall 
into their hands or sometimes this is done to revenge 

Ransom. an obstinate resistance. Occasionally, one of the captives 
is released to procure a ransom for the rest ; and the 
pirates boldly await his return at some appointed ren- 
dezvous perhaps in the vicinage of a commercial 
settlement. 2 

Among the most notorious and inveterate of the in- 

1 Groot, Moniteur, i. 159. 

* Geographic de VInde Neerlandaise. 1843. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 155 

ferior piratical communities have always been those of T . he Lin 8 a 
of Linga, the straits and the shores of the Malay 
Peninsula. The Linganese prey to a destructive ex- 
tent, on the commerce and industry of all the neigh- 
bouring islands, not only by their own marauding 
expeditions, but in the shelter and assistance they 
afford to others of the same calling from Mindanao. 
With reference to them, as well as the freebooters 
of Rhio, Dutch writers more than thirty years ago 
described them, on the authority of natives 1 , as pirates 
not actually inhabiting those islands, but as being scat- . 
tered over a multitude of islets, which form a miniature 
Archipelago around them although the supreme juris- their . 
diction of the whole rested with the sultanate of Linga. 
An intermediary control over them belonged, in the 
first place, to a self-styled Orang Kaya Linga, two 
brothers, Datu Muda and Datu Panghulu, both esta- 
blished at Palo Mapar, towards the south-eastern point 
of Linga. In the second, authority was exercised by 
another subordinate chief, Ongko Tumangong, who re- 
sided in the little bay of Bocaya, called also Pulo Lama. 
The brothers Orang Kaya Linga, had under their go- 
vernment three places of general assembly or sojourn 
for the bucaneers Sakara, Barok, and Darakong 
forming altogether a disposable force of about 400 
men and eighteen war prahus. On the other hand, 
the Tumangong reckoned under his administration seven 
localities, Galang, Timian, Pulo Bocaya, Seghi, 
Patako, and Bollang, contributing in all 1200 men and 
forty-eight vessels. 

These, the pirates of the Linga group, never gave their occu- 
themselves much pains to cultivate the soil of the islets patlons - 
and rocks on which they dwelt. They watered no 

1 Evidence of Rajah Akil. 



156 THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 

Fisheries. r j ce fields, they planted no gardens, but lived on fish and 
the bread of the sao-o-tree, which is found in abundance 

O * 

Barter. there. This also they exchanged in large quantities 
for other articles of consumption. When an expedition 
was planned, it was customary for the principal chiefs to 
advance their followers' supplies of arms, provisions, and 

Periodical equip a flotilla. On its return, however, with a freight 
of plunder, the owners gained back their own, doubled 
from the general gains of the adventure for the stores 
were always valued a hundred per cent beyond their 

Tyranny of cost. Thus, in this confederation of robbers, the humble 
iefs ' were spoiled by the great ; the rich turned their emi- 
nence to an undue advantage over the poor; and the 
poor, commissioned to pillage, gave up to their masters 
the chief accumulations of their vicarious guilt. They 
were, besides, forced to sell to their rulers at a fixed 
price, whatever they did not require for their own use. 
They disposed of the booty at a large profit to Chinese 
merchants and others coming for trade to the ports of 
Linga. Should it have happened that an expedition 
was prevented for one year, the boats were employed in 
fishing for agar-agar and trepang, which abound in those 
waters, and were sought by them as far as Biliton and 
Banka. All this the sultan obtained at a fixed price, 
a price so small that the fishers' earnings sufficed only 
to buy a daily meal of sago, and thus the economy of 
plunder furnished resources to the hand of oppression, 
for the chartered enemies of trade were themselves the 
slaves and victims of a greater robber than them all. 

Routes of It was the custom of the Linganese freebooters 

lies/fleets" annua % to pursue their enterprise along a well-known 
route, which gave them the constant favour of the 
current and the wind. Like the Lanuns of Mindanao, 
they sailed towards the close of the westerly monsoon, 
or even during December or January. They then 



ITS HISTOEY AND PRESENT STATE. 157 

steered by the straits of Sunda, along the northern 
coasts of Java, where they remained until the turning 
of the east wind, Then traversing one of the passages 
east of that island, they stretched along the eastern and 
southern shores, which they continued to infest until 
the commencement of May. Arrived at the extreme 
point of their route, they took their way back to their 
haunts, pillaging as they went the maritime districts of 
Banka and Palembang. If successful in collecting any 
rich booty, they proceeded directly homewards; but 
when, as it frequently happened, the adventure produced 
little fruit, they harassed the neighbouring coasts until 
the easterly monsoon closed upon their ravages. Then, 
whether with or without a store of plunder, in obedience 
to the imperative signal of the wind, they invariably 
retired to their insular retreat, where, in the torpor of 
reptiles, they remained until' the season of enterprise 
once more returned. 1 

The Dutch, as well as the English, treated with a Forbearance 
forbearance more criminal than magnanimous the pirate p ean g r 
sultan of Linga. The Netherlands' authorities, indeed, Treaties 
sent missions to him, and in 1818, bound him by a * ith the 

... J freebooters. 

treaty to aid in the extinction of a system by which he Anecdote 
flourished and by which his subjects lived ; and this 
convention was continually renewed, but to little pur- 
pose ; for when a whole community is habituated to 
crime, signatures and seals will not restrain them from 
it, especially when from interest as well as predilection, 
they incline to its pursuit. Two years after one treaty 
was signed by this piratical sultan, a trading brig, 
Susanna Barbara, was attacked by five vessels near 
Indramayo, on the coast of Java. The assailants were 
Malays from the vicinity of Linga. They summoned 

1 Muntinghe, Rapport, 1818. 



158 THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 

the captain to surrender, discharged their swivels in 
rapid succession, beat their gongs with frantic energy, 
but failed to intimidate him into submission. Undis- 
mayed, however, they continued to pursue until a round 
shot from the brig struck one of the prahus, which in- 
duced the buccaneers to haul off for the night. Never- 
theless, they followed the chase; and coming up with her 
next morning, inquired whether she was the same vessel 
they had fallen in with the day before. Her captain 
replied " Yes." They then once more commanded him 
to yield, and re-opened their fire. The sails and rigging 
of the Dutchman were considerably injured, but little 
serious harm was effected, though a continued battery 
might have proved fatal in the end. A brisk gale for- 
tunately sprung up, and quickly separated the brig from 
her assailants. She made way for Java ; but the pirates 
never desisted from their pursuit until they saw her 
anchored safely in the roads of Tegal. 1 

In 1825, the two principal pirate chiefs in the old 
territory of the Malay empire were Panghulu Hambah, 
Rajah of Mapar, to whom all the Rayat Laut of the 
Linga group confessed allegiance, and the Rajah Lang 
of Bolang, to whom submitted the sea-people of Gallang 
and other isles situated near the entrance of the Straits. 
Tribes of These do not appear to have been of the pure Malayan 
pirates. race . ^ ere waa a ^ a li events a marked difference be- 
tween the Orang Malays and the Orang Laut. Their 
language was nearly identical ; but in their respective 
character there was an essential dissimilitude. They 
preserved an economy of their own, going to sea under 
captains attached to the interests of their great chiefs, 
from whom, indeed, they hired boats, stores, guns, and 
provisions, in return for which a proportion of the booty 

1 Groot, Moniteur, i. 198. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 159 

was assigned. The authority of these individuals, how- 
ever, was not hereditary, but elective, so that the spirit 
of the people was to some degree expressed in the choice 
of their rulers. 

The pirates of the Peninsula and the Straits, though 
not so formidable or renowned as those of the Minda- 
nese Lake, of Sulu, or of Eastern Borneo, are among 
the most inveterate and destructive in those seas. 1 
Their haunts have been long celebrated as swarming Haunts in 
with miscreants, who, drunk with opium fumes, plun- the straits - 
dered boats and murdered their crews as a profession, 
and once drove away all the European merchants at Ravages of 
Patani, thus extinguishing a market and closing a 
channel of enterprise to the regions of Insular Asia. 2 
At present the most noted haunts are, on the western 
coast, the Bunting, Aree, Cocab, Pisang, Dinding, and 
Sambilang isles, the groups on the Salongore sea-board, 
and between Cape Rachada and Lingie, the rivers Mer- 
bowe, Binnan, Perak, Putteh, Korru, Rio Formosa, and 
formerly the Lingie, with the Straits of Kalang and 
Duyong, Point Romania, and the Carimon isles to the 
south. Eastward lie the creeks and streams of Johore, 
as far as Pahang, the Kemamang river, the rivers of 
Tringanu, and Kalantan, with the islets of Tundang, 
Tingi, Aor, and Redang. 3 In Siak there were usually, 
thirty-four years ago, forty vessels and upwards, under 
two chiefs, tributary to another, who was supreme over 
the whole border. When that personage led the expedi- 
tion himself, eighty prahus generally assembled. Each Large fleets, 
was from eight to twelve tons burden, and carried 
twenty or thirty men, with two guns and four swivel 



1 Muntinghe, Rapport. 

2 Pennant, India Extra Gangem, iii. 32. 

3 Nowbold, Settlements in Malacca, i. 32. 



160 THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 

pieces. The vicinity of Salangore was the habitual 
scene of their depredations. They proceeded thither 
during the easterly gales of June, and remained until 
some booty had been collected or the winds changed. 
They seem never to have ventured on an enterprise 
along the Javan coast. 1 

Malay ra- The coast-dwellers of the Malay peninsula formed in 
other parts several tribes, each of which, known in the 
country dialect as Subi, was under the authority of a 
chief. All these petty rulers were dependent on a prince 
of superior rank, who held his authority direct from the 
sovereign throne. In this manner the whole political 
system of the region was founded on piracy. Giving 
themselves up to no honourable industry, they prowled 
over the seas from coast to coast, living principally on 
sago and fish, and wearing only a girdle about the loins. 
They know by certain signs whether or not the rains 
would be abundant or scanty, whether the weather 
would be turbulent or calm. In their voyages they 
made no use of the compass, but directed their course 
at night by the stars, and in daylight by the sun. 

Pirate navi- Warned by infallible tokens when their boats approached 

gators. 

a coral reef, a shoal or sound, they measured the depth 
of the sea, by day from the colour of the water, and at 
night by the reflection of those luminous orbs, which, 
imagined by the fancy of some nations to be the pre- 
siding influences of peace, served to these buccaneers as 
signs and guides in their adventures of pillage and 
murder. A constant sojourn away from land gave 
them this curious and valuable experience, and in the 
picture of their wild erratic life, in the economy of 
their little fleets, and the hard modes of their precarious 
enterprise, we might realise the illusions of romance, if 

1 Muntinghe, Rapport. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 161 

poetry or charm of any kind could linger for a moment 
among savage marauders, whose stealthy course along 
the shores was followed by massacre, violation, and 
rapine. 

The Rayat Laut were distinguished by many charac- The ***** 
teristics which suffice to disperse all the romantic ideas 
which imagination might suggest of them, or their ad- 
ventures a repulsive aspect, and odours like those 
which spread around the fellahs of the Upper Nile. 
Strict in their domestic laws, they acknowledged none 
to bind their intercourse with others. Great offences, Their social 
it is said, they punished by impaling the criminal on a 
wooden stake shod with iron. For venial faults they Punish- 
contented themselves with tying the culprit hand and ments * 
foot, and attaching him to a post, driven under water 
at a depth of six feet. To this he remained fastened, 
according to the degree of his culpability, from twelve 
hours to three days. 1 When, contrary to traditionary 
usage, which among the ignorant is an authority superior 
to justice, other punishments were inflicted on the Rayat 
Laut, they took to flight. Whole tribes of them Migratory 
abandoned the territories of their chief and fled for pira 
refuge to Borneo, to Sumatra, or to some other islands, 
where they relied on piracy for the means of subsistence. 
They settled, in preference, among those who exhibited 
a readiness to share in their marauding pursuits ; it was 
thus that in former times they obtained from some petty 
princes of Borneo and Sumatra supplies of rice, 
munition, and arms, on condition that all their booty 
should be divided into three portions two for the 
pirates themselves, and one for their ally. A proverbial Traffic, 
saying among them exhibits the whole rationale of this 
usurious system " to give two and receive one." 

1 Groot, Moniteur, i. 270. 
VOL. II. M 



162 



THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



Their at- 
tacks at sea. 



The Ren- 
dezvous. 

Interval of 
rest 



Periodical 
refit 



Scattered 
Malay com- 
munities. 



From the intercourse they held with the freebooters, 
many chiefs amassed wealth in gold and silver, in 
pieces of artillery, in masses of copper ore, and in beau- 
tiful women to be sold as companions for the pillow of 
some richer Indian prince. 

The expeditions of the Rayat Laut were undertaken 
when the east winds began to blow in March, when 
they quitted their retreats, and proceeded to the sea 
tracks of trade. As soon as a prahu came in view, they 
chased her flying from point to point, surrounded her 
with their boats, and then, kriss in hand, clambered on 
board. The cargo was seized, and the crew murdered 
or captured as slaves. They who succeeded in making 
good prizes, carried them at once to their haunts ; the 
others roved until the monsoon turned, when, about 
November or December, all collected at their nests, and 
each received his dividend of the season's plunder. 

An interval of rest was then spent in perpetual de- 
bauch, in revels more barbarous than the celebrated 
orgies of the South American buccaneers. The day 
was passed in cock-fighting, the night in opium smoking, 
or other forms of sensuality ; and when an improvident 
profusion among chiefs and people had wasted all the 
accumulation of a year's adventure, the fleets were once 
more launched, and the course of pillage and havoc 
began anew. Every three months the prahus were 
repaired if at home, in the creeks, under sheds of 
thatch if away, they were hauled up on some safe 
beach to have their hulls careened, and their timbers 
examined. 1 

Communities of this kind are still scattered over 
various parts of the Archipelago, often ruled by exiled 
chiefs, who established themselves among them with 



Seid Hassan Alabnshy, Rapport. Groot, M. i. 272. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 163 

large trains of wives, children, and slaves ; changing their 
place of settlement from time to time, and never ad- 
hering to any particular spot. Little assailable because Nomadic 
nomade, they are among the worst enemies of trade, p 
and their numbers are increased by desperadoes who 
have escaped the executioner's hand in other quarters 
of the East. Barbarian nobles from the bay of Illanun, Their 
from the state of Brune, from a group of isles to the 
north of the Passir river in Borneo, expelled pirates from 
Cayelli in Bouru, fugitives from the north-east of 
Halmahera, from the south-west coast of Celebes, from 
Pontianah, from the Little Lingenese group, from the 
turbulent population in the maritime country of Ma- 
tam, and of Kottaringin, from the northern and eastern 
shores of Biliton, and the north-west coast of the Great 
Bay of Boni, all these, with other vagrant ruffians, join Adven- 
their contributions to the floating and wandering pirate 
race, producing an amalgam of villainy, not perhaps to 
be equalled in any other part of the world. We have 
described as belonging to the past the regular system 
of the Peninsula, but though confused and scattered 
now, with its organisation decayed, immense masses of 
the old piracy remain, in league with the mixed hordes 
which we now pourtray. It may be conceived, there- 
fore, what desolation has been caused by the influence 
of this power, worse than the plague, which blighted 
whole populations, like another scourge of nature. 

The fugitives from Mindanao and chiefs from the Retreats in 
Bornean rivers, mount the largest vessels with the Borneo< 
heaviest guns sometimes even equipping their pon- 
derous lanong prahus, they have been known to pass 
five or six years in a cruize, without returning to their 
general rendezvous ; but making a periodical stay at the 
isles near the mouth of the Jambi river. Indeed they 
once established themselves there, and so powerfully 

M 2 



164 THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 

that the sultan was obliged to ask for assistance from 
the Dutch against a pirate horde which had entrenched 
itself in the very gateway of his dominions. These 
floating communities are joined by Rayats from a little 
group to the north of the Straits of Makassar, a savage 
people, long accustomed to live on piracy, and rein- 
forced from Mindanao and Sulu. Their haunts, inac- 
cessible to pursuit, are known to few but themselves. 
The freebooters of Cayeli, in Bouru, had suffered some 
punishment from the Dutch, when they too added their 
strength to the mixed roving hordes with many formi- 
dable tribes from Tobello in Celebes, and various dis- 
tricts in Halmahera. Several Bornean princes hired out 
to them boats and arms, though sometimes they com- 
pelled their own people to go on expeditions for them, 
which was done also at a later period, by the great 
chiefs of Linga and Rhio. 8 

Manner of The manner of carrying on their piracies is not al- 
carrymg on wa y 8 ^he same . It varies, not only according to the 
personal character of the chiefs themselves, but accord- 
ing to the places whence they come. Generally they 
display little genuine courage, and are ill-provided with 
powder and shot ; but are in both respects far superior 
to the tranquil population whom danger has not yet 
taught the use of arms. Turbulence and jealousy fre- 
quently disturb the order of the fleets. They seldom 
approach the Dutch armed vessels, unless in cases of 
urgent necessity, or when their strength inspires them 
Contests w ^ extraordinary confidence. When forced to con- 
with sloops flict, however, they have many times contended with 
skill and resolution against the armament of a ship of 
war the whole company taking share, though usually 
not more than a fourth is engaged, the others manoeu- 

1 KolflT, Rapport, 1831. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 165 

vering the prahu to and fro. Some, instead of carrying Disguised 
their piratical emblems without disguise, rove in small P 
flotillas, under pretence of fishing or trade, approaching 
the islands unsuspected, and plundering the boats, 
which are deceived by their appearance. 1 The people 
of Pulo-aut often adopt this device, equipping annu- 
ally a considerable number of prahus. Consequently, 
the pirates of the straits and the peninsula, with the 
unsettled hordes, making that region their general place 
of assembly, may be included among the most destruc- 
tive in the Archipelago. Against them, more than 
against the other communities, war has been carried on 
by the European flags. Many of their haunts have 
been cleared, many of their tribes dispersed; but the 
sea is still infested by them, and it is not long since 
a native trader was chased into the very roads of 
Singapore. 

1 Kolff; Rapport, 1831. 



M 3 



166 



THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



CHAPTER 



Pirates of 
Sumatra. 



Of Reteh. 



History of 
this settle- 
ment 



THE wide-spread and ancient system of piracy which I 
am describing, has been traced from Mindanao, through 
the Philippines, to Borneo and Sulu, to the Malay pen- 
insula ; among the islands of the neighbouring sea, and 
in scattered drifting hordes over the whole Archipelago. 
We now find it established in Sumatra, the coasts of 
which were lately formidable to the trader 1 , and are 
still at intervals the theatre of buccaneering outrage. 
Probably few of the aborigines have adopted this pro- 
fession unless we agree that the Malays sprang from 
an interior kingdom of Sumatra, though even the legend 
which assigns them that cradle, derives their earliest 
origin from Celebes. The pirates of Reteh, between 
the mouths of the Jambi and the Indragiri rivers, were 
of a race entirely distinct from the population on either 
side of the district they inhabited. They were evidently 
foreign colonists, and are said to have been descended 
from the famous Lanuns of Mindanao. The cause of 
their emigration from the Lake was a war, undertaken 
several years previously by the Dutch East India Com- 
pany against the sultan of Linga. Mohammed, the 
prince then reigning, called the Lanuns to his aid ; and 
it was from the force which proceeded to assist him, 
that the pirate colony of Reteh sprang. They were 
celebrated and dreaded by the natives, as equal in 
courage and fury to the renowned buccaneers of the 
Philippine group. The rest of the population in the 

1 Anderson, Mission to Sumatra, 72. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 167 

province they tenanted was composed of some submis- 
sive aborigines, and of some prisoners whom they treated 
as slaves. The whole community could muster a thou- Its forces, 
sand men fit to carry arms. Their vessels were ten or 
twelve in number from sixteen to twenty tons burden, 
could carry from fifty to eighty men each, and were 
armed with one great gun, in addition to two pieces of 
inferior calibre. The Lanuns of the Sumatran colony, 
like the pirates of Linga, sent out an expedition every 
year. It was their custom to put to sea as soon as the Season 
violent gales of the easterly monsoon had subsided, and 
the weather began to calm. They steered directly for 
the Lampongs, on the coast of Sumatra, where they 
sojourned for some time the rajahs there being con- 
nected with them by many family ties. Thence they 
proceeded to the northern shores of Java, applying 
themselves to harass the people, and collect the edible 
birds' nests from caverns well known to them. As soon 
as the winds fell, they made the tour of the island, 
cruized about the Straits of Banka, to capture the 
native craft and from time to time descended on land, 
so that at length they perceptibly thinned the inhabit- 
ants of Banka 1 themselves formerly a famous race of 
pirates. 2 

From the south-eastern extremity of Sumatra, to the 
northern end of Banca Straits, spreads a dreary level of 
more than 300 miles, treeless, dead, and silent. Far up Pirate nests 
its muddy creeks dwells a scanty population of Malays, 
who rarely emerge from their hiding-places, except to 
plunder some stranded vessel, which they burn for the 
sake of the iron employed in its construction. The 
crews, if captured, are carried into the interior, to a 



Muntinghe, Rapport. 2 Hamilton, New Account, ii. 121. 

M 4 



168 



THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



Character of 
the people. 



Instance of 
piracy. 



Pirates of 
the creeks. 



Biliton. 

Two races 
of pirates. 



Water 
dwellers. 



desolate and hopeless bondage. 1 The Sumatran coast, 
indeed, from Bancalis to Achin, has long been cele- 
brated for the treacherous and bloody disposition of the 
people who surprised and murdered nearly every stranger 
coming among them. 2 The American ship Friendship 
was attacked a few years since, and captured by the 
Malays of Qualla Battu, on the north-west coast of 
Sumatra. 3 Immediately, the United States despatched 
the frigate Potomac, to avenge the commercial flag 
of the Republic. The place was visited; the people 
were chastised, and no American ship was for several 
years molested in those waters. 4 

The pirates established in the creeks of Saba, Reteh, 
and the river Indragiri, dispersed small divisions of their 
forces around the islands of Brahalla, Allantiga, and 
some others scattered in the vicinity. They then waited 
for the trading flotillas passing from north to south, and 
profited by a calm to attack them. The booty and 
slaves were sold at the port of Sumatra to Arab 
merchants who preferred, and still prefer this kind of 
traffic to any other. 5 

In the island of Biliton, there lately existed, accord- 
ing to native accounts, pirates of two distinct races, 
the one formerly settled in a province of Banka, the 
other descended from the Suku Djarri, a family once 
subject to the sultan of Johore. These communities of 
freebooters lived habitually upon the water in little 
prahus sheltered with mats, and of which each served 
as the separate habitation of a family. These patriarchs 
of the sea were rovers by profession. They never set 

1 Earl, Eastern Seas, 133. * Hamilton, New Account, ii. 126. 

3 Earl, Eastern Seas, 387. 

4 Reynolds, Voyage of the Potomac. Reynolds, On the Exploring 
Expedition. 

5 Kolff, Rapport, 1831. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 169 

foot to earth for purposes of agriculture, or any other 
honest vocation, forming thus a class distinct from the 
real islanders of Biliton. Their prahus were of two 
kinds the dwelling, and the war-boats ; for those in 
which they carried on their piracy were quite different 
from those in which they made their habitual home. 
The family boats were moored at different places fifty Various fa- 

, . . . i r> milies of 

for living, and four for adventure in one eighty for freebooters. 
living, and six for adventure in another a hundred 
and twenty for living, and ten for adventure in a third. 
The largest, however, were seldom of more than four or 
five tons burden, and their crews were armed only with 
two small guns and some lances. These were, in gene- 
ral, the petty marauders who infested the coasts of Java, 
and eked out the means of subsistence with sago and 
fish. Five or six men, with women and children, was 
the average company in a family boat ; and in this pic- 
turesque, but dishonourable manner of life, with all its 
dangers, they found a pleasure not to be abdicated for 
the sake of tranquillity and comfort earned by the con- 
tinuous toil of their hands. 1 

In the neighbourhood of this once notorious haunt, was Karimata 

. . . . pirates. 

the little isle of Karimata, containing, it was said, about 
forty families subject to the prince of Rhio. Though 
subsisting partly on the accumulations of pillage, this 
little population was mainly dependent on the trepang 
fishery, which yielded them about 200 piculs a year. 
Their marauding cruizes were confined to the southern 
coast of Java and were commenced with the rising 
breezes of April. The enterprise was repeated three or 
four times during the monsoon. 2 

All through the south-eastern parts of the Archipe- other P*- 

i /^iii r* i-ri i . rates of the 

lago, in Celebes, Ceram, the Moluccas, the various islands. 
1 Alabashy, Rapport, 1801. 2 Muntinghe, Rapport. 



170 THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 

groups beyond them, and in New Guinea, as well as in 
the great chain of islands extending from Java to Timor, 
hordes of buccaneers have found a refuge, and issue to 
commit offences against industry and trade. Tobello 
in Celebes has from remote times been celebrated as a 
General refuge of the most daring class of pirates. Towards the 
thei^haunts en( ^ ^ *^ e westerly monsoon, their prahus are most 
and cruizes, commonly met on the surrounding waters ; and the 
peacefully inclined natives, constrained by circum- 
stances, enter into friendly intercourse with them, as 
well as with the Lanun races; and not only permit 
their operations, but participate in the division of their 
plunder. As the easterly winds close, they quit that 
neighbourhood to visit the Saleyers, and the channels 
south of them; and if the gales are still favourable, 
infest the shores of Floris, and the isles in the Alias 
Strait. Their sojourn among the northern groups de- 
pends much on incidents very changeable in their nature. 
During the greater part of the year, however, they can 
easily gain the southern isles of the Saleyer group, the 
northern coasts of Celebes, or the Straits of Makassar. 
The smaller boats, indeed, profit by this facility to 
return, while others remain all the year, cruizing and 
increasing their freights of plunder. 1 

Thus one flotilla continually infests, during the first 
half of the year, the coasts of Celebes and the groups 
which, geographically, are attached to it ; and during 
the second, the isles to the east of Java. Celebes, how- 
ever, is not free from pirates during the second half of 
the year, or the south of the Archipelago during the 
first. Fleets of buccaneers continually rove between, 
drawn by any temptation from their usual course, and 
ready to descend on any point where an industrious 

1 Piracy is here a science and a system. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 171 

population with the fruits of its labour offered an in- 
ducement to attack, without the danger of a very fierce 
resistance. 1 

Much of this evil has been eradicated by the efforts 
of the Dutch, though the system is still rampant, if in 
an inferior degree. The hordes of Tobello have left a 
name long to be remembered in connection with the 
barbarism of the Archipelago. Within the limits where 
their hands had liberty to range is situated the little 
island of Wononi. An amphitheatre of hills, gracefully isle of 
curving from the shore, with its face open to the sea, 
enclosed a number of picturesque and romantic villages, its beauty. 
Many streams wound down from the slopes to meet in KS peaceful 
the valley, which with their diffusive beneficence 
fructified richly under the hands of an industrious and 
peaceful population. But the Tobellorais pirates dis- Rav aged by 
covered this retreat, visited it again and again, captured 
many of its people, drove crowds to fly for safety to 
other islands, hunted a few families to a wretched in- 
dependence in the hills, and left a desert in the place, 
which had bloomed in happiness and beauty, until the 
curse of piracy fell upon it, with more than pestilential 
rigour. 2 

In the south-eastern peninsula of Celebes, the people Ravages in 
dwell habitually in secluded spots, in habitations never 
substantially built, because always exposed to the incur- 
sions of pirates. 3 The commerce carried on along the 
shores of the island attracts to this day many bucca- 
neering flotillas, encouraged by some of the chiefs, in 
the districts of Losernarah and Tomori whose subjects, 
with no acknowledged means of life, commit depredations 
by land, as well as by sea, on the peaceful tribes of 

1 Groot, Moniteur, i. 322. 

2 Temrainck, iii. 74. 3 Ibid. 63. 



172 



THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



Saleyer 
group. 



Taboenku. 1 Many of the independent states less known 
to Europeans still indeed form strongholds of the pira- 
The fishing tical system. 2 The islands, also, which geographically 
belong to the southern peninsula, are inhabited by a 
hardy sea-faring people, gaining their livelihood by 
fishing, but varying that occupation with piracy. One 
of their insular fastnesses, Tanekeke, or the Land of 
Sorcerers, is encircled by a chain of rocky islets, very 
difficult to approach. 3 

The group which we have mentioned, named Saleyer 
in Malay "a sail" is composed of one large and 
several small isles, formerly reputed so poor in natural 
capabilities as to fail in the support even of the scanty 
population which inhabited it. Its possession was re- 
garded as rather a burden than an advantage to the 
Company. Since 1824, however, when an inquiry into 
its resources took place, it has been found capable not 
only of subsisting a thick population, but of contributing 
to a valuable trade. Monopoly on the one hand, and 
piracy on the other, had been the origin of its desolation ; 
and the ruins of villages, with the traces of former 
culture, exhibited the real cause of that which had been 
carelessly attributed to the stinted liberality of nature. 4 

In the south-western groups scattered between Bor- 
neo and New Guinea, we follow the traces of the 
piratical economy of the Archipelago. The natives on 
the north-east coast of Wetta are reported by the Dutch 
to have been long addicted to this practice, pillaging 
trading boats, and putting their crews to death. 8 An 
English vessel was a few years since cast off by the 
people of Baba, four Englishmen were killed, and the 



Anecdote. 



1 Temminck, iii. 67. 8 Ibid. 86. 

3 Ibid. 38. 4 Ibid. 39. 

* Kolff, Voyage of the Dourga, 44. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 173 

cargo plundered. Soon after a native prahu was also 
captured. 1 The piratical system of the south-western 
isles was carried on chiefly for the purposes of the slave 
trade, there being little inducement of any other kind. 2 

The Ceramese pirates of Ceram Laut form another Ceramese 
community. They dwell in a large island encompassed p 
by many smaller, the whole fringed round with coral 
rocks, difficult of access. The centre is hilly, where a 
tall tree marking the grave of some fallen chiefs, forms 
a landmark for the seaman. A small population in- 
habits it, partly of aborigines, and partly of strangers 
fugitives, who are treated as serfs obliged to work for 
their masters, to cultivate rice for them, and attend 
them on their piratical excursions. 

The boats employed by the people of the Ceram Their boats. 
Laut and Goram isles, vary very considerably. Those 
used for war are narrow, lightly built, lying low in the 
water, with a stage projecting from the side, on which 
the rowers take their station a frame-work like that 
of the Piron isle canoes. 3 In the middle is built a cabin, 
on the flat roof of which the fighting men move through 
the wild evolutions of their martial dance. Across the 
fore part is erected a thick barricade pierced for swivels, 
and affording protection to the crew, for the attack is 
always made stem on, no bulwarks being raised along 
the sides. Generally the oars are manned by captives Captives, 
from Papua, fed on sago and a kind of periwinkle, with 
a little dried fish, much in esteem among them. They 
spend in piracy the intervals between their fishing 
season, and contribute to the spoliations yearly com- 
mitted on trade and industry throughout the Archi- 
pelago. 4 All these communities, as in many other parts 

1 Kolff, Voyage of the Dourga, 140. 2 Earl, Notes, 204. 

3 Described by Macgillivray, Voyage of the Rattlesnake, i. 207. 

4 Kolff, Voyage of the Dourga, 296. 



174 



THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



New 
Guinea. 



Inhabitants 
of New 
Guinea. 



of the region, are not submitted to the authority of a 
single chief, but form so many savage republics of 
buccaneers. 1 

In New Guinea the system has its branches, and the 
people of Papuaoni and Amalas on the coast directly 
east from Ceram Laut annually send away from 100 
to 120 small prahus, as marauding adventurers. The 
flotilla extends its operations to a considerable distance. 
The modes of warfare among these tribes are exceed- 
ingly primitive bows, arrows, and lances, forming 
their only weapons. They are said to devour the 
prisoners they capture. Whether, however, they or 
the other islanders in that sea, practise cannibalism has 
not been determined by the latest and most scientific 
inquirers. 2 They never attack the Ceramese rovers 
who are powerful enough to retaliate effectually upon 
them. Numbers of prahus, however, are sent out to 
lie in wait among the channels and banks fronting the 
west coast of Timor Laut to plunder the traders of the 
Tenimber group, as they return from their commercial 
voyage to the westward. Other of their "jonkos " 
annually visit these places to fish for trepang, and to 
collect tortoise-shell; but all pillage whenever the 
opportunity occurs *, sometimes even making descents 
upon the coast. 

The people of the immense island of New Guinea 
are not all to be confounded with the piratical popula- 
tions of insular Asia. They form 4 two distinct nations, 
the coast and the hill dwellers, or " infidels of the moun- 
tain," as the old Mohammedan writers described them. 
The latter are the most numerous, but the former the 
most hardy and daring, in consequence of which they 



1 Groot, Moniteur, i. 159. s Macgillivray, Voyage, \. 283. 
3 Kolff, Dourga, 349. 4 Laccpcde, Ages de la Nature, \. 243. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 175 

have become the dominant race. They use their power Coast 
as barbarians generally employ it for the oppression ers ' 
of the weak. They make incursions into the interior, 
seizing the maidens in their villages for sale as concu- 
bines for the chiefs, for these girls are esteemed as Beautiful 
beautiful, almost realising in their charms of form and [jf e cap " 
face the ideal of an Indian voluptuary's desire. 1 

Last in our enumeration of the piratical tribes and Pirate 
natives which prey on the industry and trade of the Borneo* 
Archipelago, are those among the Borneo aborigines 
the Dyaks. I reserve them to this place because 
doubts exist in the minds of some whether they ever 
pursued, or are still addicted to, the freebooter's voca- 
tion. It has been affirmed that Sir James Brooke is Denial of 
the first person who ever charged those wild and pri- theirexi s- 
mitive natives with habits and propensities of the kind. 3 
That this is an erroneous idea is to be proved, not by 
any ingenious declamation, but by simple quotation of 
some authorities prior to Sir James Brooke, and of 
others independent of his views. Old writers, de- proofs of 
scribing the Dyaks of Borneo, though under a wrong tbeirexis- 
name 3 , exactly as they are, inhabiting the interior 
parts, living under chieftains, continuing in the pagan 
faith, but not idolaters, believing in spirits of good and 
evil, with ideal glimpses of a peaceful world beyond, 
with " lances and poisoned arrows for arms," represent 
them distinctly as inclined to buccaneering practices. 
" Some of them," says an author who collected the Various 

authorities. 

1 Kolff, Dourga, 380. 

* Joseph Hume, M. P., Letter to The Times, Feb. 2nd, 1852. 

3 The acute and cautious Daniel Beeckman, who wrote in 1715, 
speaks of the " inland inhabitants " of Borneo as distinguished 
from the foreign settlers (Malays) as pagans, " living generally 
upon rapine and the spoil of their neighbours." Beeckman, 
Voyage to Borneo, 43. 



176 



THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



Accumu- 
lation of 
testimony. 



Example of 
their out- 
rages. 



accounts extant in his day, " lead a piratical life in 
the great rivers, and are most formidable enemies." l 
Nearly a century and a half ago they were notorious to 
travellers as a "fierce, desperate people." 2 In 1819, 
" the Dyaks," on the borders of the river Molucco, to 
the east of the great stream of Banjarmassin, destroyed 
a fort on the banks, and killed one European officer. 
It was generally known that the Dyak population of 
that district, as well as of Banjar, carried on an in- 
tercourse of mutual complicity with the freebooting 
communities more powerful than themselves, of whom, 
indeed, they purchased arms and artillery, to equip 
their own expeditions. 3 

The war schooner Haai, stationed at Sambas, in 
Borneo, suffered considerably from a flotilla of thirty 
" Dyak prahus," which attacked her, in the year 1819. 
At the same time the coasts of Pontianak were much 
infested by Dyak pirates. At Mampawa an action 
took place with them. The chief of the place having 
learned that there were nine of their prahus at the 
mouth of the river, each manned by from thirty to 
forty of these notorious sea-banditti, resolved to attack 
them, though with a small force. They fought at close 
quarters, no other weapon being used than the klewang, 
a heavy sword or cutlass. These Dyaks, according to 
the Dutch writers, came from Sarebas 4 , which is only 
accessible to the peculiarly constructed boats of that 
people. 6 He describes them in their expeditions as 
carrying fire, murder, and havoc along the cultured and 

1 Pennant, India extra Gangem, iv. 58. 

2 Hamilton, New Account, ii. 150. 

3 Halewijn, Journal des Indes, ii. Groot, Mon. i. 233. 

4 Temminck, ii. 260. 

5 The Sarebas and Sakarran are described as " disturbers of 
the coast " by Mr. Robert Burns, Journ. Ind, Arch, iii 143. 



ITS HISTOEY AND PRESENT STATE. 177 

peaceful shores, and bearing away as trophies the skulls 
of their victims. Having at that time few or no fire- 
arms they used klewangs and javelins, with the points 
hardened by fire. 1 They have been known in large Their 

,. .-IT i weapons. 

bodies to join the L/anuns, in their piratical excursions, 

claiming the heads and the iron work captured as their 
division of the spoil. 2 

The sea Dyaks are described by one of the best Sea Dyaks. 
informed writers 3 on Borneo, as frequenting the neigh- 
bouring waters in their prahus, to carry off the heads 
of defenceless fishermen, or any other persons whom 
they may find unprotected, or off their guard. They Their 
inhabit chiefly the tracts about' the rivers Sarebas and p 
Sakarran, with their numerous and large branches, 
which form estuaries and deltas, with many avenues to 
the sea, very favourable to clandestine enterprises, and 
the facility of retreat. 

The country on the great rivers, occupied by the sea Country of 
Dyaks, is generally flat towards the coast, and hilly 
towards the interior. In many parts dense forests 
overshadow it, broken by spacious levels, where the soil 
is fertile and the inhabitants, if industrious, may produce 
rice in abundance, while fruit of a tasteful and nutri- 
tious kind is plentiful, and within the reach of all. 
Small paths intersect the woods, leading from one village Beautiful 
to another, and known to all the pirates, but < only to abodes - 
them, and serving them as a means of communication. 
Though the place of residence is generally chosen on Secret 
the borders of some stream, many villages lie deeply 

1 Groot, Moniteur, ii. 192. * Earl, Eastern Seas, 314. 

3 Hugh Low, Sarawak. Temminck describes the tribes of 
Dyaks which give themselves up " au pillage, au meurtre, et a la 
piraterie," ii. 384 ; and Pritchard (Physical History, i. 455.) 
speaks of the Tedong or Tivan tribes " who lire by piracy ; " see 
also v. 84. 87. 

VOL. II. 1ST 



178 



THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



Villages. 



Sir James 
Brooke. 



secluded in the jungles, accessible by ways familiar to 
none but their tenants and the tribes who may be in 
friendly association with them. Some are situated far 
up the interior, near the sources of rivers, where the 
water is too shallow for purposes of navigation. When, 
therefore, the fighting-men of these communities desire 
to partake in the excitement and gain of a piratical 
enterprise, they march towards the sea, and join the 
flotilla of some tribe located further down the stream. 
The villages of the sea Dyaks are composed of large 
houses, with one common apartment, and many separate 
chambers, with the singular economy of which we have 
been made familiar from the narratives of recent enter- 
prise. 1 

At a council held in 1847, near the confluence of the 
Sakarran and Batang Lupar rivers, the chief of a con- 
siderable tract of country declared, before an embassy 
from Sir James Brooke, that he would kill the first 
man who committed another act of piracy, but he was 
with several others who spoke in a similar tone borne 
down by the majority. Freebooting was to them the 
prescriptive privilege of their tribe ; the inveterate usage 
to which the habits of a life had wedded their attach- 
ment,-their undoubted source of revenue and pleasure. 
While orators and journalists in England deny their 
crimes, and condemn their punishment, they avow their 
offences, and glory in the perpetration of them. The 
people, indeed, when some of their leaders endeavoured 
to put an end to piracy, were enraged by this check 
upon their ancient modes of life, and fled to the villages 
of the interior. There the chiefs were still attached to 
their hereditary vocation, and were too sensible of its 
profitable nature to relinquish it until compelled. 8 

1 Brooke. Keppel, Mundy, and St. John's Views in the Archipelago. 
* Hugh Low, Sarawak, ix. 166. 169, 170. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 179 

Soon after Sir James Brooke visited the Archipelago 
common fame brought to him accounts that the powerful 
tribe of the Serebas, wearing small earrings, were the most 
fierce and treacherous of all the Dyak race. 1 Excepting 
the Sakarran, they were the most savage, delighting in 
pillage and head-hunting, both by sea and land. By 
sea they rowed in their prahus, well-manned, with an 
average of fifty men, and all they fell in with was their 
lawful prey. In their own waters, indeed, they were Serebas 
pleasant, hospitable, and faithful to their engagements, p)ra * es - 
but were held in detestation by all the peaceful tribes. 
The number of rings they wore distinguished them ; on 
expeditions they decked themselves with caps of scarlet 
cloth, a foot high, peaked or square, and embroidered 
with beads, shells, feathers, and bits of paper. Spears 
and swords were their weapons firearms being rare 
among them, and the use of the sumpitan unknown. 
Their boats are plainly built, unlike those with lofty Their 
stems, elaborately carved, of the Balow people. The 
Serebas are not so warlike as the Sakarrans, and dread a 
conflict with fire-arms. In 1841, however, the fighting 
men of their tribe made a terrible incursion into the 
territory of Sarawak, burning and sacking the villages, 
killing the men, and carrying off the women and children. 
A miserable tribe of Sanproas had just previously been 
attacked. In 1842, a fleet of them threatened the 
Sarawak river. The Sakarrans were under a half-bred Sakarrans. 
Arab sheriff, and so fearful were their depredations, that 
the pleasant and fertile borders of the Sibuyow river, 
once populous and cultivated, were utterly abandoned 
by the pacific and well-disposed inhabitants, who could 
never for one season feel secure in the enjoyment of the Their 
fruits of their summer's toil. Many, indeed, were forced ravages. 

1 Brooke, Mundy, i. 202. 

N 2 



180 THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 

to join the pirates, while others fled, a hundred families 
at a time, and thus wholesale depopulation was among 
the works of the buccaneering system. Women and 
children were frequently demanded from the harmless 
communities, and given up in order to put off the time 
of utter impoverishment and ruin. In this manner the 
sprout and blade of a nascent civilisation were trodden 
down ; the very traces of them obliterated, and their 
influence neutralised, until the strength of that peaceful 
genius interposed to secure with its privilege of judg- 
ment its prerogative of mercy. 

Mixed com- The Sakarran river had a small Malay, and a very 
^ numerous Dyak population all piratical, and ruled 
by Mohammedan sheriffs. Sahib, born in this place, 
was for many years lord of numerous river commu- 
nities, communicating with the Lanun pirates, and ac- 
cumulating in his treasuries an overflowing fund of 
plunder. Two hundred Dyak boats were sometimes 
collected under his command, with fifteen or twenty 
Malay prahus, cutting up all the coast trade. In one 
excursion in 1844, they burned eight villages, killed a 
large number of people, and carried away a long train 

Devastation of slaves. When the tribes are by this process driven 

count* from their cultivated homes to a refuge in some spot 
where tillage is unknown, famine usually breaks in upon 
them, and the emaciated frames, the sunken eyes, the 
distended stomachs of these poor savages, consumed by 
the slow and wasting agonies of hunger, appeal to the 
humanity of civilisation to free them from the disastrous 
curse which has fallen on their soil. 1 

Roving ex- The Malays of this pirate race never exceeded 
tions. fighting men, though the Dyaks counted several 



1 Brooke, Mundy, i. 202. 237. 240. 298. 316. 371. 374376; 
ii. 62. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 181 

thousands, and gradually divided authority with their 
former masters. 1 The Serebas Dyaks were accus- 
tomed to surprise small encampments on the shore, or 
parties in boats, or hamlets in secluded situations. 
These acts they achieved of their own authority, yield- 
ing only a nominal allegiance to the sultanate of Brune. 
Their boats are built very long, raised at the stern, and 
the largest pulling as many as sixty paddles, the aver- 
age equipment of each being twenty-five men. 2 They 
are so exceedingly fast that no English gig can compete 
with them. 3 The Serebas prahus often measure ninety 
feet from stem to stern, pull sixty oars, and carry a 
twelve pounder in the bow. The Dyak Bangkongs 
draw only a few inches of water. They are more swift 
and of light build, overhanging a long way at either end. 
When propelled by from sixty to eighty paddles, they 
would outstrip a London wherry, and can be turned 
while at full speed at their own length. Some Malays 
with muskets, and sometimes a swivel or two, usually 
accompany the Dyaks in their boats, which with 
stealthy and silent approach assault a trader in the dead 
of night, and only give warning of their presence by the 
storm of spears which they pour upon his deck. 4 These 
marauders were so powerful that the prince, to whom 
in form they pretended submission, was unable to 
coerce them, and though himself a favourer of piracy, 
demanded aid from the British in the suppression of 
them. " They have more than 300 war prahus 5 ," he Native 
said, " and extend their ravages even to Banjarmassin ; 
they are no longer subject to the government of Brune ; 
they take much plunder from vessels trading between 



1 Keppel, i. 129. * Brooke, Keppel, i. 225. 

3 Brooke, MS. note to Keppel, i. 225. 

4 Keppel, Visit, i. 132. 5 Sultan's Letter, Keppel, ii. 28. 

N 3 



182 THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 

Singapore and the good people of our country." Many 
prahus intending to sail from Brune in 1844, for a com- 
mercial voyage to the British settlement, were deterred 
by the atrocities of the Sakarrans on the high seas. 1 
Kanowit The Kanowits were another tribe of pirates, not only 

pirates. . . . . 

acquiescing and conniving at the operations ot their 
neighbours, but actively pursuing similar adventures 
themselves. In 1845 they attacked and utterly de- 
stroyed a large and beautiful village on the Palo river, 
killing ten men, capturing fifteen women, and hunting 
the rest into the jungle. The communities along the 
north-west coast were that year subject to continual 
Their attacks from them. In 1846 a great fleet ravaged the 
north-west coast seventy war vessels, and twelve 
hundred men sweeping the shore, staining it at many 
points with blood. If, however, an attempt were made 
to enforce by a systematic account of tribe after tribe, 
or of atrocity after atrocity, the necessity of suppress- 
ing the piratical system of the Dyaks in Borneo, a 
whole volume might be occupied with the details. It 
suffices, at present, to show that they were pirates, and 
such pirates as humanity rejoices to destroy. 2 

I may close this sketch of the pirates of the Indian 
Arejiipelago by an account of the vessels which, besides 
the-jf>rahus of the Lanun and Balanini, are made use of 
in the general war against commerce and tranquil in- 
dustry. 

Pirate The most common vessels made use of among the float- 

vessels. j nof communities from the Straits to the south-eastern 

o 

groups, were penjajaps, and kakaps, with paduakans, 
and Malay boats of various size and construction. 

1 Keppel, ii. 85. 

* Mundy, ii. 70. 77. 82. 364 ; Keppel, i. 90. 224, 225. 233. 256. 
259. 264. 272. 274. 288. 297. 310; ii. 26. 28. 39. 64. 7984. 91. 
145. 197. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 183 

That called penjajap is a prahu of light build, The pe "J a - 
straight, and very long, of various dimensions, and 
carrying usually two masts, with square kadjang sails. 
This boat is entirely open, except that aft is a kind of 
awning, under which the headman sits, and where the 
magazine of arms and ammunition is stowed away. In 
front it carries two guns of greater or less calibre, of 
which the muzzles peer through a wooden bulwark, 
always parallel to the line of the keel. Penjajags of 
large size generally carry, in addition to these, some 
swivel pieces, mounted along the timber parapet ; while 
boats of inferior tonnage are armed only with two 
lelahs, elevated on a beam or upright. From twenty to 
thirty rowers, sitting on benches well covered with 
mats, communicate to the vessel with their short oars a 
steady and rapid motion, the more swift in proportion 
as the prahu is small. Large ones, therefore, are often 
left hidden in some creek, or little maze of islets, while 
the light skiffs, flying through the water, proceed on 
their marauding errand. 

The Kakap prahu is a small light boat, provided with The Kakap 
a rudder oar, but with no other oars or sculls. It carries p 
only one mast, with a single quadrangular sail. Like 
the penjajap, it is built of very buoyant timber, the 
planks being held together by wooden pins, and lashed 
with rattans. The pirate never goes to sea with a kakap 
alone, and the voyager may be sure whenever he des- 
cries a kakap, that a penjajap is not far behind, moving 
along, perhaps, in the shadow of the high coast, or 
lurking behind some island, or lying within the seclusion 
of some woody creek. Eight or ten of the best fighters 
are usually chosen to man these light skiffs, which 
remind us of those flying proas of the Ladrones described 
by a French voyager. 1 In calm weather the pirates 
1 Note to Sonnerat, 139. 

N 4 



184 THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 

row in these buoyant gallies along the shore, or mount 
the small rivers, confiding in their agility, and knowing 
well that if surprised they may fly into the woods, bear 
their little skiff with them, and launch it again at some 
spot unknown to their pursuers. 1 

Paduakan Padudkans are native vessels having a single mast in 
the form of a tripod, and carrying a large lateen sail of 
mat. They are from twenty to fifty tons burden, and 
of great beam, with lofty sides, and little hold in the 
water. They are steered by two long rudders, which 
are lifted up when the vessel is moored or passing 
through a shallow. 2 

Ordinary The ordinary prahus made use of by the Malay 

Malay boats. pj ra t eSj a t the present day, are from eight to ten tons 
burden, very well manned and exceedingly fast. Usually 
they are armed on the bows, centre, and stern with 
swivel pieces, small in calibre, but of long range. 
When preparing to attack, strong musket-proof bul- 
warks of timber, called apilans, are erected, behind 
which the guns are fought until a gong gives the signal 
for boarding. Safety and success, however, are chiefly 
relied upon through skill in manoeuvre. An assault is 
rarely if ,#ver made, except during a calm or a lull 
between the land and sea breeze ; though should a wind 
spring up, the Malays, from their hydrographical know- 
ledge, dexterously escape, elude their pursuers in a 
maze of isles, or leave them shoaled upon a bank. From 
ten to twenty prahus compose a squadron, and the 
armament consists of long boarding spears, krisses, 
hatchets, parangs, klewangs, muskets, and blunderbusses, 
with missiles, such as stones, and sticks pointed and 
hardened with fire. 3 

1 Kolff, Rapport, 1831. 

8 Earl, Voyage of the Dourga, note, 89. 

3 Newbold, Settlements in Malacca, i. 39. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 185 

It may be decided from this view of the immense and 
complicated system of piracy, which grew up through 
ages in the Archipelago, whether the trading nations 
of Europe resorting for commerce to that quarter of 
the globe, could fail to fall into collision with the 
common enemies of all industry and peace. And 
it may be assumed that history will justify the acts 
which first checked and will in the end eradicate this 
baneful influence from a region so full of beauty, so rich 
in attractions, so wealthy, and so capable of civilisation. 



186 



THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



History of 
efforts to 
suppress 
piracy. 



A.D. 1705. 

Dutch 

attempts. 



Maritime 
regulations. 



CHAPTER IX. 

EFFORTS FOR THE SUPPRESSION OF PIRACY. 

THE history of the exertions made by European 
powers for the repression of the piratical system might 
be extended to any length, or narrowed within any 
limits. It is a chain of small links drawn from the 
obscurity of a remote period to the present day ; every 
year during the last century might be marked by some 
instance, proved from solid, recorded authority, while 
the whole might be fused into one general descrip- 
tion of the war, as a conflict between trade and its 
destroyers. 

At the commencement of the last century the Dutch 
had made many attempts to extirpate a system which 
they found to prey with disastrous influence on their 
commercial enterprise. Among their other schemes 
was that Japanese device of restricting the builders of 
native craft to one class of models, of making the fisher's 
occupation a licence, and governing the seas by an 
organisation of nautical police. They adopted, besides, 
a regulation, which for its arbitrary nature was worthy 
of a Shaman's college fixing the number of crew and 
passengers in all native craft, a plan designed no doubt 
as much for the security of their political influence, as 
for the safety of their commercial enterprise. A boat 
of thirty tons might carry fourteen souls, while dis- 
tinctions were made between their coming from Makas- 
sar, Mandhar, Bali, Bouton, Borneo, or the Peninsula. 1 

1 Groot, Afoniteur, i. 160. 



ITS HISTOKY AND PRESENT STATE. 187 

If we condemn these inventions of the Dutch, it is 
for their barbarian character, and not for the object 
towards which they were confessedly directed. Piracy 
was then so flagrant that the vigour of an European 
nation was required to stem its ravages. In 1708, on A - D - i?08. 
the coast of Borneo; in 1726 on the shores of Timor piracy? eS 
and Solor ; in 1751 near Java, signal instances occurred, 
and in 1769 the Sea Lion with twenty-four men, enter- 
ing the Bay of Lampongs in Sumatra, was captured by 
forty-eight pirates, in a single prahu, and all the crew 
were murdered. 1 

Continued decrees, to regulate the size of boats, and Negotiation 

, , , f ., . n j f , with Indian 

the number or their company, were issued, and the princes. 
Indian princes also were invited to furnish the traders 
with passes, indicating the build of their vessels, the Passports. 
armament and numerical force of the crew, while the 
passengers themselves were placed under restrictions as 
to the time of their arrival and departure. The wea- 
pons on board were to be examined and compared with 
the stipulations of this license. In addition it was 
resolved to patrol the seas in boats, called " thousand 
feet," which moved under oar and sail, and were manned 
by six Europeans with a company of natives. These 
were to supersede the old gallies of Venetian build, ajid 
the use of them was judicious, though the restrictive 
laws belonged to that class of barbarous devices which 
infringe on the liberties of all to provide against the 
crimes of some. 

Jambi in Sumatra. Sambas in Borneo. Pahang; and A - " 17m 

T , . . Growth of 

Johore on the Peninsula were early notorious to the the evil. 
Dutch as the resorts of buccaneers. The Sultan of 
Johore, indeed, exculpated himself from direct compli- 
city, but the connection of those places with the pirate 

1 Huyser, Beknopte, 133. 



188 



THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



system became daily more obvious. In other parts of 
the Archipelago the evil grew, and, comprehending no 
grander scheme, the Netherlands' government imagined 
a new restrictive law. They placed a ban on the ship- 
wright's art, throughout all those parts of the region to 
which their authority extended. They declared that in 
future all vessels of warlike build should receive no 
passports, and wherever they appeared should be con- 
demned as piratical, without reference to the prince 
Cooperation who had commissioned them to their voyage. In this 
Lnd powers" assumption of imperial rule the Dutch persevered, and 
secured, as far as they were able, the allowance of the 
native powers in their crusade against pirates. The 
extirpation of them was an invariable condition of every 
treaty. Even during the Old Company's existence, a 
colonial marine was established which inflicted many 
heavy retributions on the free booting hordes. A trading 
boat was on one occasion attacked by forty prahus in 
the Straits of Banka ; two natives of Sumanap in Ma- 
dura were on board, and, seeing no chance of successful 
resistance, allowed a crowd of their assailants to mount 
the vessel, and then blew her up an incident com- 
memorated on a monument raised by the Dutch near 
the spot. 

In 1807 a circumstance happened, which at once 
illustrates the character of Indian piracy, and furnishes 
an episode of romance to relieve that monotony which 
invariably belongs to a picture of bloodshed and horror. 
The cruizer-of-war " Vreede," was, in May 1807, at- 
tacked in the Roads of Indramayo, Java, by seven 
corsair prahus, each manned by about 100 men. After 
some resistance, most of the Company took to flight in 
boats, but the commander, Beekman, with the second 
officer Stokbro, plunged into the sea. The former was 
drowned, and the latter fell into the hands of the buc- 



Anecdote. 



A.n. 1807. 

Romantic 

incident. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 189 

caneers. They shaved his head, stripped him, and car- 
ried him with them to Lampong. There he suffered 
every species of inhuman usage, and was even menaced 
with death. Presented as a gift to the prince of the 
Lampongs, he was treated as the most menial of slaves, 
and occupied with the most exhausting toil. Seven 
months of suffering and humiliation passed. He was 
then sent to the isle of Linga, and sold to the chief for 
thirty Spanish dollars. Hence he was transported to 
Rhio, where there was a Dutch garrison. The mitigated 
severity of his new service allowed him additional free- 
dom, and he found means to communicate with a number 
of the Chinese residents. Among them was one, Tan 
Lianseeng, of Emonian origin, though born near Rhio, 
and for that reason surnamed Baba. 

Baba Lianseeng, a substantial trader, owned a brig, 
with which he made an annual voyage to Singapore. 
Commerce had not entirely ossified this man's heart. 
He took pity on Stokbro, and being then about to depart 
on his periodical expedition, begged the prince to part 
with his European slave. The favour was granted. 
The Chinese purchased his new friend for fifty piastres, 
and carried him to Samarang. There the Dutch go- 
vernor, charmed with Baba's liberality, offered to repay 
the ransom ; but in the approval of his own conscience, 
the merchant discovered a sufficing reward. Stokbro 
married, and some years later, on the restoration of 
the Netherlands' authority, became a functionary of 
some importance in the Residency of Japara. All his 
life he evinced the most cordial gratitude to his Fokien 
benefactor, whom, thenceforward, he called his brother, 
and admitted to every endearment to which that title 
gives a claim. When Baba Lianseeng visited Java for 
trade, the Dutchman's welcome was always one of sin- 
cere hospitality. Stokbro fetched him from the port in 



190 



THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



Dacndels* 
exertions. 



A. D. IfelO. 
Adventure 
of The Fly 



A. D. 1811. 

French 

efforts. 



his own carriage, feasted him sumptuously, and kept 
him eight or ten days under his friendly roof. This 
visit, indeed, was a periodical festival, in which the 
Chinese was hero of every honour, and applauded in 
continual repetition by a large circle of the community 
there. Stokbro died at Samarang, in July, 1844, while 
Baba Lianseeng was still living in July, 1845. 1 It is 
a grateful task to commemorate these passages of true 
romance, and to dwell upon these illustrations of the 
rarer virtues, in which a liberal gratitude is discovered 
springing from the most magnanimous offices of 
friendship. 

The attempts of the Dutch Company to suppress 
piracy were renewed by its successors in authority, and 
when the isles of the Spice group diminished in com- 
mercial value, policy enforced their retention, to hold a 
check between the pirates of Mindanao and the southern 
parts of the Archipelago. 2 Marshal Daendels exerted 
his power with much vigour, but little effect, though a 
flotilla of forty armed prahus, equipped in 1810, gave 
some security to the Javan shores. Nothing, however, 
inspired fear into the minds of the buccaneers. In the 
commencement of that year, an English brig, the Fly, 
Captain Kemmel, was attacked at Surnanap by pirates, 
who came on board under pretence of trafficking. Mur- 
dering the commander and the pilot, they made them- 
selves masters of the vessel ; and numerous instances of 
the same nature illustrated the influence of the system. 
The French pretended to employ much energy in the 
defence of trade, but effected nothing during the brief 
period of their dominion. 

During the English administration of Java, its coasts 



1 Groot, Moniteur, i. 162. 

* Rottger, Ten Years in the East, 122. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 191 

were more than ever the resort of piracy. In March, A. . 1812. 
1812, the haunts were attacked by the British schooner enterprises. 

of war Wellington, with two gun-boats and six native The 

^ ? J i . ^ Wellington. 

prahus. One large pirate vessel was audaciously pitted 
against the Wellington, which narrowly escaped, and 
had many of her company wounded. In the following 
May, the boats of the Modest, royal navy, had an The 
engagement with a marauding flotilla, probably one of 
those which then prowled incessantly among the chan- 
nels of the Kangeang group, descending on the coasts 
to carry on their predatory operations. The Coro- The Cor - 

. -ii -r mandel. 

mandel going aground on the coast of .Borneo, was 

taken and burned ; the Matilda fell in with a pow- The Ma - 

erful fleet; the Helen barely saved herself in a con- The Helen. 

flict with a single prahu, mounted by eighty men ; and 

an English trader was plundered at Koti, on the east 

coast of Borneo examples which prove the dangerous 

character of the piracy then consuming the commerce 

of those seas. 

English and Dutch continued during the first quarter United ef- 

- ,, . ,. . Y 1 . forts of the 

or this century to carry on operations against the pira- English and 
tical system ; and the Netherlands' flag, especially, was Dutch - 
proclaimed as a symbol of protection to the traders of 
all the Archipelago. Cruizers were equipped to patrol Cruizers 

,._ , . , . , stationed. 

different stations, and various schemes were projected 
for surrounding Java with a cordon of armed boats, 
built on a peculiar model, and designed to contend on 
equal terms with the fleet and easy vessels of the buc- 
caneers. 1 Nevertheless, the depredations of the pirates increase of 
increased rather than diminished ; and they not only in- p 
fested the highways of traffic, but took possession of 
territories as in the tin districts of Banca. A cata- Square- 
logue of square-rigged ships captured about that period, ngged 



Muntinghe, Rapport, 1818. 



192 



THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



ships 
captured. 



A. D. 1821. 



Improved 
plans of 

.-hip- 
building. 



Plans for 

suppressing 

piracy. 



Cruizing 
boats. 



suggests some conception of the injury inflicted on the 
European settlers, as well as the original population of 
the Archipelago. Stimulated, therefore, by these oc- 
currences, the Dutch were perpetually devising new 
plans, few of which were effectual for the objects they 
were intended to fulfil. 

The inefficiency of their naval force employed at that 
period in the Indian seas, was acknowledged by the 
Dutch, and its augmentation recommended. Not only 
was this confessed, indeed. The invention of their 
shipwrights was allowed to be unequal to any rivalry 
with the ancient navigators of the Eastern Ocean. 
They were not, in truth, ashamed to receive a lesson 
from their enemies, for their own naval architecture was 
humiliated in comparison with the winged flotillas of 
the piratical race. Their vessels were of too deep a 
draught to pursue the buccaneers into the shallow waters 
to which they fled ; they were too cumbrous to chase 
them among the tortuous channels they chose for refuge, 
or into the winding rivers which led to their secluded 
haunts, and too unwieldy to follow with oars the ma- 
rauders when favoured by a calm. 

The spirit of economy ruled the councils of the 
Netherlands' government. An extension of the colo- 
nial marine would be a costly expedient, and might not 
be an effectual one. It was, therefore, resolved for the 
sake of thrift, as well as from a persuasion of its efficacious 
nature, to adopt a new plan, to surround the rich and 
fertile island of Java with a line of native vessels, espe- 
cially commissioned against piracy. A model was chosen 
of a light commodious boat, to carry a four-pounder gun, 
with some swivel pieces, and a company of twenty-four 
men armed with muskets and pikes. They were to be 
under the jurisdiction of the Residencies, and selected 
as far as possible from the Malay, the Bugis, and the 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 193 

Sumbawa people good mariners and of respectable Native 
character. Indeed, for their fidelity, their relatives 
were required to offer some kind of guarantee. The 
commander was paid twenty florins a month, the second 
officer twelve, and each sailor eight, besides a provision 
of rice, salt, and oil. They were, in addition, entitled Economy 
to a share of any booty they might capture, and peculiar qnadron. 
rewards were displayed in prospect to those who sig- 
nalised their names by any achievement of particular 
brilliance or gallantry. 1 The fleet was divided into 
eight squadrons, each moving continually along the 
coast from one point to another, where the station of 
the next commenced ; and thus a succession of little Java sur- 
flotillas was continually moving round the whole island, iineof y 
to protect its industry and the trade of its people, cruizers. 
That peaceful merchant prahus should not be harassed Sea police 
by them, their owners were enjoined to register their 
vessels at some Dutch port, besides painting a fixed 
number in figures, at least two feet in height, on the 
sail, and on some conspicuous part of the hull. 

The plan of obtaining auxiliaries among the natives Native 
was a liberal and judicious device, which promoted con- 
siderably the excellent object in view. 2 One Moham- A.H. 1821. 
medan chief, in 1821, crushed the piratical community value. 
of Biliton, and established the Dutch supremacy in that 
island. 3 Its head men submitted with grace, accepted 
oaths of fidelity, and declared that their subjects, ab- 
staining in future from evil pursuits, should confess 
the Netherlands' authority. Two hundred war prahus Pirates of 
were under the command of these insular marauders, ] L n * 
but they submitted to the Muslim leader because they 
knew he was armed with the commission of a powerful 

1 Groot, Moniteur, i. 200. 2 Ibid. i. 201. 

3 Capellen, Chronique de FInde, 1821. 
VOL. II. O 



194 



THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



A.D. 1822. 
Pirates of 
Celebes 
attacked. 



A.D. 1823. 
The Gene- 
ral Koch. 



Ravages in 
the Mo- 
lucca group. 



Rajah 
Djilolo. 



His career. 



European state. Next year an expedition visited the 
north-west coast of Celebes; a frigate, five small 
vessels, twenty prahus with 1000 native troops, a body 
of Dutch marines, and fifty Makassar Jlangeurs. They 
laid waste with flames a great many forts and villages, 
burnt fifty vessels, captured twenty-three guns, and put 
to death forty buccaneers. 1 To balance this success a 
deplorable event occurred in 1823 on the coast of Java. 
The General Koch, trading brig, was on the 27th of 
October attacked by seven corsair boats. The master, 
R. Thompson, was murdered, while the commander, 
with a number of the crew, only saved themselves by 
swimming to shore. 2 

The Dutch colonies in the Molucca group had not 
enjoyed tranquillity since the restoration of 1816. 
Hostile influences perpetually counteracted the plans of 
the Governor General, and the marauding system, more 
than all, prevented the establishment of peace. Chief 
among its promoters was Rajah Djilolo, one of the most 
renowned pirates of the country, who spread his auda- 
cious devastations even to the vicinity of Ternate, and 
under the batteries of Fort Victoria, 

This famous freebooter was descended from a Tidorian 
prince of the same name, who about thirty years pre- 
viously, when his dynasty was overthrown, fled and 
seized some Alfoeran districts under the jurisdiction of 
Ternate. Next he retired for refuge to the little-known 
island of Ceram, with its unexplored wilderness of sago 
forest. There he established a retreat, and issued from 
time to time to plunder the Dutch factories. In 1823 
these exploits of Rajah Djilolo animated the Governor- 
General to attempt his capture. Information was 



1 Eysinga, Manuel, 1821. 

2 Tobias, Rapport Generale, 1823. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 195 

brought that he had fortified himself at Hating on the 
northern coast of Ceram, where a number of native war 
boats had been seen collected. The pirate chief refused 
to hold an interview with a Dutch commander, fired on 
the Netherlands' flag, and defied every attempt at nego- 
tiation. Two ships were then commissioned to reduce 
him. They proceeded first to the settlement of Haway, 
eighteen miles from Hating, where the pirates had their 
station. A heap of ashes only was found as a memorial His retreat 
that the place had been, and that Djilolo had enjoyed 
his revenge. Next day the vessels anchored in the bay 
of Hating. No signs appeared of warlike preparation, 
and none of an amicable welcome. A boat was sent on 
shore with a letter, inviting the rajah to come on board 
with his chief secretary and another person, that he 
might go to the capital of the Moluccas, and there 
agree with the Netherlands' government on arrange- 
ments which he had hitherto neglected to observe. An 
hour was allowed him for the preparation of an answer. 
It passed, and another message was sent. A reply then 
came that the rajah was away, which was treated as a 
pretext, because no allusion to his absence had at first 
been made. The two corvettes immediately opened 
fire ; he with equal alacrity fired in return. A rapid 
cannonading took place, and the Dutch soon attempted 
to carry the place by assault ; but a deep fosse inter- 
vened between them and the walls, so the action con- 
tinued until night, and was next morning renewed. 

Shortly, however, upon a simultaneous attack by sea His strong- 
and land the walls were carried, their defenders dis- hol , d **' 
persed, and the pirate settlement obliterated from the 
spot. In its place a new fort was erected, and left in 
charge of a small company, for the protection of the 
harmless aborigines, and to check the marauding system 
then active along the coast. A desirable end had been 

o 2 



THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



A. n. 1825. 
Flight into 
the woods. 



Negotia- 
tions with 
him. 



His instal- 
lation as a 
king. 



Fortified 
settlement 
In Ceram. 



thus effected. A haunt was rooted out, and the limits 
of piratical enterprise had been confined; but the formi- 
dable Rajah Djilolo had fled to the interior, in the 
enjoyment of a freedom which could not fail to be a 
curse on the lives, the liberties, and the possessions of 
many better men. 

At the commencement of 1825, the rajah was still 
free. Flying into the impenetrable woods of Ceram, 
he maintained a barbarous independence, and levied 
tribute on the industry of the populations around. To 
subdue him seemed impossible. His tactics defeated 
their skill. Negotiation was then applied to secure 
what arms had failed to achieve. The Dutch sent to 
him a messenger offering to recognise him as an in- 
dependent prince of Ceram, if he would acknowledge 
the protection of their flag. In addition, they promised 
that if he would accept and abide by this arrangement, 
his brother, then an exile at Japara, should be brought 
to Amboyna, whence he should altogether be restored 
to perfect freedom. Negotiations were immediately 
opened, and Djilolo appeared inclined to agree, provided 
he was acknowledged free from all allegiance to the 
sultan of Tidor, whom he declared to have confirmed a 
wicked usurpation by a cruel tyranny. At last, it was 
settled that he should occupy the southern coast of 
Great Ceram under the protection of the Nertherlands' 
government, and he then requested as a peculiar favour 
that authority over himself and his new dominions should 
be confided to the exiled brother, whom he cared for 
more than all in the world. That personage, therefore, 
Prince Asgar, was installed on a Ceramese throne, and 
the pirate chief became the first in a line of barbarian 
kings. 

The Dutch continued to hold a fortified position on 
the coast, at Hating, and the conciliation between 



ITS HISTOKY AND PRESENT STATE. 197 

them and Djilolo produced an admirable effect among 
the populations of all that group, where the most poetical 
charms of nature have been associated with the vilest 
acts of man. 1 

When the British and the Netherlands' governments A. n. 1 824. 
in 1824 concluded the important treaty of London, * 
they foresaw that the suppression of piracy was a task, 
in which both must be interested, and both must be en- 
gaged. The stipulations they were making to secure 
the expansion and the liberties of commerce could not 
fulfil their aim unless the ancient and destructive 
system of marauding were effectually assailed. There- 
fore, a prominent article in the treaty was the fifth : 

" Their Britannic and Netherlands' Majesties in like Clause re- 
manner engage to concur effectually in repressing piracy 
in those seas ; they will not grant either asylum or pro- 
tection to vessels engaged in piracy, and they will in 
no case permit the ships or merchandise captured by 
such vessels to be introduced, deposited, or sold in any 
of their possessions." 2 

Questions have arisen upon the sincerity of the two Efforts of 
governments when they included this 'clause in their ^^ 
convention. Holland has never fulfilled any great part ments. 
as paramount authority in the Indian Archipelago, and 
until 1845 Great Britain allowed Europe with reason to 
suspect her faith. The efforts of neither were con- 
tinuous, systematic, or worthy of an imperial power, 
and, in consequence, piracy flourished on the plunder of 
a struggling trade. It was not easy, indeed, to eradicate 
a system to which a great population had for ages 
looked as the ordinary means of life 3 ; but it was never- 



1 Tidschrift, vii. 2. Groot. 

2 Art v. Treaty, 17th March, A.D. 1824. 

3 Groot, Moniteur, i. 204. 

o 3 



198 



Activity 
of the 
Dutch. 



Continued 
ravages of 
the pirates. 



Ceramese 
fleet. 



THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 

theless possible to have effected more than was effected 
for the defence of that industry which supplied materials 
of commerce to the Archipelago. 

The Dutch, however, were not entirely inactive. In 
1824, negotiations with the princes of Celebes led to a 
renewal of the Great Bugis contract, one article of 
which stipulated that vessels, in order to be admitted 
into Dutch ports, should be furnished with passes, and 
subjected to the navigation code of the Netherlands' 
government. A clause of this character was considered 
justi6able from the state of affairs reported in that part 
of the Archipelago. Marauding expeditions, it was 
said, produced incalculable loss to the trade of Ma- 
kassar. Pirate fleets, to the number of sixty or eighty 
prahus, might frequently be seen rushing through the 
Straits of Saleyer, bearing down upon the native boats, 
and cutting off freighted squadrons, sometimes of twenty 
well-armed vessels. They continually made descents 
on those shores, ravaged whole provinces in Bouton, 
and threatened every year to lay waste, with fire and 
sword, the beautiful and fertile island of Sumbawa. 
There were cofonies of freebooters at Taboenken and 
Tobello the descendants of fugitives from Ternate, 
Batchian, Tidor, and Ceram, who quitted their native 
islands from 1780 to 1790, to fly from the troubles in 
which Dutch misgovernment had involved the whole of 
that unhappy group. 1 The princes of Tidor and Ternate 
themselves now engaged by treaty to aid in checking 
the depredations of these freebooters, descended though 
they were from former outcasts of their soil. 

In this year a fleet of sixty-six Papuan or Ceramese 
pirates appeared off Banjawangi, and threatened also 
the little isle of Kangeang; fought a gun-boat with 



1 Schelleet Tobias, Rapport, 1824. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 199 

success, and escaped from a large Dutch flotilla. Various 
other coasts and waters were visited by immense swarms 
of marauders from various directions, and many engage- 
ments took place between them and the native cruizers 
off Java. These, well manoeuvred and bravely manned, 
obtained many successes; but it was not concealed that 
the structure of the boats was still inferior to those of 
the buccaneers, which, more lightly built, seemed to 
fly before the monsoon, which, aided by oars, carried 
them rapidly along. 1 The conflicts, however, were not Conflicts 
only between the pirates and native vessels. One of at sea * 
the most protracted and sanguinary battles on record 
took place with the transport-ship Fathel Barie, carry- 
ing a military detachment of 225 men, which was 
attacked by two prahus, and fought them at close 
quarters. After a long cannonade, and the loss of many Anecdote, 
lives, one of the pirate vessels suddenly caught fire, 
burned rapidly into one roaring blaze, and blew up with 
a loud explosion. Her crew plunged into the sea, and 
swam for land, but several were killed as they buffeted 
with the waves, while the second prahu contrived to 
escape under a tempest of artillery and musket shots. 2 

The Dutch, when the convention of 1824 was con- A. p. 1825. 
eluded, lost no time in professing their desire to fulfil 
its stipulations. They inquired of Mr. Crawfurd, the 
British resident at Singapore, whether his government 
intended to develope a plan for extinguishing piracy, 
and suggested an union of the two nations in some plan 
for arriving at that result. They were informed that 
the question occupied the notice of the British govern- 
ment, and learned that the treaty of 1824 with the 
princes of Johore, relating to the cession of Singapore, 

1 Batavische Courant, 1824. G. M. 
s Groot, Moniteur, i. 235. 
o 4 



200 



THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



Tribes of 
pirates. 



Fishers in 

theBornean 

sea. 



Piratical 
fishers. 



engaged them to prevent their subjects from under- 
taking piratical enterprises. More than this, however, 
was essential. Prohibitory decrees never changed the 
character of any community. It was necessary to en- 
courage in the people a love of industrious pursuits 
instead of the brigandage which had been their cus- 
tomary means of life. To extirpate the calling ap- 
peared a deluding dream. The tribes were wedded 
to it by hereditary habit, and were unconscious of its 
base or criminal nature. Inured from immemorial time 
to dwell upon the seas they rarely sojourned on land, 
except under necessity, and followed piracy as the fa- 
vourite occupation of their lives. Thus, to conciliate 
them seemed a prospect on the horizon, fleeting as it 
was pursued. To coerce them was not much easier. 
Expeditions to devastate their country were ineffectual 
to deter them from retaliating on the defenceless voy- 
ager. They suffered no loss in the ruin of a few 
branch-constructed huts, and their prahus were as 
easily built as burned. Nothing but a general and un- 
remitting crusade upon their haunts could clear them 
from coast or sea ; but many devices were tried before 
this conviction was adopted. 

In the waters round Biliton and Banka agar-agar 
and trepang are plentiful. A flotilla of forty or fifty 
prahus was usually equipped every year by one chief, 
with others from different islands, and the sea-people 
found these fisheries a source of profit, as well as an 
immediate means of life, since they were taken as 
return cargoes by the Chinese junks which visited 
Kuala Diu. When, however, the Netherlands' govern- 
ment took possession of Biliton, the Linganese fleet, 
which, in truth, did not always confine itself to the 
peaceful enterprise of fishing, made no more its annual 
visit to that sea. Thus the Orang-laut were cut off 



ITS HISTOEY AND PRESENT STATE. 201 

from one of their principal sources of subsistence. To 
return them this opportunity of an honest life appeared 
a means of reclaiming many from piratical pursuits. 
The re-establishment of the fisheries was, therefore, 
proposed, and in October, 1825, the Panghulu agreed, 
that every prahu equipped for fishing should carry a ' 
passport with a particular seal, to be made use of for 
no other purpose ; that it should be provided with no Policy of 
weapons or instruments except those which were ne- the DLltch - 
cessary for catching trepang ; that ten vessels only, 
destined for the protection of the whole flotilla, should 
be exempted from this rule, and the Panghulu, or one 
of his near subordinates, should be always in command 
of them. The armament of each should be expressly 
described in its passport, with the officer's name. A Maritime 
little before the fleet's departure the Panghulu should regulation - 
communicate to the residents of Banka and Biliton, 
through the Sultan of Linga, the name of the chief ap- 
pointed to lead the ten war prahus, as well as the pro- 
bable number of boats to be employed. Every vessel 
hailed by a Dutch cruizer was to approach or lie to on 
the first signal, that its papers might be examined. 
The panghulu, or his deputy, was to be responsible for 
the conduct of all. The economy of this fishing fleet 
tended, therefore, to prevent the chance of piracy, and 
the collection of so many of the sea people together 
rendered the surveillance of the whole more easy. 1 

In this year one of the Java cruizers was battered to Destruction 
pieces by eight pirate vessels, and two Dutch function- ^J^ teb 
aries on board were killed. Several other conflicts A - D - 1826 - 
took place, traders and fishing boats being captured in Captures 
different parts of the Archipelago schooners, brigs, by piratcs - 
and barques of various sizes, freighted with valuable 

1 Angelbeek, Rapport, 1825. 



202 



TiiE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



The Anna. 
The Sara 
Theodora. 



A. i>. 1 829. 
Results of 
efforts at 
repression. 



cargoes. Instead of shrinking to their haunts under 
the attacks of the European powers, the pirates became 
day by day more audacious ; they presented themselves 
with better arms, and collected in more formidable 
numbers ', which called for augmented means and in- 
creased vigour in those who hoped to check their ope- 
rations. The brig Anna was captured with several 
other ships, in 1826, and the Sara Theodora was only 
saved by a schooner of war, bringing her broadside 
to the rescue. 2 Year after year, incidents of the same 
kind occurred, the narration of which would fill a vo- 
luminous work. The result of all the measures adopted 
by the Dutch from 1816 to 1829, is summed up by 
their own historian. 

Numbers of vessels belonging to the pirates had been 
destroyed ; their retreats on the north-west coast of 
Celebes had been extirpated ; their haunts in Ceram 
and the Moluccas had been visited ; the piratical enter- 
prises from Matam, on the western coast of Borneo, 
had been brought to an end ; Biliton had been occupied, 
and a check had been put on the brigandage formerly 
prevailing in that sea; treaties of alliance, tending to 
the repression of piracy, had been concluded with the 
princes of Linga and Rhio, with those of the northern 
and western coast of Borneo Banjarmassin, Pontianak, 
Sambas, Mampawa, Simpang, Matam, and Succadana, 
with those petty monarchs of Celebes included in the 
Bugis convention ; with the chiefs of Menado, with 
the kinglings of Ternate and Tidor, in the Molucca 
group, and finally, with the little potentates of New 
Guinea an island swarming with pirates, among the 



1 Melville de Carnbee, Rapport, 1826. 
Groot, Moniteur, i. 240. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 203 

most rude and brutal of the Eastern Ocean. 1 These 
efforts, indeed, and these achievements failed to secure 
the liberty of trade and the defence of industry ; but 
it is impossible to predicate what in their absence would 
have been the influence of the freebooting system on 
the commerce and civilisation of the Archipelago. 

1 Groot, Moniteur, i. 241. 



204 



THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



CHAPTER X. 



Feebleness 
of Dutch 
attempts to 
extirpate 
piracy. 



Parallel 
between 
the British 
and Dutch 
possessions. 



THE feeble and ineffectual endeavours of the Nether- 
lands' government to extinguish that influence which 
contended with it for paramount rule over the remoter 
Indian ocean, are recorded by its historians as imperial 
achievments, admirable as well in their results as in the 
spirit which conceived them. It is not the task of a 
narrator to suggest suspicion ; it is, indeed, a more 
graceful office to confess the sincerity of efforts made, 
and the value of works accomplished. Nevertheless, 
in comparing the actual effect of Dutch policy with the 
praises of its own laudators, the truth distinctly appears 
that magnanimous as may have been the resolution, and 
energetic as may have been the measures of Holland, 
she has not performed her share of the duty, which 
attaches to her power, of clearing from the seas of the 
Archipelago those marauders whom the common law of 
nations includes among the general enemies of all man- 
kind. Great Britain, also, has derelicted from her duty 
as supreme authority among maritime states ; but in 
that quarter of the world her interests and her in- 
fluence are insignificant, in comparison with those of 
Holland. Singapore, Pinang, and Malacca three new 
and struggling settlements, simple depots of commerce, 
and only valuable as the strongholds of trade in a bar- 
barous region, were contrasted with immense and rich 
possessions in Java, Sumatra, the Spice Isles, Borneo, 
Celebes, and scattered groups of the Archipelago. 
Consequently, the efforts of the two nations are not to 



IT8 HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 205 

be measured by an equal standard, for the mistress of 
Java owed more to the police of those seas than the 
factors of Singapore. 

Since 1830, the Dutch have indeed continued a A.D. isao. 
series of devices for the suppression of piracy ; but they 
have been imperfect in their conception, and in their 
influence comparatively ineffectual. The cruizers of 
Java, in that year, were strengthened by a squadron of 
schooners, and an active war was carried on to spread a 
salutary fear among the promoters of marauding enter- 
prises. Prahus of various size were built for this crusade, 
and launched in considerable flotilla, while it was pro- 
claimed that no mercy was permitted to buccaneers, for 
that every occasion should be seized to inflict upon 
them a terrible example of retaliatory justice. 

If, however, the enemies of piracy exhibited an un- Audacity 

, . , 11 TIT of the buc- 

accustomed vigour, the pirates themselves displayed an cancers, 
increased audacity. In September, 1830, two villages 
in Banka were sacked, and sixty-three persons carried 
into slavery. The Lampongs were infested, and many 
ruins were left as memorials of such visitation. In 
retribution, numbers of the wretches were captured 
and exiled to Banda, while a native foray among the 
Bocaya channels resulted in the seizure of two no- 
torious chiefs, who were condemned to hard labour for 
the rest of their lives. Sanguinary conflicts took place A - D - 1831 - 
at Makassar, on the coast of Sumatra, and near Achin, 
though the depredations from that direction diminished 
when the Dutch victories in the south were known. 
In the Straits of Malacca, trade was greatly harassed, injury to 
and the English made to the Dutch who had previ- trade< 
ously made a similar proposal to them, an overture 
for union in some plan for cutting up the piratical sys- 
tem. An evasive reply was returned, with strong pro- 



206 



THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



Great free- 
booting 
fleet. 



fessious of anxiety, but the negotiations resulted in no 
reciprocal assistance. 1 

Treaty with With the Sultan of Linga a new treaty was made to 
provide against the inveterate habit of his people in 
fitting out enterprises for plunder. It was prohibited 
to construct vessels of warlike build ; the sea-going 
tribes were forced to give up their prahus for com- 
pensation ; Prince's Island, in the Straits of Sunda, was 
offered as a refuge to reclaimed pirates, and the building 
of boats was encouraged which were adapted solely to 
commercial ends. 2 

While these proceedings were engaging the attention 
of councils and residents, the vigilance of the cruizers 
was ineffectual even for the protection of Java. From 
time to time intelligence reached some settlement that a 
fleet was on the coast ravaging and pillaging, and cap- 
turing the people as slaves ; a frigate or a schooner was 
despatched after them, but they were next heard of de- 
vastating the shores of Bali and a great drifting horde 
of Lanuns, Alfoerans, Bugis, and Saleyers once ho- 
vered for three years among these waters, and never 
encountered any powerful force of the enemy. 3 The 
cruizing prahus occasionally fell in with the object of 
their watch ; but the pirates usually eluded their pur- 
suit. A man of long sight was placed in some lofty 
part of the vessel, whence he could descry a distant 
sail, and on giving signal of danger the boat sped away 
with every oar bent, and every breath of air made use 
of. But, when closely pressed, the pirate sometimes 
furls all his sheets, and rows against the wind, which 
with his light craft and skilful crew is easy, and baffles 
a sailing vessel altogether. 



Adroitness 
of the 
pirates. 



1 Van den Bosch, Reponse, 29 Dec. 1831. 

* Kolff, Rapport, 1831. s Alabashay, Rapport, 1831. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 207 

In 1831, the boat which went every month to Sura- Anecdote, 
baya, and carried water, provisions, and stores to Fort 
Orange, was taken near Grisse, by pirates. There were 
supposed to have been on board an European sergeant, a 
cadet, an old woman, a child, and some Javan rowers. 
The sergeant was murdered, and the cadet severely 
wounded, but this young man had the courage to fling 
himself overboard, where he clung, unperceived, to the 
rudder, and was afterwards picked up by fishers from 
the coast. The pirates having ransacked the vessel, 
abandoned her, taking away all the remaining company. A woman 
Some time afterwards the Dutch heard that there was at captured. 
Galang a woman with a white child, and sent there some 
agents disguised as petty traders, who were directed to 
reconnoitre, and, if possible, to buy the captives. Sus- 
picion, however, entered into the minds of the pirates. 
They feared to be convicted of their brigandage, kept 
their prisoners a long while, and at last carried them to 
Rahangu, on the eastern coast of the Malay Peninsula, 
where they were sold. By the intervention, never- 
theless, of an Arab merchant, and of the English resi- 
dent at Singapore, the woman and the child were, after 
another interval of six months, recovered. 1 

Tracing the record of their devastations from year to A - D - 18 33. 
year, we discover the pirates in 1832 spoiling the well- 



war 



disposed communities settled on both sides of the Straits a s siin!>t 

piracy. 

of Banka, and even daring to visit the Bay of Soem- 
pang. Skill in manoeuvre, and rapidity in flight, were 
the chief reliances in which they confided, and this 
suggested to the Dutch the use of small well-armed 
steamers, that might follow a chase against the wind, or 
between high banks which lulled a breeze, or through 

1 Decree of Dutch Government, May, 1 832. 



208 



THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



Robbers of 
Ceram. 

Slavery. 



Reclama- 
tion of 
pirates in 
Celebes. 



narrow passages where the pirates disappeared, and 
their enemies dared not pursue. None of these devices, 
however, -could eradicate a system founded in the poli- 
tical institutions as well as in the ancient manners of 
the Archipelago. Fleets and haunts, sunk or burned, 
scattered or sacked, were recruited and continually re- 
newed from the sources whence their vital influences 
sprang. Kingdoms were the inheritances of pirates; 
and kings their rulers. The Sultan of Ceram was in 
1833 convicted of this crime, seized and banished to 
Java a hard fate, but only just, as a penalty for the 
turpitude of his offences. The freebooters of that island 
had become a pestilence in all the surrounding sea. 
They sold to the chiefs not only prisoners whom they 
captured in other regions, but even their own country- 
men the weak and unarmed classes, whom they 
dragged from place to place, chained in couples, and 
insulted with all that cruel usage to which an un- 
generous barbarian devotes the vanquished in war. 

In other islands conciliatory plans were tried, and in 
Celebes a tract was chosen to be cultivated for the 
free use of pirates who consented to abandon their old 
vocation ; numbers of prisoners were released by an 
expedition to Sunadang; the camp on the Jambi river in 
Sumatra was broken up l , and the pirate retreats of 
Berou and Bulongas on the coast of Borneo were sacked 
and extinguished, which gave some freedom to the in- 
dustry of a province supplying to commerce its richest 
and more precious "commodities. 2 While in these quar- 
ters they suffered injury, the pirates continued to 
flourish in the south-east of the Archipelago. Their 
power insensibly grew, favoured by many circum- 



1 Groot, Moniteur, i. 319. 

8 Vosmacr, Eapport> Nov. 1833. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 209 

stances, and their war-boats multiplied over the whole 
of that sea. Several severe defeats had driven numbers New 
from the coast of Celebes to new haunts remote from 
the Dutch settlements, where an abundance of sweet, 
fresh water and convenience for the refit of their vessels 
tempted them to remain. They found, near the Strait 
of Alias, the little island of Labuan Badjos, which, little 
known to the Dutch, offered many advantages as a 
rendezvous; its fertility, and the commodious anchor- 
age, combined with its secluded pastures to attract 
their preference, and from this mixed pirate colony 
grew a formidable nest, which annually swarmed its 
tribes over the shores of the neighbouring islands. 

In illustration of the system which this general view * 1833. 
exhibits it is interesting to notice, from time to time, 
an episode of personal adventure. At the period we 
are now discussing an incident occurred of which ad- 
vantage may be taken for this purpose, and few pro- 
bably will be disinclined to turn from general details 
to read the story of Alexander Bross, related by him- 
self at Makassar, in September 1834. 1 

In August, 1833, he embarked on board the schooner Curious 
Maria Philippina, Commander Cramer, bound from 
Makassar to Bali. When near Bali Jolo, the vessel 
Avas attacked by a corsair, who, after a conflict brief but 
fierce, made himself master of her. Some of the com- 
pany fell in the struggle. Cramer had plunged into 
the sea, just as the deck was mounted; but was fol- 
lowed by a spear, which mortally wounded him, and he 
died among the waves. Alexander Bross also, with 
eight Javan sailors, flung himself into the water ; but, 
wounded in the arm, was unable to swim far, and re- 
turned to the schooner, got on board unperceived, at- 

1 Groot, Moniteur, i. 322. 
VOL. ir. p 



210 THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 

tired himself in native costume, and, though a Makassar 
Creole, passed for a Muslim, and was spared from the 
massacre. His disguise favoured him, besides the faci- 
lity with which he conversed in the dialects of Mand- 
hara, Makassar, and of the Bugis country. 

He was forced, however, by threats, to point out the 
stores of money and merchandise on board the schooner; 
but gradually winning the confidence of his captors, was 
at length entrusted with the command of a prahu. 
Alexander Bross, therefore, familiarised with the economy 
of a pirate fleet, accompanied several of their expeditions. 
They equipped a force of no less than 190 vessels, 
which ravaged the coasts of Bali and Mangary, touch- 
ing often at a populous little island called Pangaru 
Adventures Bawang. One day they perceived an European ship, 
on board a an( j thinking it was a merchant vessel, spread all their 

pirate fleet . , , 

sheets with the hope or capturing an unusual prize. 
Its hull was painted of a greyish hue, and not black, as 
in ordinary vessels of war, and its sails were whity- 
brown, which is never used in the Dutch royal navy 
except as a disguise. 

It was, however, a ship of war the brig Mer- 
man, and two broadsides crippled several of the prahus, 
and killed a good many of the pirates; a third sent 
three to the bottom, with all the men on board. Flight 
was then hastily attempted, and it was effected with no 
greater loss than that of a trader which had been cap- 
tured the preceding day. Some time after, the fleet in 
which Bross held a command then numbering eighty 
vessels fell into collision with another fleet, said to be 
composed of Javanese pirates, for its leaders spoke the 
language of that island. Their prahus were of the sort 
called mayang, and were bravely manned. The combat 
lasted four hours, seven prahus being destroyed, when 



ITS HISTORY" AND PRESENT STATE. 211 



the little armadas parted, each to pursue its adventure 
of massacre, pillage, and destruction. 

The Dutch Creole then received from the chief of 
this roving community, Arab by origin, orders to 
cruize with some prahus in the Bay of Bima, and lie 
in wait for merchant craft. He was four days in a 
kind of maritime ambuscade, when a brig of war was 
perceived, and the flotilla concealed itself under the 
woody coast of an island. That danger passed, they 
again put to sea, took up their old position, captured a 
rice-boat, and continued cruizing for some time. All 
this while Bross and his Makassar companions medi- 
tated the idea of flight, to escape from a bondage which 
attached to them the vicarious guilt of piracy. At 
length he with two others was exchanged by his master 
for a quantity of opium to a chief of the Saleyer isles. 
Hence, he ultimately succeeded in flying to Makassar, 
where he reported that other Europeans were in the 
hands of the buccaneers. 1 

Bross, in addition to these adventures, had partici- 
pated in a predatory attack on Bali Bantimoa, where 
the pirates were repulsed with much loss. He had 
assisted, too, in capturing, near Kapoposam isle, a 
Chinese paduakan on board of which were the eight 
Javan sailors of the Maria Philippina, who had 
plunged with him into the sea. He had seen his com- 
panions fish up twenty-six pieces of ordnance, which 
they had hidden below water on a shoal near Kalatoa, 
where they repaired their prahus, and six others from 
a reef near Sumbawa. 2 Thus they deposited their stores 
of ordnance in different spots in the sea, known only to 
them, refitted their fleets on lonely banks of sand, se- 



1 Alex. Bross, Declaration, 22 Sept. 1 804. 

2 Groot, Moniteur, \. 324. 

p 2 



212 



THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



an escaped 
prisoner, 



eluded themselves from observation among a maze of 
islets, and passed long seasons without approaching any 
coast, where a dangerous enemy might encounter them. 
Account of For provisions and supplies, they depended partly on 
the fruits of their cruizes, partly on traffic with the 
native princes and tribes, favourable to their voca- 
tions. These friends abounded in every quarter of the 
Archipelago, and sometimes aided while they professed 
to attack them. The Linganese of the peninsula, 
in 1833, fitted out a squadron against the pirates, 
a vessel of forty or fifty tons burden, and numerous 
smaller boats ; but this was a mere pretence. The 
principal stores taken on board were commodities for 
barter rice, plantains, cocoa nuts, and other things of 
which the freebooters stood in need, so that instead of 
fighting them the chiefs assisted their plans, and re- 
ceived a dividend of their plunder. 1 Few but the 
Bugis, indeed, have been faithful protectors of trade, for 
the haunts of pirates flourished in the very midst of the 
communities which pretended to suppress them. In 
1833 a stronghold of them was discovered in the Cari- 
mons, and destroyed by a British ship of war. Their 
depredations had been numerous and bold ; but the 
effect of a severe chastisement was such that no act of 
brigandage occurred in those waters for several wecks.- 
The adventures of the Memnon, the Janus, the 
JPylades, and the Iris, the capture of a schooner in the 
Straits of Bali, the destruction of the pirate strongholds 
on the east coast of Sumatra, with the seizure and 
execution of several chiefs, were succeeded by an enter- 
prise against Batu Puti and Beras on the eastern coast 
of Borneo. A corvette, a brig, two schooners, and a 
number of native vessels, were commissioned to attack 



A. n. 1834. 
Episodes of 
the war. 



Earl, Eastern Seas, 193. 



Ibid. 390. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 213 

those notorious haunts. Unfortunately, the pirates re- 
ceived intelligence, which enabled them to provide 
against surprise ; but much was, nevertheless, effected. 
Their principal villages and large portions of their fleet 
were burned, and a great store of fire-arms was carried 
away. Many native chiefs also, who, until then, had 
made common cause with the buccaneers, offered their 
submission, and among them the petty princes of Gu- 
nong Tabor, and Bolongan. These little potentates 
signed treaties and yielded territories, with every act 
of formal method, and acknowledged the law which 
bound them to repudiate the practice of freebooting. 1 
At the same time, an expedition to the eastern shores 
of Lampong Bay, on the coast of Sumatra, chastised a 
number of tribes in amicable intercourse with pirates, 
and the sultan of Jambi was persuaded into a convention 
engaging to prohibit the system and eradicate it from 
his dominions. 2 

Continued expeditions, small in their scale and in- A.D. isss. 
significant in their result, added rather to the territorial 
power of Holland than to the general security of trade. 
One to Borneo repeated the havoc of the previous year. Expedition 

. . ., , . i i i i i to Borneo. 

and a tew pirates were induced to forsake their old habits 
for the practice of honourable industry ; but the second 
period marked by Dutch writers closed on a very in- 
definite series of achievements. A new fleet of native General 
cruizers had been built ; information had been collected 
by various able men ; the project had been conceived of 
following the pirates to their haunts, and steamers from 
Europe had been procured for this purpose ; the free- 
booters of Jambi had been dispersed ; expeditions had 
visited the coasts of the Lampongs and the Linga seas, 
of Celebes and Borneo ; while the sultan of Ceram had 

1 G. M. i. 322. 2 Treaty with Jambi, 1834. Art. 13. 

p 3 



214 



THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



Value of 
treaties. 



Forced 
abstinence 
from pi- 
racy. 



been forced to pay the penalty of his numerous crimes ; 
correspondence on the subject of piracy had been carried 
on with the British government, whose endeavours were 
very lax ; the project of reclaiming marauders to the pur- 
suit of peaceful industry had considerably advanced, and 
several islands had been beautified by the culture of men, 
whose previous delight was to spread along defenceless 
coasts the terrors of midnight war, and to bury in waste 
and ruin the houses of a simple and harmless people. 
Treaties had been concluded with the Sultan of Linga, 
the Sultan of Succadana, the princes of Gunong Tabor, 
and Bolongan, and with the sovereign of Jambi in Su- 
matra. These, indeed, in many cases, were mere com- 
pounds of wax and parchment, blotted with diplomatic 
ink ; for the chiefs, ready as they were to sign and seal, 
dreamed of nothing less than of relinquishing an here- 
ditary calling so lucrative to their petty exchequers. The 
buccaneering system was perpetuated by the very agents 
chosen to suppress it. And this was a natural result. 
Treaties are never observed when it is for the interest 
of one party to break them ; especially when at the 
commencement they were accepted under intimidation. 
How lonor the one would be faithful to the articles, 

O 

depended on how long the other would enforce them, 
and the spoil of those wealthy islands was too rich for 
pirates to forego it, through fear of any distant or con- 
tingent danger. 

The Sultan of Linga, among others, was compelled to 
subject the fishing tribes in his dominions to the juris- 
diction of a sea police, to issue passports, and allow to 
the Dutch an unlimited right of search. Precautions to 
hinder the equipment of warlike armaments were taken, 
and rules made for the government of that trading in- 
dustry, which in defiance of all hostile influences con- 
tinued to crowd towards the port of Singapore. The 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 215 

formula of passports was most rigid and precise ; a code of A. n. 1836. 
flags and signals was enforced, with a maritime discipline Device" of 
so strict that the Netherlands' colonists would appear to the Dutch. 
have derived an inspiration from China or Japan. 1 
Stations were made on various little isles as outposts of 
this system for the administration of the Indian seas, 
and a scheme of surveillance was then proposed by the 
Dutch, to be executed by the Sultan of Linga, To 
compensate him for the expense of these precautions, 
he was permitted to import annually into Java, free of 
duty, 2,500 piculs of gambir, the produce of Linga, to 
be shipped on native bottoms, manned under the prince's 
direct authority. One exception was made in favour of 
his ship, the Angelina, commanded by a Malay. 

Occupying themselves in this manner with plans for 
securing to themselves the advantages of possessing the 
noblest islands within the tropics, the Dutch made it a 
reproach against Great Britain, that she forced no recla- 
mation from the pirates of their influence on the sea. 
An idea was originated of paying a Straits squadron 
from the proceeds of a toll on merchant-ships, but the 
plan was resisted by the commercial community of 
Singapore, as infringing on their free-trade principle. 
They would not enfranchise trade from the terror of Neglect of 
piracy, by shackling it with fiscal chains ; nor indeed e ng 1S * 
was any disposition evinced by the Dutch to promote a 
mutual enterprise for the general protection of those 
seas. There was hatred on one hand, and jealousy on 
the other. No circumstance was propitious to the hope 
of such a union. The English would not act in concert 
with the Dutch, nor the Dutch in combination with 
them ; and so while feeble attempts were made to procure 
an impossible coalition, the scourge continued to range 

1 Arrete, 2 : 2 Juillt-t, 1836. 
f 4 



216 



THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



Continued 
spread of 
the system. 



through the Archipelago. 1 The trader was intercepted, 
the village was burned, the cultivated land was laid 
waste ; death and rapine prolonged the Iliad of that un- 
happy race's woes, and princes, hypocritical and per- 
fidious, commissioned their fierce and bloody followers 
to plunder and enslave the industrious and unoffending 
of the island populations. 2 

Instead of disappearing before the European flag, 
every effort to suppress them seemed to draw out new 
hordes from the breeding-grounds of piracy. Bands of 
marauders issued from Ende and Mangary in fleets of 
fifty and a hundred prahus; and between Adinara and 
Floris, in the straits of Larentaka, were continually 
encountered large flotillas, said to have come from 

A. i>. 1837. the latter island. 3 In 1837, 400 Tobello buccaneers 
were settled in the Isle of Saleyer, and employed in 
works of agriculture, which brought them into amicable 
and profitable intercourse with the traders and fishers 
along that coast ; yet no influence seemed effectual to 
attract the great body of marauders from the excitement 
and variety of their accustomed mode of life. To 
sprinkle the narrative with a few instances from the 
long catalogue on record, we may notice at this date 

instance of that the opium clipper, Lady Grant, manned partly by 
Europeans and partly by lascars, was attacked in the 
Straits of Malacca by one prahu, which she succeeded 
in beating off. The pirate, however, returned with a 
reinforcement, and it was not without an arduous 
struggle that an escape was effected. 4 

The wii- The superb stearn vessel, William I., of the Nether- 

lands' royal navy, was in 1837 lost on the reefs of 

1 See Lieut. Col. J. Low, Journ. Ind. Arch. iv. 369. 
8 Groot, Moniteur, ii. 13. 

3 Tidschrift, Neerland Indie, i. 1.3. 

4 Earl, Eastern Seas, 82. 



11am I. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 217 

Limpara. A boat was sent away to look for aid from 
Timor or even Java, with a lieutenant, a pilot, and an 
apprentice, one European seaman, and four native 
oarsmen. After a dangerous voyage across the sea of 
Banda, the boat was attacked near Wetter Isle by several 
Lanun prahus; its occupants were seized, stripped, Bm-bariiy 
maltreated, and left naked to pass the night on a bald Lanu ' ns 
rock, under the open sky. Rain and cold added to the 
agonies of their situation, and a strict watch was kept 
on their movements. When, next morning, they were 
taken on board a prahu, their condition was not much 
improved, for all they had to subsist upon was a little 
maize, so mouldy as to be scarcely eatable. At length, 
however, they came to an agreement with the pirates, 
promising them a ransom of 1000 piastres, some quan- 
tities of opium, cloth, and toys. Meanwhile, two other 
prahus arrived upon the scene, and a new consultation 
took place to decide the fate of the prisoners. Some 
declared they ought immediately to be put to death ; 
others that they should be carried to Manilla and sold 
as slaves ; but the prospect of a ransom allured them 
more, and two of the Europeans were despatched to 
fetch the money. The others remained as hostages, 
and it was announced that if any ruse were attempted 
to evade payment of the redemption, these captives 
should perish by a frightful death. Ultimately, the 
transaction was effected, and the boat's crew proceeded 
on their way. 1 About the same time the schooner 
Maria Frederika was captured by the Lanuns. 

In the next year the schooner Petronella was taken A. 
by pirates near Tangjong Toeko, on the south coast 
of Celebes, and the crew and passengers, among whom 
were three Europeans, were all murdered. In the 

1 Groot, Moniteur, ii. 17. 



218 



THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



Formidable 
character 
of Indian 
piracy. 



A. n. 1839. next year, on the 28th of June, the Dutch troops on 
the eastern coast of Sumatra were attacked by two 
hundred pirate prahus, and sustained a severe conflict 
with them l an example sufficient to confute the idea 
that this pestilent scourge is contemptible and de- 
serves no notice from the masters of the sea. 2 The 
batteries at Anjer in Java, indeed, an immense circuit, 
enclosed by thick soft turf walls, were built, not to 
command the Straits, for their range was too limited, 
but to defend the inhabitants from piratical attacks. 3 
The haunts of these depredators are to this hour in the 
close vicinity of European settlements, for the free- 
booter of the Straits, like the Thug of India, knows 
how to assume the guise of an honest occupation. 4 The 
Rajah of Rhio, indeed, knows so well, and fears so much 
the rapacity of pirates, even close to our settlements, 
that within two or three years he has built a fort ex- 
pressly for protection against the Lanun rovers. 5 

I shall conclude this episodical view of piracy in the 
Indian Archipelago, by one or two illustrations of it, 
selected from the numbers which are recorded. When 
Kolff was at the Tenimber isles, in 1819, he heard that 
an English vessel had in the previous year arrived at 
the eastern extremity of Timor Laut. There was sick- 
ness among the crew, and the master sent a party on 
shore to purchase provisions. The brig, in addition to 
roofing slates and iron, had a cargo of warlike stores, 
which it was probably intended to smuggle, and this 
was known among the islanders. They had, indeed, 
agreed to buy the arms, but were not inclined to pay 
for that which they could as easily plunder. Accord- 

1 Temminck, ii. 259. * Journ. Ind. Arch. in. 254. 

3 Earl, Eastern Seas, 9. 

4 Logan, Journ. 2nd. Arch. i. 15. 

5 J. T. Thompson, Journ. Ind. Arch. i. 71. 



Anecdote. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 219 

ingly, they boarded the vessel in immense swarms, and 
murdered all the people. Of the party on shore all, with 
the exception of two boys, whom the humanity of some 
women interposed to save, were killed. The brig was 
pillaged, hauled on shore, dismantled of its fittings, 
and burned. Its freight was distributed among the 
inhabitants, who sold a part to the traders who visited 
them, while the remainder served as trophies and de- 
corations among the tribes along that coast. At one 
place the chain cable of the brig was hung round a 
village, and loaded iron carronades lay close by, the 
natives never having courage to fire them off. 1 

An English merchant, who had resided long in Java, Anecdote. 
embarked at Batavia, some years ago, on board one of 
his own vessels, a large brig ; she was bound to Sanaa- 
rang, and the trader took with him a considerable sum 
of money for the purchase of produce in the Eastern 
districts. These facts being reported to a great pi- 
ratical chief in a neighbouring island, he determined to 
make a prize, and waylaid the brig near Indramayo. 
Her crew, consisting of three Englishmen and about 
thirty Javanese sailors, fought gallantly for some time. 
Towards evening, however, a dart fired from a musket 
pierced the merchant's neck, and he fell ; confusion 
followed, and, taking advantage of this, the pirates 
boarded. The two Englishmen leaped into the sea, 
and clung to a bamboo fishing buoy, where, while their 
enemies were intent on plunder, they remained un- 
noticed, and drifted out of view. Immersed to the 
neck in water, dreading the sharks, and neither of them 
knowing whether his companion was alive, they re- 
mained all night in horror, but at daybreak were 
cheered by the voices of some fishermen. These were 

1 Kolff, Dourga, 226. 



220 THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 

islanders of Java, who came off at dawn to examine 
their floats. They asked who the strangers were, con- 
sulted among themselves, took them into a boat, and 
carried them to an European settlement. The narrator 
of this anecdote believes that had they been Dutch 
instead of English, their treatment would not have 
been similar, for the cruizers were hated, and accused 
of robbing the fishermen. 1 

Anecdote. The chieftain who performed this feat was thought 
to be Rajah Raga, brother to the Sultan of Koti, in 
Eastern Borneo. He was a famous buccaneer, and the 
Dutch frequently went in search of him, but he con- 
tinually eluded their pursuit. Once, when cruizing 
with three large prahus, he was attacked by an English 
man-of-war. Two of his vessels, with their crews, 
were destroyed ; the third, in which he was, escaped. 
Soon afterwards, he entrusted to a favourite chief the 
command of his own prahu, carrying more than 150 
men, and mounting several large guns. Within a day's 
sail of Makassar she fell in with a ship of large size, 
but which, from the colour of the sails and paint, the 
disposition of the rigging, and general appearance, the 
pirate took to be a merchantman. An opportunity 
now seemed open for the chief to distinguish himself by 
capturing a prize of unusual value. He bore down 
upon the ship, which, with all her sails set, appeared 
endeavouring to fly, though she made little progress 
through the water. At length the buccaneer was 
within pistol-shot, fired into the chase, and made pre- 
parations to board. Then, a line of ports opening 
along the side of the strange vessel, immediately smote 
him with dismay. From the disguise of a trader 
the ship now appeared in all the stately and terrible 

1 Earl, Eastern Seas, 40. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 221 

equipage of war. One broadside rolled from her hull, and sinking of 
she was pursuing her way alone, for the pirate prahu 
went to the bottom, and left only two or three of her 
crew to be picked up in some native boats which had 
hovered near the scene. 1 

From this descriptive and historical sketch some 
idea may be derived of the extent to which piracy has 
flourished in the Indian Archipelago, and of the cha- 
racter which it has at various periods assumed. It will 
be clear also to every mind, that the efforts of European 
powers during the period we have gone over, were 
ineffectual to eradicate the baneful influence of this 
system. And it will be obvious that neither commerce 
nor civilisation could prosper, while the most wealthy 
and beautiful islands in that sea were abandoned as the 
haunt or prey of buccaneers. Consequently we pass by 
a very natural transition from this chapter of the history 
to a narrative of Sir James Brooke's career, the salient 
points of which are his successful efforts to destroy piracy 
on the coast of Borneo. For, rich as that island is, sus- 
ceptible of improvement as its people may be, and wide 
as may be the field laid open there for English enterprise, 
nothing great could be achieved, nothing of lasting Necessity 
value could be effected, until not only the Lanuns of pa ting pi- 
the eastern, but the Serebas and Sakarran of the north- racy * 
western coast had been forced to cease their war upon 
the industry and trade of Borneo. Whatever, there- 
fore, is the interest of Sir James Brooke's proceedings, 
his attacks on this system form the most important epi- 
sodes of them ; for as the existence of piracy has been 
the chief curse of the Archipelago, so its extirpation 
will be the utmost blessing that civilisation can bestow 
on those wealthy and blooming islands. 

1 Earl, Eastern Seas, 48. Also, Moor's Notices, 16. 



222 



THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



CHAPTER XI. 



Sir James 
Brooke. 



His splendid 
achieve- 
ments. 



Unique 
character 
of his 
labours. 



No episode in the history of the Indian Archipelago 
is more interesting or remarkable than the career of 
Sir James Brooke. The occurrences of ten years are 
grouped around his name. He has excited the sym- 
pathy of Europe with the poverty and oppression of a 
race, previously excluded from general consideration, 
has quickened the principles of humanity in one of the 
most barbarous populations of the East, and since a 
time which very young men can now remember, has 
reclaimed the inhabitants of an extensive province from 
sloth, dependence, and the degradation of savage life, 
to industry, the peace, and the forms of an infant civi- 
lisation. 

Great men are usually eminent in comparison with 
others who have accomplished similar achievements. 
They travel in the track of thousands who have gone 
before. So with those who aspire to greatness. There 
is a pillar or a cloud to guide their hopes, and the very 
essence of their ambition is to emulate or surpass some 
master spirit of a former age. A statesman, a writer, 
a painter, or a soldier, has a model to admire, a pre- 
decessor to rival. Sir James Brooke, in the character 
of his enterprise, is without a parallel. He is in a new 
field ; he has inaugurated an ambition for himself; and 
in reflecting upon the conduct of his policy, we can 
never without injustice forget, that he moved by the 
aid of his own light alone, without example to warn, or 
the experience of others to direct him. He has pro- 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 223 

secuted an adventure, which he originated himself. The 
ideal of an accidental reverie, conceived during a voyage 
among the sunny islands of the Indian ocean, has been 
pursued far towards its realisation, and in this consists 
the salient and conspicuous characteristic of his genius 
throughout its whole career. 

The outline of Sir James Brooke's proceedings is Their 
remarkable ; but the minuter passages resemble episodes nature, 
of old romance. To visit a neglected world of islands ; 
to establish relations with native kings, to inspire them 
with respect and friendship for the British nation ; to 
plant a fruitful political influence in parts of the world 
long abandoned to the Dutch ; to strike at an ancient 
piratical system, which had for centuries oppressed and 
barbarised the native races ; these were achievements 
of no common magnitude. To explore, however, a river Romance 
kingdom in the mighty island of Borneo ; to become a career . 
friend of the Indian prince ; to train and lead a savage 
army against rebel tribes in the interior ; to wander and 
dwell among wild Dyaks of the forest ; to conquer the 
sultan's enemies ; to become a sovereign over a beautiful 
province with a barbarian population, and to be re- 
garded by these as a father and a friend, whose name is 
as a word of benediction to their ears ; there is some- 
thing, I say, in this of chivalry and romance to renew 
our faith in the genuine and inexhaustible poetry of 
human life and nature. 

James Brooke belongs to an ancient family of com- His family, 
petent fortune, not unknown in the history of England. 
He is descended, in direct lineage, from Sir Robert Lineage. 
Vyner, who enjoyed the office of Lord Mayor in Lon- 
don during the riotous and profligate reign of Charles II. 
The Baronet had one son, who died, leaving no children, 
when the estate passed to his heir-at-law, Edith, his 
father's eldest sister, who is lineally represented in the 



224 



THE INDFAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



Sir Robert 
Vyncr. 



Sir James 

Brooke's 

father. 

Birthplace. 



Early ca- 
reer. 



Burmese 

war. 

Wounded. 



Returns to 
Europe, 



Rajah of Sarawak. Sir Robert Vyner belonged to 
Filmer's school; and imagined it virtuous to be pro- 
digal in loyalty, though the sovereign should possess 
no quality to command respect. He squandered his 
wealth in serving the dissolute king, and erected a 
monument to preserve his name, though what virtue this 
was intended to commemorate it might not be easy to 
determine. 

Sir James was the second, and is now the only sur- 
viving son of Thomas Brooke, a civil servant of the 
East India Company. He was born on the Hooghly 
in Bengal, on the 29th of April 1803, was sent to 
England to be educated, went out to India as a cadet, 
filled several honourable appointments, and was distin- 
guished for his conduct and courage during the con- 
cluding episodes of the Burmese war. At the fight 
near Rangpore on the Brahmaputra, he headed an assault 
against a formidable line of stockades, received a ball 
through the lungs, was thanked by the government for 
his intrepid behaviour, and returned to England to 
recover his wasted strength. After spending three years 
in Europe, visiting the scenes of classical romance, and 
cultivating those accomplishments which rarely grace a 
man of so adventurous a disposition, he once more em- 
barked for the East. The vessel in which he sailed was 
wrecked however off the Isle of Wight. He procured 
another passage ; he reached his destination ; he pro- 
ceeded to announce himself ready once more to pursue 
a career in the ranks of the Indian army ; but a 
fortuitous circumstance had spared him the fate of living 
and dying in pursuit of military fame so far below 
the trophies he has achieved though to be sought in 
a region which has given laurels to some among the 
most illustrious of the English nation. 

The long delay caused by his shipwreck had pre- 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 225 

vented him from returning to India within the limit of IjOSS . f his 
time for which his leave of absence had been granted. S j on . 
Military law takes no circumstances into consideration. 
Involuntarily or not, he had failed to reach his quarters 
within the period assigned. His commission, conse- 
quently, .lapsed. A long and tedious correspondence 
between India and England would undoubtedly have 
restored it to him ; but a protracted negotiation, so 
repulsive to an eager mind, when the point at issue 
is within the compass of a single moment's reflec- 
tion, deterred him from seeking to reinstate himself in 
the position he had accidentally vacated. It was 
to him and not to him only a providential loss. 
That occurrence led him first to the gates of a beautiful 
and neglected region, which he has since made the field 
of his genius and the object of hia enlarged and liberal 
philanthropy. 

He left India, continued his voyage up the China First visit 
ocean, saw the innumerable and unrivalled islands of C hipeiago." 
the Archipelago scattered in fanciful profusion and 
stately grandeur over the waters of a bright and its beauty, 
tranquil sea, read the narratives of old voyagers, and 
realised in his own mind the enthusiasm and rapture 
inspired in those fathers of discovery, by the beauties 
and variety of that unparalleled region. He searched 
for accounts of their inhabitants, their resources, their 
social condition, and convinced himself that a great 
and beneficent and self-rewarding enterprise might be 
carried on in that quarter of Asia. Prominent amid informa- 
the information gathered from every source was the 
truth that piracy and the slave-trade combined to exert 
a barbarising influence over the whole population; 
that the native governments were imbecile and cruel ; 
that the native races were feeble and oppressed; that 
the Dutch exercised their power for little more than 

VOL. II. Q 



226 



THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



Anarchy 
of the 
island. 



Brooke's 
design. 



Failure. 



Sails for 
Borneo. 



His vessel. 



Voyage out. 



the promotion of their own mercantile gains, and that 
unless some new and more beneficent influence sprang 
up in the Archipelago, anarchy and servitude would be 
perpetuated there for ever, and one of the grandest 
regions of the earth be lost alike to industry, commerce 
and civilisation. 

A singular and chivalrous design was then conceived. 
Mr. Brooke returned to England, and projected more 
than one plan for the realisation of his ideal hope. 
Many circumstances combined to foil and disappoint 
him. Once in association with a gentleman who appre- 
ciated the grandeur of the enterprise, he equipped a 
brig and visited again the China seas ; but that endea- 
vour failed. Again he came to this country, waiting 
for a time to arrive when he should be able to prosecute 
his plans alone. Succeeding, on the death of his 
father, to a considerable fortune, he renewed his pro- 
ject, and continued to trace out plans for its develop- 
ment, until once more armed with confidence he 
determined on a new expedition. 

The perseverance inspired by ardent and faithful 
zeal enabled him in October 1838 to sail from England 
on the prosecution of the enterprise to which he had 
dedicated the remaining energies of his life. Long 
preparation and diligent inquiry had thrown a light 
before him over the region he was about to explore, 
which enabled him with prescient and provident caution 
to choose his way. A vessel well-tested, a crew well 
trained, a mind well stored with all that a calculating 
and long-sighted genius could recognise as essential to 
success, allowed him to face without timidity the 
obstacles and dangers which evidently would present 
themselves in his way. 

A schooner, therefore, the Royalist with a bur- 
den of 142 tons, and a crew of twenty men, left Eng- 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 227 

land on the 27th of October 1838. Belonging to the 
Royal Yacht Squadron, she might claim in foreign 
ports the privileges of a man of war, and might hoist a 
white ensign at her peak. She was a fast sailer, and 
with her company had been tested during a trial trip of 
two years among the seas of Europe, when Mr. Brooke 
delighted in haunting the chosen seats of poetry and 
fable, from Ithaca to Troy. An armament of half a 
dozen six-pounder guns, a number of swivel pieces, 
small arms of all kinds in abundance, four boats, stores 
and provisions for four months, were provided for the 
contingencies of the enterprise. The crew were young, 
able-bodied, active, and attached to their commander, 
who succeeded in raising the character of many, and 
connecting some to himself by links of gratitude, 
affection, and respect. More than ordinary precautions Precau- 
were required. The adventure was one accompanied 
by no small or common risk. It was not an expedition 
fitted out by the state, in which every man is answerable 
to the government for his fidelity and obedience to the 
leader. It was a private undertaking, the conductor 
of which could exercise over his followers no other than 
a personal influence. Nor was Mr. Brooke carrying 
with him the authority of the empire in any nego- 
tiations he might project with the native princes of the 
Archipelago. Of his own choice he went, and at his 
own peril. But there was enthusiasm to impel, and 
a grateful prospect to lead him forward, so that when 
the Royalist sailed down the river she was freighted 
with confidence, zeal, and hope. 

Early in May, 1839, the schooner passed Java Head, Arrival in 
through Prince's Straits, and glided into Anjer Roads, p^afc*. 
on the confines of the Indian Archipelago. There the 
invariable sight described by the old navigators pre- 
sented itself in harmony with the natural scenes ex- 



228 



THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



Scenes at 
sea. 



Singapore. 



Sarawak. 



panding to the view on every point of the horizon. 
The canoes, crowded with articles for traffic ; the lo- 
quacious swarms of natives ; the tropical productions 
offered for barter; the lake-like serenity of the sea; 
the varying and gleaming tints of verdure on the slopes 
that rose from the shore to the interior of Java, with 
an atmosphere 'perfectly lucid above, though glowing 
near the water as with a purple haze ; all these sights 
and sounds burst on the fancy of the voyager with an 
effect like that produced on the old Spanish explorer 
when he stared at the Pacific : 

" Silent, upon a peak in Darien." 

Thence the schooner proceeded to Singapore, the cradle 
and centre of the liberal commercial system introduced 
by Sir Stamford Raffles into the Archipelago. There 
Mr. Brooke remained for nearly two months, reducing 
his purpose more to a plan, and inquiring into the 
prospects and capabilities of the different countries 
which lay around open to the energies of an adven- 
turous mind. Originally, his design was more diffusive 
and ranged over many of the islands ; but he now re- 
solved to restrict his researches for a time to the north- 
west coast of Borneo. Towards the end of July, the 
Royalist sailed on her course towards that immense and 
mysterious insular region, whose depths might contain 
great kingdoms and whole treasures of undiscovered 
wealth, as well as tribes, manners, and beliefs hitherto 
unknown to the rest of mankind. The province of 
Sarawak, on the north-west coast, was the destination 
fixed upon. 

Sarawak was a principality attached to the Sultanate 
of Brune", or Borneo Proper, in the great island of that 
name. It was usually governed by three datus, natives 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 229 

of the province and Makota ; but the sultan's uncle, 
Muda Hassim, was then reported to be rajah, and for 
him Mr. Brooke carried in the schooner a variety of 
presents, gaudy silks from the old emporium of Surat; Politic *- 
scarlet cloth, which is the pride of savage vanity ; 
stamped velvet, gunpowder, confectionary, preserved 
ginger, jams, syrups, and toys of China, besides a 
quantity of coarse nankeen, to circulate instead of 
money. He was provided with letters from the govern- 
ment of Singapore to the native prince, explaining the 
friendly objects of the voyage, and exhorting him to 
behave with courtesy and kindness towards the English 
gentleman and his companions. An address and a gift 
were also forwarded to him, recognising his generous 
conduct towards the equipage of an English vessel lately 
wrecked on the bar at the mouth of his river. Nor 
were these all the provident measures adopted. Eight 
stout Malays were added to the crew, that the element 
of force might not be wanting in any contingency of 
danger. 

On the 1st of August, the Royalist anchored under Arrival off 
the coast of Borneo. Mr. Brooke, as soon as wind and 
tide allowed, proceeded up the Sarawak river, anchored 
abreast of the town of Kuching, and, sending a boat to 
announce his arrival, speedily received by a special 
envoy a chieftain of rank a complimentary mes- 
sage, with an invitation to proceed. He immediately 
visited the prince in his capital of Sarawak. That First inter- 
province was then in arms against the sultan, driven to 
revolt by the oppressive system of government pursued, 
and Muda Hassim, the rajah, and uncle of the reigning 
sovereign of Brune, had come from the capital to quench 
the rebellion. His attention was thus occupied, and 
his mind much agitated ; for Oriental despots forgive 
any offence in their ministers rather than want of sue- 



230 



THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



Exploring 
of the 
country. 



Investiga- 
tions. 



Transac- 
tions at 
Sarawak. 



cess. Nevertheless, he received his visitor, not only 
courteously, but with an amicable welcome ; and it 
soon became a whispered rumour that he desired him 
to remain, that the insurgent tribes might be humbled ; 
for the intelligence that an Englishman in an armed 
vessel was come to take up his residence, could not fail 
of producing such an effect. Nothing, however, was 
openly expressed, though the rajah exhibited every de- 
sire to impress his guest with a favourable opinion of 
his hospitality. When Mr. Brooke first asked permis- 
sion to travel to some of the Malay towns, and make 
excursions among some Dyak tribes, it was given 
without reserve, except that some places were pointed 
out as unsafe. 

Our countryman, therefore, immediately began his 
observations on the people and the country : he visited 
the interior of Samaraham, noticed the manners and 
condition of the aboriginal race ; examined what natural 
resources presented themselves to his attention ; cul- 
tivated a friendly understanding with the chiefs of 
tribes, and qualified himself for further enterprise in 
Borneo by the profitable use he made of his first op- 
portunity. Every inquiry was carried on in reference 
to what was now the favourite purpose of his life, 
though the actual prospect offered no glimpse of the 
career which he was afterwards to pursue as inheritor 
of the rule of the Malay prince in Sarawak. After 
these tracings of the rivers and woods, he returned to 
the town and prosecuted his researches into the temper 
and inch' nation, not only of the rajah, but of the inferior 
chiefs. One, especially, was introduced to him the 
Pangeran Makota. He was remotely related to Muda 
Hassim, and pretended to govern the province vicariously 
until that prince returned to the court of the sultan. 
His policy, in combination with the traditionary system 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 231 

of oppression, had galled the poor Dyaks to revolt. 
A plain, intelligent man, with a good-humoured ap- 
pearance and easy manners, he dissimulated a character 
educated to intrigue and deception. He spoke readily 
of commercial transactions, alluded to the English and 
to the Dutch, who had already asked for permission to 
trade, and offered assistance at the mines; said the 
country was rich in resources ; pointed out its various 
products, and seemed to appreciate the value of an 
enterprise for the development and invigoration of 
industrial pursuits among the population. 

When the rajah himself conversed on this subject, intercourse 
Mr. Brooke described frankly his own position, and the 



views he held. He said he was a private gentleman, 
not individually interested in the transaction of trade ; 
that he was not connected with the government of Sin - 
gapore, or authorised in any way to act for them ; but 
was proceeding simply at his own risk, as a person with 
whom the rajah might deal according to the course he 
considered most wise. Brune, he said also, was the 
last independent or powerful kingdom left to the scat- 
tered and broken race of the Malays, which had, he 
candidly admitted, conserved its independence by re- 
fraining from political intercourse with Europeans 
intercourse which had brought ruin on so many govern- 
ments in Asia. By trading, however, with white mer- Brooke's 
chants, the capabilities of the country would fructify 
in increased production, and the treasuries of the prince 
be filled from the prosperity of the people. Sarawak 
was naturally a rich province ; merchants would be 
glad to procure its bees' wax, birds' nests, rattans, 
antimony ore, and sago, for which they would pay in 
articles most prized by Malays gunpowder, mus- 
kets, and cloths. For his own nation he desired no 
exclusive privileges, no haughty licence of undivided 

Q 4 



232 THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 

trade ; but for every people liberty to visit the port and 
carry on friendly and profitable communication with 
The rajah's the inhabitants. To all this the rajah listened with 
act * polite, if not deferential attention ; &nd though many 
points for argument were raised, he appeared favour- 
ably impressed by the general tenor of the conversa- 
tion. Towards the end of September, Mr. Brooke 
concluded his first visit to the native court of Sarawak ; 
left it with every encouraging anticipation, and amid all 
the external shows of friendship. Salutes were fired, 
signals of amity were interchanged, and the last words 
of the rajah were, " Tuan Brooke, do not forget me." 

Mr. Brooke then visited several places on the coast, 
ascertained their capabilities, tried the disposition of the 
people by different means, and saw unmistakable evi- 
Pirates. dences of the piratical system. Indeed, an attack from 
the roving Sarebas Dyaks, continually prowling along 
those shores in quest of plunder, formed an animating 
incident in the voyage, the assault being made on one 
of the native boats accompanying the Royalist, under 
the command of a chief. Mr. Brooke then visited 
Sarawak again, was feasted with sumptuou? hospitality 
by Muda Hassim, and gratified by the cordial inclina- 
tion evinced by the rajah to cultivate a mutual friend- 
Civil war ship. The province, however, distracted as it was by 
Sarawak. c j y jj B fa\fe f w hich prolonged itself through the intrigues 
and timidity of the native chiefs, offered little induce- 
ment to remain. Trade could not be established while 
war was clearing the waters of every fisher's skiff; in- 
dustry could not be quickened while alternate rage and 
panic absorbed the spirit of the population ; civilisation, 
even in its first seminal form, could not be introduced 
Misery of while a bloody struggle was continuing to which every 
tr y cc savage practice added a new horror, .and every savage 
passion a new flame. Therefore our countryman quit- 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 233 

ted the river, in the hope that a few months would 
restore to Sarawak that repose in which alone it could 
receive and feel the genial influences of humanity. 
Spending the interval of half a year in excursions in visit to 
the beautiful island of Celebes he familiarised himself 
with the institutions, manners, and politics of the va- 
rious states and settlements amid which it is divided. 
Strange reports were circulated among the people as to 
the nature of his designs against the privileges of the 
chiefs and the independence of the people. Contagion, 
it was said, emanated with virulent power from the 
strangers' persons, and hundreds died wherever they set 
foot on land. Nevertheless, though these wild rumours Rumours of 
flew from coast to coast, he succeeded in planting a 
good impression of himself and his countrymen in those 
parts of Celebes which he was fortunate enough to 
explore. 

On .his second visit to Sarawak, about the end of Second 
August, 1840, Mr. Brooke enjoyed a cordial reception, g^wak 
Chiefs and people united to welcome him with accla- 
mations of delight. He found the civil war unabated ; 
the inhabitants in the same position, and armed bands 
of the insurgents assembled at several places within 
thirty miles of the town. The rajah continued still 
undecided, though loud asseverations were circulated 
that one great blow was preparing to put an end to the 
conflict without delay. Holding Sarawak as a princi- Politics of 
pality under Brune, Muda Hassim had received an Borneo> 
envoy from the sultan, to preside over some more 
energetic operations, and had in this manner been 
stimulated from his Lethean indolence. A mixed army 
of Malays and Dyaks was levied to attack the rebellious 
tribes in their own strongholds, at Siniawan, some 
distance up the river, where they had intrenched them* 
selves in a formidable position. 



234 



THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



The rajah 
prays him 
to remain. 



Resolves to 
leave the 

island. 



Persuaded 
to atay. 



Again Mr. Brooke conceived that any good design 
could little be promoted by remaining there while this 
savage and fruitless conflict was going on. He there- 
fore mentioned to the prince the subject of his ap- 
proaching departure. But the rajah prayed him to 
stay, promised a speedy end of the war, declaimed him- 
self deceived and betrayed by his chiefs, said that if 
the Englishman left him he should have to remain at 
Sarawak all his life, struggling against the arts of in- 
trigue and the animosities of faction. He appealed to 
every generous sentiment, whether it would not be 
cruel to desert him then. Mr. Brooke consented to 
join the army, and offer his advice to the leading chiefs. 
He started for that purpose ; but found a confused 
cabal of selfish, jealous, and cowardly braggarts, who 
had no policy of their own to pursue, and would accept 
none from any adviser. Politics were so disorganised, 
parties so unprincipled, that no chance appeared left of 
ever introducing into Sarawak the arts of peace or the 
amenities of civilisation. He must quit the country. 
All things conspired to support this resolution. He 
had not made a friend in Muda Hassim, without excit- 
ing enemies, the spontaneous growth of envy, in the 
favour of a prince. Already a faction headed by Pan- 
gueran Usof, an influential and unscrupulous chieftain 
at Brune, endeavouring to ruin the rajah, was suspected 
of a design to procure the assassination of his English 
guest. 

When, however, he again announced to Muda Has- 
sim his resolution, the countenance of the Malay visibly 
changed ; he betrayed every sign of sorrow and disap- 
pointment. Mr. Brooke assured him that if any chance 
existed of the struggle being speedily brought to a close 
he would remain. Then his face brightened. He said 
there was all reasonable hope ; our countrymen con- 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 235 

sented to stay a few days longer until information was 
collected as to the prospects of the war. He deter- 
mined to join the rajah's forces as a spectator, if not a 
participator in the campaigns partly to satisfy his 
curiosity, partly to stimulate the activity of the people. 
The sultan's cause appeared to him undoubtedly just 
and righteous ; but he desired, nevertheless, to amelio- 
rate the condition of the rebels in the case of their sus- 
taining a defeat. So dilatory, timid, and unsettled, wretched 
however, were the councils of the leading men that he " war 
returned once more to the town, saw Muda Hassim, 
explained to him that it was useless to remain, and ex- 
pressed his resolve to go. 

The prince was in despair. He assumed an attitude Again per- 
alrnost of abject supplication. He offered to give Mr. re n' ain> 
Brooke the country of Siniawan and Sarawak, if he offer of 

............ . -, Sarawak to 

would only stay, and aid him m his extremity of need. Brooke. 
Our countryman now first saw the first glimpse of that 
prospect which afterwards expanded into so beautiful a 
design, and encouraged him to cultivate a barbarous 
population into a race of peaceful, industrious, and 
amiable tillers of the soil, miners, fishers, and merchants. 
The grant might on the spot have been obtained ; but 
an act imposed by necessity, or suggested by an impulse 
of gratitude, was not desirable to Mr. Brooke. He 
knew the rajah was in distress, but could not know that 
he was sincere, and felt also that there was little virtue 
in signatures or seals to bind the faith of a half savage 
Asiatic chieftain. Saying he would deliberate upon j i ns the 
the proposition, he again consented to join the army, r y al 
and took thenceforward a lead in the civil war. Euro- 
pean tactics and weapons, with European courage and 
decision, speedily prevailed against the rude defences 
and imperfect organisation of the enemy. Poor was the 
spirit of the rebel, as of the royal forces ; and fourteen 



236 



THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



Submission 
of the 
rebels. 



Saves the 
prisoners' 
lives. 



Englishmen with one bold young Lanun chief, charging 
across a rice-field, routed the whole insurgent host, 
which scattered itself in confusion, derangement, and 
dismay. Their leaders then offered to capitulate if the 
white stranger would guarantee their lives ; but this he 
had not the prerogative to do, and refused, when they 
consented to surrender for life or death to the repre- 
sentative of the sultan. The victorious Englishman then 
ordered them to burn all their stockades, which they 
did, delivering up their arms, and relying on him alone 
for protection from the cowardly fury of the Chinese 
and Malays, who, when they were defenceless, would 
have rejoiced in the permission to massacre them all. 

Mr. Brooke then went to the rajah, to plead for the 
lives of the prisoners, who had yielded themselves into 
his hands. It was a trial of firmness on either side, the 
one soliciting, the other refusing an important favour 
the humanity of an Englishman contending with the 
natural implacability of an Oriental. The prince 
urged, logically according to Malay law, that the re- 
bels had forfeited their lives, as a necessary sacrifice to 
secure the future peace of the country, and asked 
whether in England any leniency would be shown to 
men who had taken up arms and shed blood in an at- 
tempt to overturn the authority of the government. 
Mr. Brooke answered that he was reluctant to have the 
life of a defeated enemy taken ; that he felt ashamed 
of having aided in capturing them for execution, how- 
ever involuntarily, and that a merciful policy was as- 
suredly most advantageous in the end. He acknow- 
ledged that the rebels owed their lives for the expiation 
of their crime ; that their offences had been of a heinous 
and unpardonable nature, and that only from so humane 
and magnanimous a prince as Muda Hassim could 
clemency be hoped. The concession of forgiveness was 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 237 

at length yielded, and mercy for once tempered the 
habitual character of an Oriental judgment. The re- 
bels' lives were spared ; their women were taken as 
hostages ; their population was dispersed ; their city was 
burnt to the ground; the chiefs sought occupation in 
other places; the poor people waited for the harvest, 
and a Chinese colony was established where Siniawan 
had lately stood. 



23S THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



CHAPTER XII. 

influence of MR. BROOKE'S next care was to consolidate his in- 

a^sarawak fl uence a ^ Sarawak. He was appointed the official 
resident at the court of the rajah, and started for 
Singapore, though much solicited to stay. At Singa- 
pore he purchased the schooner Swift of ninety tons, 
freighted her, and sailed again for Sarawak, which he 
reached early in April, 1841. Muda Hassim, who had 
spontaneously offered and promised him the govern- 
ment of the country, was an indolent man, of feeble 
mind, and surrounded by cowardly, treacherous, and 
cunning intriguers, who exerted themselves, with every 

Malay in- device of malignity, to thwart and foil the English 
stranger. His influence excited their jealousy, and the 
prospect of his accession to the government darkened 
the hopes of corruption and injustice. 

Position of The position of Mr. Brooke was singular ; but it was 
J e " honourable. This it is necessary clearly to understand, 
for malice is ingenious in misrepresentation. When he 
returned to Sarawak for the second time in August, 
1840, it was with the intention of remaining there only 
a few days, on his route towards the north, where a 
more promising field of operation appeared to offer. 
The miserable situation of Muda Hassim, however, 
touched his feelings ; he was fervently entreated not to 
go away, and he consented to remain. The rebellion, 
which the rajah had come from Brune to quell, had 
during four years spread terror and anarchy through 

His con- the province ; the insurgent tribes had defied every 
attack, and given a disgraceful defeat to every force 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 239 

equipped against them. Muda Hassim's direct followers 
were few; his allies continued to elude or refuse his 
requisition for aid ; his enemies at the capital actively 
exerted all the arts of faction to neutralise his en- 
deavours. They hoped in his failure to discover a pre- 
text for agitating in the councils of the sultan a plan 
for his overthrow. 

The rajah, therefore, humiliated by failure, disheart- Position of 
ened by intrigues, yet resolute in his purpose of con- 
founding the Brune factions, found himself depending 
on a stranger's aid. The false pride of independence, no 
longer able to maintain itself, long checked in his breast 
an impulse to lay these troubles before Mr. Brooke: 
despair, however, at length induced him to succumb. 
He confessed the difficulties surrounding him, prayed 
for assistance, and declared that he would die there, 
desolate and ashamed, rather than announce himself 
unable to crush the rebels. Then, he added, could Mr. 
Brooke, as an English gentleman, who had been his 
friend, and confessed the goodness of his heart, desert 
him, and leave him to the treason of his false friends, 
and the machinations of his implacable enemies. 

Mr. Brooke once more consented. He joined the Summary 
rajah's army a besieging force scarcely superior nu- " pr " 
merically to the insurgent tribes, which had hitherto 
effectually defended themselves behind immense stock- 
ades. Within ten days the disheartening influences, 
which rose against the former endeavour, were renewed 
in additional power. Some in the camp were too timid 
to fight ; some were too treacherous to fight ; others were 
indifferent to the rajah's cause; others intrigued with 
the rajah's enemies. The Englishman's mind revolted 
from this mingled display of cowardice, carelessness, 
and turpitude. He found no prospect of good among 
leaders who opposed all advice, and troops too indolent 



240 



THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



Bornean 
warfare. 



The rqjah's 
offers. 



to obey any command. The Chinese alone seemed ready 
to assist in active operations; but they with justice 
refused, few and inefficiently armed as they were, to 
lead a forlorn hope for the Malays, who would not even 
follow where they fought. He therefore left the scene 
of war, where a few savage heroes contented themselves 
with skulking in the woods, and glutting their steel 
with the silent and inglorious blood of some defenceless 
woman, and returned down the river to his vessel. He 
saw Muda Hassim. He said with explicit candour, that 
it was impossible to conduct operations among men who 
would originate no plan themselves, nor accept direc- 
tions from him. The prince again entreated him with 
every importunity to stay, exhausted every reason, 
urged every plea, promised every aid, and to add to the 
prospect of success the hope of reward, offered Sara- 
wak with its revenues and trade as the price of success. 
Whether the rajah enjoyed the prerogative to dispose of 
the country, was a question on which it was necessary 
to be perfectly informed ; but subsequent inquiries dis- 
rights, sipated all doubt on the subject. The grant offered 
included the government and revenues of the province, 
with a slight deduction to acknowledge the supremacy of 
the sultan. Muda Hassim also promised that one of his 
brothers should reside with Mr. Brooke, to compel the 
obedience of the people. These proffers were not only 
freely but spontaneously made. 

Mr. Brooke might on the spot, without the interven- 
tion of another hour's delay, have obtained a document 
to formularise and confirm the grant. Averse, however, 
from turning an accidental influence to an undue ad- 
vantage over the native prince, he reflected also, that a 
written agreement might have been simply a barren 
bond which he possessed no ability to enforce. Many 
difficulties, besides, appeared to rise in prospect, between 



Moderation 
of Mr. 
Brooke. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 241 

the ratification of the cession itself and the power to 
create from it any system advantageous to the people 
or honourable to himself. Consequently a sealed paper, 
signed in dubious sincerity, seemed to promise no secu- 
rity against failure, disappointment, and delusion. 

Our countryman, therefore, replied that while the His be- 
civil war was pending, he could not accept the rajah's haviour - 
offer ; but that he would, if invested with authority to 
command, go up the river and conduct a campaign 
against the rebels. Muda Hassim assented, promised 
every aid, treated the new leader of his forces with dis- 
tinguished respect, and Mr. Brooke brought the war 
to a rapid and fortunate conclusion. The negotiations 
about the transfer of the government were then re- 
newed, and the Englishman explained to his native 
friend the difficulties of the undertaking. He told him Reflections 
that all the existing Malay governments were so bad, on Mala y 

. J _ 1 administra- 

that the rich were permitted so much licence, and the tion. 
poor were so tyrannically used, that any attempt to ad- 
minister affairs without ameliorating the general system, 
would be a vain and futile endeavour. The grounds on stipulations 
which he would accept the proposition were, that for reform - 
the rajah must employ all his exertions to establish and 
ratify the principle that no man, however great, was 
unjustly to deprive of anything, any other, however 
humble ; that the produce of all men's labour was to 
constitute their sure reward, except during those sea- 
sons in which they were employed to labour for the 
revenues of the state ; instead of the prevailing system, 
by which no regular plan was established ; for the rajah 
enriched himself by taking what he pleased, and the 
chiefs impoverished the people by taking what they 
could. He required also that the amount of the re- pians of 
venue should be fixed and invariable for three years, meliora - 
at a stated quantity of rice per family, in lieu of which 
VOL. II. R 



242 THE INDIAN AUCIIIPELAGO, 

should the individual prefer it he might pay in 
money or labour, the relative price of the grain to 
money or labour being previously fixed at as low a rate 
as possible; that the functionaries of the principality, 
the Patingi, Bandar, and Tumangong, should receive 
stated salaries out of the revenue in order to prevent 
the chance of any extortion by themselves, or in their 
name, and that they were to be answerable for the 
whole revenue, under the superintendence of the new 
governor. The Dyaks were, in treatment, to be placed 
on an equality with the Malays, their property pro- 
tected, their taxes fixed, and their labour free. This, 
he explained, was a task of multiplied and varied 
difficulty, which only the power of Muda Hassim could 
achieve. No obedience could be anticipated from the 
population to a stranger on their soil, an alien from 
their blood, an infidel to their religion, unless that 
stranger possessed the most unqualified confidence with 
the most cordial support of the native prince. There 
were many doubtful chiefs to conciliate, many stubborn 
Actual go- enemies to coerce. The principle among the inferior 
vernment nobles was that each man should intrigue for himself, 

of S'iriwilc 

while the poorer people formed a common resource for 
avarice, extortion, and fraud. The active hostility of 
opponents therefore, combined with the inertness of 
others not unfavourable to Mr. Brooke, seemed to 
threaten an accumulation of obstacles in his way. 
Reply of To the reasoning of the Englishman the native prince 

the n\jah. agsen t e d ; but he qualified his acquiescence with con- 
ditional terms. The laws, the customs, and the religion 
of the country must not be insulted or infringed, a 
stipulation consonant with the conservative practice of 
conceding the principle of reform, but refusing to in- 
novate in any degree. The violence, however, and the 
usury of the rich, with that variation in fiscal burdens 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 243 

which encouraged the oppression of the poor, did not Apology for 
emanate from any authority in the written code of abuses - 
Borneo. They were excrescences growing out of a 
feeble, which is always a vicious, administration. The 
wish of the rajah was to witness these beneficent re- 
forms ; his intention was to aid sincerely in their develop- 
ment, and especially to distribute more justice and 
diffuse more happiness among the spoiled and maltreated 
Dyaks. Thus there appeared a sympathy of desires 
and an unity of design between them. Muda Hassim, 
therefore, professed exceeding delight in the prospect 
which seemed to dawn over Sarawak, and agreed to 
yield its government to Mr. Brooke. When, never- suspicious 
theless, he wrote out the agreement, one suspicious c ndu ctf 

the rajah. 

symptom was displayed. The document simply an- 
nounced that Mr. Brooke had received the privilege to 
reside at Sarawak, in order to seek for profit. When 
he explained to the rajah that such an instrument was 
intrinsically of no value, Muda Hassim said he must Equivocal 
not think this was to be understood to mean the con- document - 
vention actually contracted between them, but merely 
one for the sultan to peruse though to him, also, a 
new treaty would afterwards be presented. There was 
in the act, as well as in the apology, much of an equi- 
vocal colour, but Mr. Brooke was not disposed to contest 
terms at the commencement of such a negotiation. He 
agreed to consider the settlement arranged, and more- 
over to buy a vessel and bring her to Sarawak for trade, 
because, unless a ship began regularly to visit the river, 
no chance existed that the resources of the province 
would be fairly or with facility developed. Antimony Agreement 
ore, it was said, abounded, and a great accumulation of with 

i i i T n i . Mr- Brooke. 

it would be prepared in anticipation of his return. A 
house was also to be built ; and the Englishman re- 
mained three months away. He purchased the Swift 

R 2 



244 



THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



Mr. 

Brooke's 

risk. 



Bad faith of 
the rajah. 



Expendi- 
ture on his 
account. 



His pro- 
mises. 



His pro- 
crastina- 
tion. 



His avarice. 



schooner for the great price of 5,000 dollars, laded her 
with a costly freight, and ventured, indeed, a small 
fortune in dependence on the faith of Muda Hassim. 

On his return to Sarawak he was received with the 
usual salutes, and every honour was added to his wel- 
come. But there was no habitation prepared, nor was 
it without long and wearisome solicitation that a com- 
modious dwelling was erected on the banks of the river. 
There was no ore collected, or any sign of an intention 
to collect it. This, though among the first, was not the 
most flagrant act of ill faith committed. 

In August, with the schooners Royalist and Swift 
at Sarawak, Mr. Brooke found himself with a for- 
midable monthly expense, which he was naturally 
anxious to abate from some return of the heavy sums 
he had risked on the rajah's account. He was assured 
that 6000 piculs of antimony ore were prepared, and 
would speedily be down the river, and that any quantity 
might be obtained provided workmen were employed to 
extract it. This was notoriously true, for the pangeran 
Makota had loaded a ship, a brig, and three native 
vessels within six weeks. Consequently there was 
no colourable plea for the procrastination which tor- 
tured the patience of Mr. Brooke, wasted his resources, 
and disorganised his plans. The rajah begged that 
the cargo of the Swift might be landed; and as that 
vessel was leaky, he obtained the favour. The English- 
man gave way to the solicitations of the Malay. The 
freight was confided to Muda Hassim's charge, con- 
fidence without limit was placed in his honour, and the 
whole was disposed into his hands with every mercantile 
formality. He himself stood by while every article was 
received and catalogued in a regular account Every 
hour from dawn till dark was occupied by the process, 
and a valuable cargo was passed from the possession of 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 245 

Mr. Brooke who sold, into that of the rajah who bought 
it; but one half of the mutual convention remained unful- 
filled, for no payment was made, nor was any guarantee 
for payment given. 

Indolent and ungrateful from the first, the prince His ingrati- 
now became indifferent to the whole transaction. He tude * 
had been saved from ruin by the defeat of the rebels ; 
his palace had been filled with new riches ; and he was 
equally disposed to forget both, for his own wishes were 
entirely fulfilled. Meanwhile the craft and duplicity of intrigues 
Makota were exercised to turn this temper to the in- ^r'^rooke 
jury of Mr. Brooke. No sign appeared of any intention 
to acknowledge the debt which had been contracted ; 
but, on the contrary, every inclination to renounce the 
burden of gratitude and to evade the commercial en- 
gagement. Nevertheless, Mr. Brooke was averse from 
suspecting a man who had never yet deceived him, who 
had behaved with integrity and spoken with candour. 
Yet the evidence of actions could not be doubted. He Faithless 
was completely put aside. No antimony was brought ; ^j^ 
no measures were adopted to work the mines ; no allu- Mr. Brooke, 
sion was uttered to the amount stipulated for in the 
treaty ; promises were poured thickly into his ear ; but 
all his proposals were disregarded, and it was with ob- 
vious reluctance that the rajah listened to any remarks 
on the means for the political and social advancement 
of the country. Delays, excuses, evasions all the 
resources of Oriental chicanery, covered over with the 
flowers of politeness and courtesy were employed to 
resist the simple requirements of justice, wasting the 
very quality of patience by abuse of its enduring 
power. 

Mr. Brooke, forbearing to fling any invectives or Mr. 
threats against the rajah, remonstrated incessantly. His 
fortune was wasted; his abilities were fruitless; his strances. 

R 3 



248 THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 

plans in .abeyance, because the promised resources were 
withheld. The poor women taken as hostages at the 
time of the rebellion were kept in captivity, as they had 
been for nearly five months, though he guaranteed the 
The ngah's peace of the country if they were released. Nothing 
reply. wag ff ere (J j n return but promise and profession, re- 

newed in eternal repetition, until the Englishman could 
only consider himself deluded, plundered, and betrayed. 
The rajah, in addition to his other engagements, had 
agreed to allow no piratical excursions within his ter- 
ritories. Scarcely, however, had Mr. Brooke located 
himself in his newly finished house, than intelligence 
A fleet of was brought that an overwhelming swarm of Dyaks, 
D>!lk pl ~ accompanied by numerous Malays, was about to sweep 
up the river, declaring themselves about to attack some 
hostile tribe in the far interior, but in reality to ravage 
and slaughter in the villages and lands of every de- 
fenceless community on the way. Upwards of a hundred 
war prahus, with more than 2500 men, had been in the 
river a week begging permission to carry out the expedi- 
tion. Assurance upon assurance had been given that 
no licence would be yielded to their bloody design; 
but the fleet was allowed to start within sight of the 
Englishman's habitation. 

Irritated by this flagrant offence against the faith of 
treaties, Mr. Booke left his house, went on board the 
Royalist, and despatched a messenger to know whe- 
ther Muda Hassim had granted permission to those 
Malays and Dyaks to prosecute their piratical enter- 
prise. The prince denied all complicity in the trans- 
action, threw the whole blame on Makota and the 
Orang Kay a de Gadong, and, pretending to be ill, re- 
fused to be seen. Nevertheless, he added, they who had 
The pro- given the order might rescind it, which Mr. Brooke in- 
vages pre- sisted should be done. The expedition was, therefore* 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 247 

countermanded ; the flotilla was recalled to its moor- vented by 
ings ; the Englishman remained on board his ship ; the Mr> Brooke - 
rajah secluded himself, in sullen wrath, within the walls 
of his harim. It was evident he had given the permis- 
sion, which he now felt compelled to withdraw, since no 
one else had authority to do so ; but as he had denied it 
there was an avenue open to reconciliation. 

Mr. Brooke then announced his intention of proceed- Policy of 
ing to Brune within three days, and of despatching the Mr> Brooke - 
Swift to Singapore with 750 piculs of antimony ore, 
which had by this time been put on board. When the 
rajah heard this he forgot his pretence of malady, pro- 
posed an interview, and arranged to meet his friend on 
the following day. Meanwhile Mr. Brooke seriously 
considered the position in which he now found himself 
placed. 

He had expended much time, spent much money, His rights 
risked his own life, with the lives of his companions, m Sarawak - 
and made great exertions to assist the rajah Muda 
Hassim. In return for this the rajah had offered him 
the administration of Sarawak. The conditions had 
been fairly discussed and mutually understood. Our 
countryman, on his part, had purchased the ship, and 
brought the cargo, with little view to profit, because he 
was not a trader by predilection, for the furtherance of 
his original design. Then he was deluded by lying His treat- 
promises and hypocritical professions ; he was de- 
layed, deceived, and now amply justified in extorting 
by force what the laws of honour had been ineffectual 
to insure. Since, however, indolence, and not baseness, 
might have actuated the rajah, and since it might be 
possible to procure a return of, or an equivalent for, 
the rich cargo of the Swift, principle and prudence toge- 
ther suggested that more forbearance should be tried 
before coercion was employed. This, however, was only 

R 4 



248 



THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



Treachery 
of Muda 
Hassim. 



Moderate 
conduct of 
Brooke. 



New inter- 
view with 
the rajah. 



the trading part of the transaction. As for the cession 
of the country, the rajah Muda Hassim had, from one 
cause or another, practised a palpable deception, but 
there was against him no claim upon which an appeal 
could have been made by a private individual to the 
common law of nations. Consequently Mr. Brooke de- 
termined to use no force or intimidation, to despatch 
the Swift to Singapore, and proceed himself in the 
Royalist to Brune, where, according to native ru- 
mours, the crew of a shipwrecked vessel were detained, 
whom he thought it his duty to endeavour to release. 
He had already made unsuccessful attempts to effect 
that object ; but active interference could no longer be 
delayed. On reflecting, however, on the circumstances 
then existing, he determined to send the schooner to 
Brune, while he himself remained at Sarawak, to pro- 
cure what now in simple justice he could command. 
Each vessel was to return as quickly as possible from 
her destination ; and he then resolved to give the rajah 
two additional months for consideration, when, having 
enjoyed the fullest opportunity of acting well, he must 
be forced to do what honesty required. 

Mr. Brooke saw Muda Hassim, stated to him his 
complaints, showed what injuries he was suffering, and 
requested to be compensated for the losses he had en- 
dured. No satisfactory answer was obtained. In three 
days no reply was made, and on the fourth morning the 
two schooners proceeded to sea, the one for Brune, the 
other for Singapore, Mr. Brooke himself remaining 
with three companions in the new house a hazardous 
situation engaged in a quiet but rancorous conflict 
with a half-barbarian prince, troubled on all sides by 
the machinations of intriguing chiefs, and surrounded 
by a fierce and lawless people. The question arose in 
his mind whether he possessed the right to force Muda 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 249 

Hassim to comply with the terms of his engagement. 
A British subject could not attack an independent His situa- 
prince in Borneo, or any other part of the globe, with- Borneo, 
out incurring the risk of punishment under the laws of 
his own country ; but if that prince fraudulently pos- 
sessed himself of a stranger's property, deceived him by 
false pretences, made promises to break them, agreed 
before witnesses to that which he refused afterwards to 
fulfil ; then was a British subject to suffer that injury 
when the prince was able and only unwilling to pay ? 
That he had trusted Muda Hassim was no reason that 
he should submit to be betrayed by him ; that he had 
an imperial government to apply to was no solace to 
one who knew that his claim, even if allowed, might 
only be enforced for the benefit of his posterity in the 
fourth and fifth generation. Law there was none to 
arbitrate between them, for the Malay sovereign was 
impelled only by caprice, and governed only by his 
own desires. 

Sarawak, also, presented many inducements to a man Capabilities 
of liberal and chivalric mind. It had great capabilities 
a rich vegetable kingdom ; abundant mineral re- 
sources, especially in antimony ore ; a considerable its condi- 
population of Dyaks, whose social state and character tlon- 
were susceptible of much amelioration; an infusion of 
Malays not too large to be within control; and a swarm 
of Chinese active, busy, intelligent, and valuable, 
under a government strong enough to protect them 
^ against oppression, and to protect itself against their 

turbulent disposition. The Pontiana river might serve its re- 
as the channel of a fructifying and expanding trade from 
the unknown interior of the island, a great work of 
civilisation might be accomplished, and a reputation 
gained illustrious enough to satisfy the desires of a 
magnanimous ambition. Considerations of this nature 



250 TUB INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 

reconciled him to the sacrificing virtue of patience, and 
the ennui of expectation, whose promise is long deferred. 
In little more than three weeks, the Royalist returned 
from Brune, and next day the Swift, from Singapore. 
Mr. Brooke continued to lay earnest remonstrances 
before Muda Hassim, and detailed to him in a formal 
memoir the whole course of the negotiations which had 
taken place. This letter the Malay, though his stolid 
nature refused to be controlled by it, acknowledged to 
be a fair and faithful account, and he again pledged 
himself to deliver over the country ; but, he added, 
difficulties arose in his path which he knew not how to 
remove. 

Behaviour There was now, in his manner, some return of that 
of the rajah, frankness which had long disappeared. It encouraged 
the hope that a just settlement might be concluded 
without a rupture. Circumstances, also, conspired to 
favour Mr. Brooke. When the Diana war-steamer 
rushed up the river to make inquiries into the trans- 
actions connected with the wreck of the Sultana^ great 
fear pervaded the population. Under the authority 
of that awe which her cloudy wake and threatening 
armament inspired, a solution of all disputes might 
Delicate easily have been obtained. Mr. Brooke, however, with 

conduct of , * . . . .,,1 

Mr. Brooke, a delicate generosity which his friends will be allowed 
to notice, and his detractors have been unable to deny, 
refrained from introducing the subject until the vessel 
had left. She came, however, a second time, with the 
schooner, bringing the shipwrecked crew of the Sul- 

Improve tana. This circumstance materially strengthened the 

inent of Mr. . . r -r i -r i 

Brooke's position of Mr. Brooke. It showed the chiefs and the 

situation. people that the authorities on that station were alert, 

and created an impression that the Englishman was 

exceedingly influential with the governor of Singapore. 

Chinese miners were employed by the rajah, and they 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 251 

slowly freighted the Swift with antimony ore. Some 
inclination being by this evinced to remember engage- 
ments, Mr. Brooke once more furnished his house from 
the Royalist. He intended, however, to despatch neither 
of the vessels again until a final settlement of one kind 
or another had been procured. Gradually he obtained 
glimpses into the character and situation of Muda 
Hassim, who, naturally feeble and poor in mind, suf- 
fered much from the treachery and intrigue of the 
chiefs who surrounded him, ready to act as sycophants 
or conspirators, as their caprice or selfishness suggested. 
Complications at Brune, the faction of Mahom, the influences 
avarice and ill faith of his own people, the influence of against him. 
the sultan of Sambas, and continual false rumours 
systematically circulated, bewildered the little percep- 
tion he possessed. The Chinese delayed obedience to 
his orders ; he entertained still a lingering suspicion of 
Mr. Brooke ; and he was reluctant to fulfil a promise 
which required the relinquishment of power. That he 
was thus rendered timid and vacillating, is not a subject 
for surprise ; that he was not seduced into hostility, is 
remarkable. 

Indeed, powerful influences pressed around him. The 
accession of the Englishman to the government was 
dreaded by a crowd of chiefs, to whose advantage the 
economy of injustice had long furnished resources for 
the fund of fraud and extortion. They feared that under 
his rule the sources of corrupt gain would be dried up, 
and on this account sought to involve Mr. Brooke in a 
quarrel with the Dutch factors at Sambas, who would 
gladly have driven him out of the country. Makota's Makota's 
whole conduct was that of a treacherous intriguer : his intri s ues - 

O ' 

conspiracy with Sambas was notorious to all ; and the 
rajah knew that he could not, without the aid of the 
ally who had ended the civil war, prevail against the 



252 



THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



Resolution 
of Mr. 
Br-'Oke. 



enemies and the dangers which were thickening around 
him. The machinations and villanies of Makota were 
daily illustrated by incidents unmistakable in their 
character. By threats, lies, and plots, he prevented all 
persons over whom his influence extended, from going 
near the Englishman's house. No means were too 
disreputable to be employed. A Chinese Hajji, whom 
Mr. Brooke had befriended, announced that an attempt 
had been made to poison him ; but it was discovered 
that he had been induced by Makota to put arsenic on 
his own plate in order to throw suspicion on some of 
the Englishman's adherents. 

This occurrence animated Mr. Brooke to fix his reso- 
lution at once. He determined no longer to trifle. He 
stated the circumstance to the rajah ; he loaded the 
ship's guns with grape and canister, cleared her decks 
for action, moored her in a convenient position, and 
then proceeded to expose the crimes and machinations 
of Makota. He protested his kindness to Muda 
Hassim, but declared he should attack Makota, from 
whose wickedness neither he nor the rajah could be safe. 
The prince was alarmed, and so probably was the 
chieftain, for he did not show himself out of his house 
for a long time. No struggle, however, took place ; for 
all the elements of force in Sarawak appeared to be 
Prospects of gathered up in the hands of Mr. Brooke. The Siniawan 
people whom he had befriended in a time of distress 
immediately declared for his cause, announcing that 200 
warriors were ready to reply to his summons. The 
Chinese and the rest of the population took no side, but 
remained passively waiting to accept any master accident 
should set over them. Makota, with the exception of 
his own slaves, about twenty in number, could not rally 
a single adherent. Matters, therefore, were speedily 
arranged ; the rajah at once arrived at a conclusion ; the 



His prepa- 
rations. 



Temper of 
the people. 



An issue. 



ITS HISTORY AND PKESENT STATE. 253 

long negotiation was ratified in an hour ; a treaty was 

drawn out ; seals and signatures were applied ; the flags 

waved, the guns fired, general shouts resounded along 

the river; and on the 24th of September, 1841, James Declared 

Brooke became, with unlimited authority, Rajah of 

Sarawak. 



254 THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



CHAPTER XIII. 

Borneo. AT a point in the narrative which describes the esta- 
blishment of Sir James Brooke as an independent 
prince in Borneo, it is proper to introduce a general 
account of that island. Slight as such a notice must 
necessarily be, yet it may include an outline view of its 
geographical character, its aspect, resources, and its 
population, with a separate sketch of Sarawak, the 
pied a terre on which the first outworks of British in- 
fluence have been erected. 

Ancient ao Three centuries ago the marvellous riches of Borneo 
were reported to Europe by navigators who extolled in 
poetical panegyric the Golden Kingdom of the Malays. 
Nor was it unknown to the Arabians, for it seems 
clearly to be identical with their Mihraj, in the won- 
derful romance of " Essindibad of the Sea." * It was 
then imagined that a ship might there be freighted in 
a few days with the rarest productions of the earth 
white and pure pearls, ductile gold, camphor 2 , sweet 
and fragrant gums, perfumed oils, spices, and gems of 
imperial splendour ; while the soil yielded, in exuberant 
profusion, every grain and fruit discovered in the richest 
parts of Asia. Similar visions, indeed, haunted the 
mariner's fancy as he explored the coast of any Indian 
island, and traditionary ideas imparted to every account 



1 Lane, Arabian Nights, Notes, in. 85. 

8 Alcamphora in the Spanish, who received the name from the 
Arabs, but the word is apparently of Sanscrit origin. Crawfurd, 
Journ. Ind, Arch. iv. 183. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 255 

of those regions the exaggeration of romance. 1 It has Tropical 
since been found that the luxuriant vegetation of the 
East does not always indicate a fertility useful to man ; 
and that, as in Sumatra, a deceptive beauty belongs to 
the growth of soils extremely ungrateful to husbandry. 
In Borneo, however, as in Java, though the heat and Capabilities 
moisture are unfavourable to European processes of ieo ' 
tillage, all that can be grown with success in any 
tropical country, may be cultivated to perfection. 2 
Qualifying, therefore, the sense of the ancient nar- 
rations, by allowance for the florid style inspired from 
a sanguine mind, too credulous of good, we find them 
to bear close comparison with the most authentic records 
of late research. 3 The voyager of 1718, indeed, relates comparison 
little of the natural resources of Borneo 4 , which is not oftravellers ' 

accounts. 

confirmed by the inquiries of a more modern period. 
What he and others related of the king's splendour may, 
it is true, have been a picturesque exaggeration, but 
even in this most old narratives concur. 5 

Borneo is divided by the equator into two unequal Geography 
parts, and is, with the exception of New Holland, the ? f th !r 
largest island in the world. It enters two of the great 
sections into which the Archipelago has been distributed 
one, the more favoured, wKich embraces Java, and 
a second containing Celebes, while it projects itself also 
into the climate of spice and sago. 6 Including the little Extent, 
groups, which geographically are attached to it, it ex- 
tends through eleven degrees of longitude, and ten of 
latitude from 106 40' to 116 45' east of Greenwich, 

1 " Accounts of India and China," 61. 

2 Hugh Low, Sarawak, 32. 

3 Anderson, Borneo Papers, p. 18. 

4 Beeckman, Visit to Borneo, 36. 

5 Pigafetta, Purch. Pilgr. i. 2. Note 32, 33. 

6 Crawfurd, History, i. 8 10. 



256 THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 

and from 7 north to 4 20' south latitude a length 
of about 900, and a breadth of about 750 miles. 1 The 
area has been computed at about 114,000 square miles. 2 
Whence it derived its name is unknown ; but it is pro- 
bably not a native appellation. According to some it 
is called by the aborigines Kalamantan 3 ; to others, 
Varouni, or "Born of the Sea;" 4 while it has been 
spoken of under the Greek description of Megalonesia. 
The Malay word Borneo, is said to be derived from the 
Sanscrit Bhurni 5 ; and Tannah Burni, " The Land of 
Burni," is used by the people of the Peninsula 6 , as it 
was by the old Portuguese navigator 7 ; and by the 
Venetian travellers Borneo 8 as well as Burne 9 ; but the 
aborigines appear to have no fixed name to apply to the 
Native ideas whole island 10 Many of the tribes dwelling in the in- 
of geogra- terior have no idea that their country is surrounded by 
the sea 11 , while others know of nothing beyond the 
borders of those streams on which they live. All of 
them, though their names are infinitely various, appear 
to be derived from a common origin, and to have in- 
habited Borneo at a period long anterior to the Malayan 
The Dyaks. emigration. From the conquering race which became 
dominant along their coasts, they probably received the 
appellation of Dyaks, and from them perhaps learned 
many of their treacherous arts. Abandoning the mari- 
time districts to the warlike colonists who descended on 
them, they retreated to the interior hills and plains, 
distressed by the tyranny of the Malays, which pursued 

I Temminck, ii. 132. 8 Melville de Carnbee, Moitueur. 
3 Rienzi and Low, 3. 4 Hamilton. 

5 Miiller. 6 Law, Sarawak, 2. 

7 Pigafetta, Harris. 8 Ramusio. 9 Barbosa. 

10 So G. Muller, Henrici, Diard, S. Miiller, Korthial, and 
Brooke, quoted in Temminck, ii. 134. 

II Low, Sarawak, 3. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 257 

tlicm until their traces were lost in the depths of the 
unexplored forest. To describe them as they live in 
the vast solitudes of Central Borneo, remains for tra- 
vellers at a future day. Large communities, however. Sea tribes. 
remained near the sea, struggling on precarious earnings 
against the extortions of their rulers on the one hand, 
and the exaction of their plunderers on the other ; but 
still presenting in the simplicity of their lives a curious 
picture of man's social inventions in the earliest period 
of his history. 

It is little more than thirty years since Borneo was imperfec- 
described as a blank on the map 1 , and even now no knowledge. 
more than the outlines of its geography are known. 
Every glimpse of light, however, that is thrown upon 
it, reveals a new incentive to the enterprise of a com- 
mercial nation, and no suggestion of policy is wanting 
to engage the English in securing a share in the trade, 
if not in the territory of that important island. Its Position of 
position in the mercantile route to China and Japan, Borneo - 
its numerous valuable rivers, its valuable productions 
and the fertility of its soil, its immense extent, and the 
apparent salubrity of its climate in many parts, with the 
character of its numerous population, promise every re- its impor- 
ward to the merchants who may succeed in developing tance - 
its resources. 

The population cannot with any accuracy be esti- Population, 
mated ; every statement must be a loose and hazardous 
conjecture : 3,000,000 is by some considered an ex- 
aggerated number, because what is known of the 
interior seems to be thinly peopled ; the tribes along the 
banks of rivers are few ; the levels near the sea and ex- 
posed to inundation are uninhabitable ; the lowlands are Surface, 
of alluvial formation, and the immense wooded deltas 

1 Raffles, History of Java, i. 2GG. 
VOL. II. S 



258 



THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



Tribes of 
Borneo. 



Aspect of 
Borneo. 



afford only a place of temporary sojourn to nomadic 
hordes. 1 Whether the more elevated districts of the 
interior, especially the high valleys, do not ferment with 
the activity of a denser population is problematical, but 
the tendency of the tribes in Borneo has been, since the 
Malay colonisation, from instead of towards the sea, 
though it may be unprofitable to enter into speculative 
discussions on the result of this migratory process. The 
statistics of the Dutch settlements, where the Dyaks 
preponderate in an immense proportion over the re- 
presentatives of other races, indicates a small average 
population to the square mile 2 ; as the more recent 
tables show with reference to all their possessions in 
Borneo. 3 

Borneo, superior in area to the whole territory of 
France, is of varied aspect, but everywhere reveals the 
characteristics of uncultivated nature. As the last up- 
heaving or sinking of the earth left it, so it remains, with 
few traces of human industry to change the features 

Mountains, of its surface. It has high mountains, long and copious 
rivers, lakes of various size, and in the northern portions 
many spacious plains. There also the hills reach their 
greatest height, Kini Balu, or the Chinese Widow, 
attaining an altitude of nearly 14,000 feet. The ranges 
lie generally in a direction from north-east to south-west, 
descending about midway to 8,000 or 9,000 feet, and 
sloping to 4,000 and 2,000 as they approach the western 

Plains. shore. 4 Between them, in the northern division, lie 
wide levels formed from the deposit of streams, which 
flowing through long sinuous valleys, overlay the pre- 
vailing quartz formations with a rich composition of 

Rivers vegetable mould. 5 On every side of the island, indeed, 



1 Temminck, ii. 143. 



8 Tobias, Eapport, 1825. 



3 Melville de Carnbec, Moniteur, 5. 69. 



4 Low, Sarawak, 6. 



5 Temminck, ii. 405. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 259 

numerous rivers discharge themselves, some springing 
from undiscovered sources in the interior, and aggran- 
dized by the tribute of many affluent streams ; others 
rising among the nearer hills, and descending with 
serpentine course to their embouchure. On the north 
the largest are those of Brune, Rejang, Serebas, Sakar- 
ran, and Sarawak ; on the south, the Great Banjar, 
on the south-east the river of Passir, and on the east, 
Koti, all of large volume, besides many others capable 
of navigation. 1 If ever, indeed, the heart of that mighty 
island be laid open to European enterprize, it will be 
through these streams, which render Borneo, with the 
exception of western Africa, and perhaps of Brazil, 
the best watered country in the world. Between the 
province of Sarawak and the city of Brune may be 
counted the mouths of more than twenty rivers, avail- 
able for purposes of trade. The tides flow far up, and in Tidal 
the more level districts the depth continues to a long dig- nvers ' 
tance inland, as in the Rejang, the Banjar, the Sambas, 
and the Pontianah ; while along the hilly coasts they have, 
like those of New Zealand, a short precipitous course, 
and pour their fresh water, almost unmingled, into the 
sea. 2 

Various lakes of considerable extent are reported to Lakes, 
exist in parts of the island hitherto unexplored. One 
beautiful sheet of water, stored with excellent fish, was 
discovered by the Dutch in 1823, 250 miles up the 
'ontianah river. It contained islands, and supplied 
several falls of picturesque appearance along the course 
of the streams. Near Kini Balu, the confluent springs 
of a circular range are said to fill a beautiful lake ; and 
a chain of smaller lakes is laid down by the Dutch, 
thence to the head of the Pontianah, or across the island ; 



1 Crawfurd, Borneo Papers, 16. z Low, Sarawak, 8. 

s 2 



260 



THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



Native set- 
tlements. 



Forests. 



Morasses. 



Water life. 



but these reports are derived only from native authority, 
if they are indeed any more than the conjectural theories 
of speculative geographers. In the Dyak country of 
Balow, however, is known to exist a small and beautiful 
lake, one or two miles wide, and about five in length, 
enclosed by a rim of low verdant hills, and many of 
these are probably interspersed among the woods of the 
interior. 1 Wherever water is found, settlements of 
natives are discovered, some crowded on the borders 
of a river, others secluded in isolated spots, where their 
industry alone disturbs the general silence and tran- 
quillity of nature. For nearly the whole known sur- 
face of Borneo is shaded by immense forests, which 
spread from the southern coasts to those which over- 
look the sea of China, and from the western to the 
eastern shores. Near their confines they are inter- 
sected by chains of water-courses and lakes, whose 
overflowings form a continuous succession of marshes 
for hundreds of miles, and close the interior against 
the traveller's research. The great Dusou river, with 
ts many tributary streams, traverses in its sinuous 
course a vast jungly delta, inundated in the hot seasons 
to a depth of several feet. In all that region the 
virgin forest is interrupted only by morasses, mouths 
of rivers, creeks, and streams, which form the only 
avenues to the interior. The wandering native turns 
to his use the winding course of the abundant waters 2 , 
and builds his habitation near them, in order that when 
necessity or inclination impels him to change his place 
of abode, a canoe may bear him, with his family, to 
some other spot where fruit and game abound to supply 
his limited desires. 



1 Brooke, Journal, Mundy, 220. 

2 Temminck, ii. 406. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 261 

These forests cover a surface in general low and undu- Surface, 
lating, few highlands existing in the north-west, south, 
or south-eastern divisions of the island. On the west 
the wavy sloping country is not so broad, and near 
Sambas and Sarawak the hills are so frequent, and 
approach so nearly to the sea, that the landscape has 
a mountainous appearance. There is, in all parts, Beach. 
a wide beach of fine white sand, reaching to a line of 
the graceful Casuarina or Arru tree, which resembles a 
belt of fir. Swamps usually extend near the mouths swamps. ') 
of rivers, overgrown by nip ah and mangrove, where the 
mosquito swarms so inveterately that Europeans never Mosquitos. 
sleep near them. 1 

In the woods of Borneo live immense tribes of the The 
four-handed family, the mias pappan, the ourang-outang, 
and others of that genus, delighting in a humid atmo- 
sphere. They are in infinite variety, and of species the 
most curious the pappan and rembi 2 , the long-nosed, 
the long-armed, the short-tailed, with others unknown 
to the naturalist. They are astonishingly numerous, 
and very destructive to the rice fields, so that a con- 
stant war is carried on between them and the Dyaks, 
who besides esteem their flesh as food. 3 There are other ani- 
found also a kind of panther, whose skin is employed by mals * 

1 Low, Sarawak, 10. 

2 See Brooke, Journal, Mundy, i. 227. See Valmont de Bomare, 
iii. 366., for a notice of a wild man homo sylvcstris from 
Borneo, which evidently refers to the mias. See Rousseau's spe- 
culations Sur rinegalite, (Euvres, i. 152. From this tribe of 
creatures it is conjectured by Bailly the ancients derived their 
ideas of Fauns and Satyrs (Lettres sur VAilantidc, 176.) Cer- 
tainly, the " pygmies " of the Grand Khan's retinue " red, downy- 
faced creatures only four feet high," were apes of Sumatra. See 
Marsden, Marco Polo, 604., Hole, 78. and Griffith, Animal King. 
i. 256. 

3 See Monographic de Mammalogia, par Temminck, 113. 364. 

8 3 



262 



INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



the natives as the material of a martial costume ; the 
coco or Malayan honey-feeding bear ; deer of various 

Indian ga- species, and especially the palandok, eating the blos- 
soms of the Dillenia speciosa, and equal in its glossy 
coat, its lustrous and melting eyes, its light and grace- 
ful form, and its fleet agile movements to the gazelle 

wild beasts, of the Persian poets ; the wild pig, the tiger, and 
civet cat, otter, ant-eater, many of the lemur tribe, 
the white pig, peculiar to Borneo, and the tapir, 
are among the other living creatures of that island, 
besides a large and handsome buffalo, while it is not 
yet proved that the elephant and rhinoceroes do not 
exist in the northern forests. 1 Indeed it appears im- 
possible to doubt the existence of the former, since 
tusks have lately been brought by natives from the 
interior to be exchanged with the traders at Labuan. 2 

Elephants. Elephants too in that quarter of the world have im- 
pressed travellers with the belief that they know the 
value mankind set on their teeth, and sometimes after 
shedding them covered them with earth out of sheer 
malice. 3 

Reptiles abound in the moist atmosphere of Borneo 
crocodiles, alligators, lizards, and frogs, which croak 
in millions in the marshes, and are devoured by snakes. 
The crested cobra, the beautiful and deadly sun-snake, 
the golden-ringed viper, the hammer-headed viper, the 
brilliant green and yellow flower- snake, with skin 
liko velvet, and various other kinds, some poisonous, 
others harmless, live in the marshes, or amid the vege- 
tation, or in the hollow trunks of trees; while but- 
terflies, sometimes nine inches from tip to tip of the 

1 Temminck, ii. 410. 

8 Singapore Free Preis, Sept. 5. 1851. 

3 Topsell, Gesner,l&>. Hole, 211. 



Snakes. 



nsccts. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 263 

wings, hover about the tree tops like large flying 
flowers. 1 There are, besides, scented beetles, elegant 
spiders, and myriads of other insects 2 , with bees, 
whose honey is plentifully stored in the woods. Fish 
of different kinds exist in the rivers and along the 
coast. 3 The winged creation is varied and numerous, Birds, 
distinguished less for its song than for plumage of 
gaudy and dazzling colours. 4 Its varieties are numerous, 
from the crowned eagle to the pigeon, whose plaintive 
coo may be heard all day in the solitudes. 

Of the productions of Borneo, which may be made Minerals. 
available for purposes of commerce, or for domestic 
industry and consumption, there is a long catalogue 
to be made 5 , and one still far from complete. Of 
minerals coal, antimony 6 , iron, tin, nickel, quicksilver, 
and gold 7 in abundance, diamonds equal to those of 
India or Brazil 8 , while a beautiful resplendent sand 
has been suggested as indicating the vicinity of other 
gems. 9 Timber of various kinds and qualities, for Timber, 
ship and housebuilding 10 , and ornamental manufacture, 
abounds in the woods. 11 The climate is favourable to Vegetation, 
vegetation, and though exceedingly healthy for per- 
sons who are not compelled to undergo much exposures 

1 MS. notes of a resident. 

2 Grasshoppers larger than sparrows. Adams in Belcher, ii. 252. 

3 Low, Sarawak, 88. 

4 Temminck, Planches Colorees, 538. 572. Coup tfCEil, ii. 415. 
What poet's fancy can surpass that of the old voyagers, relating to 
the little bird Vicmalin, sleeping all the winter to wake in April 
and feed on dew and honey of roses ? Ilakluy t, iv. 444. 

5 What is Roggewein's Pork Stone ? Harris, i. 307. Is it the 
Bezoar ? Valmont de Bomare, iv. 599. 

6 Keppel, Brooke, 5. 95. 

7 Belcher, Voyaye of Samarang, \. 24. 

8 Brooke, Mundy, i. 281. 9 Low, Sarawak, 29. 
10 Belcher, i. 35, 36. Keppel, i. 95. 

s 4 



264 



THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



Rain. 



Warmth. 



Tints of 
verdure. 



Valuable 
produc- 
tions. 



Camphor. 



Miscella- 
neous pro- 
duce. 



is so moist, that its surface wears a perpetual tint 
of vivid green. From April to October is the rainy 
season ; but scarcely a day passes in the other months, 
without a light shower, and this with a constant and 
pervading warmth so encourages the gi-owth of every 
plant and tree, that Borneo, from the brim of the 
ocean as far as the eye can penetrate into the inte- 
rior, presents one mighty flowing surface of leaves, 
grass, flowers, and blossoms perpetually renewed, and 
blooming for ever, with a beauty and lustre unknown 
in any other country of similar extent in the world. 1 
The soil is rich and deep, Capable of producing sugar- 
cane, nutmegs in abundance, cinnamon, oranges, and 
many other fruits and vegetables not originally found 
there. The cabbage palm, the bamboo, cocoa-nuts, 
sago, the gomuti palm, the areca, rattans, nipah, 
and other trees yield the most] articles for native con- 
sumption, with rice so grateful to the inhabitants of the 
East. The camphor laurel yields that beautiful gum, 
the powerful fragrance of which was chosen to be shed 
by the lamps burned in the palaces of India. 2 There are 
besides vegetable tallow and vegetable wax. 3 Native 
oil, panguim edule, wood and various seed oils, gutta 
percha, the sap of a climbing plant, dammar or resin, 
wild cinnamon, cotton, pepper, coffee, gambier, tobacco, 
numerous dye stuffs, and aloes 4 , are among the commjo- 



1 Low, Sarawak, 30. 

1 Valmont dc Bomare, i. 548. lladermacher, ii. 56. Logan, ii. 
523. Marsden, Marco Polo, 613 615. " This islande yiehleth 
yeerely great abundance of campliora, which they sayde to be 
the gumme of a tree ; but I dare not affyrme' it, 'because I have 
not scene it." Vartomannus, Travels, Ilaklnyt, iv. 599. 

3 Hunt's Sketch of Borneo has a good list of its contributions to 
trade. See also p. 58. 

4 Lane, Note, Arab. Nights, iii. 86. 



ITS HISTORY AND PKESENT STATE. 265 

clitics for exportation. 1 Of flowers the variety is infinite Flowers. 
of every brilliant hue, purple, gold, crimson, ivory 
peaked with red, shrubs with blossoms like stars 
growing in large thickets, and giving to the landscape 
an aspect of poetical and fanciful beauty, many of the 
most enormous trees also being loaded with bloom. 2 As 
there are in Borneo butterflies like flowers, so there 
are flowers like butterflies, with rich freckled petals 
spread like wings, and others that wave from tall solid 
stems, clusters of blossoms which form as it were a 
splendid floral plume. 3 Wax, edible birds' nests, 
bezoar stones, and tortoise-shell may be added to the 
list of articles of commercial value. 

The inhabitants of Borneo may be divided into three inhabit- 
classes, the Dyaks 4 , a subject race inspired by hopes of a 
vengeance upon its tyrants ; the dominant Malays who 
spoil and oppress the aborigines, and the colonists of 
China, an active and industrious but turbulent and 
intractable part of the population. 5 The Dyaks, who Dyaks. 
in their physical and social characteristics resemble the 
Tarajah of Celebes 6 , the people in the interior of Su- 
matra, and the Arafura tribes of Papua, may be re- 
garded as the aborigines of the Archipelago ; but though 
the name may be applied to all the wild tribes of the 
island, it is not so used by themselves. There are other 

f Keppel, ii. 190192. Valentyn's list is good, iii. 237. 

2 Temminck, ii. 418. Details on this subject are profusely scat- 
tered through Keppel, ' Mundy, Low, Belcher, the Monitcur, and 
the Journal of ihe Indian Archipelago. 

3 Adams, in Belcher, ii. 478. 

4 The Dyaks are of various shades of colour, to account for 
which shall we consult Lacepede, whose theory affirms that all 
men were originally negroes, who have been more or less blanched 
by circumstances ! Ages de la Nature, i. 254. 

6 Revue des deux Mondes, ii. 

6 Pritchard, Researches into the Physical History of Mankind. 



266 



THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



Various 
tribes. 



natives in distinct localities with characteristics of their 
Tillage life. own. The Dusun, or the villagers of the north, an 
agricultural people, the Murut in the inland parts of 
Brune, the Radians, of the same country, an indus- 
trious peaceful nation, valuable for those qualities ; and 
the Kayan, more numerous, more powerful, and more 
warlike than any other in Borneo. They are an inland 
race inhabiting a district extending from about sixty 
miles up the interior from Tanjong Barram to within 
a similar distance on the eastern shore. Fierce, reck- 
less of life, and hot-blooded l in their nature, they are 
nevertheless represented to be hospitable, kind, and 
faithful to their word, and honest in their dealings. 
Next to them are the Millanows, southward and west- 
ward, living on rivers near the sea an industrious 
intelligent people, who occasionally take heads, but 
have not the ferocity of the Kayan. The Tatars, 
Balanian, and Kanowit have dialects of their own, and 
are wild and savage in their manners. The Dyaks arc 
divided into those of the land and sea 2 the former 
more peaceable and tractable, the latter more barbarous 
and formidable. 3 

The tribes which do not give themselves up to pi- 
racy, pillage, and head-hunting are a gentle, tractable, 
peaceful race, living in harmony among themselves, with 
simple manners, and primitive modes of life. 4 Unhap- 
pily, their numbers have been thinned and their spirits 



Land and 
sea Dyaks. 



Peaceful 
tribes. 



1 Literally, hot-blooded. Indeed, the average temperature of 
man within the tropics is now ascertained to be about a degree 
higher than in England. Davy, On the Temperature of Man. 
Phil. Trans. 1840, 447. 

2 Keppel, ii. 195197. 

3 An excellent account of them is given by Mr. Hugh Low, 
Sarawak, 165. 

4 See Lane's valuable Notes, Arabian Nights, In. 88. 



ITS HISTORY AND PKESENT STATE. 267 

broken by the ravages of the Malays, who have hunted 

them into woods, where they dwell in small or large 

communities, subsisting on the produce of the soil. 

They are still ignorant of arts, sciences, and laws, Their 

their rude inventions being the suggestion of necessity, savage state< 

and their slight social organisation the most vague and 

flimsy, except where a Malay government holds them 

in subjection. Then they quickly learn the weight of 

taxes, and feel the gall of that oppression, which is a 

bitter thing to the barbarian as well as to the educated 

mind. 1 

The Malays are Mohammedans, living under the rule Malays, 
of the Prophet's descendants, a mongrel race of tyrants, 
gamblers, opium smokers, pirates, and chiefs who divide character 
their time between cockfighting, smoking, concubines, f half - bred 

. oo' ^ Arabs. 

and collecting taxes. The inferior classes are indus- industry, 
trious boatbuilders, weavers, miners, brassfounders, and 
traders, but the Chinese are the most enterprising and 
flourishing of the numerous settlers in this great island. 2 

The political state of Borneo, when Mr. Brooke Political 
established himself in one of its provinces, was peculiar. 
From the first it has been divided into several king- 
doms, constantly changing the limits of their territories 
and their influence. Malays from Singapore, Malacca, 
and Johore, immigrating to the north coast, became 
mixed up with Javans, who settled on the west and 
south, and gave names and rulers to many of the dis- 

1 Temminck, ii. 391. 

2 There is nothing to prove that the Malay is as far superior to 
the Dyak, as the Dyak to the Doko. This appears an exaggera- 
tion of his capacities, though Schlegel seems justified in graduating 
the human race from the American, through the African, to the 
Malay, leaving the woolly-haired tribes of Papua out of view, lie 
might have placed the Australian at the beginning of his scale, 
and the New Zealander at the end. 



268 THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 

Kingdom of tricts they occupied. Among the most ancient and 

powerful of the Malay kingdoms was Bruno on the 

north-west 1 , of which Sarawak was a dependent, while 

on the western coast were Sambas and Pontianah, with 

Banjarmassin and Pontianah on the south, and Koti on 

the east a , all decayed from their former significance; 

Dutch in hut the Dutch claim nearly three fourths of the whole 

Borneo. island 3 , that is, all but the north- eastern Peninsula, and 

a narrow strip along the north-west coast, terminating 

Their at Tanjong Datu. 4 They viewed, indeed, with extreme 

the' English J ca l usv tne occupation by an Englishman of a territory 

so extensive and so valuable as Sarawak. 

Sarawak. That territory extends along the north-west coast 

situation, from Tanjong Datu to the entrance of the Samarahan 
Extent. river, about sixty miles, with an average breadth of 
Boundaries, fifty. On the west lies Sambas, on the south a line of 
hills shuts out the Pontianah river, and eastward is 
Capabilities, situated the Brunean province of Sudong. Within this 
spacious district are many rivers and streams of various 
size the Sarawak itself being navigable for some 
miles. The soil and productions are of the richest de- 
scription including nearly all the advantages generally 
ascribed to the whole island, with a climate of superior 
salubrity. 5 There was, indeed, every material from which 
man could create wealth, happiness, and contentment ; 
but hitherto the land had been neglected ; the earth had 
Ancient op- hcen untilled ; the people had been barbarous and op- 
pression, pressed, the government had been feeble though extor- 
tionate, and decay, demoralisation, and ruin had made 
of the whole a miserable picture for an Englishman to 
contemplate. 

1 See for Brunc, Forrest, Voyage, 380. 

8 Low, Sarawak, 104. 3 Moniteur Orienlalc. 

4 Journ. Ind. Arch., ii. 176. 

* Brooke, Journal. Mundy, i. 194. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 269 

This condition of things, existing when Mr. Brooke 
became rajah, is to be remembered when we estimate 
the grandeur of his achievements in the Indian Archi- 
pelago. It was not a mere savage, ignorant, simple 
tribe, unaccustomed to any forms of society, that he 
undertook to reclaim; it was a country where bad 
government, imbecility in the prince, villany in the 
chiefs, abject submission in some of the people, and re- 
bellion in others, poverty, disorganisation, and corrup- 
tion of every kind, had reduced an ancient system to 
utter chaos and confusion. A summary of the evils 
existing, displays at once the magnitude of the task 
imposed on himself by the man who resolved to plant 
the principles of civilisation there. 

Murder, robbery, and fraud were offences of daily Frequency 
occurrence ; no man could trade or labour secure in the 
prosecution of his calling or the enjoyment of his gains; 
the river was obstructed by vile fiscal contrivances, 
the sea was infested by pirates ; the Dyaks were 
cheated of their earnings under the most false and 
mean pretences ; the revenue was unsettled, and wrung 
from the people with horrid violence and disregard of 
equity ; weights, measures, and coins had no standard ; 
there was no barrier between the weakness of the poor 
and the extortion of the rich ; men's lives were un- Disorgani- 
safe, and their property insecure; confidence in the 
government was unknown ; taxes consumed the little 
produce of the soil ; the Malays robbed the Dyaks, and 
the Dyaks stored away their gains in secret places, so 
that the fellahs on the banks of the Nile, or the villagers 
in Oude, could scarcely be compared for misery with 
the wretched inhabitants of Sarawak. 



270 



THE INDIAN ARClIirELAGO, 



CHAPTER XIV. 



Rajah 
Brooke. 



Extraordi- 
nary cha- 
racter of 
his under- 
taking. 



Obstacles. 



INSTALLED in the rajahate of Sarawak, Mr. Brooke 
felt that the responsibility which had fallen on him 
was of no ordinary character. There was little to en- 
courage and much to confuse his plans. A design, 
approaching in its nature to phantasy, was to be ac- 
complished by means the least adapted to conciliate any 
enemies, or to gain the favour of any powerful friends. In 
the political reformation of the province, the gratitude of 
the poor would be little effectual against the resentment 
of the rich. Principles of equity introduced into the 
administration could not fail of exciting alarm among 
numerous chiefs whose anger would be more bitter and 
more formidable if they were forced to conceal the 
causes of it. Influence would be taken from the ty- 
rannical, emolument from the usurious, and from the 
rapacious innumerable objects of plunder. Against, 
therefore, the gladness of the people, would be set the 
quick sensibility of many an imagined private wrong, 
to revenge on the man who should commence the diffi- 
cult and invidious process of social reformation. 

The achievement seemed almost a vision, so multiplied 
were the obstacles, and so portentous the dangers whicli 
intervened. To establish principle where there had 
been corruption, method in place of anarchy, regularity 
for disorder, economy for profusion, justice to indi- 
viduals for systematic fraud, and care of all for general 
neglect, was to compel a revolution in the government 
of Sarawak. Numbers of individuals who had flourished 
upon maladministration, were interested, of course, in 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 271 

continuing that system which furnished resources for 
their cupidity. At Brune, also, a cabal existed, avowing views of 
unequivocal hostility to the Englishman's views ; and 
the Dutch, who regret that they ever permitted the ac- 
cession of Mr. Brooke to his rajahate, were inclined to 
thwart his plans, and stir a jealous population against 
him. They had concerted a plan for opening political 
relations with Brune, and making treaties with all the 
independent chiefs on the northern coast of Borneo, 
but the proceedings of Mr. Windsor Earl gave the first Mr. G. 
salutary check to their machinations ; and the policy of Ea 1 " 1 < st 
Mr. Brooke at Sarawak is remembered with resentment 
as having completely traversed their design. 1 

Indeed, the policy of the Dutch was then undeniably Dutch 
directed to obstruct the legitimate progress of British p 
influence in that portion of the East. It was not suf- 
ficient for their ambition that no check was offered to 
any project of theirs for increased territory and extended 
rule. Sumatra, within five years, had been reduced by 
them from independence to subjection, and already 
began to change its aspect under their government 
an immense addition of influence and commercial re- 
sources to them. 2 In the island of Bali the consum- Bali, 
mation of a long-cherished plan was eagerly anticipated. 
That island, separated from Java by the Sunda Strait, a 
narrow channel, affording a safe passage towards Europe 
during the western monsoons, is of considerable size 3 , 
with a population not supposed to fall short of 800,000 
souls 4 ; 900,000 is the estimate of another writer. 5 Population. 
Other estimates vary between 733,000 6 to 987,000. 7 

1 Temminck, ii. 218. 2 Ibid. ii. 41. 

3 Hamilton, E. India Gaz. i. 120. 122, 

4 Temminck, i. 340. 

5 Spenser St. John, Joum. Ind. Arch., iii. 384. 

6 Van den Brock, 1818. 7 Monileur Orientals. 



272 



THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



Dutch 
designs. 



Treaties. 



Religion. This is the only island in the Archipelago l where the 
Buddhist religion, with a remnant of its civil polity 2 , 
lingers amid the Mohammedanism of the dominant and 

Soil. the primitive beliefs of the inferior race. 3 The soil is 

volcanic, equal in fertility, in many parts, to that of 
Java, but covered with beautiful forests, though rice is 
produced in considerable abundance, two crops being 

The people, reaped in a year. The Balinese are a fierce, hardy 
people, superior in physical development to their Javan 
neighbours, much prized as slaves, and, as soldiers, re- 
puted to be skilful as well as brave. To this island, 
the Dutch had long directed their views, esteeming it 
a valuable possession; and they had early formed 
treaties with the eight petty princes who divided its 
sovereignty to provide for their own recognition as 
paramount lords of Bali. The treaties were signed, 
but the princes, up to 1840, maintained independence of 
action in the administration of affairs. In the next 
year, however, a vessel was pillaged on the coast under 
the countenance of the chiefs ; and of this incident 
Holland was determined to avail herself, for the pur- 
pose of including Bali within the acknowledged circle of 
her Oriental dominions. Piracy, it is said, found en- 
couragement at the ports of the island, and indeed at 
every place where European functionaries were not 
established, so that even then the freebooters of the 
Philippines, of Borneo, of Sulu, and Papua, threatened 
from time to time the happy peace of Java. 4 Indeed, 
in 1841, one of the native government cruizers was 
captured on the east coast of that island, and the war 

1 Crawfurd, Hist. Ind. Arch. ii. 236259. 

2 Raffles, History of Java. Append. 236. Also Ilceren, Asiatic 
Nations, ii. 260. 

3 See Journ. Ind. Arch. v. 367. 

4 Temminok, i. 34-5. 



Piracy. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 273 

schooner Doris attacked, though she escaped after a 
severe struggle. 1 Consequently, while Holland, by 
resenting with a severity unequal to the offence an act 
of piracy in Bali, and taught by experience the in- 
jurious influence of the marauding system on her own 
trade, was permitted, unquestioned, to develope her Rights of 
political designs, she enjoyed no prerogative to deny i 
the right of Great Britain to pursue a similar course, 
with a similar object, in another part of the Archipelago. 

The first three months of the English rajah's ad- Rajah 
ministration were, however, occupied with an endea- a dministra- 
vour to commence the realisation of his speculative tion - 
plans. He collected evidence upon the resources and 
necessities of the country ; applied the principle of 
justice to rescue the weak from oppression by the 
strong ; opened a court for the decision of causes, and 
generally satisfied the people of his ability and desire 
to govern them well. Muda Hassim released upwards A. i>. 1842. 
of 120 women and children, whom he had kept in cap- 
tivity ; the Siniawan tribes were induced to return 
from their exile ; a light and regular tax of rice was Beneficence 
decreed ; and the promise of safety attracted many to p e pie. 
settle under the Englishman's rule. Among others, a 
number of Sea Dyaks came to beg assistance in the 
affliction they suffered from the piratical hordes of 
Sakarran and Sadong. They had been burned out of Devasta- 
their homes ; their possessions had been spoiled ; their p i ra tes. 
fruit-trees cut down ; their women and infants taken 
into slavery. " We would build another house," they rathetic 
said ; " we could plant fruit-trees, and cultivate rice ; tnTovaks. 
but where can we find wives ? Can we forget our 
young children ? " 2 

Nothing could be effectually settled until the faction Factions at 



Brune. 



1 Groot, Moniteur, \\. 33. 2 Keppel, i. 256. 

VOL. II. T 



274 



THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



Makota's 
intrigues. 



at Brune were defeated in their design upon Sarawak. 
Makota, in league with a cabal of chieftains at the 
capital, intrigued to thwart every project of Mr. Brooke, 
and a conflict began between two parties, the one of 
reformers friendly to him, the other of uncompromising 
The sultan's adherents to the cause of prescriptive corruption. The 
sultan took part with those who favoured oppression 
and piracy ; but he had raised up against himself an 
enemy of an unusual character. His profligate and 
faithless conduct towards the crew of the Sultana l t at- 
tracted the attention of the British government, and 
they determined to make that an opportunity of estab- 
lishing an influence on the north-west coast of Borneo, 
to secure a coal depot, and check the encroach- 
ment which threatened to shut them out from all com- 
merce in those seas. It was an idea of Mr. Brooke's 
that Muda Hassim might be elevated, naturally or 
virtually, to the sultanate ; and he pressed on the 
government in India the wisdom of pursuing its 
measures without delay. Meanwhile, at Sarawak, the 
tionofnew promulgation of laws inaugurated a new era in the 
laws at social history of a considerable population, and pre- 

Sarawak. i/-ii 

parations were made to defend the province against 
an attack of the freebooting Sea Dyaks, for working 
its mines, for encouraging the cultivation of its soil, and 
promoting the growth of trade. "With the natives little 
difficulty was experienced, but from the Dyak Chinese 
an obstinate resistance to all forms of authority. Origin- 
ally a body of slavish artizans in their own country, 
they had in Borneo risen to great and almost inde- 
pendent power. They ruled, indeed, large bodies of 

1 The crew arrived at Brune in a long boat greatly distressed 
and asked an asylum of the sultan. He possessed himself of their 
money, some jewels, and their boat, gave them a miserable shed to 
live in, and forced them to sign bonds for large sums of money. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 275 

the Dyaks; warred with the sultan and with the 
Dutch ; maintained the boundaries of their settlement, 
and flourished on the fruits of industry. On the The 
accession of Mr. Brooke, they refused to acknowledge Chinese - 
his authority, and long negotiations ensued, which 
nearly ended in an armed struggle. The schooner, in 
fact, was made ready for action, the boats were pre- 
pared, with a fleet of war-prahus, and the Chinese 
yielded only under the terror of the sword. A conces- 
sion to them was made of a year's tribute, and they 
acceded to arrangements respecting the tillage of the 
soil and the product of the mines. 1 

In the prosecution of his measures for the extirpation Transac- 



of piracy from Sarawak, Mr. Brooke attacked some des- 
perate chiefs, who had signalised themselves by a number 
of base assassinations, and one was killed in the attempt 
to capture him. Four others were executed, under 
the law against murder, which was clearly known to 
them, when they committed the crime. The relative 
of the principal culprit acknowledged the justice of the 
sentence which condemned him to death. He was 
strangled, while the others were killed with the kriss. 
This transaction, misrepresented in England, requires a 
succinct explanation. On the 24th September 1841. 
Sir James Brooke was declared rajah of Sarawak, when 
the country was overwhelmed by anarchy. 2 On the 
5th of November a court of justice was opened}) and it 
was announced that robbery and murder would in future 
be punished with inflexible severity, according to the 
On dong On dong, or native code of laws. 3 Pangeran 
Budrudeen was convicted of attacking a Chinese boat 
Avithin the rajah's jurisdiction, killing one of the cre\v 

1 Mundy, i. 294. 2 Keppel, i. 251. 

3 Keppel, i. 256, 257. 266. 268. 

T 2 



276 THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 

and severely wounding another. 1 A Magindano Lanun 
also was guilty of this crime. When an attempt was 
made to capture him, he refused to surrender, and 
commenced an attack, when of course he was killed, 
while flourishing his spear and sword ready to cut down 
the emissaries of justice. Pangeran Budrudeen, with 
the third murderer, his brother-in-law, was taken to 
Sarawak, tried by Muda Hassim, according to the re- 
cognised forms of Malayan law, and executed, their 
conviction ensuing on the clearest evidence possible. 2 
The second case of execution of criminals was that 
of two Dyak chiefs, Parimban and Pa Tummo. Mr. 
Brooke, on his accession, denounced the punishment of 
death against those who took heads in Sarawak. These 
chiefs, head men of the Singe tribe, murdered a number 
of their fellow subjects, the Sigo people ; their own 
tribe joined in condemning them 3 ; they were taken, 
tried, convicted on conclusive evidence, and put to 
death. 4 

Fortunate Towards the end of July, when a salutary change 
Mr U Brooke f ^ e g an to appear in the aspect of affairs at Sarawak, 
in Sarawak. Mr. Brooke paid a visit to Brune, and was immediately 
admitted to an audience of the sultan. That prince ex- 
pressed a desire to be reconciled with Muda Hassim, 
gave up his twenty-six Lascar prisoners without ran- 
som, surrendered three captives who had been sold there, 
on receiving twenty-five dollars, and ratified the cession 
of Sarawak. With the document declaring this, Mr. 
Brooke then returned to his new dominion, where the 
sultan's ratification was proclaimed, and the mortification 



1 Keppel, i. 293. s Mundy, i. 309. 311, 312. 

8 Keppel, i. 301303. 

* Mundy, i. 326. 330335. See Explanation and Exposure, 
Parliamentary Papers. Enclosure 7., in 37. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 277 

of the hostile chiefs was completed by the triumph of 
the friendly party and the general body of the people. 
Several tribes of the interior, indeed, sent to beg that 
the rajah would take them under his protection. " They 
had heard," they said, " and the whole world had heard, 
that a son of Europe was a friend of the Dyaks." Now, 
therefore, a fine territory with a noble river flowing 
through it, a fertile soil, a cool and healthy climate, rich 
mineral productions, timber enough to build a hundred 
fleets, and a numerous people willing to be ruled, were 
placed at Mr. Brooke's command ; but treachery, de- 
ceit, indolence, and selfishness among powerful men 
remained with piracy, factions in Brune and Dutch in- 
trigue, to derange his plans and interrupt his views. 
For, the agents of the Hague, sensible as they could not 
fail to have been of the ruinous influence upon all trade 
of the buccaneering system, which consumed the riches 
of that coast, could not endure to see an Englishman jealousy of 
accomplishing what their own government had failed to the Dutch - 
do, and instilling into the hearts of the .poor Dyak 
population a love for the name of England, which the 
name of Holland never did inspire. 

In September 1842, the merchant brig De Hoop was instances of 
attacked between the isles of Commodo and Floris, by P irac y- 
four large prahus, and the assault was repeatedly re- 
newed, though in the end unsuccessful. The schooner 
Young. James also fell in with the pirates off Noera 
Rajah, while passing from Sourabaya to Timor, and 
destructive expeditions were directed against their re- 
treats l ; yet because the efforts of Great Britain seemed 
to foreshadow an introduction of her influence into 
Borneo, they were deprecated and questioned by the 
politicians and journalists of Holland. 

1 Groot, Moniteur, ii. 33. 
x 3 



278 



A.D. 1843- 

Bornean 

coal. 



Labuan. 



The treaty 
of 1824. 
Article XII. 



False inter- 
pretation by 
the Dutch. 



Brooke's 
offer to the 
English go- 
vernment. 



Necessity of 
suppressing 
piracy. 



Captain 
Keppel. 



His expedi- 
tion. 



State of the 
coast. 



In England the principal interest excited was with 
reference to the coal districts in Borneo ; and Mr. 
Brooke conceived the idea of procuring from Brune 
a cession of Labuan at the mouth of the river, and a 
monopoly of coal. He anticipated the objections of the 
Dutch, who, by a false interpretation of the twelfth 
article in the treaty of 1824, denied the right of Great 
Britain to form any settlement in Borneo; though if 
this were truly the sense of that convention, Australia 
and New Zealand were equally within the prohibited 
limits of colonisation. Mr. Brooke, therefore, disre- 
garded the hostility he expected from them, offered the 
cession of Sarawak to his government, and showed from 
the gradual springing up of a trade there, that by Britisli 
influence river after river might be opened up to com- 
merce and civilisation. An immense market might 
thus be created in a new quarter of the world, for Singa- 
pore had not drawn Borneo within the circle of our 
mercantile enterprise, and that swarming island still lay 
unknown, neglected, and subject to the pestilential in- 
fluence of piracy. Nothing could be effectually pro- 
moted for the reclamation of Sarawak from its long 
decline and the inveterate barbarism of its people, until 
marauders were prevented from ranging along the coast 
with liberty to plunder all they found. When, there- 
fore, the gallant and distinguished Captain Keppel 
offered to sail the Dido along those shores, and cut up 
the freebooting system in its breeding grounds, his 
manly proposals were with gratitude accepted. 

Mr. Brooke guided him to the haunts of the Balanini, 
and in a single cruize two fleets were encountered one 
of five, and the other of six war prahus, which attacked 
the schooner's boats and sustained a sanguinary conflict. 
Thus the frightful state of the coast was at once ex- 
hibited by remarkable illustrations. Captain Keppel 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 279 

made an excursion into the interior, with his friend, Excursion 
saw the people, learned their condition, and added his 
testimony to the concurrent witness of all former 
travellers, that no happiness could be enjoyed by them 
until the curse of piracy had been removed. The course 
of his operations has been fully and well described in 
narratives which no historical summary can ever super- 
sede, and it is therefore only necessary to follow the 
outline of it, in order to maintain a continuous series of 
transactions before the reader's mind. 

First in the series of expeditions was one against The 
the celebrated and desperate hordes of Sarebas, the Sarebas - 
terror of all those shores. A force of about eighty officers 
and men from the Dido embarked in a pinnace, two 
cutters, a gig, Mr. Brooke's craft, the Jolly Bachelor, 
and a store boat, and was accompanied by a native 
auxiliary of 1000 warriors. The expedition was com- 
manded by Lieutenant Horton, though Captain Kep- 
pel accompanied it with Mr. Brooke. Rajah Muda Muda 
Hassim had written a letter, dated in the Mohammedan le^" 1 
style, 20th day of Rabial Akhir, 1257, requiring the 
aid of the British arms in putting an end to the outrages 
of the Sarebas and Sakarran tribes. These, he said, 
were great pirates, seizing goods and murdering people 
on the high seas. They possessed, he added, more than Character 
300 war prahus, were independent of Brune, and g are b as . 
plundered many vessels trading between that country 
and the British port of Singapore. 1 

Strengthened in his resolution by this letter, added 
to an accumulation of evidence, Captain Keppel resolved 
to commence his crusade against the Bornean pirates, 
by an assault on the Sarebas, who were reported to be 
more strongly fortified than any. They had never yet Power of 

1 Keppel, ii. 26. 
T 4 



280 



THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



the Bornean 
pirates. 



Fruits of 
rajah 
Brooke's 
rule. 



Captain 
Keppel's 
energy. 

Expedition 
com- 
menced. 



Approach 
to Paddi. 
Its defences. 



Fight. 

Sack of the 
town. 



been conquered, though repeatedly attacked by con- 
federations of the native princes, and were dreaded by 
the whole peaceful population. The friendly chief's 
were grieved when they heard that Mr. Brooke was 
going to risk his life by joining the expedition against 
them, and endeavoured to persuade him against it, but 
he persisted, saying it was optional with them whether 
to accompany him or not. They replied, simply, " What 
is the use of our remaining ? If you die, we die ; and 
if you live, we live ; we will go with you." Nor could 
they, with any perception of the difference between evil 
and good government, fail to know that upon the safety 
of their white friend depended the hopes of their people. 
Already, a new bloom was on the land, and industry 
was contracting the wilderness. While the preparations 
for a wai'like movement were going forward, Captain 
Keppel went to look for sport in Sarawak, but was dis- 
appointed, because " the Dyaks had now enjoyed peace 
so long, that the whole country was in a state of culti- 
vation." 

This was sufficient to gladden a good man's heart, 
and it moved the captain of the Dido to quicken his 
preparations for crushing the enemies of their happiness 
and tranquillity. Intelligence of his design was carried 
far and wide ; many of the half-bred Arab chiefs sent 
to promise good conduct for the future, tribes which 
had suffered from the pirates offered to join in attacking 
them, and the force thus collected proceeded to the 
Sarebas river. The first day it advanced towards the 
town of Paddi, the approach to which was obstructed 
by booms placed across the stream, and commanded by 
the guns of several forts. A fierce but brief conflict 
took place ; the savages were dispersed, and the country 
was illuminated for miles around by the burning of their 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 281 

capital, and its adjacent villages. Next day, an accession 

of native allies arrived, and a further progress was made, 

each stronghold being destroyed as it was reached. On Destruction 

the following night a desperate conflict took place, the 

pirates, under cover of darkness, closing upon their 

assailants, especially where seven royal marines held a 

post on a cleared height overlooking the river. At Submission 

daybreak, a flag of truce appeared from the jungle, and ofplu 

the pirates submitted without reserve to the judgment 

of Mr. Brooke. He explained that the English had in- M r. 

vaded their country, destroyed their fort, and burned Brooke's 

J . statement 

their towns, not for any gain to themselves, but to to them. 
punish continual and aggravated acts of piracy ; that the 
people of Sarebas had two years before been fully warned 
to cease their marauding enterprises, and would no longer 
be permitted to rob traders on the high seas, and murder 
their crews, or carry them into captivity. 

To this they replied humbly, that their lives were Their reply, 
justly forfeited, and they were ready to die, but would, 
if permitted to live, abstain for ever from piracy, and 
give hostages for their good behaviour. Mr. Brooke Mr. 
showed them how much more advantageous and honour- f^ifm? 
able honest trade would be, than their former dis- tion. 
reputable vocation, invited the chiefs to Sarawak, where 
they might witness the happiness of the people under 
his rule, but declared, that should they again commence 
their acts of murder and pillage, their country should be 
invaded, and their whole tribe annihilated with fire and 
sword. The pirates informed their conquerors that, Ac-counts 
though they sometimes cruized with the people of Paku 
and Rembas, they could not be responsible for their 
good conduct, and believed that it would be necessary 
to chastise them too. They said also that, though they 
would never more fio-ht under the great chiefs Sheriff 



282 



THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



Other 
haunts 
broken up. 



Astonish- 
merit of the 
islanders. 



Return to 
Sarawak. 

Welcome 
by the 
people. 



Sahib and Sheriff Muller, they could not join in an 
attack on them, or their bloodthirsty and formidable 
allies on the Sakarran river. 

The large and populous town of Paku, and the 
formidably defended stronghold of Rembas, with a 
squadron of heavy war-boats, were in a similar manner 
destroyed ; the pirates submitted, and promised to attend 
a peace-conference at Sarawak, and the warlike part of 
that expedition ended. A severe punishment had been 
inflicted on the guilty communities, but no wanton 
bloodshed occurred, nor was a single woman or child 
known to be hurt. Astonishment pervaded the whole 
country, when it was found that the bore in the river, 
the booms, the forts, or any of the quaint devices by 
which barbarians opposed the scientific attacks of Euro- 
peans, had availed nothing to save their homes from being 
desolated by a handful of white men, accompanied by a 
band of the Dyaks, whom the Sarebas warriors had been 
accustomed to oppress and plunder without fear of re- 
taliation. 1 

Returning to Sarawak, Rajah Brooke and Captain 
Keppel were received with every imaginable demon- 
stration of joy, firing of guns, beating of tom-toms, 
waving of flags, and orations of praise, exaggerating 
their achievements to the people. But there was no 
leisure for enjoying these pleasing testimonials of a 
grateful people unaccustomed to the benedictions of a 
generous ruler. The Dido sailed for China, and the 
operations against pirates were interrupted, but the 
Samarang arrived, with the Harlequin, the Wanderer, 
and the Vixen, which, with the Royalist and the Ariel 
merchant-ship, made such a fleet as had never before 
spread its sails within view of the wandering dwellers 



Keppel, ii. 68 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 283 

on the shores of Sarawak. The squadron was destined Expedition 

for Brune, to establish relations between the English 

and the sultan of that state, which had never hitherto 

been connected by treaty with an European power. 

The Wanderer returned to Singapore, but all the other 

ships weighed anchor for the capital a force enough 

to terrify the tribes of the entire Archipelago. 

At Brune the distractions and disunions of parties politics of 
produced a miserable confusion, one chief aspiring to the ca P ltal - 
the throne, others eager to thwart his ambition, and the 
sultan presiding over all, the very incarnation of astute 
and feeble tyranny. An attempt to open trade was Attempt to 
defeated by the extortionate avarice of Pangeran Usop, open trade - 
an influential chief, to whose machinations were traced Failure, 
many of the difficulties which arose an enemy of the 
English, with a blood-feud against Muda Hassim, and 
an inclination to foster piracy. Nevertheless, one great Perpetual 
object of the visit was obtained ; Sarawak was ceded in ^rawak. 
perpetuity instead of by a feudal tenure to Mr. Brooke, 
and the rajah addressed to the British government a 
letter, expressing a desire for friendly and commercial 
intercourse with the English nation. Muda Hassirn Disposition 

f TW H 

continued well inclined to wards the European connection, H assi m. a 
and his brother Pangeran Budrudeen, a man of fine 
intellect, of generous character, and splendid manners, 
exhibited the most amicable disposition. He formed a 
powerful member of what may be termed the British 
party in Brune, and would probably have rendered 
effectual service to them and to civilisation, had capacity 
and a liberal mind availed against the designs of mur- 
derers, conspirators, and liars creatures abounding 
under all Asiatic governments. 

While the English confined their political operations Dutch 
to the north-west coast of Borneo, the Dutch continued effo . rts 
to follow the piratical fleets through the different seas piracy. 



284 THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 

of the Archipelago, and few of their victories were 
gained by sea, which did not acquire for them an ad- 
ditional dominion on the land. In November, 1843, 
the steam ship PJicenix carefully explored the waters 
of Solombo and Pulo Laut, of the Kangeang Isles, and 
the Straits of Loinbok, falling in near Sumanap with 
six pirate vessels, which engaged her in a severe con- 
its great flict. The flotilla was entirely destroyed, and many of 
the buccaneers were killed and wounded. 1 At the same 
time an expedition cruized from Rhio after a fleet of 
pirates who had ravaged the coasts and islands of the 
Straits of Malacca, as far as Pinang, and taken refuge 
with their booty in the Tungkal river, kingdom of 
Pirate nests Jambi, Sumatra. The sultan of that state, when sum- 
moned to explain his behaviour, declared he knew not 
that the freebooters were located in his territory, that 
he would assist the objects of the expedition, and free 
all such captives as might be sold there. 2 The fleet 
was driven from its retreat, and nearly all the prisoners 
were recovered ; but it became evident that the princes 
of Linga still favoured piracy, and participated in its 
Linga gains. The son of the Tumangong of Mapar, indeed, 
tf?s * had equipped several marauding expeditions, and burnt 
a Chinese ship on that coast. The sultan, indeed, de- 
livered him up, with ten other guilty chiefs; but this 
was probably in simple accordance with the usual policy 
of despotism, which sacrifices its instruments to escape 
isle of the responsibility of its crimes. About the same period, 
a brig of Macassar visited the island of Kalatoa, in 
search of a fleet of thirty prahus which had been plun- 
dering on the neighbouring sea. All that could be 
foun 1 was one newly-built war-vessel, of the kind called 
Penjajap, expressly adapted for piracy. It was about 

1 Stoll, Rapport, 1843. s Temminck, ii. 263. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 285 

fifty feet long, with two banks of oars, and was de- 
stroyed by its captors. 

To the same year belongs an episode in the history of Narrative 
Indian piracy which clearly illustrates the character of j^wlth 
that system, which misinformed writers represent to be pirates 
too contemptible for a British navy to be employed in 
suppressing. On the 9th of May, an English whaler, 
the Sarah Elizabeth, commanded by Captain Billing- 
hurst, and owned by Thomas Ward, of London, cast 
anchor before Amfuang, forty miles from Kupang, in 
Timor, where supplies of fresh water and provisions 
were to be taken in. Three days afterwards, two boats 
manned by two officers and fourteen men, were sent on 
shore with this object. They had not been many mo- 
ments employed in cutting wood, when five huge 
prahus, followed by several others of inferior size, ap- 
peared at the entrance of the bay, and debarked a troop 
of men, who speedily put the boats' crews to flight. 
Two officers, John Adams and Ebenezer Edwards, 
with an apprentice, Thomas Gale, fell into their hands. 
This scene had been witnessed from the ship, where 
guns had been mounted on the bridge ; but in the con- 
fusion, no cartridges were to be found. The pirates 
shortly reunited their forces, and the company of the 
Sarah Elizabeth, picking up their seven comrades who 
had escaped, took to the open sea in boats, while the 
freebooters swarmed over the deserted ship, and plun- 
dered it of every article on which they set a value. 
Captain Billinghurst, meeting three whaling ships, 
profited by their protection to return to his vessel, but 
this had been ransacked and set on fire. Accordingly, 
he could only return with the crew to Kupang, where 
he procured necessaries, and was taken in the Eleonora 
to Batavia. 

On the 10th of July, Ebenezer Edwards escaped Escape. 



286 



THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



Picture of 
pirate life. 



Pirate 
armament. 



from his captors, and with the assistance of some Biaju 
fishers, reached Menado, in Celebes. He had been five 
weeks in the hands of the pirates, and gave a curious 
report of his adventures. He and his companions, with 
their arms and legs bound, were taken in prahus towards 
the deserted ship, released from their bonds, and forced 
to mount on deck. The pirates then demanded opium, 
rice, and money ; and being assured that such things 
were not on board, broke every lock, pillaged the vessel 
of everything they considered worth taking away, 
powder, arms, sails, &c. ; and loaded with their plunder 
the only remaining boat. They then once more tied 
their prisoners hand and foot, set fire to the dismantled 
hull, and rowed away, ranging along the coast of Timor. 
It seemed as though they were in pursuit of the re- 
maining company of the Sarah Elizabeth, for they fol- 
lowed them far towards Celebes, taking in fresh water 
at various little isles by the way. In forty-eight hours 
they reached Bouton. During the voyage, one of the 
large prahus disappeared, on what account Edwards 
was not able to discover. The flotilla he was in, was 
pursued on quitting Bouton, by another squadron of 
pirates, though without success. While remaining on 
the coast of that island, the freebooters occupied them- 
selves principally in fishing, though on one occasion 
making a descent on land, they carried off several 
prisoners, besides a number of bamboo cases filled with 
gold dust. 

The prahu in which Edwards was embarked, carried 
four swivel pieces, one large gun, some muskets, thirty- 
six men, and eight prisoners. Among the company 
were some persons who appeared of a superior class, and 
exercised various degrees of authority over the rest, 
passing the day in smoking opium, without sharing the 
labours of navigation. Several times, however, the 



ITS HISTORY AND PEESENT STATE. 287 

Englishman was drafted from one vessel into another, 
being sold, he imagined, in succession to different chiefs. 
He suffered no harsh treatment, though showing himself 
disinclined for labour ; but the food allowed him was 
nothing more than a little water, and rice so mouldy 
as to be scarcely eatable. As far as he was able to 
learn, his captors came from Bolangugi ; and the last 
place they stayed at was Pulo Banca, a little island to 
the north of Menado. There Edwards escaped in one 
of the boats which had belonged to the Sarah Eliza- 
beth, and the Dutch authorities at Menado, furnishing 
him liberally with all he required, restored him to a 
British settlement. What became of his companions 
in captivity is unknown. 1 

While the Dido pursued other courses for a short pe- * 1844. 
riod, Mr. Brooke proceeded to Singapore, to recruit his 



health. Hence he went to Pinang, where Sir William Brooke - 

Sir William 

Parker, the admiral who had led seventy-five sail of Parker. 
the British navy into the populous interior of China, 
and gained there a reputation which ambition well 
might prize, was concerting an expedition to Sumatra. Expedition 
The people of Qualla Battu, who pillaged the American ^3^' 
ship Friendship, had committed an act of piracy on an Guaiia 
English merchant vessel, and the king of Achin was 
called on to make restitution for the injury. He evaded 
the negotiation, and sought to elude by delay the ne- 
cessity of redress. But the commander-in-chief knew 
how to deal with a piratical barbarian, and when diplo- 
macy failed sent two brigs, under the Honourable 
George Hastings, to accomplish with gunpowder the 
object in view. Mr. Brooke accompanied the expe- 
dition, which sailed first to Qualla Battu. One more 
attempt at negotiation was made without success ; the 

1 Groot, Moniteur, ii. 35. 



288 



THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



Attack on 
the town. 

Piracy at 
Murdu. 



Town cap- 
tured and 
destroyed. 



Growth of 
Sarawak. 

Cottages. 
Traffic. 

Industry. 



Improved 
social con- 
dition. 



place was attacked ; the chief's dwelling and the prin- 
cipal buildings were fired, and the ships proceeded to 
Murdu, where the Robert Spankie had a few months 
previously been pillaged. A plain demand for repara- 
tion was there met by a positive refusal, and the na- 
tives fiercely contested the privilege they had assumed 
of robbing the trader. They fired from behind a screen 
of jungle at the boats, as they moved up the river, 
killing two and wounding eight. Mr. Brooke was 
himself wounded in two places the head and the arm, 
but numbers of the enemy fell, the town was captured 
and destroyed, and the brigs left a signal memorial of 
retributive justice. 1 

In July the rajah was again at Sarawak, where the 
promise of civilisation had increased during a long en- 
joyment of tranquillity. The town was grown to three 
times its original magnitude ; neat and picturesque 
wide-eaved cottages were sprinkled in all directions 
amid spots of graceful scenery ; a store of English 
merchandise had been opened for barter with the na- 
tives ; the Malay population, with foreign and domestic 
trade, gold-washing and working antimony, enjoyed an 
easy and pleasurable existence. Their numbers had 
more than doubled, poverty was unknown, and crime 
very rare. Forced labour no longer existed among 
them, they paid no taxes, and were only called on to 
serve in boats against the spoilers of their homes. The 
Chinese were comfortable and peaceful, and the circu- 
lation of gold in currency exhibited a sign of prosperity. 
Robberies, once of continual occurrence, had dwindled 
to an average of six or eight in a year, and altogether 
industry, peace, and content, the successors of indolence, 



1 Keppel, ii. 74. Mumly, i. 360. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 289 

anarchy, and rebellion, displayed the contrast between 
just and profligate rule. 

But around Sarawak lay a country infested by pi- piratical 
ratical populations. To the north, a succession of rivers n s hbours - 
formed the seats of government of the half-bred Arab 
chiefs who conducted the ravages of Dyak piracy. On 
the Linga Sheriff Jaffer governed a small community 
of Malays. In the interior the banks were occupied by 
the Balow tribe, aborigines, not of a marauding cha- 
racter, but perpetually at war with Sarebas, and occa- 
sionally with Sakarran principally defensive, however, 
on their part. At the junction of the Batang Lupar and piratical 
the Sakarran Sheriff Muller governed about a hundred ^J'^ 3 - 
and fifty Malays and nominally the Sakarrans ; but 
they refused his control, carried on piracy at their will, 
and were encouraged by the Malays. These Dyaks 
were, probably, not fewer in number than ten thousand, 
those of the Batang Lupar being less predatory than 
those of the Sakarran, who leagued always with the Sakarrans. 
Sarebas volunteers from the one invariably joining 
any enterprise originated by the other. Their com- Their 
bined fleet was composed of more than two hundred f ' ces ' 
prahus. Since the defeat of the Sarebas, however, and 
the destruction of Paku, few of them had then gone back 
to their old vocation. The next river is the Kal'uka, 
subject to the chief of the Rejang, and so in the go- 
vernment of the tribes, bearing the name of the stream 
on which their settlements were planted. 

During the absence of the English Rajah, piracy had Progress of 
continued to desolate that quarter of Borneo. Not only j > n uccaneer ~ 
had traders been captured on the high sea, but the coast 
had been ravaged, and one incident will serve to display 
the nature of the evils inflicted. Three of Sheriff Sahib's 
boats received intelligence that a Dyak family, subjects 

VOL. II. U 



290 



THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



Anecdote 
of piracy. 



of Sarawak, had come down from the interior to culti- 
vate a small patch of land near the beach, and for safety 
had constructed a hut amid the branches of a huge tree 
on the skirts of the wood. These poor people the buc- 
caneers resolved to destroy. They approached the place 
with their diabolical war yells, as the children were 
playing in the jungle, and the man was observing them 
from his eyrie in the tree. They called out to him 
to come down ; he would not, and they shot him dead. 
Some of them then mounted to the Dyak's nest, mur- 
dered the woman, took the heads of their two victims, 
and returned jubilant to their boats. Fortunately the 
children hid safely in the jungle, and succeeded in 
reaching Sarawak, or their slaughter would have added 
an illustration to the innocence and simplicity which 
win the hearts of philanthropists in England, to invoke 
the sympathy of this nation in favour of those who are 
famous only for such dark and bloody crimes. 1 

Sheriff Sahib, born at Sakarran, was invested at 
Brune with the government of Sadong, where a mise- 
rable and oppressed population long groaned under his 
cruel rule. For many years he was supreme over all 
the rivers of the north-west coast, tyrannising over the 
Malays, destroying the Dyaks, holding communication 
with the Lanun buccaneers, and sending the Sakarran 
hordes on piratical adventures, even as far as Banjar- 
His power, massim. He became, indeed, independent of the 
authority which had made him a prince, and exercised 
sovereign power, with that brutal energy which is the 
character of crude despotism. When, however, Mr. 
Brooke became Rajah of Sarawak, the influence of 
Sheriff Sahib declined; a hostile element was intro- 
duced within his sphere of action, and the visit of the 



Sheriff 
Sahib. 



His cruel 
rule. 



Its decline. 



Keppel, ii. 80. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 291 

Dido to Sarebas completed his ruin at Sadong. He 

could no longer act as lord paramount of the coast, and 

prepared to migrate with his vessels of war and forces 

to the Sakarran river. He was distinctly told that the 

Sakarrans themselves would soon be chastised, but the 

recall of Captain Keppel to China gave him time to 

plan new schemes, and when Mr. Brooke returned to 

Sarawak in May, 1844, all preparations had been made. 

Two hundred Dyak boats and fifteen Malay prahus, Expedition 

armed with guns, were ready to transport a whole com- * P UI "sh 

munity of pirates to the Sakarran river. They were 

lying in a small stream, near the entrance of Sadong, 

and completely cleared the sea of traders and fishers, 

while they plundered many places on the land. An 

opportunity of attacking him did not arrive, and he His ravages. 

added to the catalogue of his achievements an expedition 

into the interior, in which eight villages were burned, 

many men killed, and numbers of women led with their 

young children into captivity. 1 The pirate chief then 

went to his haunt in the Sakarran river, and fortified 

himself at a town called Patusan. Muda Hassim, at 

this time, wrote a statement, declaring that the piracies 

of the Sakarran Dyaks under their foreign leaders had 

made it unsafe for boats to navigate those waters ; that injury to 

many prahus intended to be despatched for trade at the trade - 

British settlement of Singapore, had been prevented, 

and that unless war was carried on with perseverance 

against these lawless wretches, every hope of prosperity 

in that quarter of Borneo must be disappointed. 2 

For the picturesque and moving narrative of the captain 
operations which followed, in which the Phleqethon Ke PP el ' s 

L > second ex- 

and Dido were employed reference can only he made to pedition. 



1 Brooke, Mundy, i. 376. * Keppel, ii. 84. 

U 2 



292 



THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



Services of 
Keppel. 



Pirate 
haunts. 



Result of 
the expedi- 
tion. 



Plunder. 



Attack on 
Sakarran. 



Fight in 
the river. 



the record of the expedition under Captain Keppel. 
All that is here necessary is to note the course of the 
enterprise. 

Early in August 1844, the crusade was commenced. 
The town of Patusan was attacked, the forts were 
stormed through the embrasures, and sixty-four brass 
guns were found within, besides several others of iron. 
The place was destroyed by fire, Sheriff Sahib was 
driven to Santung, on the Pontiana, and Sheriff Muller 
to the upper banks of the Batang Lupar. Near the 
dwelling of the former was a magazine containing about 
two tons of gunpowder, besides several small barrels, 
branded " Dartford," exactly in the same state as they 
left the manufactory in England. Eight new forts 
were found in course of preparation ; but the sudden 
attacks had left the pirates no leisure to complete their 
defences ; the key of an extensive river, celebrated as 
their worst resort, was taken, the habitations of 5,000 
people were burned, four strongholds were destroyed, 
vast quantities of arms and ammunition were captured, 
and the great chief utterly ruined. Sheriff Muller was 
assaulted in his own town, and amid the immense variety 
of plunder were observed some desks of English manu- 
facture one with a brass plate engraved "Mr. Wil- 
son," evidently among the spoils of some rifled ship. 

These enterprises were immediately followed by an 
advance up the Sakarran river, where a great conflict 
took place, thousands being engaged on both sides, a 
mass of boats drifting along the stream, while the 
Dyaks were spearing and stabbing each other, de- 
capitated trunks, and heads without bodies, scattered 
about in ghastly profusion. 1 The result of all these 
operations was most satisfactory. The Sakarrans were 



Keppel, ii. 111. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 293 

restrained from piracy ; the Sarebas became willing to Return of 
trade, and peace for awhile was established along the peace- 
north-west coast. 

Early in October, to carry out the views of policy he Rajah 
had long entertained, Mr. Brooke sent Muda Hassim P oj cy> 
with his followers to Brune. The Phlegethon steamer 
conveyed him thither, and as she approached the town, 
indications of an insolent demeanour on the part of the 
sultan were observed. However, no hostilities oc- Transac- 
curred ; the chiefs covered their sentiments with abun- Brun 
dant flowers of speech, the people begged that Rajah 
Brooke would remain and govern them conjointly with 
Muda Hassim, and the sultan gave a paper offering to 
cede to the British government the small island of 
Labuan, at the entrance of the Brune river. 

Again returning to Sarawak in the middle of No- Prosperity 

i T- i { i , -i i M of Sarawak. 

vember, the Rajah found its prosperity daily increasing. 
Within two months 500 families had fled to the shelter 
of its equal laws, and tokens of affection and respect 
were exhibited by every tribe in the province. Peace 
undisturbed, and trade expanding, stimulated the in- 
dustry of the Dyaks ; friendly communications were 
carried on with chiefs of tribes beyond the boundary, 
and altogether no want remained but the support of the 
British government, in the conduct of a policy directed 
to the destruction of corrupt and baneful influences 
along the maritime tract from Sarawak to Brune. 



u 3 



294 



THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



A.D. 1845. 
Corre- 
spondence 
with the 
British go- 
vernment. 



Rajah 
Brooke 
appointed 
a political 
agent. 
His instruc- 
tions. 

Factions at 
Brune. 



The Brune 
dynasty. 



CHAPTER XV. 

To obtain the support of his government Mr. Brooke 
had conducted a long negotiation with the ministry at 
home. He was confident ; they were cautious : his views 
were bold, because they were clear ; theirs were timid, 
because they were suspicious of the result. While, 
however, he was speculating on the chances of a close 
to all prospect of official recognition, a note from Lord 
Aberdeen arrived appointing him confidential agent of 
the British government in Borneo, and instructing him 
to proceed to Brune with a letter for the sultan, on the 
subject of piracy. He at one visited the capital, then 
divided as it were into white roses and red, " the sultan 
representing the House of York, Muda Hassim that of 
Lancaster." Its politics included only the question of 
who was to fill the throne, and who was to advise it, 
since no reference was made to principles of admin- 
istration, or to the wishes and requirements of the 
people. The position of these men, therefore, may be 
explained by a brief sketch of dynastic history. 

Sultan Omar of Brune had amongst others two sons, 
Mohammed Tuzudeen and Mohammed Kanzul; the 
former being the elder, succeeded his father and had 
one legitimate son, Jamalul Alum, with several ille- 
gitimate, Pangeran Usop, the great enemy of Mr. 
Brooke, being of the number. Mohammed Kanzul, 
second son of Omar, had by his first wife Rajah Api, 
with Nur Alum, a daughter. By his second he had 
Muda Hassim and Muda Mohammed, and by his third 
Pangeran Budrudeen, Pangeran Jellaludeen, and Pan- 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 295 

geran Ishmael, together with some dozens of illegitimate 
offspring. Mohammed Tuzudeen, the sultan, when his 
son Jamalul Alum became a man, abdicated, and 
Jamalul succeeding, married his cousin Nur Alum. 
They had a son, the present sultan, Omar Ali Sefeddin, The suc- 
who was left an orphan in his infancy. On the death cession - 
of his son Tuzudeen re-ascended the throne, and reigned 
for the rest of his life, being succeeded by Kanzul 
Alum, who died and left the crown to Rajah Api, who 
fell a victim to an insurrection of the people, stirred up 
by Nur Alum, his sister. Omar Ali Sefeddin then 
became sultan ; but having no legitimate issue, Muda Ri s ht of 

TT i T TT Muda 

Hassim was his legitimate successor. Pangeran Usop, Hassim. 
however, aspired to deprive him of this inheritance, and 
the whole aim of British policy was to secure the suc- 
cession for Muda Hassim, who was favourable to 
trade, instead of his rival, who was a promoter of 
piracy. 

So notorious was the connection of Brune with the Pirates 
piratical system, that Sheriff Osman, the great Lanun g^une. 
chief of Malludu bay, was widely reported through the 
Archipelago as preparing an immense armament to 
attack the city, for having engaged by treaty with 
Great Britain to suppress piracy and the slave trade. 
Deep alarm was excited among the friends of the 
English, and when Admiral Sir Thomas Cochrane ar- Sir Thomas 
rived in these seas, Rajah Brooke heard with delight 
that he was ready to attack Malludu. The dilatory 
character of the English proceedings, however, im- 
pressed their friends at Brune with an equivocal idea 
of their good faith, for no one had a discretionary 
power to act at once in obedience to the clear necessity 
which had arrived. Meanwhile the American frigate Americans 

at Brun. 

Constitution came into the river, offering a treaty to the 
sultan engaging to protect the Brune government, 

u 4 



296 



THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



Policy of 
Sir T. 
Cochrane. 



His de- 
mands at 
the capital. 



Attack on 
Pangeran 
Usop. 



Expedition 

against 

Malludu. 



Attack. 



Defences. 



Return. 



Action. 



on condition of a monopoly of coal and permission to 
trade. A short time would probably have lost the 
opportunity of securing an influence in that magnificent 
and wealthy island. Sir Thomas Cochrane distin- 
guished as an admiral, respected as a man adopted, 
however, the most elevated views of his duty as naval 
commander in the Archipelago. He proceeded with 
three war-steamers to the capital, demanded reparation 
for the seizure and imprisonment since the treaty of two 
British subjects, and was referred to Pangeran Usop as 
the agent of the whole transaction. He was summoned 
to come on board the British vessels, and refused ; the 
marines were landed, and a shot was fired through the 
roof of his house. Nevertheless he refused to make sub- 
mission ; he returned the fire, and in a few moments his 
house was struck beam from beam by rapid volleys from 
the broadsides of the Vixen. He fled ; and twenty guns 
captured from his stronghold were presented by Sir 
Thomas Cochrane to Omar Ali and Muda Hassim. 

The admiral then proceeded to attack the formidable 
pirate stronghold in Malludu. Three war-steamers, 
with a number of boats, entered the bay on the 18th of 
August. High woody banks rose on either side, except 
in the Bight, which was swampy and covered with 
mangroves, amid which several small rivers flowed into 
the sea. Next day twenty-four boats with 550 marines 
advanced up the river to a spot where a heavy boom 
obstructed the way, composed of three immense trees, 
with the chain cable of a vessel of 300 or 400 tons 
burden, obviously a capture. A desperate and some- 
what protracted struggle took place, the enemy firing 
with great rapidity and precision, killing eight, and 
severely wounding fifteen of their assailants. The fort 
was captured, Sheriff Osman was driven to the hills, 
and the famous stronghold of Malludu was sacked and 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 297 

destroyed. Several chain cables were found in the plunder of 
town, a long-boat, and two ships' bells, one ornamented the town> 
with grapes and vine-leaves, and engraved " Wilhelm 
Ludwig, Bremen." A number of piratical vessels were 
burnt, twenty-five brass guns captured, several iron 
pieces, apparently belonging to an European ship, 
spiked. The effect of this achievement was great in 
Brune, where Pangeran Usop, endeavouring to regain 
his position by force of arms, had been defeated by 
Budrudeen, and the " British party " established in ap- 
parent security, above all its enemies. 

While war was thus raging in the sultanate, and in the Continued 
haunts of the piratical communities, Sarawak continued ha Pp mess 

r ^ of Sarawak. 

in peace to flourish under an improved administration ; 
the Dyaks evinced a quiet and tractable disposition ; 
but the Chinese multiplying and prospering, showed Chinese 
themselves inclined on all occasions to defraud their 
benefactor, and evade their duties to the government. 
The tribes of the interior, from a scarcity produced by 
war, were deficiently supplied with food, and Mr. Brooke 
was compelled to undertake their relief until another 
harvest time arrived. Among the distressed Dyaks Balow 
were the Balows, who in November, to return the ser- D y aks - 
vice of their rulers, captured a fleet of Sakarran pirates, 
numbering eighteen boats, with an average of thirty men 
each. Still incidental acts of piracy were at intervals Acts of 
reported, and as soon as the ships of war withdrew from pirac y- 
that quarter, the old system sprang up with strength 
renewed ; and in the midst of the general prosperity and 
increasing happiness of the tribes included within the 
Sarawak sovereignty, news came that Captain KeppePs 
operations had merely checked, but by no means crushed 
the enemies of trade. For, in March, 1846, the Sakarran A. D . is-ifi. 
Dyaks once more put to sea, with a fleet of seventy buccaneer* 
prahus, and at least twelve hundred men, devastating 



298 



THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



News from 
Brune. 



The mas- 
sacre. 



Crimes of 
the sultan. 



British 
policy. 



Expedition 

against 

Brune. 



Its leaders. 



the coast, " burning villages, carrying off the women 
and children into slavery, and laying waste the country 
wherever their arms could reach." l 

On the first of next month arrived intelligence more 
grievous still, for not to dwell on the depth of the heart's 
feeling in a man who heard of his chosen friends' 
assassination, all the policy in Brune" was neutralised 
by one flagitious crime. In December, 1845, the Sultan 
Omar Ali, by predilection a pirate, consummated a life of 
treachery by an atrocious murder. He appointed Muda 
Hassim successor to the throne, and then, with the aid 
of his party, cut him off with thirteen other members of 
the royal family. He then put the city in a state of 
defence, endeavoured to inveigle an English captain 
into his hands, and declared himself ready to fire on the 
British flag whenever it should appear within range of 
a Brune gun. The British government at once deter- 
mined to chastise this insolent and faithless wretch, yet 
allowed him an opportunity to receive its mission in a 
friendly manner. The Agincourt, 74, the Iris, 26, the 
Ringdove, 16, the Hazard, 18, the Royalist, 10, the 
steamship Spiteful, the Phlegethon, and the Daedalus 
were ordered to assemble on that coast, under the com- 
mand of the able and gallant Admiral Sir Thomas 
Cochrane, with Captain Hope Johnstone, Captain Rod- 
ney Mundy, Sir William Hoste, Commander Egerton, 
Lieutenant Reid, Commander Maitland, Mr. Ross, and 
Captain M'Quahae, a formidable squadron, such as 
the natives of Borneo had never seen before. On the 
8th of July the fleet passed the bar, and advanced up 
the river. It was shortly fired upon from a heavy 
battery, and the city was then bombarded with balls 
and rockets until all the people fled; the sultan took 



Brooke, Mundy, ii. 82. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 299 

refuge in the woods, and the capital of his kingdom Fail of 
fell into the hands of the English. They hunted him Em ' 
through the forests and destroyed immense stores of his 
property. 

The English forces were then employed in a general General 
attack upon the pirates of that coast. The notorious 
Lanun stronghold of Tampassuk, situated in a charming 
position, and surrounded by plantations, gardens, and 
groves, was destroyed, Pandassan was burned, the 
river Mambakut was traced almost to its source, and 
numbers of pirate settlements on its banks were laid 
waste, the chiefs invariably refusing to submit, and the 
assailants continually finding evidence that the plunder 
of European ships was stored up in these strongholds The free- 
of the interior. Neatness, comfort, an appreciation of 
the picturesque, and the possession of much wealth, are 
the characteristics of these pirate retreats, described by 
Captain Mundy, who commanded the expedition against 
them. His spirited and judicious efforts accomplished 
a large amount of good on the coast and in the interior. 

Rajah Brooke, when the enterprise against the La- Rajah 
nuns was over, returned to Brune, in order to settle Bmn^ & 
its public affairs. The sultan, fugitive, humbled and 
deprived of the power to do much ill, might now be 
safely recalled to his capital. Had there been a man 
left to succeed to the throne, it is possible that the 
crimes of Omar Ali might have been punished by depo- Sultan 
sition ; but he had cut off all the virtuous and able chiefs, r 
so that Brune was deprived of its old government, and 
remained without the elements to form a new one. 
The sultan, therefore, within a month of his flight, 
was permitted to return, writing a humble letter to 
Mr. Brooke, and another in a penitential tone to renew 
and ratify his former engagements. In November, Sir 
Thomas Cochrane announced to Captain Mundy that 



300 



THE INDIAN ARC II I PEL AGO, 



his government was desirous of availing itself of those 
engagements, and instructed him to take formal pos- 
Acquisition session of Labuan, stationing there a sloop and a steam- 
ship, to suppress piracy along the coast from the 
Sarawak river to the north point of Borneo. 1 Captain 
Mundy, with perfect judgment and decision, carried 
through a brief negotiation, and on the 18th of De- 
cember, 1846, a treaty was signed and sealed: 



Captain 
Mundy. 



Treaty with 
Brune. 



1. " Peace, friendship, and good understanding shall 
subsist for ever between Her Majesty the Queen of 
Great Britain and Ireland, and his Highness the 
Sultan of Borneo, and their respective heirs and suc- 
cessors. 

2. " His Highness the Sultan hereby cedes in full 
sovereignty and property to Her Majesty the Queen of 
Great Britain and Ireland, her heirs and successors for 
ever, the island of Labuan and its dependencies, the 
islets adjacent. 

3. " The Government of Her Majesty the Queen of 
Great Britain and Ireland hereby engage, in consider- 
ation of the cession above specified, to use its best en- 
deavours to suppress piracy and to protect lawful 
commerce, and the Sultan of Borneo and his minis- 
ters promise to afford every assistance to the British 
authorities. 

" Done and concluded at Brune the 18th day of 
December, 1846. 

" (Signed) " THE SULTAN, OMAR ALI, 

" G. RODNEY MUNDY." 



Labuan. The island of Labuan was on the 24th taken formal 

possession of. 
situation. The island extends from latitude 5 11' to 5 25' N., 



1 Cochrane to Mundy, August 1846. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 301 

and from longitude 115 10' E. to 115 22' E., running 
in a NN.E. direction. Its length is about eleven Extent, 
miles, and its extreme breadth from five and a half to 
six, forming a triangle, which narrows to a point at the 
northern end. The coast line is about thirty, and the 
area about forty square miles ; the surface undulating surface. 
with several hills, the principal about eighty feet in 
height. A soil of moderate fertility, light yellow clay 
and sandstone, was then completely covered with a 
jungle or wood composed of various trees, among which 
the rattan and the camphor are of considerable im- 
portance. Cocoa and betel-nuts have been planted and Capabilities. 
thrive well, the island being adapted for the growth of 
all kinds of palms. Flowers and parasitical plants were Vegetation, 
found blooming profusely amid the jungle; freshwater, Water, 
of pure and sweet quality, is plentiful, and coal in in- 
exhaustible abundance promises to enrich a new British Labuan. 
settlement in the further East. 

The circumstances of Rajah Brooke's visit to England, A. D. 1848. 
where he was welcomed with a general ovation of ap- la^V* 
plause, and of his return to Singapore, where he re- Brooke to 
ceived the honour of knighthood, are familiar to the Pubu" 
public, and offer no particular point for our considera- honours. 
tion. In Sarawak he was, on his return, met by the ho'od. 

acclamation of the people, who shouted alone; the banks Welcome at 

Sarawak 

of the river, fired guns, waved flags, and sang innumer- 
able songs as he passed up to the town. His first care Settlement 
was to superintend the arrangement of the British com- of Labuan - 
munity in Labuan, which assumed shape and position. 
He next applied himself to clearing a ground for the 
future operations of the settlement ; and the greatest 
object to be accomplished was to secure the traders of 
the neighbouring coast from the ravages of piracy. 



302 



THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



CHAPTER XVI. 



Evidence 
of it. 



Piratical THE proceedings of Sir James Brooke in 1849 gave 

character of . . . . . , , 

theserebas. rlse t a very important question : were the oerebas 
pirates ? The evidence of this fact is clear. It was 
exhibited in the Admiralty Court of Singapore, and 
Sir Christopher Kawlinson, an able and an upright 
judge, decided without reserve that the July expedition, 
instead of soiling the British name with a crime, added 
to its reputation by an achievement in the service of 
mankind. Three sworn Commissioners were appointed 
to receive depositions, and when these had performed 
their duty, so undeniable was the testimony brought for- 
ward that Sir Christopher excused Captain Farquhar's 
counsel from addressing the Court, since, he said, 
the evidence was overwhelming, and no shadow of a 
doubt remained. Snip, Abong Bit, Abong Buyong, 
Abong Hassan, Sajong, and many other witnesses, 
men engaged in commerce, or connected with the pi- 
rates themselves, swore to the buccaneering character, 
not only of the Serebas and Sakarran in general, but of 
the very fleet which was intercepted and destroyed in 
July, 1849, on the coast of Borneo. 

There are two points on the north-west coast, which 
form a shallow gulf, of considerable extent Tanjong 
Datu and Tanjong Siriki. Between them several rivers 
find a passage into the sea the Sarawak, the Sadong, 

1 The whole of this chapter is re-written and condensed from a 
manuscript narrative, by an eye-witness on the scene of the trans- 
actions. 



Population 
of the 
north-west 
coast of 
Borneo, 



ITS HISTORY AN1) PRESENT STATE. 303 

the Batang Lupar, the Serebas, the Kaluka, and the 
Rejang. The Dyaks of Serebas, of Sakarran, the 
Balows and the scattered Sibuyows, belong all to one 
great tribe, and the Serebas hold the interior of the 
stream of that name, with the country round the sources 
of the Lipat a branch of the Kaluka while the Variety of 
Sakarrans dwell along the left branch of the Batang tnbes- 
Lupar, and along the Kanowit, the Katibas, and other 
tributaries of the Rejang. There are means of land 
communication between these communities; and when 
an expedition is prepared on the waters of one stream, 
all who desire to join from any other cross through the 
woods, with arms in their hands, and assist in manning 
the flotilla. 

A short notice of the various tribes and their relative 
condition may assist towards a view of the results pro- 
duced by the piratical system on the population of that 
coast. 

The Balows reside partly on a small eminence over- The 
looking the Linga branch of the Batang Lupar, and in Balows ' 
villages scattered through the interior ; while the Sibu- 
yows dwell in detached communities on the Lundu, the 
Quop, the Samarahan, and other streams. The former 
alone, of all the Dyaks, are powerful enough to defend 
themselves, for they are warlike and brave, though 
they have never been piratical ; but their numbers have 
thinned under the freebooter's sword, so that a few years 
might have forced them to subjection. The Sibuyows of The 
the Lundu also successfully resisted the marauders, yet Slbu y ws - 
the whole of those tribes might at length have been 
compelled to abandon their rivers, had not the thirty- 
two pounders of the Nemesis inflicted chastisement on 
the enemies of peace and industry in that quarter of 
Borneo. 



304 



THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



Serebas and 
Sakarran. . 



Their 
Malay 
allies. 



Dividends 
of plunder. 



Pirate 
population. 



The Serebas and Sakarran form essentially one tribe, 
their names being derived from mere geographical acci- 
dent ; but the former were the most piratical, and the 
most ferocious. They commenced that vocation about 
a century ago, while the latter did not follow in this 
course until sixty years later ; and though since then 
both have invariably shared in piratical enterprises, the 
Sakarrans acknowledged a nominal allegiance to Brune* 
to a very recent period. The Dyaks were proselytised 
from honourable pursuits to a trade of plunder by those 
half-bred Arab chiefs, who are the most energetic and 
the most profligate inhabitants of the Archipelago. 
They created a predilection for maritime adventure 
among people entirely unaccustomed to the sea ; they 
taught the architecture of war-boats, and led them on 
their marauding expeditions. They and their Malay 
associates, accompanying the native hordes, supporting 
them with their fire-arms, and supplying them with 
aid, long continued to divide among themselves an im- 
perial share of the spoil. Lately, however, the Dyaks 
learned their own strength and refused to receive the 
dictation of their foreign allies, so that the dividends 
of plunder were made more equal among them. The 
Sakarrans have few Malays in their community, but 
the Serebas have many, continually recruited from the 
scoundrels of every neighbouring river, whom crime 
and gambling have driven from the society of less cor- 
rupted men. 

It is difficult to estimate the population inhabiting 
the banks of these piratical rivers ; but the Serebas 
may safely be reckoned at 6,000 fighting men; the 
Sakarrans at an equal number ; the mixed tribes of the 
Kanowit at 4,000 ; and the Katibas and Poe at about 
the same, which gives 20,000 warriors, or an aggregate 
of 120,000 souls, spread over an extensive country. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 305 

Their own computation is in harmony with that of the 
English traveller, from whose notes I derive this account, 
and he has invariably found that in rating the inhabitants 
of villages, they fall below the truth. 

The Balows of the Linga, who once furnished a Resistance 
squadron of thirty-four war boats with an average of at g a [^. s 
least thirty men in each, are more numerous than is 
generally supposed. In resisting the pirates their de- 
fensive attitude, and the erection of their houses on an 
eminence, has given them an advantage, though in 1846 
all the lower portion of their town was captured. They 
have formed for some years a slight check on the smaller 
enterprises undertaken from those rivers. 

The ravages of the Serebas and Sakarran on the Ravages of 
Katibas and Kanowit, have constantly been carried on the Serebas - 
along the borders of the Rejang, the Egan, and the 
neighbouring streams. The Rejang and the Egan form 
a fertile delta, thickly peopled by the industrious and 
quiet Millanows who produce much of the Bornean 
sago brought to the market of Singapore. Here was, Fields of 
for the pirates, a profitable field of plunder. They plundcr - 
annually captured many richly laden prahus, freighted Market for 
with the produce of these great producing districts, to tllclr boot y- 
be sold at the British settlement, in Sambas, in Pon- 
tianah, or among the Anambas or Natunas isles. They Methods of 
surprised the Dyak villages by night, to carry off heads, war - 
but though the Millanows frequently defended them- 
selves with great courage they have never retaliated the 
attack. Is this an " intertribual war " ? 

The Sakarrans, to a late period, were, as I have said, The Sa- 
in nominal subjection to Brune, and sometimes bore the karrans - 
sultan's commission to punish refractory tribes. They 
never, however, paid him tribute, or obeyed his orders 
unless there appeared a good prospect of heads and 

VOL. ir. x 



306 



THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



Relations 
with Bruno, 



Pirate fleet 
at Sarawak. 



Pirate de- 
predations. 



Influence 
on the 
coast 



Testimony 
of Keppel. 



plunder for themselves. No system can be conceived 
more vile than that by which the Bornean chiefs held 
the lash over the miserable people cursed by subjection 
to their sway. When oppression had produced revolt, 
they threatened to let loose on the disaffected population 
a horde of savage pirates, and if the menace did not serve 
its end, a bloody razzia carried death and devastation 
over the province. While Sir James Brooke, in 1841, 
was at Sarawak, more than a hundred boats entered the 
river, and were allowed to proceed into the interior, 
under pretence of attacking their enemies, but in reality 
to rob and murder the unprotected tribes. He pre- 
vented the expedition, and some hundreds of human 
beings were thus, probably, spared from massacre or 
captivity. 1 Two years before the whole coast was in- 
fested, and the Serebas and Sakarrans, unmolested, car- 
ried on their depredations 2 almost half-way round the 
island, along 1,100 miles of coast. Dutch subjects were 
murdered at Banjarmassim, the sultan of Sambas, unable 
to coerce, endeavoured to conciliate them, but as they had 
resisted his arms, they despised his negotiations, and as 
many as 200 Chinese were sometimes killed in a single 
attack. Twelve years ago the rivers of Sambas were in a 
state of perpetual blockade, the poor people never ventur- 
ing below the booms, even to fish along the shore. 3 

Captain Keppel, whose name is now fixed as a point 
of history in the annals of the Indian Archipelago, 
saw and was convinced by the living witness of actual 
occurrences that the piratical cruizes of the Serebas 

1 Keppel, i. 225. 

* Ibid. i. 255. 262. 271. 276. 294. 312. ; ii. 79. 135. Mundy, 
376., cum mvltis aliis. 

3 See Earl, Eastern Seas, 269. Depositions of Abong Bit, 3. 
Abong Bajong, 4. Sujong, 6. Irtal, 7. Assing, 8. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 307 

and Sakarran were depopulating the coast, and destroy- 
ing its trade. His exertions procured a remission Fruits of 
of the plague ; but the flying attacks of the Dido ttOTU> 
served only as a check. In 1847, they continued to 
plunder, and when Sir James Brooke left for England 
threw off all restraint, and ran violently into their old 
vocation. When he returned to Singapore in May Return of 
1848, there was a large pirate fleet cruizing off the P irac y- 
coast of Borneo, committing the usual ravages ; and at 
a large meeting of native chiefs at Sarawak, Sir James Meeting 
Brooke and Captain Keppel formally pledged themselves Wlth chlefs> 
to endeavour by force of arms, if not by negotiation, to 
mitigate the sufferings then endured by the peaceful 
tribes of Borneo. To the people of Sarawak there Duty of 
was owing the duty of a ruler to his subjects ; to the ^ ir James 
Sultan of Brune the fulfilment of a treaty ; to the Dutch 
a regard for the convention of 1824; to the British 
nation, and especially to its manufacturers and mer- 
chants, the protection of commercial enterprise ; and to 
all humanity the interposition of an imperial power 
between rude and brutal freebooters, and an unhappy, 
harmless race, oppressed by their cupidity without 
scruple, and their cruelty without remorse. 

During the first six months of the year 1849, more The out- 
than 500 people were killed by the pirates in their ^f-ayear. 
double attack on Sadong, and the Millanow towns 
of the Rejang river. Many valuable cargoes were also 
taken, and numerous murders committed among the 
Chinese of Sambas. It was then that Sir James 
Brooke received a letter from the Sultan of Brune, 
with which the English public has not yet been pre- 
sented. It is valuable as a third testimony from that 
prince to the piratical character of the Serebas and 
Sakarran tribes. 



308 THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 

Letter from " From Sultan Omar All Saphudeen, the ruler of 
Brune and its dependencies, together with Pan- 
geran Anak Mumin, and Pangeran Muda Moham- 
med, to Sir James Brooke, Commissioner, and 
at present governing Labuan. 

(After compliments.) 

" We have to inform our friend respecting the 
Dyaks of Sakarran, and the Dyaks of Serebas. Great 
is our distress to think of their doings, which are evil 
in the extreme, continually sweeping with destruction 
the coast of Brune, and pirating on the sea, plundering 
property, taking the heads of men: exceedingly bad 
have been their doings, and in consequence of which 
our subjects, sailing on the high seas for the purposes 
of trade, experience great difficulty. We sent Pange- 
ran Surah to the coast, and he was attacked likewise 
numerous other Nakodahs. They attacked Nakodah 
Mohammed, and plundered his prahu of every article. 
On the way to Singapore, Mohammed Jaffer was at- 
tacked, and Tanjong Siriki ; the pirates took the prahu ; 
the crew abandoned her. Nakodah Matudin from 
Muka, bound to Singapore, was attacked at Telluk 
Mallanow. 

" Such are the reasons for which we make this in- 
formation to our friend, so that if possible our friend 
may check the doings of these Dyaks, and render it 
safe for our subjects seeking their livelihood at sea. 
This is all. We have nothing to send but our prayers 
day and night ; also every compliment. Moham- 
medan year 1266 (corresponding with A. D. 1849-50). 

" (True translation.) 

" (Signed) J. CHURCH, 
" Resident Councillor at Singapore." 

Towards the middle of February 1849, Sir James 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 309 

Brooke left Labuan to prepare for the coming season, n-cpara- 
when Captain Keppel was expected to resume operations n s e f L" 
against the pirates on the north-west coast of Borneo, aition. 
Three villages in Sarawak had lately been destroyed ; 
numbers of trading boats had been seized, and more 
than 300 men, women, and children slaughtered. 
Every day new intelligence arrived. On the 27th of Anecdote. 
February, a young Serebas pirate was brought in. He 
had been discovered floating at sea, on a nipah palm. 
His companions, after capturing a Millanow village, had 
accidentally left him behind, and he had embarked on 
the trunk of this tree with the hope that a tide would 
bear him up the river, but a strong ebb carried him 
away, and he fell into the hands of the English. They 
sent him back, with a strong admonition to his tribe, 
warning them that an attack would be made on their 
haunts if they refused to cease from pillaging those 
shores. Next day there was found near the mouth of pirate cap- 
the river a Sarawak boat, abandoned. Her crew of six tured- 
men had disappeared ; but there was blood on the 
planks, a man's finger on the deck, and on the side clots 
of hair and gore, where the victims had been beheaded. 
Again, on the next day, a small prahu, with eight 
men and one woman on board, was paddling along the 
coast, close in shore, among the mangrove bushes. 
Suddenly it came upon a large Malay vessel lying in the 
entrance of a creek, and approached her without suspicion. 
As the boat drew near, however, several Serebas craft pirate r.tr 
issued from their retreat, and spears were hurled upon cities - 
the unfortunate voyagers, of whom two were killed, 
while the others, abandoning their little skiff, fled for 
refuge into the jungle. 

On the 2nd of March, news came that the town of Devastation 
Sadong, in a district of Borneo Proper, situated about of Sadon 8- 
twenty miles from the Sarawak river, and forty-five 

x 3 



310 



THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



Incident of 
the attack. 



Anecdote. 



miles from the sea, had been attacked. It contained a large 
population of Dyaks and Malays, and was one of con- 
siderable strength ; but the harvest season had attracted 
the people into their fields, and they were reaping in 
their crops of rice. While engaged in this innocent 
occupation, they were suddenly overwhelmed by a 
swarm of Serebas Dyaks, who came with clamour and 
fury, murdering, pillaging, head-taking, and laying 
waste the homes of their victims. Farm by farm was 
desolated, and only one was successfully defended. 
This belonged to a chief named Abong Sadik, who had 
taken precautions, built a strong village of large size, 
raised it on huge posts thirty feet in height, and kept 
fire arms ready in his followers' hands. On the morn- 
ing that was fatal to the rest of his tribe, Abong Sadik's 
people were gathering in their rice, when a pirate 
squadron swept up the reach, and made forward to the 
lofty house. Twenty-seven of the reapers fled to their 
elevated nest ; the others escaped into the jungle, and 
the buccaneers, when three of their number had been 
killed, retreated, crying out to Abong Sadik that at a 
future day they would cut him and his family off the 
face of the earth. 

One of the boats was commanded by a famous Malay 
ruffian, who had assumed the costume of a Dyak, 
become a head-hunter, and degraded himself to an 
indulgence in the most brutal propensities of man. 
While his followers were robbing a farm-house, he saw 
a girl running towards the jungle, and gave chace to 
capture her. She fled nimbly before him, and he, en- 
cumbered by his heavy iron-headed spear, planted it in 
the path, and sped more swiftly in the pursuit. Jlis 
muscular limbs soon brought him up to the trembling 
and terrified creature, whom he seized in his arms, and 
carried triumphantly towards the place where he had 
left his weapon. Little, however, did he suspect that 



ITS HISTOKY AND PRESENT STATE. 311 

his movements had been watched by the girl's father, 
who, emerging from the bushes where he crouched 
concealed, laid hold of the spear, and waiting in ambush 
until the captor of his child returned, allowed him to 
pass the spot. Then, springing from his concealment, 
he hurled the spear, which, true to its mark, pierced 
the pirate in the neck and struck him dead to the 
ground. Leaving the body, the old man escaped with 
his daughter into the jungle. 

An artifice used by the Serebas to increase the Artifices of 
trophies of this bloody achievement exhibits all the 
cunning and treachery of the savage nature. A 
number of them lingering to acquire the last spoil of 
the attack, seized some of the river sampans, put on 
the large hat commonly worn by Malays when working 
in the sun, and paddling gently down the stream, 
called out to the inmates of the farm-houses as they 
passed, " Come out, come out, we have come to fetch Their 
you." The poor creatures fancying that these were * 
friends from the town, rushed from their hiding-places, 
and were speared or cut to pieces on the water's edge. 
The success of this adventure, and the large number of 
Malay heads procured, gladdened the hearts of the 
Serebas. A hundred, at least, of T;he Sadong people 
were killed, and many of their young women carried 
into slavery. The heart of mercy itself refuses pity to 
the murderers of this innocent community, and the 
spoilers of its peace. On the last day of February a Melancholy 
numerous and industrious population was gathering in their^n-" 
a harvest sown by their own hands, along the fertile roads - 
banks of a charming river, and on the first day of 
March every house was plundered, and scattered 
through the fields were the mangled bodies of the 
reapers, and in the villages the headless trunks of aged 
women, and children too young for captivity. 

\ 4 



312 



THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



Insecurity 
of the coa; t. 



Daily out- 
rages. 



Extent of 
the bucca- 
neering 
operations. 



General 
results. 



Security of 
the pirate?. 



From this an idea may be conceived of the inse- 
curity prevailing along the Bornean coast. Not a day 
passed without news reaching Sarawak of some village 
burned or some prahu seized. Sometimes the inha- 
bitants and the crew escaped by running into the 
jungle, but often only one or two escaped to tell the 
tale. After the attack on Sadong, the Serebas hovered 
along the coast, driving large numbers of people to 
seek refuge in Sarawak, then considered the only safe 
place in that quarter of the island. From the river of 
Mati alone there came twenty prahus crowded with 
men, women, and children. They said they could not 
live at their own town, for although they had beaten 
off many attacks, and one at the beginning of the year, 
they lost numbers of men on every occasion, and were 
tired of this precarious life, with continual terror 
haunting their minds. They had therefore come, they 
added, to live in Sarawak until the English had sub- 
dued the Serebas and Sakarran pirates. They then 
quietly absorbed themselves in the population of 
15,000, which the wise and beneficent rule of Rajah 
Brooke had attracted to a town where 300 discon- 
tented inhabitants formerly suffered under the feeble 
and destructive tyranny of their native rulers. But 
the whole coast was in a state of alarm ; trade was 
stopped ; there was a panic among the poorer classes, 
and every voice cried out for a fulfilment of the British 
pledge. The pirates themselves derided our country- 
men's inaction. " Where are the English ? " they 
called out to the villagers whom they assaulted. 
" They have talked of attacking us for four or five 
years, but they are afraid to come!" Secure in t!<c ir 
rapid streams, in their dense jungles, in their unrivalled 
boats', and in their immense force, they despised every 
threat, and proceeded from crime to crime until the 
sovereignty of that region was nearly their own. In 



from Singa 
pore. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 313 

the month of Rhamadan, especially, they feared nothing 
from the Mohammedan Malays, and were astounded 
to find that during that sacred festival, any operations 
were carried on. 

But the English were now prepared to redeem their Prepara- 
fuith before the peaceful tribes of Borneo. On the E, 1g ii s h. 
19th of March, the Nemesis arrived ; and on the 25th, 
every preparation being complete, thirty Sarawak boats 
assembled opposite Sir James's house. Decked with A squadron 

n " .-!- i assembled. 

nags and streamers, they enlivened a picturesque scene ; 
and 'the beating of their tatawas and gongs awoke the 
martial echoes from every surrounding hill. In the 
evening they dropped down to the Quop, and at ebb- 
tide were all anchored near the Nemesis. 

Next morning the flotilla got under weigh two Flotilla 
cutters and two paddle-box boats leading the van. A 
labyrinth of rivers here disembogue into the sea, wind- 
ing and turning with infinite changes through a level 
delta. The want of roads is not felt in a country where 
so many streams form channels for trade and intercom- 
munication among the people ; and to the defence of 
this trade auxiliaries every now and then arrived. To- singular 
wards evening, the expedition was at the mouth of the 
Samaharahan, where a slashing tide swept boat after boat 
along, some anchoring amid the surf, others falling foul 
of each other ; all the natives shouting, and every ele- 
ment combined to perfect a scene of wild confusion. 
As evening advanced, the clamour sank into a buzz 
which gradually died away as the watches were set, and 
one by one the warriors fell asleep. In each of the scat- 
tered vessels was a small fire, which threw a red gleam 
over the water, and shone softly like a star in the bed of 
the river. Everything, says the journal of a partici- 
pator in the excitement of these adventures, was hushed 
and still, except that afar off the clear and distinct note 
of the Selatuk sounded like the stroke of an axe, conti- 



314 THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 

Mooring on nually repeated in the wood. At intervals, the rushing 
tide would sweep a prahu from its moorings; loud cries 
of " row ! row I " would fill the air, and the rapid splash 
of the oars would show how difficult it was to stem the 

Night swift current of the river. Then, again, quietness suc- 

ceeded, though occasionally broken by the sound of a 
gong, heard remote ; the low monotonous chaunting of 
the Koran, or the tinkling bell, marking the passage of 
every hour from on board the steamer. 1 

On the 27th, the expedition advanced to the creek of 
Sambangan, a famous resort of the Serebas and Sakar- 
rans. There the whole fleet assembled to pass the 

Scenes in night, and no particular event occurred. Next morning 
the grey light gradually streamed over the sky, and at 
intervals far between, a man would stretch, rise, and 
look around him; then would come a little bustle of 
preparation ; the anchor would be weighed, the men 
would take their places at the paddle or the oar, slowly 
leave the creek, and take their way within twenty 
yards of the trees that overhang this jungle-belted 
shore. 2 At first few natives went ahead of the Eng- 
lish boats, though a dense mass of Dyak and Malay 
prahus floated on in the rear ; but every now and then 
a swift, long, snake-shaped bangkong darted past, flying 
under the impulse of thirty or forty paddles, while the 
heavier Malay vessels rolled forward under their double 

Assembly of banks of oars. Late in the evening of the 29th, a meet- 

the chiefs. j n g O fth e principal chiefs was held in the Rajah's prahu, 
to settle the course of proceedings. The great men 
assembled on the poop, while about a hundred of their 
relations and followers were crowded below. A solitary 
candle threw its dim light over the faces of the collected 

1 These scenes are described exactly as they are represented in 
the journal of an eye-witness. The diction is my own, but every 
shade and colour is faithfully correct. 

2 Manuscript Narrative, 55. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 315 

orators ; and their varied dresses and arms, the mixture 
of Europeans, Malays, and Dyaks, the anxious counte- 
nances of two Serebas chiefs who had joined the expe- 
dition, the dark masses of boats, rising and falling with 
the waves around, formed a spectacle extraordinary even 
to men not unused to strange scenes in the strangest 
regions of the earth. The point in question was Discussion, 
should the flotilla ascend the Rembas branch of the 
Serebas river, or proceed to the mouth of the Kaluka. 
The latter was determined on, and the Kaluka was 
reached next day. Before the search there was com- 
menced, a column of smoke was perceived rising over 
the Lipat hill, and it was conjectured that a body of 
pirates known to dwell there, were preparing to join 
the Serebas in their great haunt, and burning their habi- 
tations before they went. This changed the plan of 
the adventure. A force was sent to the Sussang river, Ascent of 
to prevent any boats descending, and Sir James Brooke ^ e f aluka 
started up the Lipat. The prahus were ranged in line 
of battle ; they were flanked by the boats of the Neme- 
sis, and altogether formed a powerful flotilla. 

About twenty miles up, on turning a reach, a canoe chase of a 
was seen quietly paddling along, about a quarter of a canoe - 
mile ahead. The crew, imagining that a descent of Sere-- 
bas pirates was about to lay waste their borders, started 
off in flight ; and fearing that they would spread a false 
alarm, or warn the buccaneers of their enemy's approach, 
Mr. Crookshank in the Snake was sent forward to 
pursue them ; and the Malays, delighting in an oppor- 
tunity to show the speed of their favourite boat, shot 
after the chase, which glided like a shadow before them, 
and disappeared round a bend in the stream. But in 
another moment the Snake also had swept out of sight, 
and found the canoe deserted, lying close under the 
bushes. One of the Malays immediately recognised 
some article in the little skiff, and cried out, " this be- 



316 



THE INDIAN AUCIIIPELAGO, 



Anecdote. 



Evidences 
of piracy. 



Changed 
aspect of the 
country. 



Town of 
Sussang. 



longs to my nephew." He jumped on shore, ran up to 
the jungle, and shouted " Come down ! " No answer was 
returned. " Don't you know me ? " he added. " Who 
are you ? " replied a voice from the thicket. " Your 
uncle from Sarawak," said the Malay, and the poor 
fellows then came down, got into their canoe, and 
crossed over to Sir James Brooke's vessel, which had 
just anchored near the spot. They explained that the 
Dyak pirates had threatened utterly to destroy them, 
unless they left their village and joined the freebooting 
flotillas. It was with difficulty that the Rajah could 
prevent his Dyak allies from joining in the pursuit of 
this single canoe, for they were in great excitement, and 
several attempted to pass ahead ; but a rifle-shot across 
their bows told them they were watched, and the 
ardour of their inclinations was restrained. 

At Lintang, the English narrator saw evidences of the 
pirate ravages ; for three quarters of a mile along the 
banks could be traced the remains of houses ; some were 
not altogether demolished, but innumerable posts were 
to be seen among the bushes, or in the muddy flats along 
the river. The jungle was rapidly obliterating all marks 
of the large clearings formerly cultivated around, and 
in a few years more memory alone will recall a spot 
only prevented from flourishing in peace by the savage 
pirates of a neighbouring river. Throughout that ex- 
cursion in other places wide clearings were to be seen, 
with deserted houses near them, hamlets abandoned 
by their people, groves of newly-planted palms, and 
others laden with fruit, which no hand remained to 
gather in. 

The town of Sussang, near the mouth of the river, 
supplied the fleet with provisions, and its chiefs carried 
on friendlv intercourse with their visitors. It was once 
a considerable place ; but the trade had been so cut up, 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESEXT STATE. 



31 



and agriculture so much impeded by the Serebas, that 
a scanty livelihood was all that could then be obtained. 
All the houses on the left bank were entirely abandoned, P 05 ; 01 ^ |>y 

* . its mhabit- 

and sneaking parties of Serebas still came from time to ants. 
time, to take the head of any stray woman or child that 
might be found unprotected in the forest. 1 These buc- 
caneers lived about seventy-five miles up the Lipat 
river, where their huge village-houses were built near 
a spot in which the water was too shallow for prahus of 
large size. In this retreat they imagined themselves 
secluded from all search, and safe from all attack ; but 
Sir James Brooke resolved to punish them, and some 
of the chiefs gladly acted as guides to their haunt. 

A number of boats pulled up the river signs of Advanre U P 

-i 11 n the river. 

former cultivation multiplying on either hand ; and 
after some hours, a distant cry was heard ; loud shouts 
and yells passed rapidly through the fleet, and a sampan 
with four Serebas pirates, armed to the teeth, came in 
view. Seven men engaged with them, and as they Confllc ; ts 

00 . * with pi- 

fought to desperation, they were all killed, which pro- rates. 

duced immense excitement among the Dyaks of the 
flotilla. 

The boats had now reached slack water, and anchored S 11 "^ ! a 
abreast of Si-Patang, a deserted Dyak city. Not many 
years ago it was tenanted by an industrious population, 
whose extensive paddi fields extended for miles around, 
and the large groves of cocoa-nut, betel, and sago palms, 
showed that the river had teemed with wealth, and 
only needed security to become again the home of a 

tranquil and laborious people. For years, however, History of 
. r , , . , -, , n . . , . its desola- 

the inhabitants had been exposed to piratical attacks, tion. 
and at length half their town was captured by the Se- 



1 See Abong Hassan's Depositions before Sir C. Rawlinson, 
No. 5. 



318 THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 

rebas, who massacred all that fell into their hands. 
The dwellings of some chiefs, of stronger build than 
the others, and furnished with guns, were still defended, 
and the assailants retired, carrying away hundreds of 
human heads, and a vast quantity of plunder. Those 
Avhom. they killed were, for the most part, old people 
and children, who, when dispersed in the fields, were 
surprised and unable to escape to places of safety. 
Long and patiently the inhabitants tried to bear up 
against these incursions, which were continually re- 
newed ; but at last, as at Lintang, they gave way to 
despair, left their homes, their farms, and their groves, 
and retired to Sarawak. Many of them now accom- 
panied the fleet, and gave permission to their comrades 
to store all the boats with cocoa and betel nuts from 
the deserted plantations. 

Council of At Si-Patang, Sir James Brooke, Captain Keppel, 
Mr. Spenser St. John, and the other Englishmen, held 
a council of war with a number of native chiefs, to 
discuss the arrangements of a march to be undertaken 
on the morrow against the pirate villages. They made 
their way through the deserted houses, and found the 
meeting surrounded by a large crowd, which opened 
however, at their approach. The Datus, the Orang- 
kayas, the Sherrifs, the Panglimas, the Nakodahs, all 
the men of influence were there with eager faces lighted 
up by enthusiasm into an ardour of expression, very 
much in contrast with their usual placid composure. 
All agreed on the necessity of making an attack on 
the pirate strongholds. Panglima Ostnan, the elected 
leader of the native forces, spoke as follows : 

Speech of a " There has never, in the memory of any man here, 
been so large a force assembled as we now see around 
us, nor has there ever been so great a body of Malays 
collected together. We have here a chief, whom we 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 319 

all respect, and now, under him, if we do not do our 
duty, if we do not subdue these Serebas, who have so 
long and so constantly harassed us, we do not deserve to 
have wives and children. I myself will leave the 
country and go to live at Singapore, or in some other 
place far from this, where I may live in peace, and I 
will never again return to this coast." 

There was an old law among the Malays that if, Laws of 
while engaged on a war expedition, one man abandoned f a re. 
another, he and his family were sold, and the produce 
given to support the widow and children of him whom 
he might have saved. This rude expedient, suggested 
by a barbarous chivalry, may have been influential for 
good in armies where discipline could not control, and 
where moral feeling was ineffectual to shame the pusil- 
lanimous into a show of valour. It was now, however, 
fallen into disuse, and Panglima Osman was forced to 
appeal to the spirit and patriotism of the warriors who 
listened to his harangue. The sentiment was loudly 
echoed, the flotilla started up the stream, and at mid- 
night anchored about seventy miles from the sea. 

As the march to the secluded pirate haunt would lie March 
through a jungle, and as the native army might be 
forced to bivouac all night among the woods, it was 
agreed that the Europeans should remain to guard the 
boats. All preparations were made ; the heart of every 
man was stirred by the prospect of retaliating upon 
the spoilers of his home the accumulated injuries of 
years, and on the 2d of April the movement took place. 
Early in the morning the whole fleet was alive. The Bivouac on 
boats were anchored in a part of the stream about fifty the nver> 
yards wide, with banks which, at low water, appeared 
lofty. On the left was a thick overhanging jungle ; on the 
right were scattered bushes and a few trees ; the surface 
of the river was covered with prahus ; the Dyaks were 



320 THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 

hurrying on shore ; the Malays were putting on their 

war dresses, and getting ready their arms ; confusion 

Curious and excitement reigned over the whole; little canoes 

scone 

were shooting up and down, bringing men from the 
rear of the fleet to the landing-place, and a motley 
battalion was forming near the water. Their costumes 
were of every colour, from a dirty white to a brilliant 
red, and their arms of varied kind blunderbusses, 
pistols, spears, swords, krisses, and shields. There was 
little discipline kept ; body after body ascended the 
banks, plunged amid the jungle, and hurried to the 
place of rendezvous. 

Order of There the balla or army was arranged in order of 

march. It numbered about 2000 men, and was dis- 
posed according to the usual native plan, in quaint 
imitation of the figure of a bird. The Beak, or van- 
guard of picked warriors, was headed by Panglima Os- 
man, an experienced leader, possessing the confidence of 
his European allies, as well as of the Dyaks themselves. 

A native The Wings to support the Beak, and fight the enemy's 
skirmishers, were of course on either side of the main 
body. This was composed principally of the heavy- 
armed Malays, the main instrument of the war. Follow- 
ing this was the rudder or Tail, generally made up of 
stragglers the last to advance, and first to retreat ; 
though when passing through a dangerous country, 
some chosen men are sent to join the rear. In this 
order the army marched. Presently messengers came 
to the boats with news that its advanced parties were 
arrived within sight of some of the pirate villages, and 

Pirates sur- that the sound of gongs and tatawas could be distinctly 
heard in that direction. The buccaneers were engaged 
in a festival, dancing in triumph over the trophies of 
their recent foray the heads of those aged people 
and children, whose sons and parents and brothers were 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 321 

now coining through the jungle to visit them with a 
retributive blow. 

In a few hours a heavy storm of rain came on, and 
the Englishmen in the boats were afraid lest the powder 
should be damped, and the ardour of the Dyaks allayed. 
Every now and then however, a messenger returned News from 
from the army with news and they learned that many 
huts of branches and leaves had been constructed in the 
forest, to shelter the warriors and keep their ammuni- 
tion dry. Occasionally, too, a party of faint-hearted Courage of 

11111,1 the Dyak?. 

recusants sneaked back to the boats, but the greater 
number manifestly preserved their resolution, and re- 
mained all night under the frail roof they had con- 
structed for themselves. 

Meanwhile, the party at the boats were busy clearing 
the banks of jungle, to prevent any pirates lying in 
ambush there ; and when the evening closed in, it was 
upon a scene in which little was wanting to recall to an 
imaginative mind the witcheries of old romance. It picturesque 
was a dark night, writes one who shared in the excite- n) s htsccne - 
ment of that adventure, and a gust of wind drove 
masses of cloud over the sky, giving a cheerless aspect 
to the scene. The double and treble line of roofed 
boats, drawn up along the banks, had an appearance as 
of a large village skirting the water's edge ; a bright 
blaze occasionally shot up from one of the prahus, ren- 
dering more palpable the density of the prevailing 
gloom. One little scene there was, which might have 
been most effectively rendered on canvass. A long, low 
Dyak boat, roofed over from stem to stern, but open at 
the sides, lay close underneath the shadowy bank, and 
was dimly perceptible through the shadows. Its in- 
mates lay sleeping on the deck ; but presently a man 
rose, stooped over the fire, and commenced blowing up 
its embers with his mouth. He was soon joined by 
VOL. II. Y 



322 



THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



Rumours 
from the 
pirate 

haunt. 



Concert of 
gongs. 



Return of 
the army. 



several others, and when at last a flame shot up with 
cheering brilliance, you might imperfectly discern a 
Dyak attending to an iron pot swung over the little 
blazing pile. This contained a store of rice for the 
succeeding day ; and while one took care of its prepa- 
ration, another kept up the flame, while two or three 
crouched close by, warming their hands, and gravely 
watching the process. The fire, the dark figures, the 
patches of water glimmering among the boats, the 
sombre trees, the obscure and confused objects dimly 
visible around all this formed a picture which the 
happiest genius of the Flemish painter might have been 
exerted to preserve. 1 

Next day rumours came thick and fast from the scene 
of the campaign. A spy boat was sent some miles up the 
stream, and returned with the intelligence that loud 
shouts, the beating of alarm gongs, and repeated firing 
had been heard in the direction of the pirate villages. 
Some men also returned with a chief who had been 
wounded in the foot with a ranjow or spike of bamboo, 
planted by the enemy to impede the march of their as- 
sailants. Their accounts were contradictory and con- 
fused, some declaring that the fighting had been great, 
others that the pirates had run away. 

At five o'clock on the morning of the 4th it was ex- 
pected that the army was marching back towards the 
river. All the gongs in the fleet therefore were beaten 
to direct its course, and this deafening noise was kept 
up for five hours, when a discharge of musketry was 
heard at a distance, and some parties came straggling 
in, at first in twos and threes, then in larger bodies, 
and at length in one continuous line, pouring from the 
jungle into their floating tenements on the river. Some 
were flushed and active, others wearied, and covered 



Manuscript Narrative, 145. 



US HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 323 

from head to foot with mud ; most brought some booty, 
and a few were so laden that they could scarcely stag- 
ger under the weight of spoil. About half-past two in 
the afternoon all had arrived, and the flotilla commenced 
its passage down the stream. 

The native army, after leaving its encampment of Their 
huts, pressed forward with incautious zeal, was disco- ments. 6 " 
vered by the Serebas, and disappointed by their flight. 
A little skirmishing occurred ; but few of the pirates 
were seen, and it was afterwards ascertained that most 
of them were away, preparing for a new plundering 
expedition on the Rembas river. Their villages were Capture of 
easily captured, and few lives were lost in the opera- \" a *s v 
tion, while in the houses were found furniture, clothes, 
arms, and a newly stored harvest. There were eight 
immense dwellings. All the portable property was col- 
lected into one, and the others were burned. Innu- Discovery 
merable heads were discovered, many but lately smoked, of heads - 
and without doubt the relics of that catastrophe, which 
the expedition was undertaken to revenge. When 
the destruction was complete, the victorious islanders 
erected a palisade round their lodging, set watches, 
cooked their evening meal, and endeavoured to obtain 
some sleep. 

During the night, however, the piratical Dyaks of 
the surrounding villages collected, and approaching the 
palisades hurled their spears, shouted and yelled, and 
long continued to drive away even the idea of repose. 
Suddenly, there was a lull, and a voice was heard ask- conference 
ing questions. The speaker was at first far off, but era- with con - 

j 11 l, J J .f -'.i -11 cealedpi- 

dually approached nearer, and his interrogatories could ra tes. 
be distinctly heard. "What Balla is that?" "From 
Sarawak." " Why have you attacked us ? " To this 
dozens of men answered to the intent that they had 
come to punish them for their late attack on Sadong, and 

T 2 



324 



THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



they enumerated the atrocities which had been com- 
mitted. By an occasional gleam of moonlight struggling 
through the clouds, they could perceive that the speaker 
wore the dross of a chief. He told them, " We are not 
now strong enough to fight you ; but if you were not 
so many we would." When next morning the army 
returned, a new route was chosen, since it was expected 
that the old one would be planted thickly with ranjows, 
and this was probably the fact, for the Serebas shouted 
from the jungle, " Why do you choose a new path ? 
Why not return by the old one?" signifying clearly that 

Deliverance they had prepared some means of revenge. A woman 
cap ivea. an( j WQ children were captured and brought before Sir 
James Brooke. They displayed complete acquiescence, 
if not pleasure, in their captivity, and it soon appeared 
that the woman was the slave of a Serebas chief, who 
had carried her away from the Balow tribe, and by him 
she had become twice a mother. She answered that 
she had found her own relations in the army which at- 
tacked the pirate village, and preferred to remain with 
them. 1 

Descent of All the prahus got under weigh at the same time, a 
hundred of them dashing on down a narrow river with 
streamers flying, and guns firing, in unison shouts and 
yells and songs of exultation over the defeat of those 
who had made a descent along the borders of the 
Lipat. A long sweep of uncultivated fields with 
groves of palms, ruined hamlets, and deserted houses, 
opened to the Dyaks a prospect of their former homes, 
and no doubt many a wistful glance was cast on the 
remembered scenes of comfort and plenty, which had 
been made desolate by those buccaneers. 

The attacks on the pirates were discontinued for three 



the stream. 



1 See Deposition, 1316. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 325 

months, while Sir James Brooke was absent at Labuan interval of 
and Sulu, and the Serebas, imagining that the campaign pcate> 
against them was over, soon renewed their outrages. 
Small squadrons came out of the rivers to pillage along 
the coast, and every day numbers of people fled from 
their pursuit into Sarawak. The terror of the popula- 
tion became as great as before, and the multiplication of 
atrocities called for another and a more severe example 
to be made. The British government at the Straits New expe- 
was then determined to assert the national flag against ^ pre " 
the savage enemies of all trade, and on the 24th of July 
the Albatross, the Royalist, and the Nemesis having 
come to Sarawak, a new expedition was prepared. It 
was arranged that the Albatross should remain behind 
while her boats proceeded with the steamer ; the Roy- 
alist to anchor up the Batang Lupar, to protect the 
Linga river from the Sakarrans, and her cutter, under 
Lieutenant Everest, to join the European flotilla des- 
tined for the attack on the Serebas and Kanowit buc- 
caneers. On the 24th of July the whole fleet fell down 
the river and anchored at its entrance. 

On the 25th the Nemesis took the European division passage of 

in tow, to leave the Royalist off the Linga, and to ren- the squa ~ 

dron. 

dezvous at the Kaluka. The Rajah followed with the 
native flotilla, and on the 27th they all met off Kaluka. 
While wooding at Serebas, a message was received from intelligence 
a respectable man at Sussang, saying, that the day be- flg e a t Dyak 
fore, while fishing on the sands, he saw a fleet coming 
out of the Serebas river, and counted ninety-four war 
bangkongs, which passed him, and proceeded towards 
the Rejang. Four others soon followed, and Sir James 
Brooke resolved to intercept this floating horde of 
robbers. 

There were four rivers by which the Serebas could Their 
regain their haunts; they might dash up the Rejang, 

T 3 



328 TIIE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 

and disperse among the tribes of Kanowit and Katibas ; 
they might push through the Lipat branch of the Ka- 
luka; they might return up the Serebas, or passing 
out to sea, ascend the Batang Lupar, and move up 

Arrange- the Sakarran branch of that magnificent river. Should 
they attempt this at the first, the Nemesis would cut 
them off'; Sir James Brooke with the heavy native 
prahus, supported by Lieutenants Everest and Wilms- 
hurst, was to move up the Kaluka to the junction and 
anchor there, while the Nemesis, the little Ranee steam 
tender, five European boats, and a strong native squad- 
ron, were to guard the Serebas. 

Period of Three days were spent awaiting the return of the 

pirate fleet. Heavy rains fell all the while, and Sir 
James Brooke, watching without remission from the 
deck, suffered severely then and since from the exposure. 
It was expected that the corsairs, when they arrived 
and found the Serebas closed, would dash for the Ka- 
luka, and after proceeding a few miles up, would be 
stopped by a flotilla moored across that stream, with all 
its guns pointed towards the sea, when the steamer was 
to follow, and thus enclose them between two fires. 
News, however, arrived that more than eighty pirate 
vessels had been seen off" the Kejang, where the people 
were in momentary expectation of an attack, and none 

The fleet ventured out to visit the fishing stakes. On the morning 
of the thirty-first, intelligence arrived that the great fleet, 
having plundered the village of Palo, was anchored in 
the Si-Maring creek near Siriki, and it was feared they 
would assault that town. The Nemesis, therefore, was 
prepared to steam thither and prevent such a disaster ; 
" but that very evening," says my narrator, " a party 
of us were out searching for a pig or deer along the 
sands, and tempted by the numerous traces of game, we 
inadvertently strayed for about three miles. When we 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 327 

turned^ we had not retraced our steps above a third of 
the way when the spy-boat was seen rapidly pulling 
along the shore." Suddenly, all in her rose up, pointed 
towards the distant headland, waved to us to return, 
and cried out, " The Dyaks are coming ! " Nothing, 
however, could be discerned in the direction of the 
Serebas river but the steamer's outline, indistinctly 
revealed through the thickening shadows of the evening. 
She lay near the dark banks, completely out of view to 
those at sea. 

After much hurry and confusion, the flotilla weighed Animating 
and formed a line across the entrance of the Kaluka 
river. A rocket was fired to give the steamer notice ; 
another followed it, and a loud shout broke from the 
excited barbarians throughout the fleet. A dead 
silence ensued for a moment, when again, from thou- 
sands of voices, there burst a long, deep yell of de- 
fiance, now sounding high, now low, as it it was borne 
towards the shore by the wind ; the flashes of guns 
gleamed through the purple dusk, and it was known 
that the enemy was making for the Serebas. 

The discharge of two guns and a rocket, and a blue Commence- 
light from the Nemesis, told that she was prepared ; j^j" t Ol 
and the deep booming of her thirty-two pounders an- 
nounced the commencement of the action. In a short 
time, after anxiously waiting, Sir James Brooke and 
his companions perceived, approaching the entrance of 
the Kaluka, a long dark line of bangkongs. Everest 
and Wilmshurst in the cutters dashed forward to meet 
them, followed by a division of the light boats under 
Panglima Osman and Incas. A more extraordinary Extraordi- 
scene could not be imagined ; the moon, slightly dimmed "^J pl 
by misty clouds, threw a watery radiance over the banks 
of the river, on the open sea in front, and the waves 
glimmering all around. The brilliant blue lights of the 

T 4 



328 



THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



Movement 
of the 
enemy. 



Their rout. 



Attempts to 
escape 
Captain 
Farquhar. 



Effect of 
the fire. 



Nemesis, the flashes of musketry, the pursuing boats, 
the extended fleet of the enemy all this, with the re- 
gular booming of the guns, and the loud and frantic 
shouts rising on all sides, formed a scene of the most 
singular character. The main body of the enemy 
pulled in shore to shallow water, and for a short time 
appeared to hesitate as to their next movement. The 
steamer was manoeuvring on one side, Captain Far- 
quhar's boats were out seaward, and a large force of 
natives was assembled off the sandy point near the 
right bank of the river. At length the pirates made a 
rush towards the Sarawak squadron, but were received 
with a heavy and destructive fire ; they were so sur- 
rounded that every one, as a prisoner afterwards said, 
lost his senses. All concert was lost, and each in this 
division only thought of escape. 

For five hours the conflict was prolonged, with heavy 
firing, and about twelve it ceased, though an occasional 
report still broke on the silence. About two, the little 
Ranee steamed up to the Sarawak flotilla, but no one 
knew precisely what had been going on. 

When the pirate fleet approached the Serebas they 
were met by the Nemesis, whose thirty-two pounders, 
loaded with round shot, grape, and canister, made fearful 
havoc among them ; to escape this storm of metal they 
turned seaward, but Captain Farquhar, an officer of the 
most consummate ability, turned them back ; then they 
tried the sandy point, where the Sarawak squadron gave 
them its fire, so that, thrown into a confused crowd, no 
one thought of order ; some ran their boats on shore, 
some abandoned them, and many were shattered and 
sunk by the cannonade. 

The effect of the steamer's fire was terrific. She first 
met a line of seventeen large bangkongs, and dashing 
through them, had five on one side and twelve on the 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 329 

other. Into these, within fifty yards, she poured her hot 

and rapid volleys, and kept working up and down until 

they were all crippled or destroyed. One prahu en- incidents of 

deavoured to escape the steamer was speedily along- the conflicf - 

side sixty men rose up armed at all points, hurled 

their spears and yelled defiance ; but a thirty-two 

pound shot struck her in the middle, and she parted in 

two. One of the prisoners afterwards taken was asked 

" Why did you not fight more bravely ? " " Fight ! " 

he answered, " how could we fight ? The very first shot 

cut my boat in two, and we were obliged to swim to 

the shore." Some of the Serebas, also, exclaimed that Thoughts 

it was impossible to contend with men who turned the natives on 

night into day, who had lights above in the heavens En g' lsh 

ji'iii i i -it warfare. 

and lights below, so that everything could be perceived 
referring to the port-fires, rockets, and blue lights ; 
and certainly the brilliancy of these lit up the sea for 
hundreds of yards, and enabled the Nemesis to play her 
guns with more terrible precision and effect. 

The swift native boats, under the command of Mr. 
Steel and the Orang Kaya of Lundu, prevented most 
of those who passed the other divisions from ascending 
the river. The enemy were seen swimming in hun- General 
dreds in the sea, most of them with their shields, and a confusion - 
sword in their mouths, with which they attacked the 
small prahus, and wounded many of those on board. 
Every moment had added to the general wreck. When 
a rocket struck a boat on the stem, it swept it to the 
stern. The Serebas gave many instances of valour. Courage of 
One of their bangkongs was closely pressed by Kallong, 
the eldest son of the Orang Kaya of Lundu ; the boat 
was run ashore, and a young chief, springing on the 
beach, dared any man " to land and fight him." His 
challenge was answered by Kallong, who, jumping into 
the river, waded towards his adversary, and killed him 



330 



THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



in single comb.it. 



Escape of 
pirates. 



Reports of 
the battle. 



Panic on 
shore. 



Anecdote. 



Had this chivalrous savage been 
overcome, his youngest brother was in the water, ready 
to support the reputation of his tribe. 

Twelve or fourteen of the pirate bangkongs escaped. 
Three of these were afterwards captured by the Balow 
Dyaks, as they were endeavouring to make their way 
to the Batang Lupar ; the others passed up the Sere- 
bas, and spread the greatest consternation through the 
country ; they sought to mitigate the humiliation of 
their defeat by saying that, though thoroughly beaten, 
they had fought for six hours, and that, although they 
had taken no heads, hundreds of their enemies' bodies 
Avould be thrown upon the beach. Fortunately, how- 
ever, there were few men lost from the forces of Sir 
James Brooke and his native allies, though many were 
wounded. 

The panic along the banks of the Serebas was ex- 
treme; no sooner had intelligence arrived of the dis- 
aster which had overwhelmed the pirate fleet, than all 
who had remained at home, with the women and 
children, commenced hiding their property and hur- 
rying away with their portable valuables. An imme- 
diate attack was expected ; and during this confusion 
nine women, captured in one of their Sadong forays, 
some of high rank, had the courage to slip away, and 
passing by unfrequented paths through the jungle, 
reached the stream. There, seizing a small canoe, they 
cautiously paddled down, concealing themselves by day 
under the overhanging foliage, and moving only by 
night. Happily, their flight was successful, and they 
arrived at Linga safe, but in a very exhausted condi- 
tion. They had been reduced to slavery ; all had been 
violated, and several of them were pregnant by the 
pirates. 

Before morning, Captain Farquhar in the Nemesis, 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 331 

with the European boats, went on the Rembas in order 
to close it against any of the escaped bangkongs ; and at 
daylight of August the first, Sir James Brooke, with 
his flotilla, followed. As they left the Kaluka, some 
pirate vessels were discerned, still hovering out at sea ; 
Panglima Osman, with a squadron of light prahus, went 
in pursuit, and they proved to be seven deserted bang- 
kongs drifting over the waves. Far around, indeed, scene after 
the relics of that sanguinary night covered the water, the Conflict. 
shattered timbers, half-sunk boats, kejangs, basket- 
mats, spears, clothes, and every species of prahu furni- Fcbris of 
ture. In one spot on the shore, a mass of vessels, the the fleet ' 
debris of the fleet, was piled high and dry, and near 
them crowds of people were searching in the shallows 
along the beach for arms and other articles, which the 
pirates, in their panic, had thrown overboard. 

The native allies, also, loaded themselves with spoil ; spoil of the 
some with heavy parangs and axes, hewed the large piratc ves ~ 
boats to pieces, preparatory to burning them ; others 
repaired and launched the smaller ones; on all sides 
were heard vauntings and exultations over the destruc- 
tion of the Serebas ; and parties struck in various 
directions through the woods to see if any of their 
enemies still lingered in ambush there. Some of Atrocity of 
the Dyaks led Mr. Brereton and several other Euro- the Serebas - 
peans to a spot where lay the decapitated trunk of 
a fine young woman, hacked and hewed in the most 
barbarous manner. Other relics of pirate atrocity, 
equally revolting, were scattered about. They are sup- 
posed to have been the remains of a girl captured off 
Mato, and of others carried away from Palo. There Motives to 
were few natives present who had not lost a father, a revcn s e - 
brother, or a sou, a wife or a daughter murdered by 
the Serebas pirates, or borne into a miserable captivity. 
Among the thirty-five men, for example, composing the 



332 



THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



Dyak ves- 
sels. 



crew of the Snake, there was not one who had not 
some close relation thus destroyed. 

However, a fearful retribution had now fallen on 
them ; their loss in boats was very great. Between 
sixty and eighty lay upon the sands, or were captured. 
As it would have been impossible to have used the 
whole, orders were given that those who required boats 
should remove them immediately all the others were 
destroyed. 

The bangkongs of this fleet are boats peculiar to the 
Dyaks ; they are built of strong thick planks, hewed 
into shape with small axes and admirably fitted one 
overlapping the other, with the interstices tightly 
caulked with a species of bark. The fastenings are of 
rattan, and the vessel is thus easily taken to pieces and 
reconstructed. 1 The stem and stern are generally out 
of water, some overhanging at least ten feet. They are 
as swift as any boats ever launched, and few of Malay 
or European build have a chance in a race with them. 
Bangkong?. Bangkongs are never used, except for warfare, and are 
unmistakeable to the eye of any one acquainted with 
the craft of the Indian seas. To speak of them as 
boats is perhaps to convey a false impression of their 
size. The larger ones measure about seventy feet in 
length, and about nine in the beam, built of magnificent 
planks more than sixty feet long. They carry a crew 
of about seventy men, the complement being esti- 
mated by the number of holes bored along the sides for 
the paddles to work in. The usual armament of a first- 
class bangkong is a small gun forward and another aft, 
with occasionally one or two right and left ; the men 
carry wooden spears, sharp and heavy, for throwing ; 
iron-headed pikes, for close fighting ; swords and shields, 

' See the account of Indian boats with wooden fastenings. 
Pliny, Hist. Nat. vi. 26. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 333 

and as many muskets as they can possibly obtain. 
There were about 1200 muskets in the fleet destroyed Arma- 
on the 31st of July. The mast, which is raised in the 
fore part, may be easily lowered to increase the conve- 
nience for action. The Serebas paint their vessels after 
a peculiar but plain fashion, while the stems of the 
other Dyak bangkongs are often ornamented with some 
strange device always fantastic, frequently indecent. 

On this occasion the Serebas Malays, expecting no T..ctics of 
opposition at the towns they intended to attack, and * 
knowing that swiftness was the principal requisite in a 
marauding enterprise, had gone in the bangkongs be- 
longing to the piratical Dyaks of that river. The nu- 
merical force of the fleet was variously estimated by 
the prisoners, at from 120 to 150 war vessels; but the 
former is considered to have been the closest approxi- Evidence oi 
mation to truth. The pirates themselves were also cal- th f ir ,P iratl * 

cal charac- 

culated at 5,280, 4,200, 3,600 ; the first is far too high, ter. 
the second was probably nearly correct ; but accepting 
the third, it is enough to convince the most ignorant 
that they were not engaged in any innocent or peaceful 
adventure. The number killed is reckoned by them- 
selves at 800 ; but 500 was the number proved before 
the Admiralty Court and this apparently decimated the 
Serebas tribes. That no Englishman lost his life may 
seem at first surprising ; but it is to be remembered 
that the principal work was done by the Nemesis, whose 
fire was so rapid and so overwhelming, that the pirates 
were unable to reload their pieces. When the Fury 
attacked a force of Chinese pirates armed with 1200 
guns, although they fired for a long while, not one of 
the steamer's company was killed. 

About three thousand pirates still remained on a spot Remnant of 
of land with a narrow neck, between the Serebas and ^, t j n ee " x 
Kaluka. It was proposed by the natives to erect a p-jdition. 



334 



THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



Testimony 
of prisoners. 



Account of 
the piratical 
expedition. 



Movements 
of the fleet. 



breastwork of felled trees across the neck, guard it well, 
and send bodies of armed men to drive the buccaneers 
from post to post, until they were all destroyed ; but 
Sir James considered that no further chastisement was 
necessary to intimidate them from their wicked pur- 
suits, and the Dyaks were ordered to reassemble on 
board the flotilla. 

From prisoners taken and captives released, it ap- 
peared that the piratical fleet had left Serebas on the 
26th of July, and continued its course, first to the 
Niabur, an uninhabited river; the next day it ad- 
vanced to Palo, a small town on the Bruit, where the 
people called out, inquiring who they were. The 
Serebas answered, " We have not come to kill you ; 
but are you for us ? " They being weak and defence- 
less of course answered, " Yes." " Then do not try 
to prevent our landing." The pirates then went on 
shore, plundered the inhabitants of their salt, with large 
stores of paddi and rice ; selected the young women 
who pleased their fancy, and left, with this caution to 
all who remained, " If ever you refuse to sell us salt, 
or to do as we bid you, we will come back and kill 
every one of you." " We intended," said one of the 
Serebas prisoners, with perfect coolness, " whenever 
we were short of heads, to go to Palo and kill them 
all." They appear to have considered it politic not to 
massacre them on this occasion, as they procured salt 
.and other necessaries by means of their industry. As 
soon as their enemies were out of sight, the poor plun- 
dered victims launched their boats, took their most 
valued goods on board, and fled to the Rejang town, on 
the river of that name. 

The fleet then continued its course to the Bay of 
Lassa, and on its way captured a prahu laden with 
sago. The pirates then made a descent on Mato, 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 335 

another town on the Bruit ; they landed half their 
men, who attacked the houses in the rear, while the 
remainder from the boats kept up a constant fire. The 
inhabitants, however, being numerous and tolerably 
well armed, beat them off and compelled them to re- 
tire with the loss of at least ten men. They were 
compensated, however, by the acquisition of three 
heads, with four women and children as slaves. Their 
most valued prizes, nevertheless, were two trading 
prahus, captured below the defences at Mato ; one, 
with a cargo of sago, was about to sail for Singapore ; 
the other, a large vessel, sixty feet long and seventeen 
feet in the beam, had just returned from that em- 
porium with a valuable freight of piece goods : her plunder of 
nakodah, or captain, the moment he saw the pirates a tra(1<r - 
emerging from a neighbouring creek, ran his prahu on 
shore, and having a numerous crew, saved a portion of 
his cargo. The value of the whole, consisting prin- 
cipally of English manufactures, was about five thou- 
sand dollars. 1 

Near Mato the Serebas murdered a number of fisher- Murder of 
men and captured several females. They then started 
for Siriki, where a party of traitors was engaged to 
deliver the town into their hands, and a force of Sakar- 
rans had agreed to join in the attack ; but as all native 
plans requiring concert fail, the scheme was exploded, 
and the fleet returned towards its haunts in the Serebas 
river. On their way they had trusted to plunder for 
supplies of food ; but to provide against the failure of 
this resource, they carried on their expedition cakes of 
oleaginous clay, which they affirm are very efficacious 
in appeasing the pangs of hunger. Long expecting, 
however, as they had, an attack from the English, the 

1 Seraib's Deposition, No. 17. Suip's, No. 1. Burut's, No. 2, 



336 



THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



Proceedings 
of Sir James 
Brooke. 



Ferocity of 
the Dyak 
pirates. 
Captain 
Wallage. 



His hu- 
manity. 



Result of 
the chas- 
tisement 
Inflicted. 



Serebas and Sakarrans confined their depreciations to 
the neighbourhood of their haunts. In the month of 
Ramadhan they imagined no Malay would dream of a 
warlike adventure, which emboldened them to make a 
long excursion. 

After the destruction of this force, Sir James Brooke, 
with his companions, proceeded in the steamer up the 
stream, anchoring at the mouth of the Pahu, about 
fifty miles from the sea. There, on the 3rd of August, 
they embarked in small vessels prizes from the pirate 
fleet while the Ranee, with some European boats in 
advance, and a dense mass of native craft crowded the 
river in the rear ; a conflict took place at Paku, and 
the enemy resisted with much spirit ; but Ihey were 
everywhere dispersed. The Dyaks suffered in the suc- 
cessive attacks, though little in proportion to their 
enemies, for the English fire was perpetually ready to 
cover them. The pirates, too, fought almost in all 
cases to the death, refusing to surrender, and often 
disdaining to fly. Captain Wallage of the Nemesis, 
who, as a noble-minded British officer, must reflect 
with sorrow as well as scorn on the malignity of those 
who charged him with slaughtering for the sake of 
gain, humanely offered a reward for every Serebas 
captured. This effort, however, to spare the effusion 
of blood availed little ; the pirates were so fierce that 
no more than one prisoner was taken, and that at im- 
minent risk. He fought in the water, and it was only 
by entangling him with spears and paddles, and slightly 
wounding his sword-arm, that the Dyaks could succeed 
in seizing him, and even then he injured one of his 
captors. 

Information was received that one awakening impulse 
stirred all the peaceful towns along that river, inciting 
their people to join the English in striking a signal blow 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 337 

against the pirates, who preyed without remission on 
them. Little further was done, however, of a military 
character, for the piratical tribes had been subdued, and 
now made submission with every appearance of sincerity. 
They confessed their head-hunting and predatory prac- 
tices, promised never to renew them, and engaged to 
enter into honest industry and trade. To secure them 
in the fulfilment of their vow, forts were built at the 
entrance of the various rivers which gave access to their 
haunts, and these have served effectually the purpose 
for which they were designed. That on the Sakarran Fortresses, 
was built of timber, twelve feet in height, with flanking " t- ' 
towers, a surrounding ditch, two eighteen-pounders 
commanding the entrance of the stream, and others 
defending the sides of the structure itself. Galleries 
for musketry were erected above, with storehouses and 
magazines. More than a hundred men were posted 
here, with two experienced chiefs. The position of the 
fort was well chosen, on a tongue of land opposite the 
mouth of the Sakarran, and forming a perfect key to that 
river. While the building went on, many of the Sa- 
karrans came out to the fleet, bringing their children 
in small sampans, and professing every good intention 
for the future. While a crowd of these converted 
buccaneers was swimming near, one of the eighteen- 
pounders, loaded with grape and canister, was fired to 
try its range. The shot scattered from one side of the 
branch river to the other, clearly showing the rovers 
what might be expected should a marauding flotilla 
attempt to put to sea through this opening. 

What was of still greater importance than this coer- Treaty with 
cive device, intended for the repression of piracy, was the Serebas> 
a sealed engagement accepted by the Serebas chiefs to 
abandon it altogether. 

" This is an engagement made by Orang Kaya Pa- 

VOL. II. Z 



338 THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 

mancha, together with the headmen and elders, Dyaks, 
now inhabiting the country of Padi, with the llajah, 
Sir James Brooke, who rules the country of Sarawak 
and its dependencies. Now the Orang Kaya Paman- 
cha, the headmen and elders, Dyaks, swear before God, 
and God is the witness of the Orang Kaya Pamancha, 
the headmen and elders, Dyaks, that truly, without 
falsehood or treachery, or any evil courses, but in all 
sincerity, and with clean hearts, without spot, with 
regard to the former evil acts, we will never do them in 
future. 

" Article 1 . The Orang Kaya Pamancha, the head- 
men and elders, Dyaks of Padi, engage in truth, that 
they will never plunder or pirate again hereafter ; and 
that they will never again send out men to plunder and 
pirate from Padih river. 

" Article 2. The Orang Kaya Pamancha, the head- 
men and elders, Dyaks, engage, that if there be any 
committal of, or consultations to commit, plunder or 
piracy, or other evil doings of the kind, it is our duty 
to come and report it at Sarawak. 

" Article 3. The Orang Kaya Pamancha, the head- 
men and elders, Dyaks, engage, that if people of Se- 
rebas or of Sakarran, commit acts of plunder and 
piracy, which they cannot prevent, we are bound to 
come to the English, or to the people of Sarawak, to 
punish the people who so act. 

" Article 4. With regard to traders in . the Padi 
river. The trade with them shall be fair and honest, 
and traders shall be taken care of, and shall not be 
plundered or molested, or treated improperly. If such 
people do not choose to trade they shall not be troubled, 
and if there be debts due to them, they shall be exa- 
mined into and settled with judgment. 

" Article 5. If the Rajah sends people to Padi they 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 339 

will be received, and shall not be troubled or pre- 
vented; and if the Rajah sends people to investigate, 
and see what is doing in Padi, they shall be received 
and taken care of. 

" Article 6. They shall state with sincerity, that 
they desire peace and friendship and goodwill with all 
men, and they engage with sincerity that they will 
never again go out to plunder and pirate as formerly." 

In this manner, and with this result, was accomplished Discussions 
the enterprise undertaken by Sir James Brooke in 
1849, against the Serebas and Sakarran pirates proved 
beyond doubt to be among the most ferocious and de- 
structive marauders in the Archipelago. It was made 
in England the subject of much debate ; it elicited mis- 
statements from many, and excited the rancour of some 
who shrunk from no calumny to detract from the re- 
putation of Rajah Brooke. 1 But slander is the last 
thing to find an echo in the public voice of Great Britain. 
Although some great journals, of stainless principle, settlement 
suffered themselves to be drawn into the assault upon 
Sir James Brooke, an overwhelming preponderance of 
opinion in parliament, in the press, and generally in the 
country, applauded his actions and confirmed the de- 
cision of the Admiralty Court at Singapore. And in- 
deed, strange would it have been, had any other judg- 
ment been pronounced. To accredit the charges boldly Enormity 
made, and maliciously reiterated, it was necessary to Charges 
believe what Englishmen will not easily be persuaded to against sir 
imagine possible, it was necessary to believe that Sir 
James Brooke is a despicable and mercenary impostor, 

1 See the unequivocal testimony of the Journal of the Indian 
Archipelago, conducted by J. R. Logan, Esq., a gentleman from 
his character beyond the suspicion of any but the most honourable 
motives, and by his acquaintance with Borneo qualified as well as 
any one to offer an opinion, vol. iii. p. 512. 



340 



Sir Christo- 
pher Raw- 
linsoii. 
Public 
opinion on 
Sir James 
Brooke's 
policy. 



Debate in 
parliament. 



careless of human life, and ready to sacrifice the most 
sacred principles and feelings, in order to promote a 
personal ambition ; that Captain Farquhar, Captain 
Wallage, Lieutenant Everest, Lieutenant Wilmshurst, 
Mr. Spenser St. John, and a number of other English 
officers and gentlemen were the cold-blooded partici- 
pators, some of them for gain, others from mere fero- 
city, in a terrible murder ; that Sir Christopher Ra\v- 
linson, a man with all the fine qualities of virtue and 
judgment, which are required to make up the cha- 
racter of a judge, had his mind deluded by a fiction, 
or his hand corrupted by a bribe it was necessary in 
a word to believe so much that was utterly incredible, 
it was necessary to attach probability to so much that 
was morally impossible, that in Great Britain a general 
acclamation of applause broke out to silence the malig- 
nant aspersions, circulated to defame and disgrace the 
English Rajah. It said to him in every form of expres- 
sion, Invidiam gloria superasti. 

In Parliament, the motion for censure, covered under 
a demand for inquiry, was rejected by a majority of hun- 
dreds against a score, and when Mr. Henry Drnmmond, 
Mr. Headlam, and Lord Palmerston, and other distin- 
guished statesmen, spoke in vindication of Sir James 
Brooke, loud and universal cheers rang to the echo 
through the House, applauding at once the speaker and 
the speaker's theme. 1 

1 The dinner given to Sir James Brooke by members of Parlia- 
ment, merchants, bankers, and others the wealthiest and most 
influential men in the city of London, on March 26th, 1852, was a 
splendid ovation an honour to those who bestowed, and a triumph 
to him who received it. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 341 



CHAPTER XVII. 

AFTER its subjection to so many influences, of foreign Actual state 
colonisation, of conquest, of new religions, of intercourse 
by trade and war with the nations of China, India ? 
Arabia, and Europe, the Eastern Archipelago remains 
in a singular condition. Its population, confused and its varied 
mingled as it is, represents every phase of human so- 
ciety from the primitive barbarism of the Kayan and 
the Jakun, to the luxury and opulence of London, 
Madrid, and Amsterdam, transported to Singapore, 
Pinang, Batavia, Makassar, and Manilla. Government European 
houses, churches, theatres, barracks, prisons, schools, 
shops, and stores, are crowded at different points on se- 
veral coasts Singapore, Sumatra, Java, Celebes, Bor- 
neo, and Luzon with Madura, Amboy na, and Timor. 
In these we find that mixture of Asiatic with European 
manners, invariably discovered in communities of similar 
origin throughout the Eastern world. 

There is one remarkable characteristic in them all Hospitality 
a thirst for accumulating riches, and a generosity in the p ean ". r 
expenditure of them, which combine to make a race 
of hospitable settlers, each extending the liberal repu- 
tation of his country to those remote borders of the 
habitable earth. Of the burgher in Batavia, as of the 
merchant in the Straits, this is equally true, for travel- 
lers of every class and every nation concur in acknow- 
ledging and applauding it. Recently also, a sumptuous 
entertainment, with a ball, was given by a Chinese 
gentleman at Singapore, and for the taste and elegance 
displayed Paris or London could not have excelled it. 

z 3 



342 



THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



Batavia. 



Makassar. 



Manilla. 



Singapore. 
Pinang. 



Decay of 
ancient 

cities. 



Ruins of 
states. 



The society of the place is indeed, highly refined, and 
includes many persons of much attainment and distinc- 
tion. Theirs is, however, though a magnificent, not an 
improvident profusion. They prosper on their free dis- 
tribution of the opulence which they derive from their 
commerce in the East. If Batavia be no longer, as 
once, " The Queen of the Oriental Seas," she is still 
the rich capital of the Netherlands' Indian Empire ; her 
streets are full of traffic ; her spacious and commodious 
roads are frequented by numerous shipping, and a large 
trade passes through to her factories. Makassar, under 
her new distinction as a free port, flourishes well, and 
Manilla is remarked by late travellers to present one 
of the finest scenes in Asia l , with the most densely 
peopled and best cultivated land in the Philippines, in 
its vicinity. 2 Singapore and Pinang attract to them- 
selves a considerable share of the wealth produced by 
commercial and industrial enterprises in the Archi- 
pelago. 

Meanwhile, the ancient cities of the Indian kingdoms 
fall into decay, and are rapidly perishing out of view. 
Johore, on the Peninsula, is a miserable ruin reduced 
from a capital to a little fishing village. 3 Japara, in 
Java, was twenty years ago a pile of decay. 4 Brurie, 
in Borneo, is crumbling daily into insignificance. The 
old cities of some of the Moluccan states have entirely 
disappeared, and of Mojopahit nothing remains. Yet 
the former aspects of the Archipelago continue still to 
impress themselves on the mind of the traveller, the 
motley and animated swarm of traffickers in the Sunda 



1 See Cunynghame, Recollections, 142. 
8 See Macmicking, Philippines. 

3 Bedford, Considerations on Qucdafi, MS. 

4 Earl, Eastern Seat, 44. 



Unpublished. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 343 

Straits and other avenues to the interior seas *, the pri- 
mitive villages on the coasts, lifted on pillars, thatched 
with leaves, and half obscured by the foliage piled 
heavily about them. Among the islands Chinese junks, Present 
the heavy boats from Cambodia and Siam, the vessels the G Archi- 
of all forms and sizes of the various populations, mingle peiago. 
with the great ships of Europe, passing from coast to 
coast those which are defenceless preyed upon by Commerce, 
pirates, still haunting many of the groups and rivers in 
the Archipelago. The celebrated market in the Arm The Arm 
continues to be crowded every year, the productions of 
those islands rendering them conspicuous in that quarter 
of Asia. 

In the general aspect of the Archipelago, indeed, Little 
there is little change discernible since the first enterprise 
of European navigation in its waters. Sociably, its 
populations remain nearly as they were, when Sequeira, 
Lancaster, and Houtman, came one by one from Europe 
to survey the riches and curiosities of the islands. There unpeopled 
still exist vast deserts of forest, jungle, and morass, un- solitudes - 
cultivated and unreclaimed ; savage tribes, dwelling on 
the banks of rivers; wild communities sequestered in 
the remoteness of hills and woods; scarcely any pro- 
portion of the island race is civilised. The Malays, The 
along the different coasts, have been educated to many 
of the useful, as well as to some of the finer arts of life, 
but have yielded in few cases to that softening influence 
which sets a mark on the civilised man in contrast with 
the barbarian. Europeans have settled in the Archi- 
pelago, indeed, but their communities form only minute 
specks, widely scattered, and ruling little the manners 
of the native population. Borneo remains nearly un- Borneo, 
explored ; all but the north-west coast, with a few 



1 Berncastle, Voyage, ii. 3. 
z 4 



344 THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 

Dutch settlements, is a gorgeous desert, offering abun- 
dant contributions to commerce, as well as resources for 
a large agricultural people, but neglected almost al- 
together by the enterprise of Europe, and little ap- 
preciated by its own possessors. 

Sarawak. In Sarawak, however, a gratifying spectacle is ex- 

hibited, a salutaiy picture full of hope for the uncul- 
tured race still ranging in savage liberty through the 
woods and morasses which extend over so large a part 
Achieve- of the island. There, Sir James Brooke has performed 
sir'james {ln achievement which scarcely a man in any other 
Brooke. part of the world has ever equalled, or even attempted 
Happy state to imitate. It is an unrivalled triumph. A wretched, 
vince! P impoverished, disorganised collection of tribes, blood- 
thirsty and uncouth, inhabiting a wild, uncultivated, 
unprotected province, has been moulded into a peaceful, 
happy, flourishing society, with manners, morals, laws, 
a pride in industry, and an attachment to trade. There 
is little or no crime, litigation is unfrequent, and the 
Dyaks have perfect confidence in their ruler. Among 
other benefits he has conferred on them is a hospital, 
superintended by the kindness and skill of the Reverend 
Mr. Macdougall, whose apostolic piety and zeal will 
not soon be forgotten in Sarawak. 1 

Former When Sir James Brooke assumed the administration 

the people ^ *his province, he found materials, the least en- 
couraging to a superficial view rapine, piracy, oppres- 
sion operating from the powerful to the inferior classes ; 
the bonds of society dissolved among the inferior classes 
themselves; all ancient laws defied, yet not forgotten, 
so that there was no clear ground for the introduction 
of new ones. A sudden and systematic abrogation of 
every social rule would have left an easier task than 

1 Keppcl, Viait, ii. 8. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 345 

this decay of institutions which the prejudice of the 
people would not permit him to destroy. There were 
certain laws, certain customs, certain traditionary forms 
of procedure deeply established, and by no means to 
be removed ; but there was also a high-minded, liberal 
population, willing to be educated to the nobler prac- 
tices of life. The Dyaks went to Sir James Brooke, The Dyak 
and while he, in one sense, was their protector, they in PP ulatlon ' 
another were his. They carried arms. He told them 
they had rights, and the defence of those rights was to 
be accomplished by arms. The rudiments of equity 
were then established, when there followed an appeal to 
constituted tribunals for the settlement of causes or 
the punishment of crime. The forms of justice in Form of ad- 
Sarawak are perhaps more simple than in any other part ^ lstra " 
in the world. Sir James and his companions meet. 
Every person of respectability, whether English or na- 
tive, sits down at a circular table ; the prisoner is seated Trial of 
on a mat ; the trial commences in the Malay language ; criminals - 
every one is allowed to speak in his turn ; evidence on 
both sides is patiently heard, and the decision is given 
and recorded on the spot. The Dyaks take the most 
earnest interest in all proceedings of this kind ; then- 
minds, we are assured by Sir James Brooke, are equal 
to the comprehension of them, and though uncultivated, 
are not inferior in capacity to those of Europeans. 

It is not to be imagined that .the Rajah Brooke is an rower of 
absolute autocrat in his Bornean dominions. He is Brooke 
rather the president of a republican state the executive 
of a self-governing people, but at the same time the 
director and master-spirit of the whole. When he His mode of 
desires to alter an institution, they sometimes object, procedure - 
pleading their attachment to an ancient custom, and 
the question is debated. If he wishes to modify a law 
as too cruel, or too lenient, or inefficacious, he calls the 



346 



THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



Native par- 
liament. 



Character t 
of the 
people. 



Anecdote. 



people together in an open court, and explains to them 
his reasons. He then desires the chiefs to assemble the 
tribes in their different towns throughout the province, 
to consult upon points of legislation, and transmit their 
determination to him. The inquiry, in effect, is made, 
" Is it your wish that such shall be the law, by which 
you yourselves are to be governed ? " and their choice 
is his decision. 

The people of Sarawak are highly independent in 
their character, and very generous. One circumstance 
renders them comparatively easy to govern their 
general reverence for the truth. With the exception 
of a vicious and servile class attached to the old court, 
they are also honourable in other ways; unwilling to 
endure oppression ; quick in the resentment of an in- 
jury, and incapable of submitting to an insult. Well 
acquainted with this trait in their character, Sir James 
is careful to respect the feeling. When a man is ac- 
cused of crime, though his character may be bad, and 
he be of low class, he is not, even if charged with 
murder, seized or subjected to any contumely. An 
anecdote, with reference to this, will illustrate well the 
state of the country, and the new mode of adminis- 
tering justice. The incident occurred within the last 
three years. 

A man of twenty-seven or twenty-eight years of age, 
a man of respectability, who was constantly about the 
house of Sir James Brooke and at his table, and who 
was well known to all the Europeans in Sarawak, was 
suddenly accused of murder. Sir James sent for him 
in the evening, and took him to his own room. He 
had his weapons ; he was one of the chiefs. The Eng- 
lish governor said to him, " Rajah Lee, you are accused 
of murder. You know the custom of the country ; you 
know I have a friendly feeling towards you ; I am very 



ITS HISTOKY AND PRESENT STATE. 347 

sorry ; but you must be tried, and if found guilty, you 
will be put to death." He said, " Certainly, if I am 
found guilty, [I will suffer death. I will do you no 
harm. Do you think I would do you any harm, or 
the native chief (referring to one present) any harm ? " 
Sir James answered, " No, I don't suppose you would, 
for you are friendly to me ; but I know that, at this 
moment, you would, if you felt inclined." He said, 
* Why ? " " You have got your dagger on," replied 
the Englishman, " and I am sitting close to you at the 
table." He instantly pulled it out and passed it across 
the board, in its sheath, saying, " You take that." Sir 
James refused to take it, assuring him that he was a 
man of such respectability, that he would undoubtedly 
submit to the laws. " Go away to-night," he added, 
" but come to the court at twelve o'clock, the day after 
to-morrow; you must be tried for your life, and re- 
member, you will be put to death, if you are found 
guilty." He said, " Give me a fair trial, I will be 
there." He came ; he was before the judges unarmed ; 
and it is pleasing to add that he was acquitted. Imme- 
diately, all who were present rejoiced at his escape, and, 
convinced of his innocence, shook hands with him. The 
whole of these proceedings are very simple ; the same 
language is invariably used ; there is very little writing ; 
but substantial justice is administered. The courts are courts of 
composed of a certain number of English gentlemen, J ustic e. 
mingled with a certain number of natives, who combine 
the functions of jury and judge. So confident have 
the people become in these institutions that their forms 
are imitated even beyond the boundaries of Sarawak. 1 

While the social condition of the province is thus im- industry 
proved its prosperity increases, through the development and tradc ' 

1 Sir James Brookfe 29th Nov. 1851. 



348 THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 

of industry and trade. The process is steadily progres- 
sive. Even the piratical tribes of Serebas and Sakarran, 
checked in the pursuit of their former vocation, main tain 
an active commercial intercourse with Sarawak, and 
exhibit a growing taste for articles of British manufac- 
ture. Many native vessels, some of large tonnage, are 
building in the river, as many as twenty at a time ; 
a new town is about to be built at the entrance of 
the Morotobas branch, which will facilitate the river 
navigation, and a traffic of great promise is springing 
up where lately there was not a dollar exchanged for the 
imports and products of British industry. The imports into Sara- 
wak from Singapore, the Natunas, the Tambellans, 
Siantan, Sambas, Pontianah, Java, Bali, the north-west 
coast of Borneo, Labuan, Rhio and Tringanu, amounted 
in 1850 to #110,810; and in 1851 to #197,166 an 
increase of $86,356, with a tonnage of 7,550 tons under 
British, Dutch, Belgian, Portuguese, Natunas, native 
and Sarawakian flags. The exports were to the amount 
of #150,125, an increase during the year of #49,642, 
with a tonnage of 7,225 tons. 1 

Character Sir James Brooke, assailed by the feeble scurrility of 
of sir James bscure and unscrupulous detractors, may well, there- 
Brooke, fore, resign them to the oblivion which will succeed to 
the obloquy that now blackens their names. It is not 
before them that he should desire to be justified. He 
has had honest and manly opponents, who have mis- 
conceived the character of his policy, and will doubt- 
less be among the first at a future day to recognise 
the greatness of his services to mankind. It has been 
his benevolent ambition to improve for the people of 
Sarawak the natural advantages they possess in the 
soil and situation of their country. And if, in making 

1 George Ruppel, Registry. Sing. Free Press. Jan. 16. 1852. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 349 

thousands of human creatures happy, in teaching them 
to live in concord, in giving to them the means of 
prosecuting their industry, in reclaiming them from their 
original savage practices and hard precarious modes of 
life, there be any reward for a good and a great man, 
then Sir James Brooke is rich indeed, for on him, in 
unison with the deep and perhaps silent though con- 
scious gratitude of a whole population in the East, will 
fall the admiration of his own countrymen, and the re- 
spect of all the civilised world. 

Sir James Brooke, as founder of the rising colony of The 
Labuan, sees another work of his own progressing 
towards the maturity of success. The humble begin- 
nings of the little settlement, its simple buildings, its 
unfinished town, its partially cleared lands, its extend- 
ing roads, its harbours, and the growing trade attracted 
to them *, form an interesting episode in an historical 
view of the Archipelago. The colony prospers mode- 
rately ; and though it has been obstructed by the 
dilatory and worse than equivocal movements of the 
Eastern Archipelago Company 2 , the experiment of its Eastern Ar- 
success may be said to be complete. When a station is 
established there for steamers between India and China, 
the advance of the settlement, relieved from the incu- 
bus of a feeble and poverty-stricken association, will 
without doubt be rapid. 

The coal of Labuan suggests a notice of the various Coal of 
fields which have been discovered in the Archipelago Labuan - 
for with the prospective extension of steam navigation 
in the further East this subject assumes an aspect of 

1 MS. Account by a Resident. 

2 This Company was established to promote trade in the Archi- 
pelago, but lost the public confidence and forfeited its charter, 
by proceedings which a court of justice has condemned as equiva- 
lent to fraud. 



350 THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 

the utmost importance. The European governmcpts 
have during late years made careful researches to 
ascertain the distribution of coal-fields. Abundant sup- 
plies have been discovered in the Tennasserim provinces 
of India l , of admirable quality, but apparently liable to 

Coal in the spontaneous combustion. On the Malay Peninsula, 
near Piuang, at various localities along the western 
coast of that region ; at Katani, Ayer Ramni, and 
Bencoolen; at the entrance of the river Reteh, and 
along the banks 2 , in the Batang Gausal, and the In- 
gragiri, with, it is supposed, the Kampar, in Su- 
matra, coal of serviceable quality exists, and also in 
Banka and Madura. 3 In Borneo Proper 4 , on Pulo 
Keng Arang near the north end of Labuan, at various 
places on the west-south-west and south-east coasts of 
Borneo at Bunut, on the Pontianah, the country of 

its distribu- Banjarmassim, where immense deposits are found, Pa- 
gattan, and on the Koti river, mines are already 
worked to supply the steam navigation of the Archi- 
pelago the Netherlands' government alone requiring 
10,000 Dutch tons annually. A small field has been 
found near Makassar in Celebes ; but the coal is of a 
woithless description. 6 It is said that fine specimens 
have been obtained from the Philippine province of 
Albay 6 ; but the existing notices of them are slight. 
In the British possession of Labuan, however, large 
mines have been opened, and contribute much to the 
importance of that settlement. Among other circuni- 

1 O'Riley, Journ. Tnd, Arch. iii. 738. 

2 Journ. Ind. Arch. i. 153. 

3 New Rotterdam Courant, Sept. 23. 1851. 

4 Low, Sarawak, 12. 

5 See Singapore Free Press, July 19. 1850, which describes the 
coal treasures of the Archipelago. 

c Mallat, Lcs Philippines, i. 122. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE, 351 

stances likely to promote its welfare, is the recent dis- 
covery of a rich pearl bank on an islet in the vicinity. 1 

Piracy is gradually dying out along the north-west Suppression 
coast of Borneo ; but neither this, nor any other part piracy - 
of the Archipelago, can be flourishing or secure until 
the European governments have extirpated that system, Necessity 
which still rages with destructive activity over those 
seas. It is no exaggeration to assert that not a week 
passes without the journals of Singapore recording 
some act of atrocity committed by marauders on the 
peaceful traders or villagers of the islands. 

Captain Bates was, in September 1851, chased in his Recent in- 
gig along the coast of Palawan by five pirate prahus, stS 
and escaped only with the utmost difficulty ; thirty-five 
men, with two prahus, were carried off about the same 
time by the Balanini from Mintagal, within sixty 
miles of Labuan 2 ; the Rajah of Mandhar, in Celebes, 
was early in the year captured by Lanuns 3 ; fleets of 
these rovers were, in October, seen haunting the Kari- 
mata passage 4 ; the Dutch island of Baweean was, in 
1850, attacked by pirates under two Bugis chiefs, who 
were not easily beaten off 5 ; and a trader from Kailli, in 
October 1851, was assailed by eight buccaneering 
prahus under the command of a female. 6 The pirates 
of Tungku have recently scoured the Straits of Makassar 
in great force, committing many outrages, and sending 
a few small boats occasionally to haunt the north-west 
coast of Borneo. 7 These were the wretches who com- 
mitted the murder of Mr. Burns, and the plunder of the 
Dolphin, and who succeeded in eluding the boats of the 

1 Singapore Free Press, April 2. 1852. 

2 Ibid. Nov. 14. 1851. 

3 Ibid. Oct. 17. 1851. * Ibid. Oct. 24. 185 

5 Ibid. Ibid. Oct. 31. 1851. 

7 Ibid. Sept. 5. 1851. 



352 THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 

Pluto, Semiramis, and Cleopatra, under Mr. Spenser 
St. John, the Acting Commissioner, and Captain 
Massie, in February 1852. 1 

^ e ex * en * to which the trade of Singapore is injured 
by these piracies is not easily to be conceived. We 
now hear of a prahu bound for Kampot in Cambodia, 
to the British settlements with a cargo of silk and ivory, 
captured on the voyage 2 ; of sea-ports, towns, and vil- 
lages on the east coast of the Peninsula destroyed by 
freebooters 3 ; of boats captured off Rhio, some of their 
crew killed, and women stripped naked and left on an 
uninhabited shore 4 ; of forty prahus at a time scouring 
the Straits of Malacca, in a word, of outrages com- 
mitted in every direction, native traders confined to 
their ports by fear and terror still reigning along the 
coasts of many of the islands. 5 Some of their pirate 
haunts have hitherto been proved impregnable; but 
the British government cannot honourably relax from 
vigorous exertions until the system is destroyed al- 
together. 

Actual state The other English establishments in the Archipelago 
are Singapore, Pinang, and Malacca. Singapore, with 
a population of 60,000, is one of the most flourishing 
settlements in the East, its population, trade, and re- 
venue continually increasing. Shipping of all nations 
crowd its free port, which has never seen a custom- 
house from the English and the Dutch, to the Biajus 
or sea gipsies, bringing in their little skiffs rice, tortoise- 
shell, and trepang from Celebes, and even from Ter- 



1 Singapore Free Press, 12th March 1852. 

Ibid. June 6. 1851. Ibid. June 27. 1851. 

4 Ibid. August 15. 1851. 

5 See Free Press, 1st July, 1st Sept., Nov. 14., Dec. 5. 1851. 
Jan. 9., March 12., Dec. 5. 1852, &c. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 353 

nate. 1 More than 1000 square-rigged vessels anchor 
every year in the roads. Prahus from the southern and 
eastern parts of the Archipelago from New Guinea, 
and Bouton, from Makassar, Mandhar, Kailli, Wajo, 

and Boni, in Celebes, from Koti, Pagattan, Kayong, Extent of 

TI c -ni > ts trade. 

Banjarmassim, and other places in Borneo, from .b lores 
and from Lombok, arrive annually with mother-of- 
pearl, gold-dust, bees' wax, birds of paradise skins, 
sandal-wood, lac-wood, beche de mere, sarongs, rattans, 
gutta, coffee, with nutmegs, sago, mats, and other com- 
modities. 2 Even the Dyaks, in their little vessels, have 
beimn to visit it for trade. 3 From these and other sources 

o 

Singapore derives an ample prosperity, and exhibits a 
picture of wealth and civilisation, equalled by few cities 
in the East. Numbers of Chinese have settled there. Chinese in. 
The lower orders are troublesome ; but there are gentle- 
men of that nation among the inhabitants, as honour- 
able, polished and worthy of friendship, as can be found 
in any society. One of the most formidable circum- 
stances which render the island unfavourable to Euro- 
peans is that its numerous tigers are continually dragging Tigers, 
their human prey into the jungle 4 , at the rate, indeed, 
of one a day. 9 

Pinang, though its prosperity is not equally brilliant, Progress of 
may bear comparison with any second-rate Dutch pinan ?- 
settlement, while in activity it is equal to the first. Malacca. 
Malacca will never again, in all probability, rise to its 
ancient eminence, when it stood as an acropolis of com- 
merce in the further East, and coininanded the great 
highway by which vessels of all nations passed into or 
emerged from the Indian Archipelago. It still, never- 

1 Free Press, Oct. 17. 1851. 4 Ibid. 

3 Ibid. Sept. 26. 1851. 

4 Ibid. Nov. 4. 1851., Nov. 14. 1851., Feb. 3. 1852, &c. 
* Keppel, Visit to the Indian Archipelago, i. 9, 

VOL. II. A A 



334 THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 

theless, occupies a conspicuous position on the frontiers 
of Insular Asia. 1 It lies in the bend of a fine curving 
bay, with its southern horn formed by the Aquadas or 
Water Isles, and is enclosed in the rear by picturesque 
hills ; the rows of Portuguese, Chinese, Chulia, Kling, 
and Malay habitations mingling with colleges, chapels, 
the remains of old forts, and bazaars 2 ; while a numerous 
shipping is constantly anchored in its roads. This is 
the last of the British settlements and their share of 
political influence in the Archipelago is thus immensely 
inferior to that of the Netherlands. The actual posi- 
tion of that power may now occupy our attention. 

I have not shrunk from attaching to the Dutch name 
the odium of many crimes. I shall not want the 
candour to ascribe to them the merit of many great 

Dutch rule, works. If there be in any part of the whole region, be- 
sides Sarawak, and a few districts on the Peninsula, the 
signs of a regenerated society, it is in the islands on 
which they have imposed their rule. 

state of In Java, the capital of their possessions, an aggregate 

population of about nine millions and a half 3 , being an 
increase in three years and six months of five hundred 
thousand, and from 1824 4 , of more than three millions 5 , 
bears witness to a comparatively good administration. 

Adminu This is divided between inferior functionaries, who are 
lon ' native, and superior, who are Dutch, and the machine 
is in its operation harmonised as far as possible with 
the ancient manners, institutions, and prejudices of 
the island. There is a simple but a somewhat incon- 
venient method of taxation ; and the peasant is unde- 

1 See J. B. Westerhout, Journ. Ind. Arch. ii. 171. 
* Newbold's Straits Settlements, i. 110. 

3 Moniteur des Indes, ii. 28. 31. 

4 Temminck, Coup d'CEil, i. 197. 

5 Dr. Bleeker, Journ. Ind. Arch. i. 75. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 355 

niably in a state of serfdom controlled by troops of 
Europeans and natives, draughted from the Moluccas, 
from Celebes, from Madura, from Gillolo, Ternate and 
Tidor. Yet as he is protected in his home, rewarded 
for his industry, and well supplied with the common 
means of life, he may be said to enjoy under Dutch 
government at least as much happiness as he ever en- 
joyed before. To a limited extent, the Javanese are 
admitted to a share in the administration ; their orders 
of nobility are respected, and their feelings are consulted 
when a choice is made of governors to act over them. 
The tribunals are venerated by the mass of the people ; 
they are composed of natives, presided over by Euro- 
peans, and the administration of justice is not irregular 
or severe. The finances are controlled in an economical 
spirit, and if the fiscal burdens be somewhat heavy, the 
islanders are certainly protected in the enjoyment of 
their gains. Poverty, indeed, occasionally spreads over 
considerable tracts of country, reducing their inhabitants 
to abject misery l ; but while this may, in some degree, 
be attributed to defective administation, it would be 
unjust not to allow that the Netherlands' government 
is careful to apply every alleviation to the misfortunes 
of all who are submitted to its rule. 

If the Dutch continue with politic liberality to im- Prospects of 
prove their administration, it is possible they may never the D ^ I S 
require arms again to suppress any dangerous insurrec- 
tion of a people it has cost them so much to subdue. 
The islanders have become reconciled to the loss of 
independence ; the hopes of the native princes have 
fortunately been extinguished ; tranquillity has long 
reigned in Java ; agriculture is making way among its 
jungles and woods, and I sincerely hope that Holland 



1 See Singapore Free Press, June 14th, 1850. 
A A 2 



356 



THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



Sumatra. 



Celebes. 



Other set- 
tlements. 



may yet present to the world a splendid example of 
European rule over an Asiatic race. 

In Sumatra, a similar system with a few modifica- 
tions has been established ; but the subjection of this 
island is more recent, and less complete than that of 
Java. Disturbances occasionally break out, requiring 
military force for their suppression and the country is 
wasted by an intermittent war. 1 Celebes, though it is 
included by Dutch writers among the possessions of 
Holland, is not by any means to be considered hers. 
She has founded settlements upon its coast, and con- 
cluded treaties with some of its kings ; but the larger 
proportion of the island is divided among independent 
states to this day. The whole is divided into: the 
residency of Menado, under the jurisdiction of the Mo- 
luccas ; the territory of the sultan of Ternate, on the 
east coast also under the Molucca government; and 
the " Government of Celebes " a great division, " in- 
cluding the remaining part of Celebes, and the sur- 
rounding islands, besides the groups south of it, and 
including Sumbawa." The operation of the Dutch 
authority is, by its organs, described as threefold. 
Influence of Under its direct control, stand the feudal states of 
the Dutch. Kajeki Tanette, Telle Wajo, and Luwu. All the other 
countries and kingdoms form a general confederacy, 
with the princes of Boni and Goa as its principal mem- 
bers, and the Dutch government as its head, " clothed 
with the principal attributes of supremacy." 2 

It is the simplest operation of the pen to describe on 
paper an authority of this extent ; but the British 
Foreign Office does not contain all those documents by 



1 Singapore Free Press, 1st Sept. 1851., Dec. 5. 1851. 
8 Report of the Minister of Hie Colonies to the Second Chamber of 
the States General of Hollnr.d. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 357 

which alone, under the treaty of 1824, the Netherlands' 
government can pretend, in the face of Europe, to that violation of 
magnificent empire which is claimed for her by advo- Q (\824. y 
cates more enthusiastic than discreet. The 6th article 
of that convention stipulates expressly that no " new 
settlement" shall be formed "on any of the islands in 
the Eastern seas " by the officers or agents of the two 
governments, without previous authority from their re- 
spective governments in Europe ; and the last para- 
graph of article III. provides for the communication 
from one government to the other of every future 
treaty concluded by either power with any of the sove- 
reigns of the Archipelago. The Dutch have communi- 
cated very few of their treaties, because some of these 
are in direct contravention of the great contract of 1824. 
Great Britain, however, cannot recognise these preten- 
sions. She may ignore the existence of the treaties 
which have not been communicated to her, and proceed 
in negotiations with the native powers, as though none 
had ever been made. If the Dutch stand on the faith 
of their conventions, they will have to show that they 
have not continually and systematically violated the en- 
gagements they ratified in 1824. 

Five-sixths of the whole Archipelago are claimed by Dutch 
the Dutch as their own possession. 1 Sumatra, Babi, claims - 
Nias, Mintao, the Pora Isles, Poggi, and the Enganos ; 
Java, Madura, Baweean, the Kangeang, Banka, Biliton, 
Bintang, Linga, the Natunas, Anambas, and Tambe- 
lari, the kingdom of Sambas in Borneo, with the great 
Pontianah and Banjarmassim residencies, and the Kari- 
mata isles Celebes, Sumbawa, Bouton, Saleyer, Am- Their ex- 
boyna, Ceram, Buru, Siam, Sangir, Talatit, the Xulla travagance. 
and Bangaai groups, Halmahera, Obie, Batchian, Ter- 



1 Monitevr des Imles, 
A A 3 



358 THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 

nate, Tidor, Waigin, Battanta, Salawatte, My sole, the 
Bandas, the Ki, Arru, and Tenimber, a part of Timor 
Rotti, Savu, Sumba, Ende, Adenara, Solor, Lorn- 
bate, Putare, Ombai, Bali, and Lombok with the 
western part of New Guinea all these are claimed by 
the Netherlands, and if her political supremacy were 
not in many of them a simple fiction, they would truly 
form a magnificent colonial empire. The political 
geography of the further East, however, is not yet ac- 
curately mapped out ; nor, indeed, is the region in any 
respect perfectly known. The recent magnetic survey 
has added much to science ; but still more remains to 
be determined. 1 

The Dutch, with the exception of their free port at 
Makassar, exhibit few signs of conversion to a liberal 
commercial policy. They have systematically thrown 
obstructions and restrictions in the way of British trade, 
and they have exposed themselves to retaliation under a 
provision of our own navigation laws, which may wisely 
be enforced, not as a protection for ourselves, but as a 
Spanish penalty on them. The Spaniards, in Manilla, have 
n 8< adopted similar means to secure their own commerce 
from intrusion ; but they have never flourished on their 
monopolising system. Spanish colonisation in the East 
has been a failure. In the Philippines, especially, this 
is true. The Spaniards linger there ; they do not prosper; 
their authority is accepted by the people, but has not 
become a rooted power. Manilla is comparatively rich, and 
some of the islands are extensively cultivated, but there is 
no ferment of enterprise, no American energy, no great 
labour in progress. 2 Languor and apathy characterise 



1 Elliot's Magnetic Survey, Phil. Trans. 1851, cxli. 287. The 
Dutch assisted Captain Elliot with the most genuine liberality. 
* See Macimcking, Philippines, 316. 



ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 359 

their operations. Yet their ambition of extended do- The Sulu 
minion is not extinct. Sir James Brooke recently 
negotiated a convention with Sulu ; but the Spaniards, 
in his absence, visited the capital and established a 
" protectorate " over the sultan by driving him to the 
mountains, where he claims the friendship and protection 
of the English, with whom he has sealed a treaty. 

The Americans have appeared in the further East, Americans, 
threatening to batter down the inhospitable gates of 
Japan, and destroy a monopoly which Dutch writers of 
politic views are no longer desirous of upholding. 1 They 
have also visited Brun6, and concluded a treaty with 
its sultan, though simply for trade, and not with any 
political views. But their expansive and aspiring energy 
is not yet at work in that region. Throughout the conclusion. 
Asiatic islands, indeed, there is nowhere to be observed 
such active and rapid advance as at Sarawak, or such 
commerce as at Singapore. This, therefore, inspires in 
me the hope that British influence may be largely and 
boldly extended in the Archipelago. 

1 See Singapore Free Press, Dec. 19. 1851. 



THE END. 



A A 4 



LONDON : 

SPOTTISWOOOES and SHAW, 
N> \v-street- Square. 



By the same Author, 
2 Vols. post 8vo, 

HISTORY OF THE BRITISH CONQUESTS 
IN INDIA, 

' If further proof were needed that the affairs of Simla and Calcutta 
may be discussed in London, Mr. HORACE ST. JOHN'S two volumes 
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that overfed and still hungry monster never taking into consideration 
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Price Half-a-crown, 



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New Work on Egypt, by Mr. James A. St. John. 
Lately published, in 2 vols., post 8vo., price 2 Is., 

ISIS.': AN EGYPTIAN PILGKIMAGE. 

BY JAMES AUGUSTUS ST. JOHN. 



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Tail's Magazine. 

LONDON: LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, & LONGMANS. 



" This well-chosen Series places an excellent order of Light Literature 
at the command of ALL with whom Reading is a Travelling necessity." 

EXAMINER. 



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The LEIPSIC CAMPAIGN. By the Rev. G. R. GLEIO, M. A., 
Chaplain-General of the Forces. Two Parts, price ON SHILLINGeach. 

SIR EDWARD SEAWARD'S NARRATIVE of his SHIP- 

"WRECK, &c,. Abridged from the Third Edition of the Original, for the Tmveller'i 
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THE TRAVELLER'S LIBRARY- continued. 



RANKE'S FERDINAND the FIRST and MAXIMILIAN the 

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BRITTANY and the BIBLE: With Remarks on the French People 
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SIR ROGER DE COVERLET. From the Spectator. With Notes 
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LORD CARLISLE'S LECTURES and ADDRESSES. In- 
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MEMOIRS of a MAITRE D'ARMES; or, EIGHTEEN 

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ELECTRICITY and the ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH. To 

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The NATURAL HISTORY of CREATION. By T. LINDLEY 
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THE AUSTRALIAN COLONIES: Their Origin; and present 
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JERMANN'S PICTURES from ST. PETERSBURG. Trans- 
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Mrs. JAMESON'S SKETCHES in CANADA and RAMBLES 

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HUC'S TRAVELS in TARTARY, THIBET, and CHINA. A 

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Mr. S. LAING'S JOURNAL of a RESIDENCE in NORWAY 

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IDA PFEIFFER'S LADY'S VOYAGE ROUND the WORLD. 

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Iv THE PRESS: 
A PEEP at a COAL MINE and the PEOPLE IN IT. 



LONDON: LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, and LONGMANS. 



AN ALPHABETICAL CATALOGUE 

OF 

NEW WORKS 

IN GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS LITERATURE, 

PUBLISHED BY 

MESSRS. LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, AND LONGMANS, 

PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON. 



CLASSIFIED INDEX. 



Agriculture and Rural 
Affairs. 

Pages 

Bayldonon ValuingRents.etc. - - 6 

(.'ami's Letter on Agriculture 7 

Cecil's Stud Farm - .... 8 

Loudon's Encyclopedia of Agriculture - I/ 

,, Self-Instruction for Farmers.etc. 16 

,, (Mrs.) Lady'sCountry Companion 16 

Low's Elements of Agriculture - - 17 

On Lauded Property - - - 17 

Arts, Manufactures, and 
Architecture. 



i Engine 



Addison's Knights Templars 
Bourne's Catechism of the Stea 

Brande's Dictionary of Science, etc. - , o 

Cresy's Encycl. of Civil Engineering - 8 

Eastlake on Oil Painting - 9 

Gwilt's Encyclopedia of Architecture - 11 

Jameson's Sacred and Legendary Art 13, 14 

London's Rural Architecture - 17 
ley's Engineering and Archite 



Moselev's Engineering and Architecture 21 

Steam Engine (The) , By the Artisan Club 5 

Tate on Strength of Materials - - 28 

Ure's Dictionary of Arts, etc. - - 31 

Biography. 



Baines's Life of Baiues - 
Buusen'sHippolytiis - 
Foss's Judges ot England 
Holcroft's Memoirs .... 
Holland's (Lord) Memoirs - 
Lardncr's Cabinet Cyclopedia 
Mauuder'sBiographlcalTreasury - 
Southey's Life of Wesley- 

,, Life and Correspondence 
Stephen's Ecclesiastical Biography 
Taylor's Loyola .... 

Wesley .... 
Townsend's Twelve eminent Judges 
Waterton's Autobiography and Essaj 



Books of General Utility. 

Acton's (Eliza) Cookery Book - - 5 

Black's Treatise on Brewing - - - 6 

Cabinet Lawyer (The) ... 7 

Hints on Etiquette 12 

Hudson's Rxccutor'8<>uide - - - 13 

On Making Wills - - -13 

Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopiedia - - 15 

Loudon's Self Instruction ... 16 

,, (Mrs.) Amateur Gardener - 16 



Pages 



Maunder'sTreasury of Knowleiig 

,, Scientiflcand Literary! reasury la 

,, Treasury of History - - 19 

,, Biographical Treasury - - 20 

,, Natural History - ' - - 19 

Pocket and the Stud - ... 11 

Pycroft's Course of English Reading - 23 

Recce's Medical Guide - 23 

Rich's Companion to the Latin Dictionary 23 

Riddle's Latin Dictionaries and Lexicon 24 

,, and Freund's Latin Lexicon - 24 



Rowton's Debater --- 
Short Whist 

Stud (The) for Practical Purposes 
Thomson's Interest Tables . 
Traveller's Library ... 
Webster'sEncycl. of Domestic Ec 



- 24 

- 25 

- 25 
26 

- 11 



Botany and Gardening-. 



Hook 



8 



- 12 



ations on Botany 
s British Flora 

,, Guide to Kew Gardens - - 12 

Lindley's Introduction to Botany - - 16 

Loudon's HortusBritannicus - 17 

,, EncyclopiediaofTrees& Shrubs 1" 

,, Gardening - 17 

Encyclopa:di!> of Plants - - 17 

,, Self-Instruction for Gardeners 16 

(Mrs.) Amateur Gardener - 16 

Rivers's Rose Amateur's Guide - - 24 
Rogers's Vegetable Cultivator 



- 24 



Chronology. 

Blair's Chronological Tables - - 6 

Bunsen's Ancient Egypt ... 7 

Haydn's Book of Dignities - 11 

Nicolas's Chronology of History -15 

Commerce and Mercantile 
Affairs. 

Francis's Bank of England . - - 10 
English Railway ... 10 
Stock Ex ' 



I/mdV 



i Navigation La 



i Master Ma 
M'Culloch's Dictionary of Coram 
Steel's Shipmaster's Assistant 
Symons' Merchant Seamen's Law 
Thomson's Tables of Interest - 



London: Printed by M. MASON, Ivy Lane, Paternoster lloyr. 



CLASSIFIED INDEX 



Criticism, History, and 
Memoirs. 



Addison's Knights Templars - - - _5 
Balfour's Sketches of Literature - 

Blair's Chron. and HistoricalTables - 8 

Bunseu's Ancient Egypt - 7 

,, Hippolytus - - - 7 

Conybeare and Howson's St. Paul - 8 

Dennistoun's Dukes of Urbino - S 

Eastlake's History of Oil Painting - J 

Fos8's Judges of England - - - K 

Francis's bank of England - - - 10 

English Railway - - - 10 

Stock Exchange - - - 10 

Gurney's Historical Sketches - - - 11 

Harrison On the English Language - 11 
Holland's (Lord) Foreign lleminis- 

cences ----- 1. 

Whig Party - - 12 

Jeffrey's (Lord) Contributions - - 14 

Kemble's Anglo-Saxons in England - 14 

Larduer's Cabinet Cyclopxdia - - 15 

Macaulay's Essays JS 

History of England - - I/ 
Mackintosh's Miscellaneous Work. - 18 
M'Culloch's Dictionary, Historical, Geo- 
graphical, and Statistical - - 18 
Maunder's Treasury of History - - 19 
Merivale'a History of Home - - - 20 
Mosheim's Ecclesiastical History - - 21 
Mure's Ancient Greece - - - 21 
Rich'* Companion to the Latin Dictionary i'3 
Riddle's Latin Dictionaries - - 24 
and Freund's Latin Lexicon 



Rogers's Essa; s from the fcldinburifh Ker. 24 

Hovel's English Thesaurus - So 

Schmitz's History of Greece - 30 

Schombcrg's Theocratic Philosophy - 25 

Shepherd's Church of Home - - - 26 

Sinclair's Popinh Legends - 26 

Smith's (S.) Lectures on Moral Philosophy 26 

Southey's The Doctor etc. - - - 27 
Stephen's Kssays in Ecclesiastical Bio- 



Fra 



graphy ..... 29 
Lectures on the History of 
...... 28 



- SO 
SO 

- Xu 



Sydney Smith's Works 
Taylor's Ixjyola --- 

Wesley 

ThirlM-all's History of Greece - 
Tooke's Histories of Prices - - - 
Townsend's State Trials - - - - 31 
Turner's Anglo-Saxons - - - - SI 

Sacred History of the World - 31 
Zumpt's Latiu Grammar - - - - 32 



Geography and Atlases. 

Butler's Ancient and Modern Geography 7 

,, Atlas of General Geography - 7 

Carpenter's Varieties of Mankind - - 7 

Erman's Travels through Siberia - - 10 

Hall's Large Library Atlas - - - 1 1 

M'Culloch's Geographical Dictionary - is 

Murray's Encyclopaedia of Geography - 21 

Sharp's British Gazetteer - - 2(i 



Juvenile Books. 

Amy Herbert ------ IS 

Corner's Children's Sunday Book - - 8 

Karl's Daughter (Tin-) - - - - 25 

Gertrude ------- 24 



Pages 

Hewitt's Bnv'i Country Book - - - 12 

., Children's Year - - 12 

Laneton Parsonage ----- 25 

Mrs. Marcet'H Conversations - 1 

Margaret Percival ----- 25 

Marryat'sMasterman Ready - 19 

Privateer's-Maii - - - 19 

Settlers in Canada ... 19 

., Mission; or, Scenes in Africa 19 

Pycrofl's Course of English Reading - 23 



Medicine. 

Bull's Hints to Mothers - - - 7 

Management ol Children 7 

Carpenter's Varieties of Mankind - - 7 

Copland's Dictionary of Medicine - - 8 

Holland's Medical Physiology - - 12 

Latham On Diseases "of the Heart - 16 

Moore On Health, Disease, and Remedy 20 

Pereira On Food and Diet - 23 

Recce's Medical Guide - - 23 



miscellaneous 
and General literature. 

Bailey's Discourses ----- 6 

Theory of Reasoning - - - 6 

Carpenter's Varieties of Mankind - - 7 

Graham's English ----- 10 

Haydn's Beatson's Index - - - 11 

Holland's Medical Physiology - - 12 

Hooker's Kew Guide . ... 12 

Howitt'sltural Life of England - - 13 

,, Visits to Remarkable Places - 13 

Jeffrey's (Lord) Contributioni - - 14 

Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopedia - - 15 
Loudou's(Mr8.) Lady's Country Companion 16 

Macaulay's Critical and Historical Kasays 18 
Mackintosh's (SirJ.) Miscellaneous Work* 18 

Mainland's Church in the Catacombs - 18 

Pascal's Works, by Pearce - - 22 

Pycroft'i Course of English Reading . 23 

Rich's Companion to the Latin Dictionary 23 

Riddle's Latin Dictionaries and Lexicon 24 

,, and i'reund's Latin Lexicon - 4 

Rowton's Debater ----- 26 

Seaward'sNarrativcofaisShipwreck - 25 

Sir Roger De Coverler - - - 26 

Southey's Common-Place Books - - 27 

. The Doctor etc. - 27 

Stow's Training System - ... 28 

Sydney Smith's Works - - - 26 

Townsend's State Trials - ... 31 
Willoughby's (Lady) Dianr - - -32 

Zincke r s School of the Future - - - 32 

Zumpt's Latin Grammar ... - W 



Natural History in 
General. 

Callow's Popular Conehology ... 7 

Ephemera and Young on the Salmon - 10 

Ro'i Mtnrnl Hirnrnl JxnuiriL - 10 

- 14 

- 16 



Kirby and Speiice's Entomology 

!. Elements of Natural History - )6 

Maunder's Treasury of Natural History 'I 

Tarton'sShellsoftheBritlihlslands - 31 

Waterton'sEssars on Natural History - 32 

Youatt's The Dog ----- 3J 

The Hone .... 32 



it- 1 

TO MESSRS. LONGMAN AND Co.'s CATALOGUE. 3 


Novels and "Works of 
Fiction. 

Pases 
Ladv Willoutrhbv's Diary . - - 3-J 
MaitdonnlrfS Villa Verocchio - 18 
Marryat'sV'asterman Heady - 19 
PrivHteer'a-Mau ... 19 
Settlers iu Canada - 19 
,, Mission; or, Scenes ill Africa - 19 
Sir Roger Ue Coverley - 26 
Southey's The Doctor etc. - - 27 

One Vol. Encyclopaedias 
and Dictionaries. 

Elaine's, of Rural Sports - ... 6 
Branded, of Science, Literature, aud Art 
Copland's, of Medicine .... 8 
Cresy's, ol Civil Engineering - - - 8 
Gwilt's, of Architecture ... - 11 
Johnston's Geographical Uictionarv - 16 
Loudnn's, of Trecsand Shrubs "- - 17 
,, of Gardening .... 17 
of Agriculture - 17 
,, of Plants ----- 17 


Pages 
M'Culloch's Dictionary of Commerce - 18 


' On Taxation and Funding- - 18 
Statistics of the British Empire 18 ; 
Marcel's Conversations on Polit. Economy 19 
Pashlev on Pauperism - 23 
Tooke's History of Prices ... 31 

Religious and Moral 
Works, etc. 


Bloomfield's Greek Testament - - 6 
Annotations on ditto - - 6 
CollegeatidSchooldit'.o - 6 
Clissold on the Apocalypse 8 
Conybeare and Howson's St. Paul - - 8 
Corner's Sunday Book ... - 8 
Cox's Protestantism and Romanism - 8 
Dale's Domestic Liturgy - - . S 


Earl's Daughter (The) - 25 
Englishman's Hebrew Concordance - 19 
Greek Concordance - 19 


of Rural Architecture - - 17 
M'Culloch's Geographical Dictionary - 18 
,, Dictionary of Commerce - 18 
Murray's Encyclopicdiaof Geography - 21 
Sharp's British Gazetteer - - 26 
Ure's Arts, Manufactures, and Mines - 31 
Webster's Domestic Economy - - 32 

Poetry and the Drama. 

Aikin's(Dr.)BritishPoets - 5 
Baillie's (Joanna) Poetical Works - - 5 
Dante, by Cayley ----- 8 
Flowers and their Kindred Thoughts - 22 
Fruits from the Garden and Field - - 22 
Goldsmith's Poems, illustrated - - 10 
L.E.L.'s Poetical Works - 14 
Linwood's Anthologia Oxoniensis - - 16 
Macaulay's Lays ot'Ancient Rome - - 18 
Mackay's Poetry of the English Lakes - 18 
Montgomery's Poetical Works - - 20 
Moore's Irish Melodies - 21 
,, LallaRookh ... - 2] 
Poetical Works - 20 
Songs aud Ballads - 20 
Shakspeare, by Bowdler - - - 2f> 
,. 'a Sentiments and Similes - 13 
Southey's Poetical Works - - - 27 
British Poets - 28 
Swain's English Melodies ... 28 


Hook's (Dr.) Lectures on Passion Week 1 
Home's Introduction to the Scriptures - 12 
Compendium of ditto - - 12 
Jameson's Sacred and Legendary Art - 13 
Monastic Legends - 13 
Legends of the Madonna - 14 
Jeremy Taylor's Works - 14 

Letters to mv Unknown Friends - - 16 
oiLHappiness - IB 
Maitland's Church in the Catacombs - 18 
Margaret Percival 26 
Moore on the Power of the Soul - - 20 
., on the Use of the Body - - 20 
' on Man and his Motives - - 20 
Mosheim's Ecclesiastical History - - 21 
Neale's Closing Scene - - - - 22 
,, Resting Places of the Just- - 21 
Riches that bring no Sorrow - 21 
Newman's (J. H.) Discourses - - 22 
Pascal's Works, by Pearce - 22 
Readings for Lent ----- 14 
Robinson's Lexicon of the Greek Testa- 
ment -------24 
Schomberg's Theocratic Philosophy - 25 
Shepherd's Church of Rome - - 25 
Sinclair's Journey of Life - 26 
Popish Legends - 26 
Smith's (J.) St. Paul's Shipwreck - - 27 
,, (S.) Lectures on Moral Philosophy L'6 
Southey's Life of Wesley - - - 27 
Stephen's (Sir J.) Essays in Ecclesiastical 


Thomson's Seasons, illustrated - - 30 
Watts's Lyrics of the Heart - - - 32 


Tayler's (Rev. C. B.) Margaret - - 30 
,, ,, Lady Mary - - 30 
Taylor's (J.) Thumb Bible - 30 
(Isaac) Lovola - - 30 
Wesley " 30 
Tomline's Introduction to the Bible - 31 
Turner'sSaered History ... 31 
Willoughby's (Lady) Diary - - 32 

Rural Sports. 

Blaine's-Dietionary of Sports - - 6 
Cecil's Stud Farm - ' - - - -8 
The Cricket Field -----!) 
Ephemera on Angling - - - -I" 
's Book of the Salmon - - 10 


Political Economy and 
Statistics. 

Caird's English Agriculture - - - 7 
Francis's Bank of 'England - - - 10 
English Railway - - - 10 
Stock Exchange - 10 
Laing's Denmark and the Duchies - - 14 
Notes of a Traveller - - - 14 
Lindsay's Navigation Laws - - 1G 
M'Culloch'sUeographical, Statistical, aud 
Historical Dictionary - - 18 



CLASSIFIED INDEX. 



- ii 



Hawker'nInitructlonitoSportsmcn 
The Hunting Field ... 

London's Lady's Country Companion 
Pocket and the Stud ... 
Practical Horsemanship ... 
Pulman'sFly-r'ishing . 
Ronalds's Flv.Fisher 
Stable Talk and Table Talk 
The Stud, for Practical Men - 
Wheatley's Rod aud Line 



The Sciences in General 
, and Mathematics. 

Bourne's Catechism of the Steam Engine I 
Brande's Dictionary of Science, etc. - I 
UclaBeche on theGeology of Cornwall, etc. ! 
's Geological Observer - - S 
De la Rive's Klectricity - - - - ! 
Herschel's Outlines of Astr 
Humboldt's Aspects of Nature 



y - 






Holland's Medical Physiology 
Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopxdia 

Great Exhibition ... 
Marcel's Conversations ... 

Moseley's Practical Mechanics 

,, Engineering and Architecture 
Owen's Comparative Anatomy 
Peschel's Physio - - - 
Phillips'aPalieozoicFossilsof Cornwall/etc 
Portlock's Geology of Londonderry 
Smee's Klectro-Metallurgy ... 
Steam Enifine (Ure), hy the Artisan Club 
Talc on Strength of Materials 
,, Exercises on Mechanics 
Thomson's School Chemistry 



Veterinary Medicine. 



Cecil's Stud Farm - 
The Hunting Field .... 
The Pocket and the Stud | 
Practical Horsemanship - 
Stable Talk and Table Talk - 
The Stud for Practical Purposes 
Youatt'i The Dog - 

The Hone - 



Voyages and Travels. 

Chesney's Euphrates and Tigris - - 8 
DavUVChina ... 

Eothen 29 

Erman's Travels through Siberia - - 10 

Forbes's Dahomey 10 

Forester and hiddulph'j Noiwar . - 10 

Hue's Tartary, Thibet, and China - - 29 

Humboldt's Aspects of Nature - - 13 

Jameson's Canada 29 

Laing's Dcnm.irk - 

,, Norway - 

Notes of a Traveller - 
Lardner's London - - - - - 

Mackay's English Lakes .... IS 

Osborn's Arctic Journal - - - - 22 
Pfeiffer's Voyage round the World - -29 
Power's New Zealand Sketches 

Richardson's Overland Journey . - 24 

Rovings in the Paci6c .... 25 

Seaward's. \arrative of his Shipwreck - 25 

Snow's Arctic Voyage ... 27 

Traveller's Library .... 29 
\V erne's African Wanderings ... 



AN ALPHABETICAL CATALOGUE 



NEW WORKS AND NEW EDITIONS 



PUBLISHED BY 

MESSRS. LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, AND LONGMANS. 



MISS ACTON, MODERN COOKERY-BOOK. 

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AIKIN. SELECT WORKS OF THE BRITISH POETS: 

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22 NEW WORKS AND NEW EDITIONS 



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26 



M.\V WORKS AND NT2W EDITIONS 



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28 NEW WORKS AND NEW EDITIONS 

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