The man then removed some of the coarse powder to a mat on a neighbouring platform, which more or less overhung the river, and trod the grated pith, pouring water on it from a kerosene tin which was suspended by a cord from the end of a long, slender pole. This contrivance for scooping up water from the river is similar to the shaduf so extensively employed in Egypt and the East, and is doubtless another example of indirect Arab influence.
The dancing of the man separates, so to speak, the chaff from the wheat, and the farinaceous water pours into an old canoe that lies alongside of the platform. This canoe is covered over to prevent extraneous matter from getting into the sago, and the lower end is boarded up. The canoe thus forms a trough in which the sediment is deposited, while the superfluous water dribbles away from one end into the river.
The sago thus crudely manufactured by the Malays is sold to the Chinese factors, who give it extra washings and strain it through a fine cloth. The fine mud is spread out to dry in the sun. The white impalpable sago powder is packed in bags and shipped to Europe viâ Kuching. The granulation of the sago is a subsequent process. A considerable portion of the sago consumed at home must come from Borneo. The amount of sago flour exported from Sarawak in 1899 was 228,989 piculs (or over 12,000 tons), the value being $790,583 (or £79,058), which brought in an export duty to the Sarawak Government of $19,503.01 (£1,950).
The 14th of January was a memorable day for us, as the Resident invited us to accompany him to Brunei, which is one of the oldest of Malay towns. It was first described by Pigafetti, who visited “Bornei” in July, 1521. Even then the town was large and important, and the Sultan was powerful and wealthy; consequently the Malays must have been established in the country for at least five hundred years.
The former sultans held nominal sway over a considerable portion of northern Borneo; but though the Malays brought with them a relatively high civilisation, they only affected the coastal population, no influence was exercised for the improvement of the condition of the interior natives. The Malay traders have always been adventuresome, and they introduced various trade goods up the rivers; but the up-river tribes, such as the Kayans and Kenyahs, do not appear to have acknowledged the authority of the sultans, or to have paid them tribute.
The power of the sultans and of their subordinates, from the highest to the lowest, has for a long time been exerted to extract the maximum amount of revenue out of those unfortunate coastal tribes who, by their propinquity, could not escape from their cruel and rapacious neighbours. Whatever it may have been in the past, the history of the Brunei administration for the last half-century has been marked by rapine, bloodshed, extortion, injustice, and utter hopelessness.
The fall of the power of Brunei is probably owing to causes that have hastened the fall of other empires and cities. The State was founded by a civilised and even a polished people, expert in the arts of life; but success and power became undermined by wealth, luxury, and sensuality, which destroyed the energy that created those conditions in which alone they could thrive. Strength of character sunk into aimless cruelty.
The isolation of the town also prevented that intercourse with different peoples which affords the necessary stimulus for advancement. It is true that there were trading and diplomatic relations with China even in very early times, but that was in the days when Brunei was a living force, as it also must have been when centuries ago a Sultan of Brunei conquered the Philippines and the neighbouring islands.
Founded by a pagan, the State soon became converted to Islamism, and the religious fervour of the converts, backed by belligerent tenets of their faith, were doubtless important factors in the building up of the power of Brunei. But all that is now past, and Brunei has sunk into senile decay.