Brooke sailed for Sarawak in August 1839, and found the country torn by internal conflicts. The Sultan had recently sent Muda Hasim, his uncle and heir-presumptive to the throne of Bruni, to restore order; but this weak though amiable noble had found himself quite incapable of coping with the situation. Brooke spent some time surveying the coast and studying the people and country, and gained the confidence of Muda Hasim. After an excursion to Celebes, Brooke sailed for a second visit to Sarawak just a year after the first, and found the state of the country going from bad to worse. Muda Hasim besought him to take command of his forces and to suppress the rebellion. Brooke consented, and soon secured the submission of the rebel leaders on the condition that he (Brooke), and not any Bruni noble, should be the governor and Rajah of Sarawak. Muda Hasim had offered to secure his appointment to this office as an inducement to him to undertake the operations against the rebels; Brooke therefore felt himself justified in granting these terms. And when later Muda Hasim, no longer threatened with disgrace and failure, showed himself disinclined to carry out this arrangement, Brooke, feeling himself bound by his agreement with the rebel leaders, whose lives he had with difficulty preserved from the vengeance of the Bruni nobles, insisted upon it with some show of force; and on September 24, 1841, he was proclaimed Rajah and governor of Sarawak amid the rejoicings of the populace. Muda Hasim, as representative of the Sultan, signed the document which conferred this title and authority; but since he was not in any proper sense Rajah of Sarawak, which in fact was not a raj, but a district hitherto ruled or misruled by Bruni governors not bearing the title of Rajah, this transaction cannot properly be described as an abdication by Muda Hasim in favour of Brooke. Brooke accordingly felt that it was desirable to secure from the Sultan himself a formal recognition of his authority and title. To this end he visited the Sultan in the year 1842, and obtained from him the desired confirmation of the action of his agent Muda Hasim. The way in which the raj of Sarawak has since been extended, until it now comprises a territory of nearly 60,000 square miles (approximately equal to the area of England and Wales), will be briefly described in a later chapter (XXII.).
The northern end of Borneo had long been a hunting-ground for slaves for the nobles of Bruni and Sulu, whose Sultans claimed but did not exercise the right to rule over it. In 1877 Mr. Alfred Dent, a Shanghai merchant, induced the two Sultans to resign to him their sovereign rights over this territory in return for a money payment. The British North Borneo Company, which was formed for the commercial development of it, necessarily undertook the task of pacification and administration. In 1881 the company was granted a royal charter by the British Government; and it now administers with success and a fair prospect of continued commercial profit a territory which, with the exception of a small area about the town of Bruni, includes all of the island that had not been brought under the Dutch or Sarawak flag. In 1888 Sarawak and British North Borneo were formally brought under the protection of the British Government; but the territories remained under the rule of the Rajah and of the company respectively, except in regard to their foreign relations. In the year 1906 the Sultan of Bruni placed himself and his capital, together with the small territory over which he still retained undivided authority, under the protection of the British Government; and thus was completed the passing of the island of Borneo under European control.
CHAPTER 3
General Sketch of the Peoples of Borneo
It is not improbable that at one time Borneo was inhabited by people of the negrito race, small remnants of which race are still to be found in islands adjacent to all the coasts of Borneo as well as in the Malay Peninsula. No communities of this race exist in the island at the present time; but among the people of the northern districts individuals may be occasionally met with whose hair and facial characters strongly suggest an infusion of negrito or negroid blood.
It is probable that the mixed race of Hindu-Javanese invaders, who occupied the southern coasts of Borneo some centuries ago, became blended with the indigenous population, and that a considerable proportion of their blood still runs in the veins of some of the tribes of the southern districts (E.G. the Land Dayaks and Malohs).
There can be no doubt that of the Chinese traders who have been attracted to Borneo by its camphor, edible birds' nests, and spices, some have settled in the island and have become blended with and absorbed by the tribes of the north-west (E.G. the Dusuns); and it seems probable that some of the elements of their culture have spread widely and been adopted throughout a large part of Borneo. For several centuries also Chinese settlers have been attracted to the south-western district by the gold which they found in the river gravel and alluvium. These also have intermarried with the people of the country; but they have retained their national characteristics, and have been continually recruited by considerable numbers of their fellow countrymen. Since the establishment of peace and order and security for life and property by the European administrations, and with the consequent development of trade during the last half-century, the influx of Chinese has been very rapid; until at the present time they form large communities in and about all the chief centres of trade. A certain number of Chinese traders continue to penetrate far into the interior, and some of these take wives of the people of the country; in many cases their children become members of their mothers' tribes and so are blended with the native stocks.
Among the Mohammedans, who are found in all the coast regions of Borneo, there is a considerable number of persons who claim Arab forefathers; and there can be no doubt that the introduction of the Mohammedan religion was largely due to Arab traders, and that many Arabs and their half-bred descendants have held official positions under the Sultans of Bruni.
During the last half-century, natives of India, most of whom are Klings from Madras, have established themselves in the small trades of the towns; and of others who came as coolies, some have settled in the towns with their wives and families. These people do not penetrate into the interior or intermarry with the natives.
With the exception of the above-mentioned immigrants and their descendants, the population of Borneo may be described as falling naturally into two great classes; namely, on the one hand those who have accepted, nominally at least, the Mohammedan religion and civilisation, and on the other hand the pagan peoples. In Bruni and in all the coast regions the majority of the people are Mohammedan, have no tribal organisation, and call themselves Malays (Orang Malayu). This name has usually been accorded them by European authors; but when so used the name denotes a social, political, and religious status rather than membership in an ethnic group. With the exception of these partially civilised "Malays" of the coast regions and the imported elements mentioned above, all the natives of Borneo live under tribal organisation, their cultures ranging from the extreme simplicity of the nomadic Punans to a moderately developed barbarism. All these pagan tribes have often been classed together indiscriminately under the name Dyaks or Dayaks, though many groups may be clearly distinguished from one another by differences of culture, belief, and custom, and peculiarities of their physical and mental constitutions.