A History of Sarawak under Its Two White Rajahs 1839-1908

by S. Baring-Gould; C. A. Bampfylde

In March, the Tuan Muda, owing to disquieting rumours having reached him, resolved upon making a tour to the different stations on the coast, and first visited the Rejang. At Serikei he was joined by Mr. Fox, and then proceeded to Kanowit, a hundred miles up the broad Rejang river. The village and fort together formed a picturesque piece of irregularity and dilapidation. Here were settled a few Malays, a gang of cut-throats who lived by swindling the Dayaks, and stood by the fort as their only means of security. Some few Chinese traders had ventured to settle in the place, but they were a mob of rapscallions. Above the village was the mouth of the Kanowit river, and on the opposite bank of this river was the large village of the Kanowit tribe, adherents of Sherip Masahor. The Kanowit, as well as the Poi and Ngmah, two branches of the main river above Kanowit, was inhabited by Sea-Dayaks from the Batang Lupar and Saribas, unfriendly to the Government. Mr. Steele had been in charge of Kanowit for eight years. It was a vastly solitary place for an Englishman during the north-east monsoon. For three or four months of the year no communication was to be had with Kuching, owing to the strong freshes and heavy seas on the coast; but Mr. Steele had grown so accustomed to the life that he would not have exchanged it for another. The fort had been often attempted both secretly and openly, people close around had been killed, and Mr. Steele had met with several narrow escapes. His fortmen were not of the best class, but they were of his own selection. The Tuan Muda felt uneasy about the place. "There was too smooth an appearance, without any substantial base." There were no reliable Malay chiefs; and he left Mr. Fox to support Mr. Steele.

On his return to Serikei, the Tuan Muda received letters from the Sarawak traders at Muka saying that it was useless their attempting to procure sago there, as the country was in commotion, war being carried on between Pangiran Matusin and Pangiran Nipa, and they entreated his support and aid; otherwise the trade must be stopped. Not only so, but the Sarawak flag had been fired on by a badly-disposed pangiran. This was an insult that could not be passed over, and the Tuan Muda at once proceeded to Muka in the Jolly Bachelor. As he passed Igan, the Sherip Masahor, who had a residence there also, pushed off and asked leave to join him. His object was not obvious, but he protested sincere friendship, and a desire to see trade re-established.

On reaching Muka it was found that the place was in a most disturbed state, and that everybody was armed. A demand was at once made that Pangiran Serail, who had fired on the Sarawak flag, should be fined, and to this the Pangiran Nipa consented.

Towards the close of the day, a message came from Pangiran Matusin begging me to proceed to his assistance as soon as possible, as that night there was some probability of Nipa's party taking his fortification, which was defended by twenty-six men only against about six hundred, who had built movable stockades all around, and were gradually closing on him each night, and were now within about fourteen yards of his house. We warped up and arrived late at night, and let go our anchor off Matusin's landing-place. It was the 27th night of the Mahomedan fast month, and the place being brilliantly illuminated, blazed out as strange a looking pile of fortifications and habitations as it has ever fallen to my lot to witness. Matusin came aboard and showed his gratitude more by manner than by words. He was thin and haggard, and said, "Tuan, I thought I should have been a dead man to-night, as they intended adding to the illumination by the blaze of my house, but I did not fear death, and would never have run away."

On the first appearance of light we were all up, and ready to proceed to work, in order to have the business over as soon as possible. Our gunboat's deck was crowded with armed men, and the bulwarks were closed in around by oars and logwood. The first step we took was to dislodge a floating battery, placed so as to guard Matusin's landing. After destroying this I sent a party to pull down the other stockades, numbering some twenty-five of all shapes and sizes. Pangiran Matusin's fort was being pulled down also, and before mid-day there was a clearance and change in the aspect of affairs.

Excuses were then made for the payment of the fine. The gunboat was promptly hauled up in front of Pangiran Nipa's house, "and the muzzle of our 6-pounder was looking upwards loaded and primed. It would have been close quarters if we had played with firearms, as we could jump from the deck to the banks." The Sherip Masahor was with the Tuan Muda, and professed the most ardent friendship and desire to assist. The fine was soon paid, and after seeing Pangiran Matusin safely on his way to Kuching the Tuan Muda left for Saribas.

Trade with Muka during the remaining months of the year was brisk; matters there settled down quietly; and Pangiran Nipa kept up a friendly correspondence with the Tuan Muda.

The Pangiran Serail, who had been fined, was an envoy of the Sultan Mumin; he returned to Bruni, gave a plausible account of his conduct, and loudly complained of the conduct of the Tuan Muda. The Sultan was irritated, and Mr. St. John, who was now British Consul-General at Bruni, heard only Serail's story, and considered the proceedings high-handed and reprehensible. He afterwards expressed his opinion that it was so to both the Tuan Muda and to the Rajah. Thereupon the latter ordered the fine to be paid over to the Sultan "as a peace offering."

Sir Spenser St. John, in his Life of Rajah Brooke, speaks of the interference in Muka in 1858 and 1859 as unjustifiable, but we have already shown that the Rajah had received full authority from the Sultan to act in Muka, and what was done was entirely in the cause of peace and order, though Sir Spenser does not question the motives.

In the following June, when on a visit to Sekrang, the startling news was brought to the Tuan Muda that Steele and Fox had been killed, and that Kanowit was in the hands of enemies and murderers. It was the first stroke of a foul conspiracy, which had as its objects the extermination of all the Europeans and the overthrow of the Government. But it had been struck too soon. The aim of the conspirators, "deep and subtle as men or devils could be," was to strike simultaneous blows in Kuching and the out-stations, and this premature action of Sherip Masahor's party before the Datu Haji Gapur, Bandar Kasim, and other conspirators were prepared to act led to the original scheme being broken up into disconnected action. This to some extent lessened the difficulties with which the Tuan Muda found himself confronted. As yet he could but conjecture as to the compass of the conspiracy, and could only suspect the conspirators, but he was on his guard, and he prepared for the worst.