As regards the Tuan Muda's actions in attacking and driving Sherip Masahor out of Sarawak, Mr. Edwardes wrote that these "have greatly prejudiced the British name and character in this country, and have engendered a strong feeling of hostility to this colony (Labuan)."
In obedience to instructions the poor Sherip had gone to Kuching from Serikei, taking certain Government monies and properties. In the Sarawak river he had met the Tuan Muda coming down, and he then received orders to follow him and join in an attack on Sadong. He obeyed, and on entering the Sadong river brought up and anchored, the Tuan Muda going on. The same evening the Tuan Muda dropped down, anchored close to his prahu, sent and borrowed his small boat, and the next morning unexpectedly fired upon him. This is the story the Sherip told the Governor at Bruni, and this is the story the Governor found it suitable to his purpose to believe, though he hoped it was not true, and that he would be able "to clear away so great a stain upon the British name."[[256]]
The energetic Sherip, before he left Muka had stirred up his brother-in-law, the sleepy Pangiran Nipa, in charge there, to reconstruct and strengthen the defences of the place, and there he was joined by his Igan and Segalang people. No Sarawak traders were allowed to enter the port to obtain raw sago, and the Muka people were forbidden to have any commercial dealings with Kuching. A vessel chartered by a Madras trader, a British subject, was prohibited under the heaviest penalties from entering the Sarawak river, and two of his companions, also British subjects, were detained as hostages against his doing so. A fleet of twenty-five Sarawak vessels had been forced to collect at Bruit, permission having been refused to enter Muka to load sago; and the sago factories in Kuching were rendered idle.
From Bruni two agents had arrived at Muka, the Bandari Samsu and Makoda Muhammad, whose sole business was to spread false reports for the purpose of stirring up feelings of hostility against the English in Sarawak. A spear (the usual token of a call to arms) had been sent through the Sea-Dayak countries under Sarawak rule by the Sherip to order the Dayaks in the names of the Bruni Rajahs to repair to Muka, and that would have led to the coast, from Rejang to Bintulu, under the Sultan's rule, being ravaged by thousands of Dayaks, and the heads taken of every man, woman, and child met by them; fortunately, however, the Sarawak officials were able to keep the Dayaks in.
The Tuan Muda had received a letter from the Pangiran Temanggong couched in the most friendly terms, repudiating the acts of Nipa, and informing him that the Muka river was to be opened for trade to all alike; but in the meantime the Bruni Court, always playing a double game, had despatched the two agents above mentioned, with an order that the Sarawak nakodas were not to be allowed to fly the Sarawak flag at Muka, nor to trade directly with the Muka people, but only through the Bruni Pangirans.
Acting upon the Temanggong's assurance, the Sarawak vessels had gone to Muka, but off the mouth the nakodas had been warned that they would be fired on if they entered, and the bearer of a friendly letter from the Tuan Besar to the Pangiran Nipa was refused admittance. With the aid of the Temanggong's letter, the Tuan Besar determined to try by friendly negotiations to get Pangiran Nipa to be reasonable, and failing that to send the Tuan Muda on to Bruni to complain to the Sultan.
In June, 1860, they anchored off the bar, and a Sambas Malay, the nakoda of a vessel flying Dutch colours, was commissioned to take in a letter saying that the Tuan Besar had come as a friend, and as bearer of a letter from the Pangiran Temanggong of Bruni, to the effect that Muka was not to be closed to Sarawak traders. No reply was vouchsafed, and with telescopes it was observed from the gunboats that earthworks were being thrown up at the mouth of the river. The Tuan Besar then decided to take up the message himself, and two small boats were sent in to sound the bar, upon which a large war prahu came out and fired at them. This was a declaration of war, and the Tuan Besar resolved to let them have what they invoked.
The following is an account of the affair as given by the Tuan Muda in his book, Ten Years in Sarawak, 1866:
We plainly perceived that the enemy was preparing in earnest for opposition. Temporary stockades were being erected at the entrance and many hundreds of people were collecting heaps of wood in various places on the shore; these were to be burnt, and their intention was to raise a strong breeze to drive us from our anchors and drift us on to the coast. The idea of the effect was correct, that excess of heat would produce a vacuum, and cause an inshore current of air. However, their fires were not sufficient, and the expected effect did not follow.
