This powerful tribe has already been spoken of as living far inland on the head-waters of the Rejang. They were a continual trouble to the Dayaks who lived on that same river, but lower down, raiding their country, taking heads, and making captives, whom they tortured to death. Their country was not easily accessible, on account of the rapids in the river. The first rapids on the Rejang are about 170 miles from the mouth; these passed, the river is navigable for sixty miles, then ensue further rapids for about five miles, and then again it is navigable for fifty more. The upper rapids, called those of Makun, are the most serious and difficult to overcome, so serious, indeed, that the Kayans did not suppose it possible that an enemy could ascend above them.
But it was necessary to chastise and bring these troublesome neighbours into subjection. Before the Tuan Muda had left for England an ultimatum had been sent to Akam Nipa to deliver up the murderers of Steele and Fox. They had been committing great depredations on the lower Rejang, and Mr. Cruickshank, the Resident there, had appealed to the Government at Kuching to bridle them. Not only were the murderers of Messrs. Steele and Fox with them, but, as we have previously mentioned, they had lately descended and made a treacherous attack on the Katibas Dayaks, who had stood true to the Sarawak Government. Professing friendship, they had seized an occasion when most of the men of Katibas were absent, and had killed seventeen of the men who had remained at their homes, and a hundred women and children. Their captives they tortured in the most horrible manner, hacking them with knives and gouging out their eyes before putting them to death. And not only were the men thus treated, but also most of the women. They burnt fourteen long houses, or villages, and decamped.
Then they had engaged a man named Paring to lure some of the Dayaks into an ambush. Paring, a Kayan, had married a Dayak wife, and when he came to Katibas to visit his wife's relations he persuaded eighteen men to accompany him into the Kayan country to propose terms of peace, and when they demurred he made himself responsible for the safety of the whole party. Having thus overcome their fears he led them to a place where the Kayans, under their chief Oyong Hang,[[280]] were lurking in waiting for them. Eleven were at once bound hand and foot, but seven managed to escape into the jungle, and after several days returned in a famished condition to Katibas. The eleven were conveyed up the river, and on their way were carried into every Kayan house to be tortured by the women. On arriving at Oyong Hang's abode, one of them named Boyong was singled out to be sacrificed so as to attend in the abode of spirits the soul of Oyong Hang's son, who had lately died. He was to be buried alive under a huge wooden pillar, the mausoleum of Oyong Hang's son, early on the following morning. However, during the night, Boyong and another effected their escape, ran into the jungle, and found their way to the foot of the first rapids after twenty days' wandering. They were then in such an exhausted condition that they found it impossible to proceed further on foot, accordingly they lashed themselves by rattans to a log in the river, drifted down stream, and were eventually picked up and rescued. All the remaining men were strangled by the Kayans. The scoundrel Paring, not thinking that his villainy had been disclosed, had the audacity to go among the Dayaks again, when he was seized and brought to Kanowit, where he was sentenced to death. But when in confinement, awaiting the approval of the sentence from Kuching, he effected his escape. The alarm was, however, at once given, and he was pursued into the jungle by the Dayaks and killed.
OLD PUNAN MORTUARY.
In an expedition such as was contemplated, the Rajah or his deputy was obliged to obtain the voluntary assistance of his subjects. He had no paid army, he did not even provision the host for the expedition.
On this occasion the Tuan Muda consulted some of the chiefs at Sekrang as to the feasibility of attacking the Kayans. The Dayaks were never unwilling to join in such an excursion, though the only inducement that could be held out was loot, and relief from further annoyance. But it was laid down by the Government that no woman or child was to be molested.
As the chiefs thought that the proposed attack might be made, arrangements were pressed forward, and on May 19, 1863, at sunset, two guns were fired as a preparatory signal for the start from Sekrang, and the Tuan Muda led the party that was to proceed thence down the Batang Lupar and coast to the mouth of the Rejang, picking up on the way contingents of volunteers. Mr. Watson was at Kabong (Kalaka) at the head of a detachment, and Mr. Stuart Johnson was waiting at Kanowit, along with Sergeant Lees in charge of guns, muskets, and ammunition.
At mid-day on the 20th, the expedition started from Sekrang, "My crew were mostly old followers and servants who had been with me for years. Our boat was in perfect order, well painted and decorated with flags; for nothing tells so much as pride instilled and esprit de corps encouraged in the minds of the people."[[281]]
On the 21st, Lingga was reached and Banting visited. The natives there, the Banting or Balau Dayaks, were not eager to join the expedition as they were behindhand in their farming operations; however, after some hesitation and delay, they followed. On the 23rd, Kabong was attained, the town at the mouth of the Kalaka river. Here were Malays, useful fighting men, but for all that they showed reluctance to unite in the expedition. This is easily explicable, as they were apprehensive of attacking tribes at such a distance, and whom they had been bred up to fear as the most powerful in Borneo. And the Malays, unlike the Sea-Dayaks, though braver, do not love fighting for the sake of fighting. They shirked, but they went.