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

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

SARAWAK RANGERS IN MUFTI.

The Dutch in the Kapuas have experienced considerable difficulty in dealing with the many tribes of different races, especially with the Sea-Dayaks, who inhabit that vast river, which runs past the heads of the Batang Lupar and the principal left-hand branches of the Rejang river, but they have made some advance in the pacification of these people, though their methods are very different, far less energetic and much slower, than those of the Rajah.

The highlands, the spine of Borneo, along which runs the frontier, is no mountain ridge, but a broken upland district, that forms the watershed of the great rivers of Sarawak on one side, and the still greater rivers of Dutch Borneo on the other. It is a region difficult of access from the coast on both sides, and long after the Dayaks living lower down had become peaceful, turbulence and internecine warfare remained chronic in the interior. And this was the more difficult to suppress because the aggressors had but to step across the boundary, where they could not be pursued by the forces of the Rajah. This was perfectly well understood by these savages, and was taken advantage of repeatedly, and the efforts of the Rajah were in consequence continually thwarted.

A series of expeditions was planned by his Highness that for this reason met with but partial success. It is unnecessary to record the details of each, for each repeated the experience of the former with painful iteration, and we have already given an account of some of the earliest of these punitive expeditions. But it will be necessary to record them, to show how great were the difficulties the Government had to contend with before the turbulent tribes of the interior could be brought to submission.

A great many of the Ulu Ai Dayaks had settled in the Katibas river, which is the highway from the Rejang to the Kapuas river in Dutch territory, and these Dayaks were incessantly giving trouble by making predatory raids against their enemies over the border.

The Dutch had complained of this, and the Rajah had attacked them in 1870, as we have recorded, but as they continued to give trouble, he again attacked them, for the third time, in July 1871, taking them on this occasion completely by surprise; and driving their chief, Unjup, over the frontier, where he might have been captured. Unjup was the brother of the powerful chief Balang, who had been previously executed for plotting against the Government.[^[328]] Later on he was allowed to return, and was pardoned on making humble submission. He subsequently became a Government chief or pengulu, but he was a useless character. After the third attack, this tribe was moved to the lower waters of the Katibas, and an interval of uninhabited jungle was put between them and their enemies.

However, what is born in the bone must come out in the flesh, and, in 1874, they again broke away and attacked, on this occasion the Tamans and Bunut Malays of the Kapuas. It was, however, a case of lex talionis; and these people had brought it upon themselves by their own treacherous conduct in inveigling six Dayaks, who were on a peaceful visit to their country, into a Taman house, where they were seized and bound. Thence these six had been sent to Bunut, a large Malay settlement, and were there put to death in a most cold-blooded manner. Nevertheless the Dayaks had to be taught not to take the law into their own hands. But properly the Netherlands officials were the most blameworthy for not having promptly secured and punished the Malay murderers and their accomplices.

The following year the Batu Bangkai Dayaks of the Kapuas, in conjunction with some Katibas Dayaks, made a determined attack on the Lemanak Dayaks. The Lemanak is a confluent of the upper waters of the Batang Lupar. The repeated outbreaks of these turbulent natives was entirely due to their proximity to the Dutch frontier, and to their knowledge that they had but to step across the border to escape the Government forces; and at that time the Netherlands Government insisted upon the border rights being strictly respected; moreover their troops, the only forces they had at their disposal, were totally useless in acting against Dayaks, who can only be tracked by fellow Dayaks. The Netherlands officials in the Kapuas were themselves aware of their inability, and were averse to the policy of their Government. Powerless themselves, unwilling or unable to use Dayak auxiliaries, they were well content to let the Rajah do the work for them which they could not do themselves. But the central Government objected.

The Ulu Ai Dayaks of the upper Rejang, after having been peaceable for many years, were encouraged by these circumstances to break out again, and even those who were disposed for peace were terrorised into joining in these forays by a threat of having their houses burnt down over their heads, unless they came out upon the war-path.

In October, 1875, the Rajah led a large force against the upper Batang Lupar Dayaks, who had been giving great trouble, and forty of their villages were destroyed; but deeming this punishment inadequate, the attack was followed up by another delivered two months later; the rebels, completely surprised, suffered severely, and hastened to tender their submission.