Life in the forests of the Far East (vol. 2 of 2)

by Sir Spenser St. John

The present orang kaya de gadong is now very old, but all his life he has been a consistent opponent of any intercourse with Christian nations; and when forced by business to sit and converse with Europeans, the expression of his face is most offensive, and he looks as if he loathed the duty in which he was engaged, and he is one of the few natives I have met who appeared to long to insult you. He was one of the most active of those engaged in the conspiracy to assassinate the rajah Muda Hasim, partly on account of his supposed attachment to the English alliance.

Every descendant of a noble family, whether legitimate or illegitimate, is entitled to call himself pañgeran, or ampuan, which causes the country to swarm with these poverty-stricken gentlemen, who are a curse to the industrious classes.

Nearly every district belongs to some particular family, which by usage possesses an almost unchallenged power over the people, and is thus removed from the control of the government. Many districts are divided among various families, who have each certain villages, and live on the amount they can obtain by taxes or forced trade. The sultan possesses a large number, and each of the principal nobles has several, while many, formerly wealthy, have dissipated their property, and sold their rights to others. Those who do not possess any particular districts, endeavour to obtain a living by pressing from the aborigines all that their Malay chiefs have left them.

As, however, the central government is gradually falling into decay, the more distant dependencies are throwing off the yoke of the absent nobles, and asserting an amount of independence which is measured by distance and their own power. Agents of the nobles still visit them, but the produce collected is but small. This, however, tells heavily on the districts nearer the capital, and the unfortunate Muruts and Bisayas are ground to the dust to support a useless and idle population. I have given some anecdotes of this state of things in my journal up the Limbang.

The divisions among the nobles themselves prevent them ever uniting to regain an influence over their distant provinces, which one by one are falling from them. There is a poverty among these men which is almost inconceivable in a rich country, as whatever the amount obtained from the neighbouring villages, it can but support the idlers who throng round the chiefs.

Brunei contains at least 25,000 inhabitants, half of whom depend, directly or indirectly, on the nobles, and in their name carry on a system of plunder unintelligible in other countries. If the followers be sent to make a demand on a certain village, they will obtain double the amount for their own shares. If the inhabitants refuse to pay, their children are seized; and if their means are really exhausted, the little ones are carried off into slavery.[12]

I knew a man, named Sirudin, who at one time brought over seventeen children obtained in that way from the people of Tutong, and this occurred during the spring of 1857. The parents laid their complaints before the sultan; but Sirudin had sold them off to the principal nobles, and no redress was to be had. The sultan pretended to be very angry with the man, but put the chief blame on the pañgeran de gadong, who, he said, was beyond his power. The aborigines have often risen in insurrection; but being disunited, they have not thereby improved their condition: the Bornean Government always threatening them with calling in the Kayans to subdue any opposition. The Muruts and Bisayas of Limbang are the most impoverished people I have ever met, excessively dirty, both in their persons and their houses, covered with scurfy skin diseases, and their children much troubled with ulcers.

Before the Kayans commenced their inroads into the districts situated on the banks of the Limbang river, the Muruts and Bisayas were much more independent than they now are, were more wealthy and better armed. I have heard my old friend the chief of Blimbing describe with great minuteness three beautiful brass guns his father had inherited from his ancestors, which had silver vent holes, were covered with scrolls and inscriptions which the most learned haji could not read. These arms were the pride of the village, but on an evil day, the late sultan thought of them, though with all his faults he was not a gross oppressor of the aborigines; so he sent for the orang kaya of Blimbing, and tried to cajole him out of the guns. For months the chief was firm and would not part with them, but at last, ceding to his sovereign’s entreaties, and to the offer of double their value, he gave way and delivered them up. As soon as the sultan had secured them, full payment was found to be inconvenient, so the chief was never able to get even their original cost, though if he dunned long enough, the sultan would pay him an instalment, and with many flattering words dismiss him; very different treatment from what a chief who dunned would get from the present race of rulers. In fact no country could have existed half a century under the existing system. The three guns were doubtless of Spanish make, and were among those which were taken from the late sultan, after the capture of Brunei by Sir Thomas Cochrane, and were sent to England; there I heard they were melted up during the late war, and helped to construct some of the cannon which were sent to the Crimea. The present orang kaya of Blimbing said, it reconciled him to the loss of the guns to know how well the English had thrashed the Borneans.

Even in the capital itself justice is not to be obtained. The instances which came to my knowledge were innumerable. I will mention a few to illustrate my meaning. In 1859, I was one day standing near my wharf, when my attention was called to a boat passing, in which there were one dead and one wounded man. I inquired the cause: it appeared that a Bornean, named Abdullah, pulling by a canoe in which two men were fishing, stopped on seeing them, and accused one of attempting to escape to our colony of Labuan, affirming that he was a slave. The man denied both statements; upon which, Abdullah began beating him with a paddle. His father, the other man, interfered to protect his son, when Abdullah seized a spear, and drove it through the old man’s body, and then severely wounded the son. There was much excitement among the relatives of both parties, and they assembled in great numbers, but the sultan and ministers interfered and promised inquiry. The result was, they inflicted a fine of 120l. on Abdullah, at which he laughed contemptuously, and never paid a farthing. He was considered to be under the protection of the de gadong, and no one would interfere to punish him.

All attempts at improving the neighbourhood of the capital are stopped by such cases as the following. Another man, also named Abdullah, made a small plantation of cocoa-nut palms, and carefully tended them for seven years. Just as they were about to bear fruit, he was visited by a relative of the de gadong who claimed the plantation on account of its being made on his land. Abdullah appealed to the sultan: it was apparent on the face of it, he had used waste land, to which he had a right, but the case was decided against him. He asked permission to visit his property to remove his goods, and next day called on the pañgeran to say the ground was at his service. He went to take possession, but found only the land, every tree had been deprived of its cabbage, and consequently died, and jungle soon grew up there again. Abdullah placed himself under the protection of the tumanggong, who quietly chuckled at the joke. The same thing would have occurred to one of my own servants had I not remonstrated.