However, when Lord Clarendon agreed to recognise the jurisdiction of the Sarawak courts, the Rajah was greatly mollified. He wrote, ‘The Government has done far more than I expected, and our misunderstanding is at an end.’ The strong expressions of good-will contained in the same despatch had a very tranquillising effect upon him, and he almost thought he had forgiven the Government their great injustice.
As the British Government would not allow me to ask for an exequatur from the Sarawak authorities, I left Kuching for Brunei in August 1856. It was severing very precious ties. Before I sailed, Arthur Crookshank had returned to his post and brought with him, as his bride, a ‘vision of beauty,’ to use the Rajah’s own phrase.
During this year some capitalists in London formed the Borneo Company, to develop the resources of the territories under Sarawak rule. Coal had been discovered in various places, and there were valuable products to be collected, principally sago, gutta-percha and india-rubber; there was also the produce of the antimony mines, and subsequently cinnabar, or the metal containing quicksilver.
A short time before Mr Macdougall, the head of the Borneo Mission, had been raised in rank, and was named Bishop of Labuan and Sarawak.
As slight returns of fever and ague had weakened the Rajah, he accepted Sir William Hoste’s offer of a passage to Singapore in H.M.S. Spartan, where he passed a few months recruiting his health. Towards the end of January 1857 he returned to Sarawak in the Sir James Brooke, a steamer sent out by the Borneo Company to aid in their commercial work. The Rajah found the country greatly excited by persistent rumours of a Chinese conspiracy. His valuable officer, Mr Arthur Crookshank, fully believed in the hostile intentions of the Chinese Kungsi or Gold Working Company, and had therefore manned the forts with sufficient garrisons. But Sir James Brooke, having summoned the Chinese chiefs before him, and punished them for their illegal acts, was satisfied with their submission, and believed they would not be so insensate as to endeavour to carry out their previous threats. He therefore dismissed the extra men from the forts, and wrote to me on February 14th, ‘Congratulate me on being free from all my troubles.’
FOOTNOTES:
[9] Remarks on a Recent Naval Execution. By W. N. Borneo Facts versus Borneo Fallacies. By Louis A. Chameroozow.
CHAPTER VI
THE CHINESE SURPRISE THE TOWN OF KUCHING—THE RAJAH AND HIS OFFICERS ESCAPE—THE CHINESE PROCLAIM THEMSELVES SUPREME RULERS—THEY ARE ATTACKED BY THE MALAYS—ARRIVAL OF THE ‘SIR JAMES BROOKE’—THE CHINESE, DRIVEN FROM KUCHING, ABANDON THE INTERIOR AND RETREAT TO SAMBAS—DISARMED BY THE DUTCH
Chinese colonists are the mainstay of every country in the Further East; but they carry with them an institution which may have its value in ill-governed countries, but which in our colonies is an unmitigated evil. I refer to their secret societies. A secret society is ostensibly instituted under the form of a benevolent association, but actually its members are banded together to obey no laws but their own, to carry out the behests of their leaders without question, and to afford protection to each other under all circumstances. If a member of the secret society commit a crime he is to be protected or hidden away; if he be taken by the police, the society is bound to secure him the ablest legal assistance, furnish as many false witnesses as may be required, and if he be convicted, pay his fine, or do all in its power to alleviate the discomforts of a prison. Therefore, flogging is the most deterrent form of punishment, as it cannot be shared. Should the society suspect any member of revealing its secrets, or from any cause desire to be rid of an obnoxious person, it condemns the individual to death, and sentence is carried out by its members, who, through fear of the last penalty, always obey their oath. On these occasions the mark of the society is put on the victim to show who has ordered the deed. In our colonies we have not been altogether successful in putting down these pernicious associations.