Rajah Brooke

by Sir Spenser St. John

I have remarked before how difficult it is to induce English ladies to associate with natives, but I have heard that the Ranee, Lady Brooke, has been in the habit of visiting the Malay ladies and receiving their visits in return, and I noticed in one of the Gazettes that Mrs Maxwell, the wife of the late chief Resident, gave an elaborate picnic to the daughters of the principal Malays. This is as it should be, and must have a good effect. It is interesting to read that cricket has been introduced among the native lads, and that some of them take to it with zest.

I have noticed an occasional remark in the Gazette on the hostility displayed by Singapore towards Sarawak. That there was in Sir James Brooke’s time a great jealousy both of Sarawak and Labuan there can be no doubt. It was founded on a foolish idea that these two places might become centres of independent trade with Europe to the detriment of Singapore. The far-seeing knew that it would not be so, and that instead of being rivals they would become feeders of our great free-trade port, but it would seem that among a few of the narrow-minded this jealousy still exists.

Among the dangers to life in Sarawak are the crocodiles or alligators. Some naturalists declare that one of the two species—I believe the latter—is not found in Asia, but I think that those who have had the measurement of those reptiles, to estimate the amount of reward for their destruction, must have noticed that there are apparently two species—one very broad in the head, the other very long and narrow. It is true we never examined their teeth, by which we might have distinguished them. It is said on good authority that there is a third species only found in fresh water, living for preference in the deep pools of the far inland reaches of the rivers. Sir Hugh Low saw them in the interior of the Rejang, and I often heard of them in Sarawak. I remarked to a native chief that it was curious that this species should have fixed its habitat away from the deep water. ‘Not more curious,’ he answered, ‘than seeing you white men in Borneo.’

Whatever the true name of these brutes may be, the destruction of life traceable to them is considerable. They seize people bathing on the banks of rivers, catch unwary children, and snatch people from their canoes. They will often swim on the surface of the water with their victims in their mouths, and the Gazette mentions one instance where the alligator appeared with the body on the second day. As they are called alligators in Borneo, I will not change their name.

Many a tale of quiet heroism may be told connected with these attacks. One day a mother and daughter were paddling up the Linga river, when the former was snatched from the boat by an alligator. It did not attempt to sink with its victim, which gave time to the daughter to spring on its neck, and, leaning forward, she gouged out the eyes of the reptile, which instantly let go the mother and dived to the bottom of the stream. I have known of several instances of these heroic attempts to save relations.

There was an alligator which created a panic among all those who had to pull by the entrance of the Siol stream on the Sarawak river, so many had been its victims. It was ultimately taken, and measured, it is said, over twenty-four feet in length.

When I was living in Brunei a similar panic occurred. So many people were snatched from their boats that there was talk of a crusade being undertaken against the alligator which caused it. But as that did not come off, I proposed to my six boatmen that we should attempt the destruction of the brute. I armed my men with muskets, and I took for my own use a Minié rifle. We arranged that I should have first shot, and if I missed, they were to fire a volley at the enemy. We pulled down quietly to the haunted spot, and then floated with the stream. We had not been there many minutes when my head man said, ‘There he is.’ I looked round, and all I could see were a pair of prominent eyes, a broad forehead and a streak of its back. It was coming at us with all its speed. I waited until it was within about twenty-five yards, and then fired. The heavy ball struck it between the eyes, then bounded off, and fell into the water many a yard away. There was great commotion as the alligator dived beneath the surface. My men, who had wonderfully sharp eyes, said that the bullet had torn the skin off the forehead, and that the beast must die, as the worms with which these waters swarm would get into the wound. A week or two subsequently, some fishermen told me they had seen an immense alligator, at least twenty feet in length, lying on the mud bank of a small stream. All the flesh on its head and neck was rotting away, and it was evidently nearly dead, as it scarcely moved on their approach. At all events, the man-eater never appeared again. The largest alligator which I ever measured myself was only seventeen feet six inches long, but Sir Hugh Low tells me that he has himself measured one which touched twenty-six feet in length.

I think it highly probable that hunger has driven the alligators to be as aggressive as they have been during the last few years. When the rinderpest was killing cattle in the Malay Peninsula, some similar disease attacked the wild pigs, and they died by hundreds. About the same time a like mortality occurred in Borneo. The principal food of the alligator is the wild pig, which is taken whilst swimming across the rivers in search of jungle fruits. When the pest occurred this supply of pork was much lessened, and the alligators became more voracious.

The wild animals in Sarawak must be rapidly disappearing as cultivation and population increase, and also as a ready market is found for venison. Wild pig and various species of deer are the only animals which were ever plentiful in Sarawak. In its last acquired districts, however, such as Baram and Limbang, there are large herds of wild cattle—splendid beasts.

This account of the present condition of Sarawak I feel to be very meagre, but I have been unable to obtain any information except from the Gazette, which, being written for a special purpose, only enters into the minor details required to keep the superior officers informed of what is passing in the interior and at the out-stations.