Outside of these two places where the missionaries live ten stations are visited: According to the " Missions-Atlas " of P. Streit, the statistics of the Catholic mission in the early 20th century were: The British had obtained the island of Labuan in ; they gradually extended their power over the petty rulers of the northern part of Borneo until, in , the British protectorate of North Borneo was formally acknowledged.
The first prefect Apostolic appointed under the new administration was the Rev. The society continued in charge of the mission. They destroyed the airfields, and especially the oil fields there and in Brunei before the Japanese landed on 16 December The small British forces surrendered. In , the Chinese population of about 50, rebelled against Japan and seized some towns. They were overwhelmed with many executed.
Australia sent special operation forces, which trained and armed local militia units and aided the landing of an Australian division in June Japanese forces numbered about 31,, and held out until October , long after the Emperor had surrendered. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Human Relations Area Files. William Hood Treacher, Sir December Wright 1 July The Origins of British Borneo.
Legitimate extension of Sarawak to be encouraged. The Colony of Labuan, ceded to England in return for assistance against pirates. For similar reasons monopoly of pepper trade granted to the East India Company in First British connection with Labuan in , on expulsion from Ba- lambangan. Belcher and Brooke visit Brunai, , to enquire into alleged detention of an European female. Offer of cession of Labuan. Brooke re- cognised as the Queen's agent in Borneo.
Brooke appointed the first Governor, , being at the same time British representative in Borneo, and independent ruler of Sarawak. His staff of ' Queen's officers' ; concluded present treaty with Brunai ; ceased to be Governor Sir Hugh Low, Sir J. Original expect- tations of the Colony not realized. Description of the island. Overshadowed by Singapore, Sarawak, and North Borneo. Writer's suggestion for proclaiming British Protectorate over North Borneo, and assigning to it the Government of Labuan, has been adopted.
Its coal measures and the failure of successive companies to work them ; now being worked by Central Borneo Company Ltd. Chinese and natives worked well under Europeans. Labuan self-sup- porting since One officer plays many parts. Labuan celebrated for its fruits, introduced by Sir Hugh Low. Sir Hugh's influence ; instance of, when writer was fired on by Sulus. Frolic on a rock. British North Borneo ; mode of acquisition ; absence of any real native govern- ment ; oppression of the inland pagans by the coast Muhamadans.
Failure of American syndicate's Chinese colonization scheme in 1 Colonel Torrey interests Baron Overbeck in the American concessions ; Overbeck interests Sir Alfred Dent, who commissions him to acquire a transfer of the concessions from the Sultans of Brunai and Sulu, The ceded territory known as Sabah. Meaning of the term. Spanish claims on ground of suzerainty over Sulu. Not admitted by the British Government. The writer ordered to protest against Spanish claims to North Borneo, Spain renounced claims, by Protocol, Holland, on ground of the Treaty of , objected to a British settlement in Borneo; also disputed the boundary between Dutch and British Borneo.
Vli Netherland territory and hoists the Company's flag on the south bank of the Siboku, Annual tribute paid to the Brunai Government. Certain inter- vening independent rivers still to be acquired. Dent's first settlements at Sanda- kan, Tampassuk, and Pappar. Pryer, Pretyman, Witti, and Everett. Opposition of Datu Bahar at Pappar. Difficult position of the pioneer officers. Respect for Englishmen inspired by Brooke's exploits.
Martin, Admiral Mayne, W.
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Sir Rutherford energetically advocates the scheme from patriotic motives. Powers and conditions of the Charter. Tobacco planters attracted from Sumatra. Sandakan town and harbour; founded by Mr. Formerly used as a blockade station by Germans trading with Sulu. Capture of the blockade runner Sultana by the Spaniards. Rich virgin soil and fever. Owing to propinquity of Hongkong and Singapore, North Borneo cannot become an emporium for eastern trade.
Its mineralogical resources not yet ascertained. Gold, coal, and other minerals known to exist. Gold on the Segama river. On board one of Her Majesty's ships billian proved three times as durable as lignum vitse. Monotony of tropical scenery. Trade a list of exports. Description of the great Gomanton birds'-nests caves. Mode of collecting nests.
Lady and Miss Brassey visit the Madai caves, Beche-de-mer, shark fins, cuttle fish. Position of Sandakan on the route between Australia and China importance as a possible naval station. Importance of the territory as a field for the cultivation of the fine tobacco used for 'wrappers. The sacred mountain, Kina-balu. Description of tobacco cultivation. Coolies protected by Government. Terms on which land can be acquired. Tobacco grown and universally consumed by the natives. Govern- ment experimental garden. Erroneous ideas as to the objects of the Company.
North Borneo Chartered Company — Wikipédia
Difficult to steal High- landers' trowsers. Natives ' take no thought for the morrow. The Company's capital is a loan to the country, to be repaid with interest as the country developes under its administration. Large area of land to be disposed of without encroaching on native rights. Trnnfer from natives to foreigners effected through the Government. The Indian Penal, Criminal, and Civil procedure codes adopted. Slavery provision in the Charter regarding. Slave legislation by the Company. Witti's report on the slave system. Everett and Fryer's reports.
Slave keeping no longer pays. Religious customs of the natives preserved by the Charter. Audit of 'Heads Account. Native punishments for adultery and theft. Causes of scanty population. Absence of powerful warlike tribes. Head hunting its origin. An incident in Labuan. Jesse's report on the Muruts to the East India Company. Good qualities of the aborigines. Advice to young officers. The Muhamadans of the coast, the Brunais, Sulus, Bajows. Capture by Bnjows of a boat from an Austrian frigate. Gambling and cattle lifting. The independent intervening rivers.
P'atal affray in the Kawang river: Bombard- ment of Bajow villages by Captain A. The Illanuns and Balinini. The ' tailed ' people. Desecration of European graves. Burial customs of the aborigines. Importance of introducing Chinese into Borneo.
Java not an example. Sir Walter Medhurst Commissioner of Chinese immigration. The Hakka Chinese settlers. John on Chinese immigration. IX expenditure of the territory. Zeal of the Company's officers. Armed Sikh and Dyak police. Impossible to raise a native force. Heavy expenditure necessary in the first instance. Cordial support from Sir Cecil Clement! Smith and the Government of the Straits Settlements. Visit of Lord Brassey his article in the 'Nineteenth Century. What the Company has done for Borneo. The lake struck off the map. The Sumpitan or Blow-pipe. Errors made in opening most colonies, e.
The future of the country. The climate not unhealthy as a rule. The Company's motto Pergo et per ago. Writing in , Mr. It was by some of these that distant Colonies were founded, and one, the most powerful of them all, established our Empire in the East and held the sceptre of the Great Mogul. But they have passed away -- fuit Iliurrt et ingens Gloria Teucrorum and the Hudson's Bay Company will be no exception to the rule. It may continue to exist as a Trading Company, but as a Territorial Power it must make up its mind to fold its buffalo robes round it and die with dignity.
It used to be by no means an unusual thing to find an educated person ignorant not only of Borneo's position on the map, but almost of the very existence of the island which, regarding Australia as a continent, and yielding to the claims recently set up by New Guinea, is the second largest island in the world, within whose limits could be comfortably pack- ed England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland, with a sea of dense jungle around them, as WALLACE has pointed out.
Every school-board child now, however, knows better than this. He was followed in by the Spanish expedition, which under the leadership of the celebrated Portuguese circum- navigator MAGELLAN, had discovered the Philippines, where, on the island of Mactan, their leader was killed in April, The Spaniards found at Brunai Chinese manufactures and Chinese trading junks, and were so impressed with the im- portance of the place that they gave the name of Borneo a corruption of the native name Brunai to the whole island, though the inhabitants themselves know no such general title for their country.
In some works, Pulau Kalamantan, which would signify wild mangoes island, is given as the native name for Borneo, but it is quite unknown, at any rate throughout North Borneo, and the island is by no means distinguished by any profusion of wild mangoes. The Portuguese Governor of the Moluccas, in , claimed the honour of being the first discoverer of Borneo, and this nation appears to have carried on trade with some parts of the island till they were driven out of their Colonies by the Dutch in But neither the Portuguese nor the Spaniards seem to have made any decided attempt to gain a footing in Borneo, and it is not until the early part of the iyth century that we find the two great rivals in the eastern seas the English and the Dutch East India Trading Companies turn- ing their attention to the island.
The first English connection with Borneo was in , when trade was opened with Sukadana, diamonds being said to form the principal portion of it. They found in confinement there a Sultan of Sulu who, in gratitude for his release, ceded to the Company, on the i2th September, , the island of Balambangan, and in January of the following year Mr.
Towards the close of , the Sultan of Sulu added to his cession the northern portion of Borneo and the southern half of Palawan, together with all the intermediate islands. Against all these cessions the Spanish entered their protest, as they claimed the suzerainty over the Sulu Archipelago and the Sulu Depend- encies in Borneo and the islands. This claim the Spaniards always persisted in, until, on the 7th March, , a Protocol was entered into by England and Germany and Spain, whereby Spanish supremacy over the Sulu Archipelago was recognised on condition of their abandoning all claim to the portions of Northern Borneo which are now included in the British North Borneo Company's concessions.
In November, , the Court of Directors in London, with the approval of Her Majesty's Ministers, who promised to afford protection to the new Colony, issued orders to the authorities at Bombay for the establishment of a settlement at Balambangan with the intention of diverting to it the China trade, of drawing to it the produce of the adjoining countries, and of opening a port for the introduction of spices, etc. The actual date of the foundation of the settlement is not known, but Mr. This was a somewhat unpropitious commencement, and in the Court are found writing to Madras, to which Balam- bangan was subordinate, complaining of the " imprudent management and profuse conduct " of the Chief and Council.
In February, , Sulu pirates surprised the stockade, and drove out the settlers, capturing booty valued at about a mil- lion dollars. The Company's officials then proceeded to the island of Labuan, now a British Crown Colony, and established a factory, which was maintained but for a short time, at Bru- nai itself. In Balambangan was again occupied, but as no commercial advantage accrued, it was abandoned in the following year, and so ended all attempts on the part of the East India Company to establish a Colony in Borneo.
While at Balambangan, the officers, in , entered into negotiations with the Sultan of Brunai, and. These fleets were constantly harassed and attacked and their crews carried off into slavery by the Balinini, Illanun, and Dyak pirates infesting the Borneo and Celebes coasts, and the inter- ference of the British Cruisers was urgently called for and at length granted, and was followed, in the natural course of events, by political intervention, resulting in the brilliant and exciting episode whereby the modern successor of the olden heroes Sir JAM ES BROOKE obtained for his family, in , the kingdom of Sarawak, on the west coast of the island, 6 BRITISH BORNEO.
These proceedings naturally excited some little feeling of jealousy in our Colonial neighbours the Dutch who ineffec- tually protested against a British subject becoming the ruler of Sarawak, as a breach of the tenor of the treaty of London of , and they took steps to define more accurately the boundaries of their own dependencies in such other parts of Borneo as were still open to them.
What we now call British North Borneo, they appear at that time to have regard- ed as outside the sphere of their influence, recognising the Spanish claim to it through their suzerainty, already alluded to, over the Sulu Sultan. With this exception, and that of the Brunai Sultanate, already secured by the British Treaty, and Sarawak, now the property of the BROOKE family, the Dutch have acquired a nominal suzerainty over the whole of the rest of Borneo, by treaties with the independent rulers an area comprising about two-thirds of the whole island, probably not a tenth part of which is under their actual direct administrative control.
The Spanish claim to North Borneo was a purely theore- tical one, and not only their claim, but that also of the Sulus through whom they claimed, was vigorously disputed by the Sultans of Brunai, who denied that, as asserted by the Sulus, any portion of Borneo had been ceded to them by a former Sultan of Brunai, who had by their help defeated rival claimants and been seated on the throne. The Sulus, on their side, would own no allegiance to the Spaniards, with whom they had been more or less at war for almost three centuries, and their actual hold over any portion of North Bor- neo was of the slightest.
Matters were in this position when Mr. I have now traced, in brief outline, the political history of Borneo from the time when the country first became gene- rally known to Europeans in down to its final division between Great Britain and the Netherlands in If we can accept the statements of the earlier writers, Bor- neo was in its most prosperous stage before it became sub- jected to European influences, after which, owing to the mis- taken and monopolising policy of the Commercial Companies then holding sway in the East, the trade and agriculture of this and other islands of the Malay Archipelago received a 8 BRITISH BORNEO.
By the terms of its Charter, the British North Borneo Company is prohibited from creating trade monopolies, and of its own accord it has decided not to engage itself in trading transactions at all, and as Raja BROOKE'S Govern- ment is similar to that of a British Crown Colony, and the Dutch Government no longer encourage monopolies, there is good ground for believing that the wrong done is being righted, and that a brighter page than ever is now being opened for Borneo and its natives. Before finishing with this part of the subject, I may men- tion that the United States Government had entered into a treaty with the Sultan of Brunai, in almost exactly the same words as the English one, including the clause prohibiting cessions of territory without the consent of the other party to the treaty, and, in , Commodore SCHUFELDT was ordered by his Government to visit Borneo and report on the cessions obtained by Mr.
I was Acting British Consul-General at the time, and before leaving the Commodore informed me emphatically that he could discover no American interests in Borneo, " neither white nor black. The aborigines are of the Malay race, which itself is a variety of the Mongo- lian and indeed, when inspecting prisoners, I have often been puzzled to distinguish the Chinese from the Malay, they being dressed alike and the distinctive pig-tail having been shaved off the former as part of the prison discipline.
These Mongolian Malays from High Asia, who presumably migrated to the Archipelago via the Malay Peninsula and Sumatra, must, however, have found Borneo and other of the islands partially occupied by a Caucasic race, as amongst the aborigines are still found individuals of distinctive Cau- casic type, as has been pointed out to be the case with the Buludupih tribe of British North Borneo, by Dr. The scientific descriptions of a typical Malay is as follows: One day a jungle fire occurred, and after it was over, the child jumped dow r n from the house native houses are raised on piles off the ground , and went up to look at a half burnt opih log, and suddenly disappeared and was never seen again.
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The pro- phecy of the spirit was in due time fulfilled. The general appellation given to the aborigines by the modern Malays to whom reference will be made later on is Dyak, and they are divided into numerous tribes, speaking very different dialects of the Malayo-Polynesian stock, and known by distinctive names, the origin of which is generally obscure, at least in British North Borneo, where these names are not, as a rule, derived from those of the rivers on which they dwell.
The following are the names of some of the principal North Borneo aboriginal tribes: Of these, the Kadaians, Buludupihs, Eraans and one large section of the Bisaias have embraced the religion of Mahomet; the others are Pagans, with no set form of religion, no idols, but believing in spirits and in a future life, which they localise on the top of the great mountain of Kina-balu.
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- Los siglos perdidos (Spanish Edition).
- North Borneo Chartered Company.
These Pagans are a simple and more natural, less self-con- scious, people than their Mahomedan brethren, who are ahead of them in point of civilization, but are more reserved, more proud and altogether less "jolly," and appear, with their religion, to have acquired also some of the characteristics of the modern or true Malays. A Pagan can sit, or rather squat, with you and tell you legends, or, perhaps, on an occasion join in a glass of grog, whereas the Mahomedan, especially the true Malay, looks upon the Englishman as little removed from a "Kafir" an uncircumcised Philistine who through ignor- ance constantly offends in minor points of etiquette, who eats pig and drinks strong drink, is ignorant of the dignity of repose, and whose accidental physical and political superiority in the present world will be more than compensated for by the very inferior and uncomfortable position he will attain in the next.
II ing modern Malay and using the Arabic written character, whereas the aborigines possess not even the rudiments of an alphabet and, consequently, no literature at all. How is the presence in Borneo of this more highly civilized product of the Malay race, differing so profoundly in language and manners from their kinsmen the aborigines to be ac- counted for? Professor KEANE once more comes to our assistance, and solves the question by suggesting that the Mongolian Malays from High Asia who settled in Sumatra, attained there a real national development in comparatively recent times, and after their conversion to Mahomedanism by the Arabs, from whom, as well as from the Bhuddist mis- sionaries who preceded them, they acquired arts and an ele- mentary civilization, spread to Borneo and other parts of Malaysia and quickly asserted their superiority over the less advanced portion of their race already settled there.
This theory fits in well with the native account of the distribution of the Malay race, which makes Menangkabau, in Southern Sumatra, the centre whence they spread over the Malayan islands and peninsula. The Professor further points out, that in prehistoric times the Malay and Indonesian stock spread westwards to Mada- gascar and eastwards to the Philippines and Formosa, Micro- nesia and Polynesia. The headquarters of the true Malay in Northern Borneo is the City of Brunai, on the river of that name, on the North- West Coast of the island, where resides the Court of the only nominally independent Sultan now remaining in the Archipelago.
The typical Malay river debouches through flat, fever- haunted swampy country, where, for miles, nothing meets the eye but the monotonous dark green of the level, interminable mangrove forest, with its fantastic, interlacing roots, whose function it appears to be to extend seaward, year by year, its dismal kingdom of black fetid mud, and to veil from the rude eye of the intruder the tropical charms of the country at its back.
After some miles of this cheerless scenery, and at a point where the fresh water begins to mingle with the salt, the handsome and useful nipa palm, with leaves twenty to thirty feet in length, which supply the native with the material for the walls and roof of his house, the wrapper for his cigarette, the sugar for his breakfast table, the salt for his daily needs and the strong drink to gladden his heart on his feast days, becomes intermixed with the mangrove and finally takes its place a pleasing change, but still monotonous, as it is so dense that, itself growing in the water, it quite shuts out all view of the bank and surrounding country.
One of the first signs of the fresh river water, is the occur- rence on the bank of the graceful nibong palm, with its straight, slender, round stem, twenty to thirty feet in height, surmounted with a plume of green leaves. This palm, cut into lengths and requiring no further preparation, is universally employed by the Malay for the posts and beams of his house, always raised several feet above the level of the ground, or of the water, as the case may be, and, split up into lathes of the requisite size, forms the frame-work of the walls and roof, and constitutes the flooring throughout.
With the pithy cen- tre removed, the nibong forms an efficient aqueduct, in the absence of bambu, and its young, growing shoot affords a cabbage, or salad, second only to that furnished by the coco- nut, which will next come into view, together with the betel Areca nut palm, if the river visited is an inhabited one; but if uninhabited, the traveller will find nothing but thick, almost impenetrable jungle, with mighty trees shooting up one hun- BRITISH BORNEO.
Such is the typical North Borneo river, to which, however, the Brunai is a solitary exception. The mouth of the Brunai river is approached between pretty verdant islets, and after passing through a narrow and tortuous passage, formed naturally by sandbanks and artificially by a barrier of stones, bare at low water, laid down in former days to keep out the restless European, you find your vessel, which to cross the bar should not draw more than thirteen or fourteen feet, in deep water between green, grassy, hilly, picturesque banks, with scarcely a sign of the abominable mangrove, or even of the nipa, which, however, to specially mark the con- trast formed by this stream, are both to be found in abundance in the upper portion of the river, which the steamer cannot enter.
After passing a small village or two, the first object which used to attract attention was the brick ruins of a Roman Catholic Church, which had been erected here by the late Father CuARTERON, a Spanish Missionary of the Society of the Propaganda Fide, who, originally a jovial sea captain, had the good fortune to light upon a wrecked treasure ship in the Eastern seas, and, feeling presumably unwonted twinges of conscience, decided to devote the greater part of his wealth to the Church, in which he took orders, eventually attaining the rank of Prefect Apostolic.
His Mission, unfortunately, was a complete failure, but though his assistants were with- drawn, he stuck to his post to the last and, no doubt, did a certain amount of good in liberating, from time to time, Spanish subjects he found in slavery on the Borneo Coast. Had the poor fellow settled in the interior, amongst the Pagans, he might, by his patience and the example of his good life, have made some converts, but amongst the Mahome- dans of the coast it was labour in vain.
The bricks of his Brunai Church have since been sold to form the foundation of a steam sawmill. The British is the only Consulate now established at Bru- nai, but once the stars and stripes proudly waved over the Con- sulate of an unpaid American Consul. There was little scope at Brunai for a white man in pursuit of the fleeting dollar, and one day the Consulate was burnt to the ground, and a heavy claim for compensation for this alleged act of incen- diarism was sent in to the Sultan.
His Highness disputed the claim, and an American man-of-war was despatched to make enquiries on the spot. In the end, the compensation claimed was not enforced, and Mr. A little further on are the palaces, shops and houses of the city of Brunai, all, with the exception of a few brick shops belong- ing to Chinamen, built over the water in a reach where the river broadens out, and a vessel can steam up the High Street and anchor abreast of the Royal Palace.
When PiGAFETTA visited the port in , he estimated the number of houses at 25,, which, at the low average of six to a house, would give Brunai a population of , people, many of whom were Chinese, cultivating pepper gardens, traces of which can still be seen on the now deserted hills. From his enquiries he found that the highest num- ber was seventy, in the Sultan's palace, and the lowest seven, in a fisherman's small hut. The experiment has been tried and, so far as concerns the re-aniination of the Malay Government of Brunai, the verdict must be " a complete failure.
I remember that the late Sultan thought it an inexplicable thing that we could not assist him to recover a debt due to him by one of the British Coal Companies which tried their luck in Borneo. Between British North Borneo, on the one side, and Sara- wak, on the other, the sea-board of Brunai, which, when we first appeared on the scene, extended from Cape Datu to Marudu Bay some miles is now reduced to or miles, and, besides the river on which it is built, Brunai retains but two others of any importance, both of which are in rebel- lion of a more or less vigorous character, and the whole State of Brunai is so sick that its case is now under the considera- tion of Her Majesty's Government.
Thus ends in collapse the history of the last independent Malay Government. Excepting only Johor which is pros- perous owing to its being under the wing of Singapore, which fact gives confidence to European and Chinese capitalists and Chinese labourers, and to its good fortune in having a wise and just ruler in its Sultan, who owes his elevation to British influences , all the Malay Governments throughout the Malay Archipelago and in the Malay Peninsula are now subject either to the English, the Dutch, the Spanish or the Portu- guese.
This decadence is not due to any want of vitality in the race, for under European rule the Malay increases his numbers, as witness the dense population of Java and the rapidly growing Malay population of the Straits Settlements. That the Malay does so flourish in contact with the Euro- pean and the Chinese is no doubt to some extent due to his attachment to the Mahomedan faith, which as a tee-total religion is, so far, the most suitable one for a tropical race ; it has also to be remembered that he inhabits tropical coun- tries, where the white man cannot perform out-door labour BRITISH BORNEO.
IJ and appears only as a Government Official, a merchant or a planter. But the decay of the Brunai aristocracy was probably inevi- table. Take the life of a young noble. He is the son of one of perhaps thirty women in his father's harem, his mother is entirely without education, can neither read nor write, is never allowed to appear in public or have any influence in public affairs, indeed scarcely ever leaves her house, and one of her principal excitements, perhaps, is the carrying on of an intrigue, an excitement enhanced by the fact that discovery means certain death to herself and her lover.
Brunai being a water town, the youngster has little or no chance of a run and game ashore, and any exercise he takes is confined to being paddled up and down the river in a canoe, for to paddle himself would be deemed much too degrading a Brunai noble should never put his hand to any honest physi- cal work even for his own recreation.
I once imported a Rob Roy canoe from England and amused myself by making long paddling excursions, and I would also sometimes, to relieve the monotony of a journey in a native boat, take a spell at the paddle with the men, and I was gravely warned by a native friend that by such action I was seriously compromis- ing myself and lowering my position in the eyes of the higher class of natives. At an early age the young noble becomes an object of servile adulation to the numerous retainers and slaves, both male and female, and is by them initiated in vicious practices and, while still a boy, acquires from them some of the knowledge of a fast man of the world.
British Borneo: sketches of Brunai, Sarawak, Labuan, and North Borneo
As a rule he receives no sort of school education. He neither rides nor joins in the chase and, since the advent of Europeans, there have been no wars to brace his nerves, or call out any of the higher qualities of mind or body which may be latent in him ; nor is there any standing army or navy in which he might receive a beneficial training. No political career, in the sense we attach to the term, is open to him, and he has no feelings of patriotism whatever. That an aristocracy thus nurtured should degene- rate can cause no surprise.
Some of these unfortunate noblemen have nothing where- with to support their position, and in very recent times I have actually seen a needy Pangeran, in a British Colony where he could not live by oppression or theft, driven to work in a coal mine or drive a buffalo cart. With the ordinary freeborn citizen of Brunai life opens under better auspices. The children are left much to them- selves and are merry, precocious, naked little imps, able to look out for themselves at a very much earlier age than is the case with European infants, and it is wonderful to see quite little babies clambering up the rickety stairs leading from the river to the house, or crawling unheeded on the tottering verandahs.
Almost before they can walk they can swim, and they have been known to share their mother's cigarettes while still in arms. All day long they amuse themselves in minia- ture canoes, rolling over and over in the water, regardless of crocodiles. Malays are very kind and indulgent to their children and I do not think I have seen or heard of a case of the application of the parental hand to any part of the infant person.
The girls have an equally free and easy time while young, their only garments being a silver fig leaf, fastened to a chain or girdle round the waist. As they grow up they help their mothers in their household duties, or by selling their goods in the daily floating market; they marry young and are, as a rule, kindly treated by their husbands. Although Mahomedans, they can go about freely and unveiled, a privilege denied to their sisters of the higher classes.
By the treaty with Great Britain traffic in slaves is put down, that is, Borneo is no longer the mart where, as in for- mer days, the pirates can bring in their captives for sale ; but the slaves already in the place have not been liberated, and a slave's children are slaves, so that domestic slavery, as it is termed, exists on a very considerable scale in Brunai. Slaves were acquired in the old days by purchase from pirates and, on any pretext, from the Pagan tribes of Borneo. For instance, if a feudal chief of an outlying river was in want of some cash, nothing was easier than for him to convict a man, who was the father of several children, of some imaginary offence, or neglect of duty, and his children, girls and boys, would be seized and carried off to Brunai as slaves.
A favourite method was that of "forced trade. This kind of oppression was very rife in the neighbourhood of the capital when I first became acquainted with Borneo in , but the power of the chiefs has been much curtailed of late, owing to the extensive cessions of territory to Sarawak and the British North Borneo Company, and their hold on the rivers left to them has become very precarious, since the war- like Kyans passed under Raja BROOKE'S sway.
This tribe, once the most powerful in Borneo, was always ready at the Sultan's call to raid on any tribe who had incurred his dis- pleasure and revelled in the easy acquisition of fresh heads, over which to hold the triumphal dance. The Brunai Malays are not a warlike race, and the Rajas find that, without the Kyans, they are as a tiger with its teeth drawn and its claws pared, and the Pagan tribes have not been slow to make the discovery for themselves.
The condition of the domestic slaves is not a particularly hard one unless, in the case of a girl, she is compelled to join the harem, when she becomes technically free, but really only changes one sort of servitude for another and more degrading one. With this exception, the slaves live on friendly terms with their masters' families, and the propinquity of a British Colony Labuan has tended to ameliorate their condition, as an ill-used slave can generally find means to escape thither and, so long as he remains there, he is a free man.
The scientific description of a typical Malay has already been given, and it answers well on almost all points for the Brunai specimen, except that the nose, as well as being small, is, in European eyes, deficient as to "bridge," and the legs cannot be described as weak, indeed the Brunai Malay, male and female, is a somewhat fleshy animal. In temperament, the Malay is described as " taciturn, undemonstrative, little given to outward manifestations of joy or sorrow, courteous towards each other, kind to their women and children. Not elated by good or depressed by bad fortune, but capable of excesses when roused.
Under the influence of religious excite- ment, losses at gambling, jealousy or other domestic troubles they are liable to amok or run-a-muck, an expression which appears to have passed into the English language. Courtesy seems to be innate in every Malay of whatever rank, both in their intercourse with one another and with strangers. The lowest Malay will never pass in front of you if it can be avoided, nor hand anything to another across you. Unless in case of necessity, a Malay will not arouse his friend from slumber, and then only in the gentlest manner possible.
It is bad manners to point at all, but, if it is absolutely necessary to do so, the forefinger is never employed, but the person or object is indicated, in a sort of shamefaced way, with the thumb. It is impolite to bare a weapon in public, and Europeans often show their ignorance of native etiquette by asking a Malay visitor to let them examine the blade of the kris he is wearing. It is not considered polite to enquire after the welfare of the female members of a Brunai gentleman's household. For a Malay to uncover his head in your presence would be an imperti- nence, but a guttural noise in his throat after lunching with you is a polite way of expressing pleased satisfaction with the excellence of the repast.
This latter piece of etiquette has probably been adopted from the Chinese. The low social position assigned to women by Brunai Malays, as by nearly all Mahomedan races, is of course a partial set-off to the gene- ral courtesy that characterises them. The average intelligence of what may be called the working class Malay is almost as far superior to that, say, of the British country bumpkin as are his manners.
FORBES says in his " Naturalist in the Eastern Archipelago " that he was struck with the natives' acute observation in natural history and the accuracy with which they could give the names, habits and uses of animals and plants in the jungle, and the traveller cannot but admire the general handiness and adapability to changed cir- cumstances and customs and quickness of understanding of the Malay coolies whom he engages to accompany him. It would take many years before the North Borneo Chartered Company could pay dividends to its investors. The British government had become concerned at German and French interest throughout the Asian region in the s as the European powers sped up their colonial competition around the globe.
In , the British government agreed to make North Borneo a Protectorate along with neighbouring Brunei and Sarawak. This was a strategic and economic relief for the Company as it removed a potentially large defensive cost obligation. They could now call upon the support of the Royal Navy and British Army if any European power attempted to seize control of their territory. The first crop of substance that produced a cash flow was tobacco for the American market. However in the Americans introduced a high tariff policy which choked off Borneo's exports suddenlty.
Combined with a world wide depression in the mid s, the economic outlook for the colony seemed so bleak that in its Board of Directors considered selling its rights to the land to Sarawak outright. Shareholders held their nerve and voted the proposal down. They were wise to do so as in it began to move into the black for the first time as the world economy began to recover. Labuan had failed to live up to its expectations of providing a suitable anchorage and coal station for the Royal Navy. Besides, the relative success of the Sarawak colony combined with British influence extending along much of the coastline through the British North Borneo Company meant that an island naval base to guard against pirates was becoming less and less of a priority in the region.
There were still tensions between Sarawak and North Borneo into the Twentieth Century especially between the two territories and along their borders with the ever shrinking Brunei. In , the Company had bought another lease of territory from Brunei along the Lawas River. Unfortunately, for the company, the tribal leader in the territory announced that he would only agree to being taken over by the Raja of Sarawak.
- North Borneo Chartered Company.
- British Borneo.
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- La philosophie médiévale: « Que sais-je ? » n° 1044 (French Edition);
- North Borneo;
- Coaching Volleyball Technical and Tactical Skills (Technical and Tactical Skills Series).
Even an attempt by the company to have the Raja's nephew, Brooke Johnson, administer the territory did little to convince the locals who associated Sarawak with stability and respect for their native rights. Seeing that they could not convice the leader that he would enjoy similar rights under Company control, the administration agreed to transfer the territory to Sarawak in return for various mineral rights still held by the Raja in and around Brunei.
This goodwill gesture did much to improve relations between the two territories and helped create a stable border which remained relatively unchanged for the remainder of the colonial period. This was actually much to the relief of the Comapny which had found the administration of the island to have been a difficult and thankless task. The Colonial Office in this period was actively reorganising its relationships throughout the region although the North Borneo Territory got off relatively lightly other than the loss of Labuan.
This agreement was to be shortlived though as it was transferred over to the larger political unit of the Straits Settlements in In the British government placed the colony of Labuan under the administration of the company, the governor of the state of North Borneo thereafter holding a royal commission as governor of Labuan in addition to his commission from the company.
This arrangement held good until , when, in answer to the frequently and strongly expressed desire of the colonists, Labuan was removed from the jurisdiction of the company and attached to the colony of the Straits Settlements. In March arrangements were made whereby the sultan of Brunei ceded to the company all his sovereign and territorial rights to the districts situated to the north of the Padas river which up to that time had been retained by him. This had the effect of rounding off the company's territories, and had the additional advantage of doing away with the various no-mans lands which had long been used by the discontented among the natives as so many Caves of Adullam.
The companys acquisition of territory was viewed with considerable dissatisfaction by many of the natives, and this found expression in frequent acts of violence. The most noted and the most successful of the native leaders was a Bajau named Mat Saleh Mahomet Saleh , who for many years defied the company, whose policy in his regard was marked by considerable weakness and vacillation. In a composition was made with him, the terms of which were unfortunately not defined with sufficient clearness, and he retired into the Tambunan country, to the east of the range which runs parallel with the west coast, where for a period he ruled over the Dusun tribes of the valley.
In it was found necessary by the British to expel him, since his acts of aggression and defiance were no longer endurable. A short, and this time a successful campaign followed, resulting, on the 31st of January , in the death of Mat Saleh, and the destruction of his defences. Some of his followers who escaped raided the town of Kudat on Marudu Bay in April of the same year, but caused more panic than damage, and little by little during the next years the last smouldering embers of rebellion were extinguished. It was occupied by the Japanese from to