British Borneo Part 2

The profit on the circulation of copper coinage, which is only a token, is of course considerable, and the British North Borneo Company obtained a substantial addition to its revenue from the large amount of its coin circulated in Brunai. When the Sultan first mooted the idea of obtaining his own coin from England, one of the Company's officers expostulated feelingly with him, and I was told by an onlooker that the contrast of the expressions of the countenances of the immobile Malay and of the mobile European was most amusing. All that the Sultan replied to the objections of the officer was "It does not signify, Sir, my coin can circulate in your country and yours can circulate in mine," knowing well all the time the profit the Company was making.

The inhabitants of the city of Brunai are very lightly taxed, and there is no direct taxation. As above explained, there is no land tax, nor ground rent, and every man builds his own house and is his own landlord.

The right of retailing the following articles is "farmed" out to the highest bidder by the Government, and their price consequently enhanced to the consumer:--Opium (but only a few of the n.o.bles use the drug), foreign tobacco, curry stuff, wines and spirits (not used by the natives), salt, gambier (used for chewing with the betel or _areca_ nut), tea (little used by the natives) and earth-nut and coco-nut oil.

There are no Munic.i.p.al rates and taxes, the tidal river acting as a self cleansing street and sewer at the same time; neither are there any demands from a Poor Law Board.

On the other hand, there being no Army, Navy, Police, nor public buildings to keep up, the expenses of Government are wonderfully light also.

Other Government receipts, in addition to the above, are rent of Chinese house-boats or rather shop-boats, p.a.w.nbroking and gambling licenses, a "farm" of the export of hides, royalties on sago and gutta percha, tonnage dues on European vessels visiting the port, and others. The salaries and expenses of the Government Departments are defrayed from the revenues of the rivers, or districts attached to them.

Considerable annual payments are now made by Sarawak and British North Borneo for the territorial cessions obtained by them. The annual contribution by Sarawak is about $16,000, and by the British North Borneo $11,800. These sums are apportioned amongst the Sultan and n.o.bles who had interests in the ceded districts. I may say here that the payment by British North Borneo to the Sultan of the State, under the arrangement made by Mr. DENT already referred to, is one of $5,000 per annum.

An annual payment is also made by Mr. W. C. COWIE for the sole right[6]

of working coal in the Sultanate, which he holds for a period of several years. Coal occurs throughout the island of Borneo, and its existence has long been known. It is worked on a small scale in Sarawak and in some portions of Dutch Borneo, and the unsuccessful attempts to develope the coal resources of the Colony of Labuan will be referred to later on.

In the Brunai Sultanate, with which we are at present concerned, coal occurs abundantly in the Brunai river and elsewhere, but it is only at present worked by Mr. COWIE and his partners at Muara, at the mouth of the Brunai river--Muara, indeed, signifying in Malay a river's mouth.

The Revd. J. E. TENNISON-WOOD, well known in Australia as an authority on geological questions, thus describes the Muara coalfields:--"About twenty miles to the South-west of Labuan is the mouth of the Brunai river. Here the rocks are of quite a different character, and much older. There are sandstones, shales, and grits, with ferruginous joints.

The beds are inclined at angles of 25 to 45 degrees. They are often altered into a kind of chert. At Muara there is an outcrop of coal seams twenty, twenty-five and twenty-six feet thick. The coal is of excellent quality, quite bitumenised, and not brittle. The beds are being worked by private enterprise. I saw no fossils, but the beds and the coal reminded me much of the older Australian coals along the Hunter river.

The mines are of great value. They are rented for a few thousand dollars by two enterprising Scotchmen, from the Sultan of Brunai. The same sovereign would part with the place altogether for little or nothing.

Why not have our coaling station there? Or what if Germany, France or Russia should purchase the same from the independent Sultan of Brunai?"

As if to give point to the concluding remarks, a Russian man-of-war visited Muara and Brunai early in 1887, and shewed considerable interest in the coal mines.[7]

Footnotes:

[Footnote 4: He has since been "protected"--see ante page 6, note.]

[Footnote 5: Owing to the absence of roads and the consequent importance of rivers as means of getting about, nearly all districts in Borneo are named after their princ.i.p.al river.]

[Footnote 6: This right was transferred by Mr. COWIE to Raja BROOKE in 1833.]

[Footnote 7: The British Protectorate has obviated the danger.]

CHAPTER III.

The fairest way, perhaps, of giving my readers an idea of what Brunai was and what it is, will be by quoting first from the description of the Italian PIGAFETTA, who was there in 1521, and then from that of my friend the late Mr. STAIR ELPHINSTONE DALRYMPLE, who visited the city with me in 1884. PIGAFETTA'S description I extract from CRAWFORD'S _Descriptive Dictionary of the Indian Islands_.

"When," says he, "we reached the city, we had to wait two hours in the _prahu_ (boat or barge) until there had arrived two elephants, caparisoned in silk-cloth, and twelve men, each furnished with a porcelain vase, covered with silk, to receive and to cover our presents. We mounted the elephants, the twelve men going before, carrying the presents. We thus proceeded to the house of the Governor, who gave us a supper of many dishes.

Next day we were left at our leisure until twelve o'clock, when we proceeded to the King's palace. We were mounted, as before, on elephants, the men bearing the gifts going before us. From the Governor's house to the palace the streets were full of people armed with swords, lances and targets; the King had so ordered it. Still mounted on the elephants we entered the court of the palace. We then dismounted, ascended a stair, accompanied by the Governor and some chiefs and entered a great hall full of courtiers. Here we were seated on carpets, the presents being placed near to us. At the end of the great hall, but raised above it, there was one of less extent hung with silken cloth, in which were two curtains, on raising which, there appeared two windows, which lighted the hall. Here, as a guard to the King, there were three hundred men with naked rapiers in hand resting on their thighs. At the farther end of this smaller hall, there was a great window with a brocade curtain before it, on raising which, we saw the King seated at a table masticating betel, and a little boy, his son, beside him. Behind him women only were to be seen. A chieftain then informed us, that we must not address the King directly, but that if we had anything to say, we must say it to him, and he would communicate it to a courtier of higher rank than himself within the lesser hall. This person, in his turn, would explain our wishes to the Governor's brother, and he, speaking through a tube in an aperture of the wall would communicate our sentiments to a courtier near the King, who would make them known to his Majesty. Meanwhile, we were instructed to make three obeisances to the King with the joined hands over the head, and raising, first one foot and then the other, and then kissing the hands.

This is the royal salutation. * * * All the persons present in the palace had their loins covered with gold embroidered cloth and silk, wore poiniards with golden hilts, ornamented with pearls and precious stones, and had many rings on their fingers.

We remounted the elephants and returned to the house of the Governor. * * * After this there came to the house of the Governor ten men, with as many large wooden trays, in each of which were ten or twelve porcelain saucers with the flesh of various animals, that is, of calves, capons, pullets, pea-fowls and others, and various kinds of fish, so that of meat alone there were thirty or two-and-thirty dishes. We supped on the ground on mats of palm-leaf. At each mouthful we drank a porcelain cupful, the size of an egg, of a distilled liquor made from rice. We ate also rice and sweetmeats, using spoons of gold, shaped like our own. In the place where we pa.s.sed the two nights, there were always burning two torches of white wax, placed on tall chandeliers of silver, and two oil lamps of four wicks each, while two men watched to look after them. Next morning we came on the same elephants to the sea side, where forthwith there were ready for us two _prahus_, in which we were reconducted to the s.h.i.+ps."

Of the town itself he says:--

"The city is entirely built in the salt.w.a.ter, the King's house and those of some chieftains excepted. It contains 25,000 _fires_, or families. The houses are all of wood and stand on strong piles to keep them high from the ground. When the flood tide makes, the women, in boats, go through the city selling necessaries. In front of the King's palace there is a rampart constructed of large bricks, with barbacans in the manner of a fortress, on which are mounted fifty-six bra.s.s and six iron cannon."

With the exception of the statement concerning the number of families, Mr. CRAWFORD considers PIGAFETTA'S account contains abundant internal evidence of intelligence and truthfulness. I may be allowed to point out that, seeing only the King's house and those of some of the n.o.bles were on _terra firma_, there could have been little use for elephants in the city and probably the two elephants PIGAFETTA mentions were the only ones there, kept for State purposes. It is a curious fact that though in its fauna Borneo much resembles Sumatra, yet, while elephants abound in the latter island, none are to be found in Borneo, except in a restricted area on the North-East Coast, in the territories of the North Borneo Company. It would appear, too, that the tenets of the Mahomedan religion were not strictly observed in those days. Now, no Brunai n.o.ble would think of offering you spirits, nor would ladies on any account be permitted to appear in public, especially if Europeans were among the audience. The consumption of spirits seems to have been on a very liberal scale, and it is not surprising to find PIGAFETTA remarking further on that some of the Spaniards became intoxicated. Spoons, whether of gold or other material, have long since been discarded by all respectable Brunais, only Pagans make use of such things, the Mahomedans employ the fingers which Allah has given them. The description of the women holding their market in boats stands good of to-day, but the wooden houses, instead of being on "strong piles," now stand on ricketty, round _nibong_ palm posts. The description of the obeisance to the King is scarcely exaggerated, except that it is now performed squatting cross-legged--_sila_--the respectful att.i.tude indoors, from the Sanskrit cil, to meditate, to wors.h.i.+p (for an inferior never stands in the presence of his superior), and has been dispensed with in the case of Europeans, who shake hands. Though the n.o.bles have now comparatively little power, they address each other and are addressed by the commonalty in the most respectful tone, words derived from the Sanskrit being often employed in addressing superiors, or equals if both are of high rank, such as _Baginda_, _Duli Paduka_, _Ianda_, and in addressing a superior the speaker only alludes to himself as a slave, _Amba_, _Sahaya_. I have already referred to the prohibition of the use of yellow by others than the Royal family, and may add that it is a grave offence for a person of ordinary rank to pa.s.s the palace steps with his umbrella up, and it is forbidden to him to sit in the after part of his boat or canoe, that place being reserved for n.o.bles. At an audience with the Sultan, or with one of the Wazirs, considerable ceremony is still observed. Whatever the time of the day, a thick bees'

wax candle, about three feet long is lighted and placed on the floor alongside the European visitor, if he is a person of any rank, and it is etiquette for him to carry the candle away with him at the conclusion of his visit, especially if at night. It was a severe test of the courteous decorum of the Malay n.o.bles when on one occasion, a young officer, who accompanied me, not only spilt his cup of coffee over his bright new uniform, but, when impressively bidding adieu to H. H. the Sultan, stood for sometime unconsciously astride over my lighted candle. Not a muscle of the faces of the n.o.bles moved, but the Europeans were scarcely so successful in maintaining their gravity.

Mr. DALRYMPLE'S description of Brunai, furnished to the _Field_ in August, 1884, is as follows:--

"On a broad river, sweeping round in an imposing curve from the South-Eastward, with abrupt ranges of sandstone hills, for the most part cleared of forest, hemming it in on either side, and a glimpse of lofty blue mountains towering skywards far away to the North-East, is a long straggling collection of _atap_ (thatch made of leaves of _nibong_ palm) and _kajang_ (mats of ditto) houses, or rather huts, built on piles over the water, and forming a gigantic crescent on either bank of the broad, curving stream. This is the city of Brunai, the capital of the Yang di Pertuan, the Sultan of Brunai, _aetat_ one hundred or more, and now in his dotage: the abode of some 15,000 Malays, whose language is as different from the Singapore Malay as Cornish is from c.o.c.kney English, and the coign of vantage from which a set of effete and corrupt _Pangerans_ extended oppressive rule over the coasts of North-West Borneo, from Sampanmangiu Point to the Sarawak River in days gone by, ere British enterprise stepped in, swept the Sulu and Illanun pirates from the sea, and opened the rivers to commercial enterprise.

"Standing on the summit of one of the above-mentioned hills, a fine bird's eye view is obtained of the city below. The ramshackle houses are all built in irregular blocks or cl.u.s.ters, but present on either side a regular frontage to the broad river, and following its sweeping curve, form two imposing crescent, divided by a fine water-way. Behind these main crescents are various other blocks and cl.u.s.ters of buildings, built higgledy piggledy and without plan of any sort. On the true left bank are some Chinese shops built of brick, and on the opposite bank a brick house of superior pretensions and a waving banner proclaiming the abode of the Chinese Consular Agent of the British North Borneo Company. * * *

"A heterogeneous collection of buildings on the right side of the upper part of the city forms the _palace_ (save the mark!) of the Sultan himself. A little further down a large, straggling, but substantial plank building, with a corrugated iron roof, marks the abode of the Pangeran Temenggong, a son of the former Sultan and the heir apparent to the throne of Brunai. Two steam launches are lying opposite at anchor, one the property of the Sultan, the other belonging to the heir apparent. * * *

"The public reception room of the Sultan's palace is a long apartment with wooden pillars running along either side, and supporting a raised roof. Beyond these on either side, are lateral compartments. At the far end, in the centre of a kind of alcove, is the Sultan's throne. The floors are covered with matting. * * *

"Although the glories of Brunai have departed, and it is only the shadow of what it was when PIGAFETTA visited it, a certain amount of state is still kept up on occasions. A boat comes sweeping down the river crowded with Malays, a white flag waving from its stern, seven paddles flas.h.i.+ng on either side, and an array of white umbrellas mids.h.i.+ps. _It is_ the Pangeran di Gadong coming in state to pay a ceremonial visit. As it sweeps alongside, the Pangeran is seen sitting on a gorgeous carpet, surrounded by his officials. One holds an umbrella over his head, while another holds aloft the _tongkat kraidan_, a long guilded staff, surmounted by a plume of yellow horse hair, which hangs down round it. The most striking point in the attire of the Pangeran and his Officers is the beauty of the _krises_ with which they are armed, the handles being of carved ivory ornamented with gold, and the sheaths of beautifully polished wood, resembling satin wood. Cigars and coffee are produced, and a _b.i.+.c.hara_ ensues. A Quakers' meeting is no bad metaphor to describe a Malay _b.i.+.c.hara_. The Pangerans sit round in a circle smoking solemnly for some time, until a question is put to them, to which a brief reply is given, followed by another prolonged pause.

"In this way the business on which they have come is gradually approached.

"Their manners are as polished as their faces are immobile, and the way to a Malay's heart lies through his pocket.

"To the outsider, Brunai is a city of hideous old women, for such alone are met with in the thronged market place where some hundreds of market boats jostle each other, while their inmates shriek and haggle over their bargains, or during a water promenade while threading the labyrinths of this Oriental Venice; but if acquainted with its intricacies, or if paying a ceremonial visit to any of the leading Pangerans, many a glimpse may be had of some fair skinned beauty peeping through some handy crevice in the _kajang_ wall, or, in the latter case, a crowd of light-skinned, dark-eyed houris may be seen looking with all their might out of a window in the harem behind, from which they are privileged to peep into the hall of audience.

"The present population of Brunai cannot exceed 12,000 to 15,000 souls, a great number having succ.u.mbed to the terrible epidemic of cholera a year ago. The exports consist of sago, gutta percha, camphor, india-rubber, edible birds' nests, gum dammar, etc., and what money there is in the city is almost entirely in the hands of the Chinese traders. * * *

"In the old days, when it enjoyed a numerous Chinese population, the surrounding hills were covered with pepper plantations, and there was a large junk trade with China. At present Brunai lives on her exports of jungle produce and sago, furnished by a n.o.ble river--the Limbang, whose valley lies but a short distance to the Eastward. One great advantage the city enjoys is a copious supply of pure water, drawn from springs at the base of the hills below the town on the left bank of the river. * * *

"Such is a slight sketch of Brunai of the Brunais. If the Pangerans are corrupt, the lower cla.s.ses are not, but are law abiding, though not industrious. And the day may yet come when their city may lift her head up again, and be to North Borneo what Singapore is to the straits of Malacca."

This description gives a capital idea of modern Brunai, and I would only observe that, from the colour of his flag and umbrellas the n.o.bleman who paid the state visit must have been the Bandahara and not the Di Gadong.

The aged Sultan to whom Mr. DALRYMPLE refers was the late Sultan MUMIM, who, though not in the direct line, was raised to the throne, on the death of the Sultan OMAR ALI SAIFUDIN, to whom he had been Prime Minister, by the influence of the English, towards whom he had always acted as a loyal friend. He was popularly supposed to be over a hundred years old when he died and, though said to have had some fifty wives and concubines, he was childless. He died on the 29th May, 1885, having previously, on the advice of Sir C. C. LEES, then British Consul-General, declared his Temenggong, the son of OMAR ALI SAIFUDIN to be his successor. The Temenggong accended the throne, without any opposition, with the t.i.tle of Sultan, but found a kingdom distracted by rebellion in the provinces and reduced to less than a fourth of its size when the treaty was made with Great Britain in 1847.

I have said that there is no ground rent in Borneo, and that every one builds his own house and is his own landlord, but I should add that he builds his house in the _kampong_, or parish, to which, according to his occupation, he belongs and into which the city is divided. For instance, on entering the city, the first _kampong_ on the left is an important one in a town where fish is the princ.i.p.al article of animal food. It is the _kampong_ of the men who catch fish by means of bambu fis.h.i.+ng stakes, or traps, described hereafter, and supply the largest quant.i.ty of that article to the market; it is known as the _Kampong Pablat_.

Next to it is the _Kampong Perambat_, from the casting net which its inhabitants use in fis.h.i.+ng. Another parish is called _Membakut_ and its houses are built on firm ground, being princ.i.p.ally the shops of Chinese and Klings. The last _kampong_ on this side is that of _Burong Pinge_, formerly a very important one, where dwelt the princ.i.p.al and richest Malay traders. It is now much reduced in size, European steamers and Chinese enterprise having altered entirely the character of the trade from the time when the old Brunai _nakodahs_ (master or owner of a trading boat) would cruise leisurely up and down the coast, waiting for months at a time in a river while trade was being brought in. The workers in bra.s.s, the jewellers, the makers of gold brocade, of mats, of bra.s.s guns, the oil manufacturers, and the rice cleaners, all have their own _kampongs_ and are jealous of the honour of each member of their corporation. The Sultan and nearly all the chief n.o.bles have their houses on the true left bank of the river, _i.e._, on the right bank ascending.

The fis.h.i.+ng interest is an important one, and various methods are employed to capture the supply for the market.

The _kelong_ is a weir composed of nets made of split bambu, fastened in an upright position, side by side, to posts fixed into the bed of the stream, or into the sand in the shallow water of a harbour. There are two long rows of these posts with attached nets, one much longer than the other which gradually converge in the deeper water, where a simple trap is constructed with a narrow entrance. The fish pa.s.sing up or down stream, meeting with the obstruction, follow up the walls of the _kelong_ and eventually enter the trap, whence they are removed at low water. These _kelong_, or fis.h.i.+ng stakes as they are termed, are a well known sight to all travellers entering Malay ports and rivers. All sorts of fish are caught in this way, and alligators of some size are occasionally secured in them.

The _rambat_ is a circular casting net, loaded with leaden or iron weights at the circ.u.mference, and with a spread sometimes of thirty feet. Great skill, acquired by long practice, is shewn by the fisherman in throwing this net over a shoal of fish which he has sighted, in such a manner that all the outer edge touches the water simultaneously; the weights then cause the edges of the circ.u.mference to sink and gradually close together, encompa.s.sing the fish, and the net is drawn up by a rope attached to its centre, the other end of which the fisherman had retained in his hand. The skill of the thrower is further enhanced by the fact that he, as a rule, balances himself in the bow of a small "dug-out," or canoe, in which a European could scarcely keep his footing at all. The _rambat_ can also be thrown from the bank, or the beach, and is used in fresh and salt water. Only small fish and prawns are caught in this way. Prawns are also caught in small _kelong_ with very fine split bambu nets, but a method is also employed in the Brunai river which I have not heard of elsewhere. A specially prepared canoe is made use of, the gunwale on one side being cut away and its place taken up by a flat ledge, projecting over the water. The fisherman sits paddling in the stern, keeping the ledged side towards the bank and leaning over so as to cause the said ledge to be almost level with the water.

From the same side there projects a long bambu, with wooden teeth on its under side, like a comb, fastened to the stern, but projecting outwards, forwards and slightly upwards, the teeth increasing in length towards its far end, and as they sweep the surface of the water the startled prawns, shut in by the bank on one side, in their efforts to avoid the teeth of the comb, jump into the canoe in large quant.i.ties.

I have described the method of using the dip net, or _serambau_, on page 30. Many kinds of nets are in use, one--the _pukat_--being similar to our seine or drag net.

The hook and line are also used, especially for deep sea fis.h.i.+ng, and fish of large size are thus caught.