In the Sadong, on the Rajah's recommendation, a Malay chief named Abang Kasim had been appointed governor by the Bruni Government in succession to Sherip Sahap, with the title of Datu Bandar;[130] he was a man weak in character, but with brains enough to be mischievous and get himself into trouble; and the Land-Dayaks there were again being so oppressed by the Malays that the Rajah found it necessary to warn the latter that they would be punished and turned out of the river if they did not desist. The Sea-Dayaks of the Kanowit river, a large affluent of the Rejang running towards the head of the Sekrang, by reason of their raids on the Melanaus of Muka, Oya, Matu, and the Rejang delta, now came under the Rajah's notice. The Datu Patinggi Abdul Rahman,[131] who was the nominal Bruni governor of this large river, had sent letters to the Rajah stating his desire to put down piracy; these were accepted as an expression of good faith, though he was suspected of conniving in these raids, and the Rajah promised him assistance. The Kanowit Dayaks were from the Sekrang, and were joined in their expeditions by the Saribas and Sekrang Dayaks, who marched overland to join them, so as to obtain a safer outlet to the sea than was now afforded by the mouths of their own rivers. They had lately destroyed Palo, in the delta, killed the men, and had carried the women and children into captivity. After the death of Pangiran Usup it might have been supposed that the Sultan, feeble and irresolute, would have fallen under the influence of his uncles, Hasim and Bedrudin, and would have been led to favour the English alliance, but this was not so. He was angry at the rout of the pirates of Marudu, and sore at being constrained to sign the death warrant of Usup, his favourite and adviser; as also at the shrinkage of the profits derived from the pirates, though at the expense of the lives and persons of his own subjects. He bore towards Hasim and Bedrudin that dislike which a narrow and dull mind feels towards those who are morally and intellectually his superiors, and such as a reigning prince not infrequently entertains towards the man who will succeed him on his throne. Accordingly he surrounded himself with a number of scoundrels, led by one Haji Seman, a man of low birth, the successor of Pangiran Usup as the Sultan's chief adviser, who fawned on and flattered him, and to whom he could pour forth his grievances; and these men, many of them pangirans and chiefs, fanned his animosities, and encouraged him in his evil courses, for they were still favourable to the piratical party, and were desirous of avenging the death of Pangiran Usup and the destruction of Marudu. The princes, especially Hasim, who had recently been publicly declared successor to the throne by the Sultan, with the title of Sultan Muda, and Bedrudin, were well aware that they were regarded with disfavour, and that there was a powerful party against them; they knew