A couple of days having been spent in destroying the captured bangkongs and securing prisoners, the expedition proceeded up the Saribas river. After some exciting episodes and hard work in cutting their way through innumerable trees, which had been felled across the river to impede their progress, the force reached Paku, which was taken and burnt for the second time. The expedition then proceeded up the Rejang, to punish the Sekrang Dayaks living in the Kanowit. Eighteen villages were destroyed, and the country laid waste for a hundred miles. This done, the Rajah returned to Kuching with the whole force, arriving there on August the 24th. With him came many Serikei people, who wished to escape from the tyranny of Sherip Masahor,[168] an infamous and intriguing half-bred Arab chief, who appears to have but lately settled in the Rejang as the Bruni governor, and who in the near future was to cause the Sarawak Government considerable trouble. After the battle of Beting Maru, the well-inclined Malay and Dayak chiefs of the Sekrang were once more raised to power, and the Rajah built a fort at Sekrang, of which Sherip Matusain, who has been before mentioned as having taken a prominent part on the side of the Sarawak Malays in the rebellion against Bruni, was placed in charge. The fort was built to uphold the friendly and non-piratical party against the interior piratical tribes, to prevent the latter passing down to the sea, and as a position for the advancement of commerce. It was built entirely by Sekrang Malays and Dayaks under the supervision of Mr. Crookshank, and when Mr. Brereton[169] went there shortly afterwards to take charge, at the request of the natives that a European might be placed over them, he was entirely dependent on their goodwill, having no force of any sort, to support his authority. The Saribas and the Sekrangs now submitted, the former too utterly broken to do further mischief by sea, and the latter frightened by the lesson that had been administered to their allies and themselves,[170] and by the establishment of a Government station in their district. Such was the effect of this chastisement that piracy was almost completely put an end to in these turbulent tribes; then had the land rest to recover, the waste places to revive, the towns to be rebuilt, and the population to increase. In but a very few years the bulk of these very tribes which had been the scourge of the country were reduced to peaceable and industrious citizens.