To show how these charges were supported by wilful and gross exaggerations, that could only have been made for the express purpose of deceiving the public, and which were as ridiculous as they were mischievous, Hume stated that it was doubtful whether a portion of the Royal Navy of China, which was reported to be off the coast at the time for the purpose of making peace with these people (the Saribas and Sekrangs), had not been destroyed by the expedition! Footnote 174: Keppel, _Voyage to the Indian Archipelago_. Footnote 175: The important fact that in all their marauding expeditions the Saribas and Sekrang Dayaks were mixed up with the Malays of the Saribas and Batang Lupar, who not only commanded and led them, but accompanied them in large numbers seems to have been quite overlooked by both the Rajah's accusers and his supporters. This in itself is a sufficient indication of the piratical nature of these expeditions. The character of these Malays as pirates was at least beyond question, and to assert that they went with these poor "harmless and timid" Dayaks to assist them in their intertribal feuds would be a very wide stretch of imagination. We have shown that the force routed on Beting Maru was led by Malays. Footnote 176: Married to a daughter of the Datu Patinggi Gapur. He was afterwards selected by Sherip Masahor's party to murder the present Rajah, but the task was not to his liking. Footnote 177: From _Life of Sir James Brooke_, St. John. Footnote 178: May 1850, 145 to 20; June 1850, 169 to 29; July 1851, 230 to 19. Footnote 179: The Rajah to Lord Clarendon, December 25, 1853. Footnote 180: John C. Templar, _Private Letters of the Rajah_, v. iii. p. 117. Footnote 181: _Private Letters._ Footnote 182: The Dutch Resident of Western Borneo, not of Sambas only. He certified that on one raid the Saribas and Sekrangs killed four hundred people on the Dutch coast. Referred to by Earl in his _Eastern Seas_; he relates that the Dayaks swept the whole coast from Sekrang to Sambas, killing the entire population of Selakau. As far back as 1825, the Resident of Sambas (Van Grave) and his secretary were killed on their way to Pontianak in a small vessel. Keppel tells us the Saribas once laid in wait for "the (Dutch) man-of-war schooner _Haai_, and in one engagement killed thirty-seven of the Dutch, losing eighty of their own force." Keppel's book, _A Voyage to the Eastern Archipelago in 1850_, contains an able refutation of the charges made by Hume and Cobden. Footnote 183: The foregoing particulars are taken from Mr. Prinseps' report, dated January 6, 1855. Footnote 184: From Mr. Devereaux's report. Footnote 185: Son of the late Admiral Sir Thomas Cochrane. Footnote 186: The Land-Dayaks. [Illustration: THE TUAN MUDA'S FORT AT SEKRANG.] CHAPTER V RENTAP