Accordingly the Tuan Muda hastened to Kuching, but found that all was quiet there, and it was supposed that the reports were unnecessarily alarming. Thus satisfied, he departed, and returned to Sekrang. Mr. Arthur Crookshank, then in charge at Kuching during the absence of the Rajah and the Tuan Besar, who was in England, however, took the precaution to man the small stockades, which constituted the only defences of the town, with a sufficient garrison. On February 14, 1857, four days before the insurrection broke out, a Chinaman, who had formerly been expelled from Sarawak territory for joining a secret society, appeared in Bruni, and was detected attempting to induce the Chinese servants of Mr. Spenser St. John, then Consul-General there, to enter the Thien-ti Secret Society; and encouraging them to do so with the assurance that a general massacre of the white men in Sarawak was in contemplation, and that the Chinese would establish their own supremacy there. It is therefore by no means improbable that he was an agent of the Kongsi sent to Bruni, to communicate the plan of insurrection to Makota. Moreover, it was ascertained that overtures had been made to certain disaffected Malays in Sarawak to shut their eyes, if they did not feel inclined for actual co-operation in the attempt. On the Rajah's return to Kuching from Singapore, Mr. Crookshank told him of the disquieting rumours, and of what he had done for the protection of the capital. And, although Mr. Middleton, the Inspector of Police, confirmed his opinion that precautions should be taken, the Rajah could not be induced to believe that there was danger, and unwisely dismissed the garrison from the forts, and no efficient watch was kept. On February 18, the chief of the Kongsi assembled about six hundred of the ablest-bodied Chinamen belonging to the Society at Bau, armed them and marched to Tundong on the Sarawak river, where a squadron of large boats had been prepared to carry them to Kuching.