In obedience to instructions the poor Sherip had gone to Kuching from Serikei, taking certain Government monies and properties. In the Sarawak river he had met the Tuan Muda coming down, and he then received orders to follow him and join in an attack on Sadong. He obeyed, and on entering the Sadong river brought up and anchored, the Tuan Muda going on. The same evening the Tuan Muda dropped down, anchored close to his prahu, sent and _borrowed_ his small boat, and the next morning unexpectedly fired upon him. This is the story the Sherip told the Governor at Bruni, and this is the story the Governor found it suitable to his purpose to believe, though he _hoped_ it was not true, and that he would be able "to clear away so great a stain upon the British name."[256] The energetic Sherip, before he left Muka had stirred up his brother-in-law, the sleepy Pangiran Nipa, in charge there, to reconstruct and strengthen the defences of the place, and there he was joined by his Igan and Segalang people. No Sarawak traders were allowed to enter the port to obtain raw sago, and the Muka people were forbidden to have any commercial dealings with Kuching. A vessel chartered by a Madras trader, a British subject, was prohibited under the heaviest penalties from entering the Sarawak river, and two of his companions, also British subjects, were detained as hostages against his doing so. A fleet of twenty-five Sarawak vessels had been forced to collect at Bruit, permission having been refused to enter Muka to load sago; and the sago factories in Kuching were rendered idle. From Bruni two agents had arrived at Muka, the Bandari Samsu and Makoda Muhammad, whose sole business was to spread false reports for the purpose of stirring up feelings of hostility against the English in Sarawak. A spear (the usual token of a call to arms) had been sent through the Sea-Dayak countries under Sarawak rule by the Sherip to order the Dayaks in the names of the Bruni Rajahs to repair to Muka, and that would have led to the coast, from Rejang to Bintulu, under the Sultan's rule, being ravaged by thousands of Dayaks, and the heads taken of every man, woman, and child met by them; fortunately, however, the Sarawak officials were able to keep the Dayaks in. The Tuan Muda had received a letter from the Pangiran Temanggong couched in the most friendly terms, repudiating the acts of Nipa, and informing him that the Muka river was to be opened for trade to all alike; but in the meantime the Bruni Court, always playing a double game, had despatched the two agents above mentioned, with an order that the Sarawak nakodas were not to be allowed to fly the Sarawak flag at Muka, nor to trade directly with the Muka people, but only through the Bruni Pangirans.