On the evening of November 28, 1868, the Resident at Muka, Captain W. H. Rodway,[302] and Mr. E. Sinclair[303] went for a walk to the mouth of the river, distant some two miles, leaving the fort in charge of the Sepoy Sergeant of the guard. That morning a Malay named Ganti, an ex-fort-man, had been sentenced to five years' imprisonment for a serious crime. He at once formed a plan with the other prisoners to rush the fort and effect their escape; and the culpable carelessness of the Sepoy guard soon gave them their opportunity. At 5 P.M. the prisoners were brought back from their work, and noticing that the whole of the guard, with the exception of the sentry, were outside the fort variously employed in the cookhouse, at the bathing place, etc., they walked in and closed the doors, whilst Ganti, who on a plea of sickness had been allowed by the Sergeant to leave his cell in the basement and sit on the floor above under the charge of the sentry, with a handspike killed the sentry. A Mr. Bain, a former employe of the Borneo Company, who was then a trader at Oya, and was at the time ill in the fort, was murdered in his bed by a Chinaman, whom he had imprisoned for debt. The Resident hurried back to find that the fort with guns and ammunition were in the hands of the prisoners, who were firing at the natives, and whose position was impregnable. Nothing could be done but to send for help from Bintulu. The prisoners amused themselves with firing at the surrounding houses, but their aim was so badly directed that they did no harm to life, and but little to property. At last, being aware that they could not hold out against the force that they knew would be summoned to reduce them, they broke into the Treasury safe, and collecting all the property they could take with them, decamped in the night. The people, who throughout had behaved loyally, promptly went in pursuit, overtook the fugitives, killed every one of them, although some were Muka men, and recovered all the cash, arms, and property that had been carried off.