A History of Sarawak under Its Two White Rajahs 1839-1908Baring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
History
A History of Sarawak under Its Two White Rajahs 1839-1908
Baring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Charles, Rajah of Sarawak, 1829-1917; James, Rajah of Sarawak, 1803-1868; Sarawak (Malaysia) -- History
High Chamberlain.
Footnote 325:
In reply to a question on December 15, 1906, by Sir Edward Sassoon,
the Under-Secretary for the Colonies found it convenient to take no
notice of Sir Edward's reference to the F.M.S. in this connection.
Footnote 326:
To quote the present Secretary for Foreign Affairs when addressing the
House, but a few years ago upon the subject of an export duty on
English coal.
[Illustration:
SEA-DAYAK WAR-BOAT.]
CHAPTER XIV
THE SEA-DAYAKS
[Illustration:
LAND-DAYAK WEAPONS.]
In an address to the Council Negri in 1891, the Rajah said that he might
divide his term of service of thirty-nine years into three periods of
thirteen years each. The first period had been almost wholly devoted to
the work of suppressing head-hunting among the Dayaks, involving
frequent expeditions by sea and by land, and a life of carrying arms and
keeping watch and ward against subtle enemies. The second period had
been divided between expeditions of the same nature, and the peaceful
pursuits of giving or amending law, and the establishment of its
supremacy. And the last period had been almost entirely taken up with
attending to the political and social affairs of a settled and peaceful
country. Those present who had been young with himself during the early
days of his service, had been strong and able to carry through the work
set before them, rough and perilous in the extreme, in mountainous
regions of jungle, subject to every kind of exposure; but now these
hardships were no more required, and that was well, for both they and
himself were waxing old. The character of his task was changed—he and
his old comrades on river and rock and in jungle could sit in their
arm-chairs, and attend to the political business and the commercial
progress of the country.
To these periods the Rajah has since added a fourth, and that the
longest of all, during which much has been done to extinguish the
lingering sparks of racial and intertribal hostility. These still break
out occasionally amongst the Sea-Dayaks, though at wider intervals, as
time goes on, but are confined to the remote interior, and to a very
limited district within the State and over the borders, of which Lobok
Antu is the centre. These occasional outbreaks, which but reveal the old
Adam, do not trouble or affect those living outside this district, and
indeed do not stir their interest any more than the border troubles in
India affect the population of that country generally.
It is an Arab proverb—Be content with bread and scrape till Allah sends
the jam. The first Rajah certainly had very hard scrape, and in the
first periods of the second Rajah's career, he had to be content with
bread and scrape, only slowly, though surely, came the jam.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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