To add to his troubles, the season was one of famine following on intestine troubles. So poor were the people, that, again to quote the Rajah: "daily, poor wretches in the last stage of starvation float down the river, and crawl to my house to beg a little, little rice." One of the first acts of the Rajah was to obtain the return to their families of the women and children of the late rebel Malay chiefs, who had been detained by Hasim now for nine months. He then recalled the Sarawak Malays, who, after submission to Hasim, had retired with their chiefs to distant parts, not trusting the good faith of their Malay Rajah and his right-hand man, Makota. The Bruni datus appointed by the former Governor were displaced, and the old Sarawak Malay datus, who had been in rebellion against the Bruni Government, and who owed their lives to Rajah Brooke's intercession, were reinstated, and in their families the offices remain to this day. Who these chiefs were at that time there seems to exist some doubt, with the exception of the premier datu, the Datu Patinggi Ali, who fell gallantly fighting for the Government three years after he had been reinstated, and the Datu Temanggong Mersal. The old Datu Bandar, Rancha, had died before this, and no one appears to have succeeded him directly, but Datu Patinggi Ali's son-in-law, Haji Abdul Gapur, and his son Muhammad Lana, evidently held office of some kind as native chiefs. On the Datu Patinggi's death, Haji Gapur succeeded him in office, and Muhammad Lana became the Datu Bandar. When Haji Gapur was dismissed in 1854, another son of the Datu Patinggi Ali, Haji Bua Hasan, was made the Imaum, and a few years afterwards Datu Imaum, but no one was then, or has since been, appointed to the office of Datu Patinggi. On Muhammad Lana's death, his brother Haji Bua Hasan became Datu Bandar, and, shortly afterwards, another relative, Haji Abdul Karim, was appointed Datu Imaum, and he was succeeded on his death in 1877 by Haji Muhammad Taim, the youngest son of the Datu Patinggi Ali. The Datu Bandar, Haji Bua Hasan, died in harness in 1905, over one hundred years of age, and has been succeeded by his son, Muhammad Kasim, formerly the Datu Muda; another son, Haji Muhammad Ali, is the Datu Hakim. These offices are not hereditary, so this narration will show how well the family of gallant old Patinggi Ali, the direct descendant of the original founder of Sarawak, Rajah Jarom, with the sole exception of Haji Gapur, have earned and retained the confidence of the Government, and how honourably they have maintained their position. The Datu Temanggong Mersal belonged to another family, but he and his sons were not the less staunch; the eldest, brave Abang Pata, rendered the Government very signal services, and the younger, Muhammad Hasan, succeeded his father as Temanggong. The only one who betrayed the trust reposed in him was the Datu Patinggi Haji Gapur. Of him, as well as the others, we shall hear more in the sequel.