Borneo and the Indian Archipelago: with drawings of costume and sceneryMarryat, Frank
History
Borneo and the Indian Archipelago: with drawings of costume and scenery
Marryat, Frank
Borneo -- Description and travel; Malay Archipelago -- Description and travel
On the 24th of March we sailed from Balam-bangan, with the intention of
making a flying survey of the coast of Borneo, as far as the island of
Labuan and the country at Sarawak, to make the best of our way to
Sincapore, at which place we hoped to arrive about the 1st of May, there
to receive our final orders and start for England. It would be tedious,
and it is not necessary, to give a description of the survey which we
afterwards made. We went over the same ground as before, and we surveyed
with a musket in one hand and a sextant in the other, for the natives
were not to be trusted. Our warlike friends at Tampassook did not much
relish our re-appearance on their coast. A Spanish slave made his escape
from them and came on board, begging a passage to any where. He had been
taken prisoner, with six or seven others, in an engagement between the
Manilla gun boats and the Illanoan pirates, and had been very cruelly
treated. We learnt from this man that the pirates of Tampassook are very
rich, and possessed a large number of fine prahus. They had also plenty
of fire-arms, but were afraid of them, preferring their own weapons.
It was here that we heard the news of the murder of our old friends
Rajah Muda and Bud-ruddeen. It appeared that they had been accused of
being privy to the attack of the English on Maludu, and supporting our
claims to the island of Labuan. Bud-ruddeen died as he had lived, a
brave man, and worthy of a better fate. On the approach of his enemies
he retired to his house with his sister and favourite wife, both of whom
insisted upon sharing his destiny. For some time he fought like a lion
against a superior force, until his servants one by one fell dead. He
then retired dangerously wounded to an inner chamber, with his wife and
sister, and, allowing his enemies to follow him till the house was
filled with them, he fired his pistol into a barrel of gunpowder, which
had been placed in readiness, and at once destroyed himself, his
friends, and his enemies. But this barbarous murder on the part of the
sultan of Borneo and his advisers was not left unpunished. Sir Thomas
Cochrane went to Bruni with his squadron, and reduced the sultan to
submission and a proper respect for the English, and those who were
friendly with them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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