British Borneo: Sketches of Brunai, Sarawak, Labuan, and North BorneoTreacher, W. H. (William Hood), Sir
History
British Borneo: Sketches of Brunai, Sarawak, Labuan, and North Borneo
Treacher, W. H. (William Hood), Sir
Great Britain -- Colonies -- Asia; Labuan; Sabah; Sarawak (Malaysia)
Both antimony ores and cinnabar (an ore of quicksilver) are worked by
the Borneo Company, but the exports of the former ore and of quicksilver
are steadily decreasing, and fresh deposits are being sought for. Only
one deposit of cinnabar has so far been discovered, that was in 1867.
Antimony was first discovered in Sarawak in 1824, and-for a long time it
was from this source that the principal supplies for Europe and America
were obtained. The ores are found "generally as boulders deep in clayey
soil, or perched on tower-like summits and craggy pinnacles and,
sometimes, in dykes _in situ_." The ores, too poor for shipment, are
reduced locally, and the _regulus_ exported to London. Coal is abundant,
but is not yet worked on any considerable scale.[11] The Borneo Company
excepted, all the trade of the country is in the hands of Chinese and
Natives, nor has the Government hitherto taken steps to attract European
capital for planting, but experiments are being made with the public
funds under European supervision in the planting of cinchona, coffee,
and tobacco. The capital of Sarawak is _Kuching_, which in Malay
signifies a "cat." It is situated about fifteen miles up the Sarawak
river and, when Sir JAMES first arrived, was a wretched native town,
with palm leaf huts and a population, including a few Chinese and Klings
(natives of India), of some two thousand. Kuching now possesses a well
built "Istana," or Palace of the Raja, a Fort, impregnable to natives, a
substantial Gaol, Court House, Government Offices, Public Market and
Church, and is the headquarters of the Bishop of Singapore and Sarawak,
who is the head of the Protestant Mission in the country. There is a
well built brick Chinese trading quarter, or "bazaar," the Europeans
have comfortable bungalows, and the present population is said to number
twelve thousand.
In the early days of his reign, Sir JAMES BROOKE was energetically
assisted in his great work of suppressing piracy and rendering the seas
and rivers safe for the passage of the peaceful trader, by the British
men-of-war on the China Station, and was singularly fortunate in having
an energetic co-adjutor in Captain (now Admiral) Sir HENRY KEPPEL,
K.C.B.
It will give some idea of the extent to which piracy, then almost the
sole occupation of the Illanun, Balinini, and Sea Dyak tribes, was
indulged in that the "Headmoney," then paid by the British Government
for pirates destroyed, amounted in these expeditions to the large total
of £20,000, the awarding of which sum occasioned a great stir at the
time and led to the abolition of this system of "payment by results."
Mr. HUME took exception altogether to the action of Sir JAMES BROOKE,
and, in 1851, charges were brought against him, and a Royal Commission
appointed to take evidence on the spot, or rather at Singapore.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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