These trivial cases were not the real cause of the insurrection, as the Chinese before that date were greatly excited by the news that the English had retired from before Canton; and it was of course added, we had been utterly defeated, and their preparations were made before the smuggling was discovered, or the members of their company punished. The secret societies were everywhere in great excitement, and the Tien Ti sent an emissary over from Malacca and Singapore, to excite the gold workers to rebellion, and used the subtle, but false argument, that not only were the English crushed before Canton, but that the British Government were so discontented with Sir James Brooke, that they would not interfere if the kunsi only destroyed him and his officers, and did not meddle with the other Europeans, or obstruct the trade. It is also currently reported that the Sambas sultan and his nobles offered every encouragement to the undertaking, and the Chinese listened much to their advice, as these nobles can speak to them in their own language, and are imbued greatly with Chinese ideas. To explain this state of things, I may mention that they are always nursed by girls chosen from among the healthiest of the daughters of the gold workers; and I may add, that about that time there was a very active intercourse carried on between the Malay nobles of Sambas and Makota, and that the latter was constantly closeted with an emissary of the Tien Ti Hué, or secret society, to whom I am about to refer. It behoves the Dutch authorities to look well to the proceedings of the native governments within their own territories, as there is very great discontent, and there is not the slightest doubt that the nobles are conspiring. To show that it is not a mere imagination that the Tien Ti secret society sent emissaries around at that time, I may state that on the 14th of February, four days before the insurrection, a Chinese named Achang, who had arrived in Brunei from Singapore a few days previously, and had the year before been expelled from Sarawak for joining that Hué, came to my house to try and induce my four Chinese servants to enter it; and added as a sufficient reason that the kunsi of Sarawak would by that time have killed all the white men in that country. He also said that he was very successful in enlisting members among the sago washers and other labourers in the capital, and that they had made up their minds to attack my house, and destroy me within a few weeks, and if my servants did not join the society they would share my fate.