The miserable fugitives, reduced to two thousand, of whom above half were women and children, sat down among the houses of the village of Sidin, and many of them, it is said, wept not only for the loss of friends and goods, which they had suffered owing to the insensate ambition of the Gold Company, but also because they had to give up all hope of ever returning to their old peaceful homes. That Company, which on the night of the surprise had numbered six hundred, was now reduced to a band of about one hundred, but these kept well together, and being better armed than the others, formed the principal guard of the Tai-pé-Kong, a sacred stone, which they had, through all their disasters, preserved from the profane hands of their enemies. Several times the assailants, who mistook it for the gold chest, were on the point of capturing it, but on the cry being raised that the Tai-pé-Kong was in peril, the men gathered round and carried it securely through all danger. At Sidin, however, all immediate apprehension being over, the discontent of those who had been forced to join the rebels burst forth without control, so that from words they soon came to blows, and the small band of the Company’s men was again reduced by thirty or forty from the anger of their countrymen. Continuing their disorderly retreat, they were met by the officers of the Dutch Government, who very properly took from them all their plunder and arms, and being uncertain which was their own property, erred on the safe side by stripping them of everything. The Dutch officers sent back to Sarawak all the loot the Chinese had taken either from the Government or from private individuals. Thus terminated the most criminal and causeless rebellion that ever occurred, which during its continuance displayed every phase of Chinese character, arrogance, secrecy, combination, an utter incapability of looking to the consequences of events or actions, and a belief in their own power and courage which every event belied. The Chinese, under their native leaders, have never fought even decently, and yet up to the very moment of trial they act as if they were invincible. This insurrection showed, in my belief, that though the Chinese always require watching, they are not in any way formidable as an enemy; and it also proved how firmly the Sarawak Government was rooted in the hearts of the people, since in the darkest hour there was no whisper of wavering. Had the Chinese been five times as numerous, there were forces in the background which would have destroyed them all. Before the Chinese had fled across the frontier, the Seribas and Sakarang Malays and Dyaks, under Mr Johnson, had arrived, and the people of Sadong were marching overland to attack them in rear, while the distant out-stations were mustering strong forces, which arrived to find all danger past.