The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 18, No. 110, December, 1866: A Magazine of Literature, Science, Art, and PoliticsVarious
History
The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 18, No. 110, December, 1866: A Magazine of Literature, Science, Art, and Politics
Various
American periodicals
anything in this quiet, happy place to prevent our thus living in God's
presence."
Mrs. McDougall adds a story which shows the estimation in which the
natives hold their Rajah. "Pa Jenna paid me a visit at Sarawak. The
Rajah was then in England. But Pa Jenna, coming into my sitting-room,
immediately espied his picture hanging against the wall. I was much
struck with the expression of respect which both the face and attitude
of this untutored savage assumed as he stood before the picture. He
raised his handkerchief from his head, and, saluting the picture with a
bow, such as a Roman Catholic would make to his patron saint's altar,
whispered to himself, 'Our great Rajah.'" And this man was a reclaimed
pirate.
This reverential love of the natives is the one thing which does not
admit of a doubt. The proofs are constant and irresistible. Some years
since a lady with a few attendants was pushing her boat up a Bornean
river, many leagues away from Sarawak, when she encountered a wild Dyak
tribe on a warlike expedition. The sight of more than a hundred
half-naked savages, crowning a little knoll which jutted into the river
a half-dozen rods in advance of her boat, dancing frantically like
maniacs, brandishing their long knives, and yelling all the while like
demons, was not cheering. Yet at the sight of the Sarawak flag raised at
the bow of the boat, every demonstration of hostility ceased. She was
overpowered by their noisy welcome, and received from them the kindest
attention. A dozen years ago, at the very time that the accusations of
cruelty and wholesale slaughter of innocent people were most recklessly
made, a party of Englishmen, and among them the adopted son of the
Rajah, went on an exploring expedition to the extreme northeast corner
of Borneo, more than six hundred miles from Sarawak. While they were
seated one evening around their fire, the whole air resounded with the
cries, "Tuan Brooke! Tuan Brooke!" and presently the natives drew near
and expressed their joy at seeing a son of the great Rajah, and
wondering that he who had so blessed the southern Dyaks did not extend
his protection to their northern brethren. One anecdote more. During the
Chinese insurrection, of which we shall soon speak, a Malay chief,
fighting desperately against the insurgents, was mortally wounded, only
lingering long enough to be assured of the Rajah's victory, and to
exclaim with his dying breath, "I would rather be in hell with the
English, than in heaven with my own countrymen."
* * * * *
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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