British Borneo

dea of the objects and intentions o

to pay dividends; but the old saying, that it is a difficult matter to steal a Highlander's pantaloons, is applicable to North Borneo, for only a magician could extract anything much worth having in the shape of loot from the easy going natives

of slave-driver, to compel the poor natives to work, without wages, on the Company's plantations. But, as a matter of fact, though entitled to do so by the Royal Charter, the Company has elected to engage neither in trade nor in planting, deeming that their desire to attract capital and population to their t

d them to undertake the Government of a tropical country, some 10,000 miles or more distant from London, for Englishmen, a

rplus revenues which a wisely administered Government would ensure, by judiciously fostering colonisation, principally by Chinese, by the sale of the vast acreages of "waste" or Government lands, by leasing the right to work the valuable timber forests and such minerals as may be found to exist in workable quantities, by customs duties and the "farming out" of the exclusive right to sell opium, spirits, tobacco, etc., and by other methods of raising revenue in vogue in the Eastern Colonies of the Crown. In fact, the sum invested by the shareholders is to be considered in the light of a loan to the Colony-its public debt-to be repaid with interest as the resources of the country are developed. Without encroaching on land worked, or owned by the natives, the Company has a large area of unoccupied land which it can dispose of for the highest price obtainable. That this must be the case is evident from a comparison with the Island of Ceylon, where Government land sales are still held. The area of North Borneo, it has been seen, is larger than that of Ceylon, but its populatio

ecorded in the Land Office, under the provisions of the Hongkong Regi

urer-General, a Commissioner of Lands, a Superintendent of Public Works, Commandant, Postmaster-General and other Heads of Departments usually to be found in Crown Colonies, and the British Colonial Regulations are adhered to as closely as circumstances admit. The title of Resident is borrowed from the Dutch Colonies, and the duties o

the Territory. Most of the laws are adaptations, in whole or in part, of Ordinances e

he Indian Evidence and Contract Acts have been adopted in their entirety, "so

e law in North Borneo was the first formal one

on of estate coolies and laboure

he chief obstacles to the unanimous acceptance of the Company's rule by the Chiefs. At first the Residents and other officers confined their efforts to prohibiting the importation of slaves for sale, and in assisting slaves who were ill-treated to purchase their liberty. In 1883, a Proclamation was issued which will have the effect of gradually abolishing the system, as required by the Charter. Its chief provisions are as follows:-No foreigners are allowed to hold slaves, and no slaves can be imported for sale, nor can the natives buy slaves in a f

e parents after the first day of November, 1883, and who would by ancient custom be deemed to be slaves, are hereby proclaimed to be free, and any person treating or attempting to treat any such children as slav

who are slaves in a strict and rigorous sense, and those whose servitude is of a light description. The latter are known as anak mas, and are the children of a slave mother by a free man other than her master. If a female, she is the slave or anak mas of her mother's master, but cannot be sold by him

t a brihan, or marriage gift, of from two to two and a half pikuls of brass

cases are very rare and only take place when the husband

are henceforth free and, she may remain as one of her late master's wives. But

with tobacco, betel-nut and other native luxuries. There is no difference between them and free men in the matter of dress, and in the arms

g under task masters, a picture which is generally present to the Englishman's mind when he hears of the existence of slavery. The slave gang was

slaves with strokes of the rattan, but if an owner receives grave provocation and kills

ometimes punished by being

essor. Slaves of one master can, with their owner's consent, marry, and no brihan is demanded, but if they belong to different masters, the woman's master is entitled to a brihan of one pikul, equal to $20 or $25. They continue to be the slaves of their respec

er, father, mother, or child; but if he or she attempt to escape, a reversion to the condition of an ordinary slave is the result. Occasionally, slaves a

e can never be claimed ag

er in his own name, or in that of

vice to their owners, slaves can acquire private pr

ted to Muhammadanism and circumcized and, even though

man might be enslaved if his friends could not raise the requisite sum, and he would continue to be a slave until

d sell himself to pay off his debts

natives of Palawan and natives of the interior of Magindanau-all was fish that came into their net. The selling price was as follows:-A boy, about 2 pikuls, a man 3 pikuls. A girl, 3 to 4 pikuls, a young woman, 3 to 5 pikuls. A person past middle age about 11?2 pikuls. A young couple

ppar-Kimanis, there was no slave trade, and that the c

relation was rather that of follower and lord than of slave and master. When he first settled at Sandakan, he could not get men to work for him for wages, they deemed it degrading to do so, but they said

did a considerable business in kidnapping, but in 1879 Commander E. Edwards, in H. M. S. Kestr

in British North Borneo and in Sarawak, and is rapidly dying out in b

reto, and marriage, divorce and legitimacy, and the rights of property and personal rights" are carefully regarded by the Company's Government, as in duty bound, according to the terms of Articles 8 and 9 of the Royal Charter. The services of native headmen are utilised as muc

ers. These hitherto interminable feuds, though not altogether put a stop to in the interior, have been in many districts effectually brought to an end, Government officers having been asked by the natives themselves to undertake the examination of the accounts and the tribe who was found to be on the debtor side paying, not human heads, but compensation in goods at a fixed rate per head due. Another custom which the Company found it impossible to recognize was that o

ery, or of men flogging her with a rattan, and that of cutting off the hand o

es, for the tropics, a healthy climate, there must be some exceptional cause for the scantiness of the population. This is to be found chiefly in the absence, already ref

remedies and, on the approach of the scourge, deserted their homes and their sick and fled to the jungle, where exposure and privation rendered them more than eve

have the more unowned and virgin land to dispose of. In British North Borneo, luckily for the Company, there is not, as there is in Sarawak, any one large, powerful tribe, whose presence might have been a source of trouble, or even of danger

as a substantial proof and trophy of their successful prowess, which could not be gainsaid, and it came, in time, to be considered the proper thing to be able to boast of the possession of a large number of these ghastly tokens; and so an ambitious youth, in his desire for applause, would not be particularly careful from whom, or in what manner he obtained a head, and the victim might be, not only a person with whom he had no quarrel, but even a member of a friendly tr

some fresh heads on the occasion of a marriage feast, and put to sea to a district inhabited by a hostile tribe. Meeting with adverse winds, his canoes were blown over to the British Colony; the Muruts landed, held apparently friendly intercourse with some of the Kadaian (M

were subsequently secured and sent for trial to Labuan. The chief died in prison, while

the then newly discovered "Bulwer pheasant," some Muruts from the Trusan came over and informed our hosts of the fate of their chief. On the receipt of this intelligence, all the men of our house left it and repaired to one adjoining, where a great "drink" was held, while the women indulged in a loud, low, monotonous, heart-breaking

of their disposition; but from what I have heard from the Borneyans, they are a set of abandoned idolaters; one of their tenets, so strangely inhuman, I cannot pass unnoticed, which is, that their future interest depends upon the number of their fellow creatures they have killed in any engagement, or common disputes, and c

s, in which the lecturer, after shewing that the Andamanese were suspicious, treacherous, blood-thirsty, ungrateful and

slation on the part of their new rulers, might be gradually developed, while the evil qualities which they possess in common with all races of men, might be pari passu not extinguished, but reduced to a m

in its choice of officials, whose work has brought

rdness in seconding their efforts evinced by them. They forget that the people are as yet in the schoolboy stage, and should try and remember how, in their own schoolboy days, they offered opposition to the efforts of their masters

ighly civilized tribes of Malays, of whose presence in Borneo an explanation has been attempted on a previous page. They are known as Brunais-calle

ior tribes, and prevented their having direct dealings with traders and foreigners, and to who

people have already bee

arly three centuries, they have been more or less in a state of war with the Spaniards of the Philippine Islands, and even no

ingly or in small parties, to make their way into the Spanish town, under the guise of unarmed and friendly peasants, and then suddenly draw thei

t the Brunai Government conceded the exclusive trade in pepper to the East India Company. Their religion-Muhammadanism-sits even more lightly on the Sulus than on the Brunais, and their women,

ping even their own countrymen and selling them into slavery. They entertain a high notion of their own importance,

n the Brunai men to perform work for Europeans on regular wages. Among their good qualities, it may be mentioned that they are faithful and trustworthy followers of any European to whom they may become attached. Their language is distinct from ordinary Malay, an

Coast, not South of the Pappar River. These are the orang-laut (men of the sea) or sea-gipsies of the old writers, and are the w

ese and Japanese elements; their women are not secluded, and it is a rare thing for a Borneo Bajow to take the trouble of making the pilgrimage to Mecca. They are found along the coasts of nearly all the Malay Islands and, apparently, in former days lived entirely in their boats. In

er colour than the other Malays, with small sparkling black eyes, but on the East Coast, where their condition is m

serious difficulty for the Company in its efforts to establish good government and put down lawlessness, and every one having at heart the true interests of the natives of Borneo must hope that the Company will soon be successful in the negotiations which they have opened for the acquisition of these rivers. The Kawang was an important river, inhabited by a small number of Bajows, acquired by the Company in 1884, and the conduct of these people on one occasion affords a good idea of their treachery and their hostility towards good government. An interior tribe had made itself famous for its head-hunting proclivities, and the Kawang was selected as the best route by which to reach their district and inflict punishment upon them. The selection of this route was not a politic one, seeing that the inhabitants were Bajows, and that they had but recently come under the Company's rule. The expedition was detained a day or two at the Bajow village, as the full number of Dusun baggage-carriers had not arrived, and the Bajows were called upon to make up the deficiency, but did not do so. Matters were further complicated by the Dusuns recognising some noted cattle-lifters in the village, and demanding a buffalo which had been stolen from them. It being impossible to obtain the required luggage carriers, it was proposed to postpone the expedition, the stores were deposited in some of the houses of the village and the Constabulary were "dismissed" and, piling their arms, laid down under the shelter of some trees. Without any warning one of two Bajows, with whom Dr. Fraser was having an apparently friendly chat, discharged his musket point blank at the Doctor, killing him on the spot, and seven others rushed among the unarmed Constables and speared the Sikh Jemmadhar and the Sergeant-Major and a private and then made off for the jungle. Captain De Fontaine gallantly, but rashly started off in pursuit, before any one could support him. He tripped and fell and was so severely wounded by the Bajows, after killing three of them with his revolver, that he died a few days afterwards at Sandakan. By this time the Sikhs had got their rifles and firing on the retreating party killed three and wounded two. Assistant Resid

small island to the north of Sulu, and the Illanuns from the south coast of the island of Mindanao-one of the Philippines, but by the action of the Spanish and British cruisers their power has been broken and they are found scattered in small

the name of klassap, and in the use of these weapons the Illanuns are very expert and often boast that, were it not for their gunpowder, no Europeans could stand up to them, face to face. I believe, that it is these people who in former days manufactured t

and in his "Pioneering in New Guinea" Mr. Chalmers gives an amusing account of a detailed description of such a tribe by a man who vowed he had lived with them, and related how they were provided with long sticks, with which to make holes in the ground before squatting down, for the reception of their short stumpy tails! I think it is Mr. H. F. Romilly who, in his interesting little work on the Western Pacific and New Guinea, accounts for the prevalence of "yarns" of this class by explaining that the natives regard Europeans as being vastly superior to them in general knowledge and, when they find them asking such question

n discovered, notwithstanding the most stringent enquiries. It was once thought that they were broken open by head-hunting tribes from the mainland, but this theory was disproved by the fact that the skulls were never carried away. As we know of no Borneo tribe which is in the hab

the customary Muhammadan manner in re

s, umbrellas, etc. I once went to see the lying in state of a deceased Datoh, who had been dead nine days. On entering the house I looked about for the corps

over with gum dammar. They told us the Datoh was dressed in his best clothes and had his pipe with him, but nothing else. He was to be buried that day in a small grave excavated near the house, just large enough to contain the jar, and a buffalo was being killed and intoxicating drink prepared for the numerous friends and followers who were flocking i