June 1, 1867. MALAY FLYING PROA. 125 When barbarian violence had raged over North Africa for a hundred years, the wars of Belisarius brought fresh miseries upon the poor Christians. A little moment of freedom was bought at a tremendous cost. "Africa," says a contemporary historian, "was so entirely dispeopled that one might travel several days in it without meeting one man; and it is no exaggeration to say that in the course of the war five millions of persons perished." The irruption of the Mohammedans, coming so immediately and so violently upon a population thus seriously reduced, must have been to some districts utter extermination. MALAY FLYING PROA. THE accompanying sketch of a Malay "Flying Proa" was taken in Madura Straits, Island of Java. The vessel is long, low and narrow, and the triangular sails, spread on long yards of bamboo, are so enormous, that they would at once overturn the craft, were it not that two long bamboo poles of the largest size, parallel to the keel of the vessel, and at a considerable distance from either side, are used as outriggers. They are attached to a framework, also of bamboo, all of which is kept as high as possible above the level of the water, that it may not impede the motion of the vessel. The buoyancy of the lee outrigger prevents her being pressed down upon that side; and as the wind freshens, men are sent out to sit upon the weather one, and by their weight to assist in preserving her equilibrium; so that our sailors, instead of denoting the strength of the wind by the number of reefs in the topsail as usual, used to call it a one-man or two-man breeze. The proa represented is a trader of large size; the smaller proas, worked by one man each, are very graceful, and would pass ahead of our vessel, even when she was sailing swiftly, with the greatest ease. The sails are sometimes of mat, sometimes of duck or calico; the mainsail of that in the sketch is of alternate cloths of pale blue and white-some are pink and white, some pure white, some light yellow. The smaller craft is a tambanga, or licensed wherry: the Oran tambanga, or waterman, sits astern, and his passengers on the midship thwart; the sail is of more moderate size, and there is no outrigger. Both these boats are steered by a rudder hung over the quarter, and not in any way attached to a sternpost. In the distance is seen a Dutch schooner, carrying two or more heavy guns, and employed to look out for pirates. June 1, 1867. THE RAJAH OF SARAWAK. (Continued from vol. ii, page 273.) CHAPTER V. CONSIDERING that the success of the English policy at Brunè disconcerted not a few of the intriguing members of the Malayan government, it was to be expected that they would place it in the most unfavorable light possible; and, before quitting the subject, a letter shall be given, which was written, a few months later, by the rajah to his friend Captain Mundy: "MY DEAR MUNDY, 66 'SARAWAK; December, 1846. "I am sorry to find that so many false statements and distorted facts of the proceedings of the squadron on the coast of Borneo, and of the part which I took with regard to the sultan's letter and message to the admiral, are in circulation at Singapore. "I can give you a few details which you may not have heard before, so that should any one whose opinion is worth anything make inquiries you may be able to answer them. In the first place, it was after the admiral had been three days off the Borneo river that, in the evening, a boat, despatched by the sultan, arrived alongside the 'Agincourt,' bearing a letter and a verbal message, to the purport that if his excellency wished to see the sultan he must proceed up the river with one or two small boats only. "The mode of conveying the sultan's letter to the admiral by the hands of mean men and slaves, and the verbal message which accompanied it, were direct insults; and, moreover, strong suspicions were excited that one of the signatures to the letter was a forgery. These suspicions have since proved correct, as Muda Mohamed, the brother of the late Muda Hassim, declares he was forced to append his seal under fear of death. "On the first arrival of the squadron an amicable message was sent to the sultan by the admiral, intimating his intention of visiting his highness, and the simple inquiry to be made was whether the sultan adhered to his former engagements, to which Muda Hassim had been a party. Our interference was, therefore, not in conse 1, 1867 sequence of the murder of the nobles, though under the circumstance this atrocious act would naturally come under discussion. "The answer to this message was an unmeaning letter, sent in a manner which all men acquainted with native usage would consider a gross insult. The admiral proceeded up the river with about the same force as when on a former occasion. He had visited the sultan in a friendly way. It was open to the sultan to receive his excellency if he thought fit; but instead of doing this, as you know, he opened fire on the flag of the British admiral the moment it came within reach of his guns. The fact of the determination of the sultan and the pangerans to act hostilely against the English is now beyond dispute. I have evidence before me from hundreds who heard the declarations in the streets of Brunè; and Muda Mahomed was frequently taunted openly for being a Kafir and the friend of Europeans, and told that the English were afraid to come to the capital, and that if they did they should be defeated. The engagements between the sultan and the British government were strictly of a national character, for national objects alone; and the firm policy of Sir Thomas Cochrane was the only one that could have retrieved the past. Had his excellency not acted vigorously, the first shipwrecked crew seeking refuge at Brunè or its vicinity would have been murdered, and the labour of years been undone. "I observe that I am considered a monopolist for retaining the antimony ore. This ore has long been a monopoly in the hands of the rulers of Sarawak, and the revenue received from it is spent in improving the country. I certainly am desirous of holding Sarawak on the best terms I can, and why not? The day I should leave it the natives would resist the authority of the sultan, as most of the other rivers long have done; and if I wished to extend my possessions, I might easily do so, as I have been frequently offered, and as frequently have declined, the government of all the rivers between Tanjong Barram and Tanjong Datu-a coast-line 300 miles in extent. "With all the pecuniary advantages supposed to arise from my position here, I am at the present moment a poorer man than when I undertook my not easy task, though I do hope that at some future time it may become both advantageous and profitable. It will be remembered that the sultan's emissaries were two men who, in spite of their grand yellow silk umbrella, Mr. Brooke declined to believe were the persons of rank they represented themselves to be. It was with no little amusement, therefore, that on the occasion of an entertainment given to the chiefs at Labuan, which will be mentioned presently, Captain Mundy recognised his doubtful friends among the attendants on the pangerans, with whom they were not permitted to seat themselves at table. From treacherous rulers and from pirates we once more turn gladly to the happier state of affairs at Sarawak. There could be no doubt of the rising condition of the town; it began to assume the character of a colony. Instead of mud hovels, we hear of one of the chief Malay officers and his pretty wife living in their two-storied house. Europeans arrived, and received offices of trust, or, like the doctor and naturalist, exercised their professions freely; but no Missionary effort had been attempted, except by the Germans, and their representative had made little progress as yet. Clearly the time was come for the good work to begin. Two months later more improvements were on foot. The first step towards civilisation is to make roads through a country, and the great undertaking was completed of laying one for a mile through the jungle. The Chinese were as busy as bees, cultivating all the ground they could lay hold upon, and dotting their fantastic buildings about the allotments. Meanwhile the Home Government had been considering the pros and cons which attended the acceptance by the English of the sultan's offer of the island of Labuan, made by him two months previously. The pros carried the day. Labuan has already been described as a compact little island, the possession of which would undoubtedly very greatly ensure the safety of European vessels on that coast, and keep a wholesome check upon the piratical tribes, to say nothing of our not very dependable ally, his highness at Brunè. Nevertheless, these advantages were no less apparent to the Malays than to the English, and Captain Mundy was quite alive to the fact that a delicate and difficult mission lay before him. There could be no doubt that the sultan had the not unnatural idea of an equivalent in his head when he proposed the session of Labuan, and under previous circumstances this would, of course, have been acknowledged; but the manner in which he had broken the treaty, fired on the Queen's ships, and continued to support piracy, was considered by |