¹ For a detailed account of these considerations see Ingleson, John, Expanding the Empire, James Brooke and the Sarawak Lobby, 1830–1868, Research Paper No. 2 (University of Western Australia: Centre for South and Southeast Asian Studies, 1979), Ch. 1.Google Scholar

² The term ‘Dayak’ is used to identify the original inhabitants of Borneo. It stems from the Kenyah word daya which means ‘upriver’ or ‘interior’. Broadly, the Dayak peoples of Sarawak include the Bidayuh (Land Dayak), Iban (Sea Dayak), Kenyah, Kayan, Kedayan, Murut, Penan, Bisayah, Kelabit and other groups. The Dayak peoples are largely shifting cultivators of hill padi, they live in longhouses usually along the rivers and tributaries in the interior and they observe native customary law or adat. The indigenous people of Sarawak can therefore by classified into two groups: those who live on the coastal areas—the Malay and the Melanau, and the interior peoples or Dayak.

³ There is a wide range of books and unpublished works that deal with the Brookes. Among them are Baring-Gould, S. and Bampfylde, C. A., A History of Sarawak Under its Two White Rajahs, 1839–1908 (London: Sotheran, 1909Google Scholar; reprinted Singapore: Oxford University Press, 1989); Runciman, S., The White Rajahs: A History of Sarawak from 1841 to 1946 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1960)Google Scholar; Payne, R., The White Rajahs of Sarawak (London: Robert Hale, 1960Google Scholar; reprinted Singapore: Oxford University Press, 1987) and Tarling, N., Britain, the Brookes and Brunei (Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press, 1971).Google Scholar

⁴ Early Brooke Administration was characterized by wars to put down ‘rebellions’ in the interior. This practice of quelling Iban unrest with punitive expeditions, manned by down-river Iban warriors (which was continued as late as 1935) stimulated and prolonged inter-Iban warfare, headhunting and the related migration syndrome. See Pringle, Robert, Rajahs and Rebels (London: Macmillan, 1970).Google Scholar

⁵ The term ‘Division’ has been used in conformity with the practice in the written sources. In 1973, two additional Divisions were created out the Third Division—the Sixth Division to cover the Sarikei area, and the Seventh Division to include the Kapit district. All the Divisions were again renamed in 1987 as the Kuching, Samarahan, Sri Aman, Sarikei, Sibu, Kapit, Bintulu, Miri, and Limbang Divisions.Google Scholar

⁶ Pringle, Rajahs and Rebels, pp. 135–77Google Scholar; Pringle, Robert, ‘The Brookes of Sarawak: Reformers in Spite of Themselves, Sarawak Museum Journal, vol. XIX, nos 38–39 new series (07–12. 1971), pp. 65–9.Google Scholar

⁷ Vyner Brooke, cited in Payne, The White Rajahs of Sarawak, p. 179.Google Scholar

⁸ See Ingleson, Expanding the Empire, pp. 45–8.Google Scholar

⁹ See Chew, Daniel, Chinese Pioneers on the Sarawak Frontier 1941–1941 (Singapore: Oxford University Press, 1990), pp. 18–29, 37–8.Google Scholar

¹⁰ For an interesting account of James falling out with Henry Wise, see Ingleson, Expanding the Empire, pp. 73–84.Google Scholar

¹¹ Longhurst, Henry, The Borneo Story. The First Hundred years of the Borneo Company Limited (London: Newman Neame, 1956), p. 18.Google Scholar See also Helms, Ludvig Verner, Pioneering in the Far East and Journeys to California in 1849 and to the White Sea in 1878 (London: W. H. Allen and Co., 1882), pp. 129–34,Google Scholar and StJohn, Spenser, Rajah Brooke: The Englishman as Ruler of an Eastern State (London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1899), p. 211.Google Scholar

¹² In 1879, the Borneo Company was given the monopoly of using quartz machinery and prospecting for gold for a period of fifteen years. H.H. The Rajah's: Order Book 1863–1890, p. 211 (Sarawak Archives).Google Scholar

¹³ See Wilford, G. E., The Geology and Mining Resources of the Kuching-Ludu Area, West Sarawak, including the Bau Mining District, Memoir No. 3 (Kuching: Geological Survey Department, British Territories in Borneo, 1955), pp. 101–2.Google ScholarSee also Lucas, N. A., ‘The production of Gold in Sarawak’, Sarawak Gazette, 1 02. 1949;Google Scholar‘Mining in Upper Sarawak’, Sarawak Gazette, 1 04 1922.Google Scholar

¹⁴ Lucas, ‘The Production of Gold in Sarawak’.

¹⁵ See, for example, Sarawak Gazette, 1 11. 1932;Google ScholarWilford, G. E., ‘The Bau Goldfield’, Sarawak Gazette, 30 04 1962.Google Scholar

¹⁶ Parnell, E., ‘Sarawak—Its Resources and Trade’, Sarawak Gazette, 1 06. 1923.Google Scholar

¹⁷ Longhurst, The Borneo Story, p. 57.Google Scholar

¹⁸ Sarawak Gazette, 16 09. 1872.Google Scholar

¹⁹ Longhurst, The Borneo Story, p. 59.Google Scholar

²⁰ Charles paid £25,000 for the concession, Annual Report Sarawak 1951, p. 26.Google Scholar

²¹ Ibid.

²² Agreement Book, Vol. 3, 01 1902–07 1909, pp. 210–11. One of the clauses in the concession stipulated that a certain amount of oil was to be stored for the use of the British navy.Google Scholar See Hose, Charles, Fifty Years of Romance and Research or a Jungle-Wallah at Large (London: Hutchinson & Co., 1927), p. 235.Google Scholar Hose was offered a considerable sum of money for his services, but refused this in return for a royalty on the production which gave him a source of revenue for many years. Harper, G. C., ‘The Miri Field 1910–1972’, Sarawak Museum Journal, vol. X, nos 17–18 new series (07–12. 1961), p. 23.Google Scholar

²³ Longhurst, The Borneo Story, p. 113.Google Scholar See also Jones, Stephanie, Two Centuries of Overseas Trading: The Origins and Growth of the Inchcape Group (London: Macmillan, 1986), pp. 203–4.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

²⁴ Sarawak Oilfields was also a subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell, Sarawak Gazette, 1 10. 1921.Google Scholar

²⁵ Digby, K. H., Lawyer in the Wilderness, Data paper no. 114, Southeast Asia Program (Ithaca, New York: Cornell University, 1980), pp. 5–6.Google Scholar

²⁶ Rowe, F. W., ‘Extracts from a Report on British Borneo Petroleum Production, Resources and Industry’, Sarawak Gazette, 31 07 1958; Harper, ‘The Miri Field’, p. 28.Google Scholar

²⁷ Rowe, ‘Extracts from a Report on British North Borneo Petroleum Production, Resources and Industry’; Parnell, ‘Sarawak—Its Resources and Trade’.

²⁸ See Crisswell, Colin, Rajah Charles Brooke, Monarch of All He Surveyed (Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press, 1978), p. 216.Google Scholar

²⁹ See Pringle, Rajahs and Rebels, pp. 117–25.Google Scholar

³⁰ See Longhurst, The Borneo Story, pp. 60–1.Google Scholar

³¹ Baring-Gould and Bampfylde, A History of Sarawak under its Two White Rajahs, p. 431.Google Scholar See also StJohn, , Rajah Brooke: The Englishman as Ruler of an Eastern State, pp. 211–12.Google Scholar

³² Sarawak Gazette, 1 08 1923.Google Scholar

³³ Order of 3 January 1876, cited by Porter, H. F., Land Administration in Sarawak (Kuching: Government Printing Office, 1967), pp. 38–9.Google Scholar

³⁴ See Longhurst, The Borneo Story, p. 65Google Scholar; see also Treacher, W. H., ‘British Borneo: Sketches of Brunei, Sarawak, Labuan and North Borneo’, Journal of the Straits Branch of the Asiatic Society, no. 21 (06 1890), pp. 25–8.Google Scholar Baring-Gould and Bampfylde, A History of Sarawak, pp. 431–6;Google ScholarChew, Chinese Pioneers, pp. 44–7.Google Scholar

³⁵ For more detailed treatments of the land laws, see Porter, , Land Administration in Sarawak, and Evelyne Hong, Natives of Sarawak: Survival in Sarawak's Vanishing Forests (Penang: Institut Masyarakat, 1987).Google Scholar

³⁶ See Hose, E., ‘Notes from the Old Days’, Sarawak Museum Journal, vol X, nos 17–18 new series (07–12, 1961), pp. 108–10;Google ScholarTremeer, R. E., ‘The Early History of Rubber Planting in Sarawak, 1880–1910’, Sarawak Gazette, 21 03. 1964.Google Scholar

³⁷ James Brooke to Johnson, F. C., 06 1848, cited by Tarling, N., The Burthen, the Risk and the Glory: A Biography of James Brooke (Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press, 1982), p. 115.Google ScholarSee also Tremeer, ‘The Early History of Rubber Planting in Sarawak 1880–1910’Google Scholar.

³⁸ Sarawak Gazette, 16 08. 1909;Google Scholarand 1 10. 1909; Porter, Land Administration in Sarawak, p. 47. Annual Report Sarawak 1951, p.29.Google Scholar

³⁹ Pringle, Rajahs and Rebels, pp. 205–5; Sarawak Administration Report 1935, P. vi.Google Scholar

⁴⁰ See, for example, Annual Report, Department of Trade and Customs, 1926, pp. 1–3.Google Scholar

⁴¹ Editorial, Sarawak Gazette, 1 12. 1887.Google Scholar

⁴² Parnell, , ‘Sarawak—Its Resources and Trade’, Sarawak Gazette, 1 06 1923.Google Scholar

⁴³ Digby, Lawyer in the Wilderness, p. 33.Google Scholar

⁴⁴ The detailed rubber census undertaken in 1938 showed that all ‘natives’ including Muslims and pagans, owned 76,940 rubber holdings, totalling 101,000 acres while non-natives (Chinese and Europeans) owned 17,910 holdings, totalling 127,000 acres. Only 5 per cent of Sarawak's total rubber acreage was held by large estates. Sarawak, , Report on the Rubber Survey and Assessment (Kuching: Government Printing Office, 1938), Appendix D, cited in Pringle, Rajahs and Rebels, p. 338.Google Scholar

⁴⁵ Annual Report, Department of Trade and Customs, 1926, p. 3.Google Scholar

⁴⁶ Martine, T. C., ‘History of Borneo Company Limited’ from ‘Notes written to me when in Singapore (Changi Gaol) 1943–1944’.Google Scholar Some of the Residents and District Officers were opposed to participation in the scheme. See Digby, Lawyer in the Wilderness, p. 32.Google Scholar

⁴⁷ Sarawak Gazette, 1 06 1934.Google Scholar

⁴⁸ See Chew, Chinese Pioneers, pp. 173–4.Google Scholar

⁴⁹ Digby, Lawyer in the Wilderness, p. 32Google Scholar; see also Sarawak Gazette, 2 05 1938.Google Scholar

⁵⁰ Sarawak Gazette, 2 05 1938.Google Scholar

⁵¹ See Reece, Robert, The Name of Brooke: The End of White Rajah Rule in Sarawak (Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press, 1982), pp. 54–7.Google Scholar

⁵² Sarawak Gazette, 1 04 1895Google Scholar. Another was a tuba factory to process tuba root. This factory closed down in 1931. Sarawak Gazette, 1 02. 1932.Google Scholar

⁵³ See Hose, E., ‘Sarawak in the 1890s’, Sarawak Gazette, 30 June 1955.Google Scholar

⁵⁴ Sarawak Gazette, 30 06. 1961Google Scholar; see also Hose, C., The Field Book of a Jungle Wallah (London: H. F. & G. Witherby, 1929; reprinted Singapore: Oxford University Press, 1986), pp. 159–62.Google Scholar Charles Hose was to obtain another concession for a second venture in 1921. Sarawak Gazette, 1 04 1921.Google Scholar

⁵⁵ The principal shareholders were two American millionaires, Geolat and Vanderbilt, see Sarawak Gazette, 16 01. 1914Google Scholar; 1 July 1921, 1 June 1923 and ‘Sarawak Chronology’. When this Company failed in 1915, its concession was taken up by another company, Gouddy and Company and subsequently was taken by a third Company, Chicle Development Company in 1936. Sarawak Gazette, 30 09. 1961.Google Scholar

⁵⁶ See Longhurst, The Borneo Story, pp. 54, 65, 93, 109–110.Google Scholar See also Smythies, B. E., ‘History of Forestry in Sarawak’, Sarawak Gazette, 30 Sept. 1961.Google Scholar

⁵⁷ Smythies, ‘History of Forestry in Sarawak’.

⁵⁸ See Pringle, Rajahs and Rebels, p. 106 and Sarawak Gazette, 30 04 1880.Google Scholar

⁵⁹ The Malays preferred to pay an annual tax sum known as the ‘exemption tax’ because it freed them from unpaid government service.

⁶⁰ Sarawak Gazette, 1 02. 1898Google Scholar. In 1901, a detailed statement of the total number of prisoners employed from year to year for the period 1890 to 1891 (see below), revealed that on an average between 43 to 95 prisoners were employed daily by the Public Works Department.

⁶¹ Annual Report, Public Works and Survey Department 1901, in Sarawak Gazette, 2 09. 1903Google Scholar

⁶² Letter of Rajah Charles Brooke, 14 02. 1895, P. 231.Google Scholar [Sarawak Archives].

⁶³ Sarawak Gazette, 06 1882Google Scholar; see also Sarawak Gazette, 1 12. 1887.Google Scholar

⁶⁴ In 1886, the Chinese workers were given advances of between $25.60 and $30.00 and earned on an average between $8.00 and $10.00 per month. Sarawak Gazette, 2 11. 1886.Google Scholar H. Longhurst recounts the dangerous conditions under which Chinese labourers worked: ‘[At the Tegora quicksilver mine] … the workers were liable to the unpleasant experience known as ‘salivation’, a loosening of the teeth, and they had all their mouths bound up tightly under the chin. They had learnt by hard experience, for only a year or two previously Helms, on a visit of inspection to the same mine had had the manager inform him that a Chinaman wished to see him. ‘What does he want?’ he asked. ‘Oh, he's got all his teeth in a bit of paper’, said the manager … ‘. The Borneo Story, p. 58.Google Scholar

⁶⁵ Order dated 27 June 1876, cited in Sarawak Gazette, 1 02. 1894.Google Scholar

⁶⁶ Sarawak Gazette, 1 04 1919.Google Scholar

⁶⁷ Sarawak Gazette, 2 March 1914Google Scholar; 16 Jan. 1915. The workers on the oilfields received an average daily wage ranging from 45 cents to 80 cents depending on job description. See Daniel Chew, Chinese Pioneers, p. 196.Google Scholar

⁶⁸ See Sarawak Gazette, 16 01. 1912; 16 March 1917.Google Scholar

⁶⁹ ‘Report on the Indian Immigration Department, December 1897’ in Sarawak Gazette, 1 02. 1898Google Scholar; see also Sarawak Gazette, 1 06 1900.Google Scholar

⁷⁰ Sarawak Gazette, 3 01. 1928Google Scholar; the Indian workers earned less than the Chinese counterparts (Indian females were at the bottom of the rung) as shown below.

⁷¹ See Digby, Lawyer in the Wilderness, p. 33.Google Scholar In 1929, a Secretariat for Chinese Affairs was established, manned by Chinese-speaking English officials, to take over matters involving the Chinese community. See Chew, Chinese Pioneers, pp. 204–5.Google Scholar

⁷² The comparative wage payments for the different occupations were:

⁷³ The 1947 census classified the inhabitants of Sarawak as follows:

⁷⁴ See Sarawak Gazette, 1 07 1922Google Scholar; 12 April 1951; Sarawak Administration Report, 1935, P. 30Google Scholar; See also Digby, Lawyer in the Wilderness, p. 13.Google Scholar

⁷⁵ See A. Moy Thomas, ‘The Sarawak Government Railway’ Sarawak Gazette, 31 10. 1959Google Scholar and letter to the Editor dated 14 Oct. 1960 in Sarawak Gazette, 31 10. 1960Google Scholar; see also Sarawak Gazette, 17 05 1915.Google Scholar

⁷⁶ See K. Tregonning, ‘A History of the Straits Steamship Company—Sarawak’, Sarawak Gazette, 28 02. 1965Google Scholar; see also Sarawak Gazette, 1 02. 1897; 1 09. 1899.Google Scholar

⁷⁷ Charles’ wife divided her time between a house near Genoa and another at Ascot, near the races. See Payne, The White Rajahs, p. 136.Google Scholar

⁷⁸ Vyner Brooke, cited in Payne, The White Rajahs p. 179.Google Scholar

⁷⁹ Handbook of Sarawak 1949, p. 92.Google Scholar

⁸⁰ See Pringle, Rajah and Rebels, pp. 161–4Google Scholar; Crisswell, Rajah Charles Brooke, pp. 118–19.Google Scholar

⁸¹ Chew, Chinese Pioneers, Table 10.1, p. 213. In 1925, income from the revenue farms amounted to $1,307,488. Ibid., p. 214.

⁸² Reprinted in Sarawak Gazette, 30 April 1880. The figure was based on the 1877 ‘census’ which estimated Sarawak's population to be 222,000 and the government's expenditure of $197, 150 in 1878.Google Scholar

⁸³ For an interesting account of outstation life, see Ward, A. B., Rajah's Servant, Cornell University Southeast Asia Program, Data Paper No. 61 (Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 1966).Google Scholar

⁸⁴ He said, ‘I don't see what work he could find as a medical man alone—I don't think he would get a dozen patients a year in a healthy region such as Simanggang’. Charles Brooke to Bishop Hose [G. E. Hose], 15 07 1903, [Sarawak Archives].Google Scholar

⁸⁵ The number did not record the total incidence or the death rate of the disease, as the epidemic was particularly difficult to deal with. ‘Memorandum by the Principal Officer of Sarawak covering the Period 1922–1926’ Supplement to the Sarawak Gazette, 1 11. 1927, pp. xiii–xiv.Google Scholar

⁸⁶ Annual Report Sarawak 1947, pp. 51–2. 55–8.Google Scholar

⁸⁷ Pringle, ‘The Brookes of Sarawak’, pp. 71–2.Google Scholar

⁸⁸ ‘Chronology’ in the Sarawak Gazette, 31 07 1961.Google Scholar

⁸⁹ Reece, The Name of Brooke, pp. 47, 75–6, 122;Google ScholarTarling, N., ‘Britain and Sarawak in the Twentieth Century’ Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol. XLIII, no 2, 1970, pp. 42–44. See also Table 7.Google Scholar