The pagan tribes of Borneo - Get a Free Blog Here

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26 PAGAN TRIBES OF BORNEO chap.
had with difficulty preserved from the vengeance
of the Bruni nobles, insisted upon it with some
show of force ; and
on September 24, 1841, he was
proclaimed Rajah and governor of Sarawak amid
the rejoicings of the populace. Muda Hasim, as
representative of the Sultan, signed the document
which conferred this title and authority ; but since
he was not in any proper sense Rajah of Sarawak,
which in fact was not a raj, but a district hitherto
ruled or misruled by Bruni governors not bearing
the title of Rajah, this transaction cannot properly
be described as an abdication by Muda Hasim in
favour of Brooke. Brooke accordingly felt that it
was desirable to secure from the Sultan himself a
formal recognition of his authority and title. To
this end he visited the Sultan in the year 1842, and
obtained from him the desired confirmation of the
action of his agent Muda Hasim. The way in
which the raj of Sarawak has since been extended,
until it now comprises a territory of nearly 60,000
square miles (approximately equal to the area of
England and Wales), will be briefly described in a
later chapter (XXH.).
The northern end of Borneo had long been a
hunting-ground for slaves for the nobles of Bruni
and Sulu, whose Sultans claimed but did not
exercise the right to rule over it. In 1877 Mr.
Alfred Dent, a Shanghai merchant, induced the
two Sultans to resign to him their sovereign
rights over this territory in return for a money
payment. The British North Borneo Company,
which was formed for the commercial development
of it, necessarily undertook the task of pacification
and administration. In 1881 the company
was granted a royal charter by the British Govern-
ment ;
and it now administers with success and
a fair prospect of continued commercial profit a
territory which, with the exception of a small