270 PAGAN TRIBES OF BORNEO chap. 



locality ; several Malay or Chinese clerks ; and 

 generally some two or three ''native officers." The 

 last are Malays of the aristocratic class resident in 

 the district ; they are appointed by the Rajah on 

 the recommendation of the Resident and receive a 

 regular salary. Their duties are to assist the 

 Resident in his police-court work, to hold special 

 courts for the settlement of purely Malay cases of 

 a domestic nature, and to take charge of the station 

 in the absence of the Resident and his assistant. 



The prime duty of the Resident is to preserve 

 order in his district and to punish crimes of violence. 

 But he is responsible also for every detail of 

 administration, including the collection of taxes and 

 customs duties, the settlement of disputes, and the 

 hearing of complaints of all kinds, the furnishing of 

 reports to the central government on all matters of 

 moment, the development of trade and the protec- 

 tion of traders, especially the inoffensive Chinese ; 

 and above all, in the newer districts, it is his duty 

 to gain the confidence of the chiefs of the wilder 

 tribes, and to lead them to accept the Sarawak flag 

 and the benefits of the Rajah's government, in 

 return for the small poll-tax required of them. It is 

 well recognised by the Rajah and his officers that 

 the success of a Resident depends primarily upon 

 his acquiring intimate knowledge of the people and 

 establishing and maintaining good relations with 

 them ; and with this end in view every Resident is 

 expected to be familiar not only with the Malay 

 language, which is the official language of the 

 country, as well as in some measure a common 

 medium of communication between the chiefs of the 

 various tribes, but also with one or more of the 

 other languages spoken in his district. The head- 

 quarters of the Resident are usually the fort, or a 

 small residency built not far from it in the lower 

 reaches of the chief river of his district. Here a 



