112 DESCRIPTION OF SARAWAK. 



by the perseverance of Mr. Brooke into the prosperous 

 and peaceful state it now enjoys. 



The people of Sarawak (we are now speaking of the 

 viceroy, the Malays of the town), at the retirement of the 

 former Pangeran Makota, formed a population of about 

 2,000 souls. At present the town is supposed to contain 

 nearly 8,000 inhabitants ; this great and increasing 

 population having flocked from the misgoverned towns 

 along the coast to a settlement where their persons were 

 inviolate and their property secure. The town is situated 

 on the river of the same name, and was called by the 

 natives Kuching ; but the name of the river is now 

 universally employed also to designate the town. The 

 houses of the natives are built on each side of two 

 reaches of the river, and are divided into karapongs or 

 clusters, which are generally named after the chief or 

 other principal person about whose house the others 

 are collected ; they are also frequently named from 

 other circumstances, as the ' kampong bharu,' or the 

 new kampong, and the c kampong Pa-mutus' or the 

 kampong inhabited by the people who settled here 

 from Pa-mutus in the Batang Lupar river, on its 

 destruction by Captain Keppel. 



The Chinese occupy a kampong on the bank of the 

 river, opposite to the residences of the Europeans, which 

 occupy hills on the left bank. The fort is a six-gun bat- 

 tery, commandingthe reach immediately belowthe town, 

 being situated ontheright-hand bank, below the Chinese 

 houses : it is garrisoned by twenty-five Malays under 

 the command of a native officer formerly in the Ceylon 



