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ITS PRINCIPAL NATIVE CHIEF. 113 



rifle regiment. Their business is very light, their 

 principal duty being to hail and report every boat 

 which passes the fort during the twenty-four hours : 

 they are armed with muskets and bayonets, and have 

 barracks adjoining the fort : they are each paid six 

 Spanish dollars per month, and found with a certain 

 portion of rice ; the jemadar and corporal having pro- 

 portionately higher pay. 



The town is governed by three native chiefs called 

 Dattus, whose authority is derived from the rajah 

 for the time being ; though their office is not strictly 

 hereditary, the son of a chief, if he be of age, and 

 otherwise fitted to conduct the business of the office, 

 usually succeeding his father ; or, if the deceased 

 chieftain has not children of the requisite age, ano- 

 ther relation is appointed, who enjoys it for life ; 

 but, on his decease, it reverts to the family of his 

 predecessor. 



The principal native chief of Sarawak is styled 

 Dattu Patingi Gappur ; he is a fine character, and 

 high in the confidence of Mr. Brooke, to whose 

 intercession he owes his life, forfeited to the Rajah 

 Mudah Hassim on account of his having been one 

 of the chief rebels in the Seniawan war. It was 

 with great difficulty that Mr. Brooke prevailed upon 

 the rajah to spare the lives of this and the other 

 chieftains, although, when they had submitted, he had 

 stipulated for them. The Dattu Patingi was one 

 of the greatest sufferers by the oppression of the 

 Pangeran Makota, the pafigeran having seized all his 



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