116 THE NAKODAHS OR MERCHANTS OF SARAWAK. 



are of great respectability, and though without any 

 definite place in the councils, are always allowed 

 to give an opinion have their properties secured to 

 them, which were previously taken from them by their 

 rajahs ; and of what these, their principal oppressors, 

 left, their followers despoiled them. 



During the residence of the Pangeran Makota at 

 Sarawak, and generally under the native princes, their 

 wives and daughters were frequently taken from the 

 respectable classes of the people to gratify the passions 

 of these tyrants. On the return of the rajahs to Bruni, 

 a great number of women, daughters of the chiefs and 

 most respectable people of Sarawak, were left behind 

 with their own families at Mr. Brooke's request. This 

 favour was obtained for the parents with difficulty from 

 the rajahs, who prefer the women of the Sarawak as 

 concubines before the women of the north, those of 

 the western parts of the island being more fair and 

 beautiful from their mixture with the Dyak races. 

 The nakodahs of Sarawak are now men of wealth and 

 traders on a large scale, some of the boats recently 

 built being as large as 100 tons. They sail annually to 

 Singapore, carrying sago and the other productions of 

 the coast, which they exchange for European goods, 

 Javanese cloths, and brass-work, and the coarse basins 

 and earthenware manufactured in China, and brought 

 down by the junks. Until within very recent times, 

 none of these people would have been known to possess 

 money sufficient to build a boat, knowing that it would 

 assuredly have been taken from them. Their improved 



