184 THE CHIEFS BULAN 



and Batang Lupar rivers, an embassy sent by Mr. 

 Brooke from Sarawak in the end of 1845, I heard 

 this man declare, before several chiefs and many 

 people, that he would with his own hand kill the first 

 who committed piracy on the ocean, or in any way 

 departed from the wishes of Mr. Brooke ; several 

 other chiefs asserted the same, but we afterwards 

 heard that they were compelled ultimately to join the 

 war faction, by their people deserting to the villages 

 of the interior, whose chiefs were all of the opposite 

 party. 



Gasing, in this part of the Sakarran country, 

 is acknowledged to have very considerable influence, 

 if he has not lost it by his advocacy of peaceable 

 measures. Under him is a chief named Bulan, or 

 the moon ; he is called the war-chief, and directs all 

 the operations at the encounter of a hostile fleet or on 

 the attack of a village. He appeared to us a man 

 of but little intellect, who had attained his rank by 

 nothing but his bull-dog courage. During the council 

 above mentioned, he sat without taking the least notice 

 of the proceedings, and, as soon as it was over, came 

 to our boats to solicit cloths and handkerchiefs as 

 presents. This man once led an attack against Ban- 

 ting, the village of the Balow Dyaks, allies of Sarawak, 

 while his son and nephew were in our hands ; so that 

 judging, as he must have done, that his son and 

 nephew would be put to death by the Europeans, he 

 must have made up his mind to sacrifice them to his 

 passion for heads. 



