342 TWO YEARS IN THE JUNGLE. 



was ruled, or rather misruled, by the Rajah Muda Hassim and 

 his prime minister, Pangeran Makota, the greatest villain who ever 

 wore a sarong. Attached to these worthies and their immediate re- 

 lations was a swarm of reprobate Malay nobles (?) and lesser fol- 

 lowers, representing every degree of worthlessness and profligacy, 

 most of whom lived solely by officially plundering the people, and not 

 a few by covert piracy. The Dyaks were the only producers, and, 

 as such, the Malays considered them their lawful prey. Upon those 

 v/retched jungle-dwellers were practised every species of oppression, 

 extortion, and ojien robbery from the most brutal to the most re- 

 fined. To prevent any attempt at a combined resistance, the various 

 tribes were encouraged to wage murderous wars with each other, 

 which often led to the utter extermination of whole villages at a 

 single blow. In this way the short-sighted Malays more than once 

 destroyed their own sources of revenue. Head-hunting was the 

 chief business of life with the Dyaks ; and robbery was that of the 

 Malays. 



The degree of oppression patiently endured by the poor Dyaks 

 is almost incredible. The Malays, from time immemorial, have 

 regarded them as their natural bondsmen, heathens with no more 

 claims to consideration than oxen, with no inalienable rights even 

 to life. Therefore, in the first place, they were taxed first by the 

 local officers on account of the rajah, and then for the benefit of 

 the officers themselves. The jungle produce collected by the Dyaks 

 was monopolized, i.e., taken at a fixed price by the patingi, who 

 also claimed their mats, boats, fowls, and fruit at his pleasure, and 

 had the power to claim their services at whatever price suited his 

 convenience. When the rajah or the patingi had received all they 

 cared to extort, their relatives and immediate followers claimed the 

 right of forced trade, and gradually this privilege was extended to 

 every Malay in the territory. 



To the Dyaks this was a two-edged sword, which was wielded 

 in a very simple manner. The Pangeran Makota, for instance, would 

 send to a Dyak village an invoice of rice, cloth, gongs, iron, or salt 

 at a price from six to eight times their real value, and in payment 

 he would demand, at oue-eighth of its value, any produce the Dyaks 

 possessed. The profits from these transactions sometimes reached 

 as high as one thousand five hundred per cent, of the amount in- 

 vested. If the Dyak declared himself wholly without property^ 

 starving, and unable to pay, the reply would be : " Then give me 

 your wife, or your child ; " and there was generally sufficient power 



