DEE SEE DeAKS OF BORNEO 
bring home, each man of them, the 
ghastly trophy of a human head, and 
thus gain favor in the eyes of the Dyak 
girls. In these expeditions many were 
killed and many taken captive, to be the 
slaves of the conquerors. 
Many of the Sea Dyaks joined the 
Malays in their piratical attacks upon 
trading boats. It was the practice of the 
Malay pirates and their Dyak allies to 
wreck and destroy every vessel that came 
near their shores, to murder most of the 
crew who offered any resistance, and to 
make slaves of the rest. The Malay fleet 
consisted of a large number of long 
war-boats, or prahus, each about 90 or 
more feet long, and carrying a brass gun 
in the bows, the pirates being armed 
with swords and spears and muskets. 
Each boat was paddled by from 60 to 80 
men. These terrible craft skulked about 
in the sheltered coves waiting for their 
prey, and attacked merchant vessels 
making the passage between China and 
Singapore. These piratical raids were 
often made with the secret sanction of 
the native rulers, who obtained a share 
of the spoil as the price of their conni- 
vance. 
The Dyaks gladly joined the Malays 
in these expeditions, not only for the 
sake of obtaining booty, but because they 
could thus indulge in their favorite pur- 
suit, and gain glory for themselves by 
bringing home human heads to decorate 
their houses with. The Dyak bangkongs 
were long boats capable of holding as 
many as 80 men. They often had a flat 
roof, from which the warriors fought, 
while their comrades paddled below. 
Both the piracy and the terrible cus- 
tom of head-hunting were put down by 
Sir James Brooke. The romantic story 
of how he came to be the first Rajah of 
Sarawak may here be briefly recalled. 
James Brooke was born on April 20, 
1803. His father was a member of the 
civil service of the East India Company, 
and spent a great many years in India. 
Following in his father’s footsteps, he 
entered the company’s service, and was 
sent out to India in 1825. Not long after 
his arrival he was put in command of a 
699 
regiment of soldiers and ordered to Bur- 
mah, where he took part in the Burmese 
War; and, being dangerously wounded 
in an engagement, was compelled to re- 
turn home on furlough. For over four 
years his health prevented him from re- 
joining his regiment, and when at last he 
started, the voyage out was so protracted, 
through a shipwreck and other misfor- 
tunes, that his furlough had expired be- 
fore he was able to reach his destination. 
His appointment consequently lapsed, 
and he quitted the service in 1830. 
In that same year he made a voyage 
to China, and was struck by the natural 
beauty and fertility of the islands of the 
Indian Archipelago and horrified with 
the savagery of the tribes inhabiting 
them, who were continually at war with 
one another and engaged in a monstrous 
system of piracy. He conceived the 
grand idea of rescuing them from bar- 
barism, and of extirpating piracy in the 
Eastern Archipelago. 
On the death of his father he inherited 
the sum of £30,000, and found himself 
in a position to carry out his schemes. 
He bought and equipped a yacht, the 
Royalist, and for three years he cruised 
about, chiefly in the Mediterranean, 
training his crew of 20 men for the 
arduous work that lay before them. 
On October 27, 1838, he sailed from 
the Thames on his great adventure, trav- 
eled slowly on the long journey round 
the Cape of Good Hope, and arrived in 
Singapore in 1839. Here he met a ship- 
wrecked crew, who had lately come from 
Borneo. They said they had been kindly 
treated by Muda Hassim, a native rajah 
in Borneo, and they asked Mr. James 
Brooke to take presents and letters of 
thanks to him, if he should be going 
thither in his yacht. 
Mr. Brooke had not decided which of 
the many islands of the Eastern Archi- 
pelago he would visit, and he was as 
ready to go to Borneo as to any other. 
So, setting sail, he made his way up the 
Sarawak River, and anchored off Ku- 
ching on August 15, 1839. The country 
was nominally under the rule of the 
Sultan of Brunei, but his uncle, Rajah 
Muda Hassim, was then the greatest 
