The Sun.
London, England, 1850-07-13 00:00:00

BORNEO.

Mr. HUNIE then said he had to bring forward a sub-
ject connected with the cAuse of humanity and the cha-
racter of this c.enitry. He rose to move an Address to
her Majesty to appoint a Royal Commission t inquire
in'o the causes which hal led, since the sear 1841, to
the employment of the naval and military forces of her
Majesty and the Hon. East India Company on the north-
western coast of the island of Borneo, and which re-
sulted in a heavy loss of life on the part of certain native
tribes of that island, called Sareb is and Sakerran, re-
puted to be pirates. In a dispatch of Captain Parker,
dated the 27th of June, 1849, he detailed the proceed-
ings with her Majesty's ships of war in attacking the
natives on the west coast of Borneo, whom he desig-
nated pirates. Upwards of 1,500 natives were killed in
the action, and more than 1,000 were destroyed after
the action, without the loss c f one man on the part of
the troops. It was extraordinary that her Majesty's
troops and the East India Company's forces
should be employed to carry destruction and
death to such an extent without the House being
able to know in what character the interference
was to be considered. He was aware that the attack
was stated to have been against pirates, but no act of
piracy was proved against those who were massacred, as
ho thought, in cold blood. What right had we to deal
thus with these natives? for that they had iutcrmeddled
with us there was no proof. In 1813 some of her Ma-
jesty's ships had destroyed various Dyd; towns, and he
wanted te know under what authority that aei!ressien
was perpetuated. la 1844 Sir 11. Pottinger had ad-
dressed a letter to Sir T. Cochrane desiring him not to
attack alleged pirates, as there was the greatest diffi-
culty, on account of their not being acquainted with the
language, in ascertaining wbo were or were not pirates;
and, although that was apparently limited to the coast of
China, directions were given to her Majesty's ships in
those seas not to attack alleged pirates, unless it was
known that they had committed an act of piracy, or in-
structions were given by an admiral on the station. He
had no doubt there were some pirates, but they were
few; whilst it was very doubtful whether her Majesty's
ships had not destroyed some of the royal fleet of
China. But, notwithstanding the directions which had
been given to her Majesty's ships, on the 31st of July
last a squadron under Captain Parker, and acting under
the orders of Sir J. Brooke, did attack a fleet
of the Bornese, and Sir C. Rowlinson, Chief Justice of
Prince Edward's Island, said that not one single person
was brought before the Court to prove that any act
of piracy had been committed by the persons who were
so attacked. Sir C. Rawlinson issued a commission to
determine whether the persons massacred were pirates,
and the commission was addressed to Sir J. Brooke, the
individual who had perpetrated the massacre. Sir J.
Brooke alleged that he acted under the orders of Sir F.
Collier, but he (Mr. Hume) had vainly endeavoured to
obtain a copy of those orders horn the Government.
He was informed that Sir F. Collier had, in a letter,
expressed disapprobation of the transaction, and re-
ferred to the persons destroyed as" alleged" pirates. It
was not his intention to deny that some of the men
killed were pirates. A party had gone eastward on a
piratical expedition; but they were not engaged in
acts of piracy against the English. They had been
plundered a few years ago by the party against whom
they sailed. It was not his intention to jus-
tify plundering expeditions under any circum-
stauces; but he did not approve of the inter-
ference of British ships between native tribes. On the
return of the expedition it was attacked and destroyed
by our ships of war. (Here the Hon. Member gave a
description of the attack upon the pirates, and the pro-
ceedings subsequently adopted by the British forces, the
details of which have already been more than once given
to the public. He also read extracts from a work pub-
lished by a Mr. Low, in 1848, and from a journal writ-
ten by Mr. Brooke in 1840, with the view of showing
that the inhabitants of the western coast of Borneo
were a comparatively inoffensive race of people.) Of
these transactions there were other accounts than those
to which he had called the attention of the House; he
held in his hand the account of Mr. Vigors, who accom-
panied the expedition; and he described the English
forces as having been for a very considerable time in
ambush, where they remained in position till the end
of the month, when, at seven o'clock in the evening, a
spy- hoat returced with the long-wished for in-
telligence that the pirates were at length within
their power. The Nemesis immediately attacked the
enemy, which speedily fell an easy prey, grape and ca-
nister having been discharged with fearful effect; and
after all this Sir J. Brooke was called upon by the judge
to prove the commission of acts of piracy, and he did so
by his own affidavits. At present there was a gentle-
man in London prepared to contradict the statements
that had been made in extenuation of the conduct of
Sir J. Brooke, and who wrote to Lord J. Russell and to
the late Sir Robert Peel, the latter of whom,
in his reply, said he trusted that the Govern-
ment would make an immediateinquiry into
the circumstances referred to by the writer
of the letter in the paper which he had addressed to the
First Lord of the Treasury, but that he (Sir R. Peel)
should, for his own part, feel bound to suspend his judg-
ment on the proceedings of Sir James Brooke until all
the facts were fully brought under the tiotice of Parlia-
ment. Now, there was nothing before the House, nor in
any papers or documents accessible to him, which went to
show that the naval officer on this station had not acted
without orders. He contended that to massacre these
people was not only barbarous and inhuman, but it was
inconsistent with the law of nations and of treaties. He
thought he had said enough to show that some inquiry
was necessary, and he hoped that the Government would
direct their attention to the subject. He held that these
so called pirates had no mere right to be hunted as they
had been, and put to death, than he had, for though they
bad been carrying on war against other tribes in the
same islands, they had done nothing to justify their
being proceeded against as pirates. The lion. Gentle-
man the Member for West Surrey (Mr. H. Drummond)
hal alluded on a former occa,ion to Mr. Wise.
Mr. DEW AMON D—l did not name him.

Mr. HUME—Mr.W. ise was a pDlitical agent, and when
he saw the accounts in the new,papers on this subject he
was astonished. He wrote to Lord John Russell, but
though that letter had been asked for it had not been
produced. He also wrote to Sir R. Peel, with whom
much correspondence took place on the subject of the
settlement of the Island of Labuan, and this was the
answer of that eminent statesman:—

" Whitehall, Nov. 28, 1849.
" Sir,—l thank you for the communication with which
you have favoured me. I trust that her Majesty's Govern-
ment will feel it to be their imperative duty to make an
immediate and complete inquiry into those circumstances
vrhi h have induced you to address yourself to the First
Lord of the Treasury. I read with great pain the as-
count of the transactions to which you refer, but shall
suspend a final judgment upon the proceedings adopted
by Sir James Brooke against some of the Dyaks in Bor-
neo until fuller explanations with regard to them be
given.-1 am, Sir, your obedient servant.
(Signed) " R. PEEL.
" Henry Wise, Esq., 34, Cornhill."
He had waited in vain to obtain the dispatches under
could
hearths.
understand
which Captain Farquhar acted, and as fir as they had
as yet any information, there was 2otbing to show that
he had acted witnout orders. He held, that without
any proof of acts of piracy, from 1,000 to 2,000 people
had been destroyed; aid that not only on board their
' y
prahus, but they had been followed up the rivers and
h
Sir, J.
aßd r oboelseel
withoutu
owncou
in the habit of carrying on these razzias upon en un-
il e d to n
n death
right e
thatt their
h e
offending people since 1843, and he (Mr. Hume) felt
bound to avail himself of every opportunity of r te t" p o s ing
against such proceedings on the part of any
representa-
tive of this country. If these prahus had interfered
with our commerce, or alticked our vessels, he
could
understand that there might have been some justifica-
tion for the course Sir J. Brooke had taken, but thus to
follow up and destroy a people who were
sound of fire-arms reflected anything but honour to this
country. The Hon. Member concluded by •
moving his
amendment as above stated.
Mr. COBDEN seconded the motion.
Mr. PLO WDEN felt he should not discharge his pub-
lic duty if he were deterred by private considerations
from bringing before the House any information which
his acquaintance with the Indian seas enabled him to
furnish, and this he felt to be the more necessary when
he recollected thet an honourable and gallant profession
had been spoken of with extreme and entirely unde-
served harshness, and that another distinguished indi-
vidual had been charged with offences amounting to
murder, although his exertions had been of the most
praiseworthy character, full of patriotic zeal for the
public service and of the noblest exertions to improve
the commerce of England. Such a man must be re-
garded as a great public benefactor. He had himself, in
the voyages which he made, frequently visited the Indian
Archipelago, and he could of his own knowledge state
that all those coasts were infested with pirates of the
most sanguinary character. Nothing but the fear of
European power restrained them from continued
acts of the utmost enormity. Although the
vessels in which he sailed were of that great size
which rendered an attack of Bornean pirates not likely to
succeed, they nevertheless found it necessary to maintain
a constant watch during the whole of that which had,
owing to those pirates, beets rendered a most intricate
and dangerous navigation. If by any accident a vessel
struck upon a coral reef, she was immediately attacked,
and such would always be the case so long as
.those men
were allowed to exist. As to the conduct of Sir James
.Brooke, he must say that nothing could be more incon-
sistent with the character for humanity which he had
always borne than to suppose that he had sanctioned any
acts of cruelty whatever. There were several papers
before the House which showed clearly that these Dyaks
were guilty of the most enormous cruelties, and if any
further proof of this were required he might call their at-
tention to observations and statements upon this subj-ct
which appeared in a journal called the Frieridof
where the writer complained of the proceedings of
the Abarigines Protection Society, the members of
which had endeavoured to get up an outcry against
Sir James Brooke on account of the well-merited
chastisement which he infixed on pirates, who, is al-
lowed to continue their depredations, would soon put an
end to the peaceful pursuits of industry. The Friend of
Lelia further proceeded to say, that it was necessary
for England to teach that pirivical community a lesson
which neither they nor their descendants would readily
forgot. The English were the paramount naval power
in the east, and the commerce of that district looked to us
for protection. England maintained the maritime police
of those was; a distinguished individual had greatly
contributed to the success of that police, and now, instead
of crowning him with a wreath of honour, they were
threatening him with a prosecution. If civilization and
commerce were to be extended and promoted in the
eastern seas, the best mode of effecting these objects
would be by putting down with a strung arm the pi-
ratical tribes who infested those seas.—(llear, hear.)
Away, then, with the sentimenta • lity which was enlist-
ing the mind and feelings of Englishmen against in-
dividuals who, in the discharge sof a stern ann painful)