The Pleasantville press. (Pleasantville, N.J.) 1912-1929, 1923-10-10
RAJAH BROOKE
A. D. 1871

Borneo Is a hot forest about hvt
hundred miles long. and as wide. in
habited by connoisseurs called Dyaks
keen collectors. They collect human
heads and some of their pieces are SAID
to be very valuable. They are a happy
little folk, with most amusing manners
and customs. Here Is their ritual for
burial Of the dead:
when a man dies his friends and
relations meet In the house and take
their usual seats around the room. The
deceased is then brought in. attired In
his best clothes. with a cigar fixed in
his mouth and. being placed on the
mat in the same manner as when alive,
his betel box is set by his side. The
friends go through the form Of con-
versing with him. and offer him the
best advice concerning his future pro-
ceedlngs, and then. having Toasted, the
body is deposited in a large coffin and
kept in the house for several months"
The habits of the natives have been
lnterfered with by the Malays, who
conquered most of them and carved
their island up into kingdoms mose or
less civilized, but not managed at all
in the interest of the Dyaks. These
Kingdoms were decayed and tumbling
to pieces when the Dutch came in to
help, and helped themselves to the
whole of Borneo except the northwest
part. They pressingly invited them
selves there also, but the MALAY. rajah
kept putting them off with all sorts of
polite III
While the rajah's minister was run
ming short of xcuse to delay the
Dutch an English yacht arrived in
Sarawak. Tie owner was a Mr.. James
Brooke, who had been an officer in the
East India company, but being hit with
a slug in the lungs during the first
Burma war, was retired with a pension
OF seventy pounds for wounds. After
ward he came into a fortune of thirty
thousand pounds. took to yachting.
travelled a great deal In search of ad-
venture, and so in 1889 arrived IN Sara
wax on the lookout tor trouble.
An Englishman of gentle birth is
naturally expected to tell the truth. To
be clean in all his dealings. 10 keep
his temper, and not to show his fears.
The rajah sought his advice in dealing
with the Dutch, the Dyaks and the pi-
rates. The Malays, Dyaks, pirates and
everybody else consulted him as to
their dealings with the rajah. On his
seco I'd visit lie took a boats crew
from his yacht and went TO the seat Of
war. There he tried 10 the verge of
tears to persuade the hostile forces
either to fight or make friends, and
when nobody could be induced TO do
anything at all. he. with his boats
crew md one native warrior, stormed
the Dyak position. putting the enemy
to total rOut and flight. Luckily, no.
body was hurt, for even a cut finger
would have spoiled the perfect blood
lessness of Brooke's victory. Then the
Dyaks surrendered TO Brooke. After
ward the pirate feet appeared at the
capital, not to attack the rajah, but 10
be inspected by Brooke. and when he
had patted the pirates they went away
to purr. Moreover. the rajah offered to
hand over his kingdom to Brooke as
manager. and the EngliShman expected
him to keep his word. Brooke brought
a shipload Of stores in payment for a
cargo of manganese, but the rajah was
SO ~contented with that windfall that be
forgot to send to his mines for the ore.
Further up the coast a British ship
was destroyed by lightning and her
crew got ashore. where they We're held
as captives pending a large ransom
Even when the captains wife had q
baby the local bigwig Whereabouts saw
a new chance Of plumber and stole the
baby-clothes. Then the shipwrecked
mariners sent a letter to Brooke, APP
pealing for his help; but nothing on
earth could induce the ~spineless. bone
less rajah to send the relief he had
promised. Then Brooke wrote to Sing
apore. whence the East India company
dispatched a warship which rescued
the forty castaways-
The rajah's next performance was to
arrange for a percentage with two
thousand. five hundred robbers who
proposed to plumber and massacre his
own subjects. Brooke from his yacht
stampeded the raiders with a few
rounds from the big gIns-blank, of
course. Brooke was getting rather
hard up, and could not spare ball am
munition on weekdays.
So King Muda Hassim lied, cheated,
stole, betrayed, and occasionally muir
dered-a mean rogue. abject, eringing
to Brooke, weeping at the English
mans threats TO depart, holding his
throne so long as the white yacht gave
him prestige: but ali this with pomp
and circumstance. display of gems and
gold, a gorgeous ~retinue, plenty of mu-
sic and royal Salutes on the very slight
est pretext. But all the population was
given ver Il rapine and slaughter. and
the forest was closing in on ruined
farms. The last and only hope Of the
nation was in Brooke.
Behind every evil in the state was
Makota. the prime minister, "A polite
and gentlemanly rascal. and ut the end
of two years he annoyed Brooke quite
seriously b. putting arsenic in the in
terpreter's rice. Brooke cleared his
ship for aefiOa and, with a landing