Chapter 3

HARD TIMES BEGIN

FOR MANY more years the people of North Borneo seen to have lived together very peacefully although perhaps not very happily. The Sultans of Bruneisent out governors to many district. They were not usually good governors, unfortunately; often they wanted only to take the produce of the natives whom they ruled. The native tribespeople were good workers, content to look after their farms and houses and live a peaceful life. However, much of their work was now done only to enrich their rulers from Brunei. A great number of people from the Malay peninsula had by this time settled in Brunei. Many of the governors of North Borneo were Malay in speech and customs.

The Sultan was by this time the overlord of the Kinabatangan Chinese. Therefore his rule extended over Sarawak, Brunei, Labuan and North Borneo, a large territory. His domains were so extensive that travellers began to call the whole huge island Berunai (or "Borneo" in English), while the area which we now call Brunei was known as Brunei Proper, that is the real Brunei.

From that time onwards we know much more about North Borneo. You have probably heard of the great navigator Magellan and his voyage around the world in his ship the victoria. Magellan himself did not live to see the end of the voyage which he organized. He knew, howert ever, that it was successful, for although he had sailed west from Europe his Malay servant was able to talk with the people of a group of islands which he reached after a long, perilous voyage. Therefore Magellan knew that he was near the Malay peninsula, although he had sailed away from it. In fact he had reached the Philippine Islands, and there he met his death. The Victoria sailed on and reached Brunei in 1521. It is a pity Magellan was no longer with his men; he might have stopped them behaving so badly in Brunei, for they behaved very badly indeed. Tat visit marks the first time that we have a carefully written account of something that happened in our history.(For Brunei's history at that time is our history too.)

The Victoria sailed into a good harbour in Brunei Bay. All her crew were very surprised to see such a large town in such a remote country. They thought that there must be 25,000 families living in the town. That would make a total population of well over 100,000 people or a third of present population of our land of Sabah. Perhaps it was another case of explorers' exaggeration! Or perhaps the sailors' arithmetic was bad. We can at least certainly belive that Brunei in 1521 was a very large town. It was a very exciting town too. Nearly all the houses and shops were built on posts over the water, as many of our coastal villages are today. But if the town was so huge, then it must have been a strange sight indeed to see so many people drifting along the streets in boats doing their shopping.

There were elephants too. Some of the Victoria's officers mounted the elephants and rode off to the Sultan's palace which was built on high land. When the officers saw the palace, they must have decided that the tales of wealth of Borneo were quite true. In front of it were no less than fifty six beautiful brass cannon. Other big guns were made of iron. Inside the palace were hundreds of courtiers and servants. They were dressed simply in ornamented loin-cloths but they had so many jewels that even their knives were studded with precious stones. The Sultan's personal bodyguard was made up of no less than 300 men, all armed with swords.

The spanish officers were not allowed to speak to the Sultan, although they could see him at the other end of a great room. They had to speak to a courtier near them; he passed the message on to a person of higher rank; this person spoke to a yet higher courtier, and finally the message reached the Governor's brother. Even he could not speak to the Sultan!

There was a thin partition between him and the Sultan and his chief advisers. A hollow bamboo tube was built into this partition so that it passed from one side to the other; a chief adviser put his ear to one end of the tube, while the Governor's brother spoke into the other end. The adviser in his turn repeated the message, until in the end it reached the Sultan! Needless to say his reply went back to Spaniards in the same way. What a long conversation it must have been!

We do not know how many hours it took to finish such a strange conversation. We do know, however, that the Sultan was dignified and friendly. He accepted the gifts which the officers gave him on behalf of the King o Spain and gave them gifts in return. He also assured them of his friendship.

In spite of this there was trouble before the Spanish expedition left Brunei. They said that the Bruneis were plotting against them; this was probably untrue and nothing more than an excuse for what the Spaniards did next. They seized boats containing valuable cargoes and kidnapped sixteen chiefs as well. Then they sailed the South China Sea along the coast of Borneo. capturing ships and people as they went. For over a month they terrorized traders, plundering wherever they found an opportunity. This is the first record we have of piracy on a large scale in Borneo waters, although probably it was not unknown before on a small scale.

Even now it has not been completely stamped out in the islands off the east coast. The year 1521 was therefore a sad one for Borneo.

QUESTIONS