Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: June 5, 2025
I found many Malays gathered in the writer's house, all to entreat me not to go to Kuching, because it was "not a lucky day." "If the Malays fight the Chinese to-day," they said, "they will be beaten." "What reason have you for saying so?" "No reason exactly, but the day is unlucky; it is like Friday to the English, they never go to sea on that day."
The captain talked as though he had some scheme in his head which he was not yet prepared to unfold to his companions. But what could he do? Nothing had been said on board of the ship about coming back to Sarawak for the hunters, and to give up hunting and exploring would be simply to return to Kuching, and idle away the time for the next two weeks.
On the War-Path in Borneo. The "Orang-utan" and the "Man of the Jungle" Voyage to Sarawak The Borneo Company, Limited Kuching, a Picturesque Capital Independence of Sarawak I meet the Rajah and the Chief Officials Etiquette of the Sarawak Court The "Club" The "Rangers" of Sarawak and their Trophies Execution by means of the Long Kris Degeneracy of the Land Dayaks Ascent of the Rejang River Mud Banks and Crocodiles Dr.
The Resident's and fortmen's quarters are reached by a ladder inside the fort about eight feet high, while the ground floor is used as a kitchen, rice-store, &c. Fort Brooke is garrisoned by sixteen Malays, and armed with six nine-pounders. All forts in Sarawak are built of the same materials and on the same model as the above, excepting that at Kuching, which is of stone, and much larger.
There is a breath of war on the islands. Shall I live long enough to see? . . . Ah, Tuan!" he went on, more quietly, "the old times were best. Even I have sailed with Lanun men, and boarded in the night silent ships with white sails. That was before an English Rajah ruled in Kuching. Then we fought amongst ourselves and were happy. Now when we fight with you we can only die!" He rose to go.
One of the principal kunsi was killed in this affair, and some say that Kamang, the leader of the attack on the 18th of February, lost his head to the Sakarran Dyaks. This success was matter of great rejoicing at Kuching. Two days afterwards they heard that Baleda Fort was deserted by the Chinese. Mr. Johnson went up and found it quite empty; Seniawan too, and soon after Bau also.
At Kuching, during the last thirty years, the average yearly rainfall has been 160 inches, the maximum 225, and the minimum 102 inches; the maximum monthly fall recorded was 69 inches, and the minimum .66, and the greatest rainfall recorded in one day was 15 inches. Thunder-storms are frequent and severe, but wind-storms are not commonly of any great violence.
After an absence of nearly two years, during which he visited Celebes, and other parts of the Archipelago, Brooke returned to Sarawak on August 29th, 1840, only to find the country in a worse state than ever, for, encouraged by their repeated successes, the enemy had advanced to within thirty miles of Kuching.
A plunge in the large Astana swimming-bath at dawn began the day; after which, our light breakfast of coffee, eggs, and fruit over, we would go across river for a ride or stroll out with a gun; and during my morning's walk past the neat town and bungalows, the latter surrounded with their pretty gardens and trim hedges, I often thought of what poor old Muda Hasim would think could he arise from his grave and compare Kuching the modern with the Kuching of forty years ago half a dozen Malay houses on a mud bank!
Boats full of Dyaks continually arrived, to join the Rajah's force Balows, Sarebas, and Sakarrans lay side by side on the river, all excited by the prospects of war, and frequently causing silly panics among the Malays of Linga, lest these warriors, from tribes so long enemies, should fall out with one another before they got to Kuching.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking