PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference -
TTILL CO. 882
COPYRENET PON
DISRAPHIC- NsNOT TO
8 PUBLIC OFINE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMION OF THEI
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he had now discovered that his contention that the Temenggong ought to be regarded as the ruler of the country was unsound, and possibly this discovery made him despair of getting the Trusan cession approved. In any case he took the matter into his own hands, and contending, as before, that the instructions given to Mr. Treacher did not apply, proceeded to the Trusan, hoisted the Sarawak flag (May 6th), and began to erect Government buildings.
On May 30th the Foreign Office telegraphed to Mr. Treacher the decision which had been reached in consultation with the Colonial Office. It was to the effect that, provided the Sultan consented, the Limbang and Trusan might be ceded to Sarawak, and certain other districts to the Company. In return Rajah Brooke was to for himself and his successors, not to part agree, with of his territory without the consent of
any Her Majesty's Government.
When they assented to this arrangement Her Majesty's Government believed that the cession of the Limbang and Trusan would merely have the result of advancing the Sarawak frontier from the Baram to the Trusan. This was not the case, as there was and is a considerable district under Brunei rule between Baram and the Limbang, and another between the Limbang and the Trusan, while a third, subsequently ceded to the Company, lay to the north-east of the Trusan, so that two strips of Sarawak territory would run up to the sea through Brunei. The Company pointed this out as soon as the decision was notified to them, but Her Majesty's Govern- ment declined to reconsider the arrangement.
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However, on the day before the telegram was sent the situation was materially altered by the death of Sultan Abdul Mohmin. The Temeng- gong succeeded without opposition. The office of Temenggong was not filled up, and, therefore, in accordance with Brunei custom that part of the Limbang which was kuripan of the Temeng- gong remained in the Sultan's hands. That part which had been tulin property of the deceased Sultan passed to his heirs, the Pengi- rans Bendahara, and Di Gadong.
The new Sultan appears to have immediately confirmed the cession, which he had made as Temenggong, of the Trusan district.
In January, 1886, Rajah Brooke signed an undertaking not to part with territory without the consent of Her Majesty's Government, thus fulfilling the last condition required to validate his occupation of the Trusan. The proposed cession of the Limbang, however, fell through as the Sultan now declined to part with it, basing
•The most important part of this district was handed over to Kajah Brooke by the Company in 1904 în exchange for the abandonment of certain rights which he possessed in other parts of their territory.
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his refusal on the "Umana," which in July, 1885, Rajah Brooke agreed to support, his object apparently being to prevent the Company from obtaining any more territory.
In the last mouths of 1885 Mr. Leys resumed duty as Consul-General, and immediately began
to work in the interests of Sarawak, being apparently influenced by hostility to the Com- pany and to Mr. Treacher personally. He asserted that the sole reason why the Limbang had not been ceded to Sarawak in Abdul Mohmin's time was that Mr. Treacher had frightened the old Sultan and Di Gadong with threats that, if it was ceded to anyone but the Company, the payments made to them by the Company would be stopped. He also accepted Rajah Brooke's view as to the position of the Temenggong as Regent and wished to ouncel concessions made to the Company on the ground of the late Sultan's imbecility, and as having been made without the Temenggong's knowledge. (This statement was proved to be incorrect, the fact being that the Temenggong had refused to affix his chop because the Company would not bribe him. His consent appears to have been unnecessary*according to Brunei custom.) After a long correspondence Her Majesty's Govern- ment decided that the concessions should be approved.
Meanwhile the Limbang was again unsettled. Some Brunei Malays were murdered in Novem ber, but the Limbangs, as a whole, denied responsibility and even offered to give up to the Sultan two men-who were certainly not the murderers. The Sultan refused the offer and expressed his intention of going up the river himself to seize the murderers. Though it does not appear that he actually tried to do so, his threat seems to have alarmned the Limbangs, who again broke off all intercourse with Brunei. If they had paid any taxes since their submission to the late Sultan-which is not clear-they stopped doing so now.
The administration of the district was now entrusted by the Sultan to Pengiran Di Gadong, who was for the moment on good terms with him, but his efforts to obtain the submission of the inhabitants were unsuccessful. They did go so far as to offer to pay a very small instalment of the taxes, but this was refused, and the situation grew worse, as the Sultan was still threatening an expedition against the rebels.
On June 10th, 1886, the Limbang headman held a meeting, and by a great majority voted that the Limbang country ought to come under the Government of the Queen or, failing that, of Sarawak. In view of Rajah Brooke's Occupation of the Trusan which cut them of from British North Borneo, they no longer wished, as in 1885, to come under the Company.
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