All those who frequent the sea-shore lead a life of constant peril from roving Dayaks and treacherous Malays, and Illanuns and Balaninis, the regular pirates. It is a life of watchfulness, hide-and-seek, and fight or flight, and in the course of each year many lose their lives or their liberty.
This is the country I have taken upon myself to govern with small means, few men, and, in short, without any of the requisites which could insure success; I have distraction within and intrigue abroad, and I have the weakest of the weak,[97] a rotten staff to depend upon for my authority.
To add to his troubles, the season was one of famine following on intestine troubles. So poor were the people, that, again to quote the Rajah: "daily, poor wretches in the last stage of starvation float down the river, and crawl to my house to beg a little, little rice."
One of the first acts of the Rajah was to obtain the return to their families of the women and children of the late rebel Malay chiefs, who had been detained by Hasim now for nine months. He then recalled the Sarawak Malays, who, after submission to Hasim, had retired with their chiefs to distant parts, not trusting the good faith of their Malay Rajah and his right-hand man, Makota. The Bruni datus appointed by the former Governor were displaced, and the old Sarawak Malay datus, who had been in rebellion against the Bruni Government, and who owed their lives to Rajah Brooke's intercession, were reinstated, and in their families the offices remain to this day. Who these chiefs were at that time there seems to exist some doubt, with the exception of the premier datu, the Datu Patinggi Ali, who fell gallantly fighting for the Government three years after he had been reinstated, and the Datu Temanggong Mersal. The old Datu Bandar, Rancha, had died before this, and no one appears to have succeeded him directly, but Datu Patinggi Ali's son-in-law, Haji Abdul Gapur, and his son Muhammad Lana, evidently held office of some kind as native chiefs. On the Datu Patinggi's death, Haji Gapur succeeded him in office, and Muhammad Lana became the Datu Bandar. When Haji Gapur was dismissed in 1854, another son of the Datu Patinggi Ali, Haji Bua Hasan, was made the Imaum, and a few years afterwards Datu Imaum, but no one was then, or has since been, appointed to the office of Datu Patinggi.