Stories from Sabah History

by F.G. WHELAN

Deputy Director of Education, Sabah

Illustrated by Albert Hill

HEINEMANN EDUCATIONAL BOOKS

(ASIA) LTD

P O Box 62, MacPherson Road Post Office,

Singapore 13

280A Prince Edward Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong

© F.G. Whelan 1968

First published 1968

Printed in Hong Kong by The Peninsula Press Ltd.

Contents

Chapter 1 - The Battle of Marudu

Chapter 2 - The Story of Lizzie Webber

Chapter 3 - Mat Salleh and the Fight at Ranau

Chapter 3 - Mat Salleh’s Last Battle

Chapter 5 - The Revolt of the Double Tenth,

1943

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15

27

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1 The Battle of Marudu

One of the most famous pirate strongholds in the

history of piracy in the East Indies was at Marudu in

the north of Sabah, not far from the present Langkon

Estate. Most of the pirates who raided from this lair

were Illanuns from the Philippines and their leader

was the widely-known Serip Usman. For many years

Usman and Pengiran Usop of Brunei had been allies:

between them they were responsible for many acts

of piracy. Many of their victims had been sold as

slaves. Pengiran Usop was highly placed at the

Court of Brunei. He was a son of Sultan Omar Ali

Saifudin. He displaced the heir to the throne of

Brunei, Rajah Mudah Hassim, as the chief

adviser to the Ruler. The partnership between

Usop and Usman was well known.

Rajah James Brooke of Sarawak was determined

to put down piracy so that all Borneo people could

live in peace and trade freely. He was a friend of

Rajah Mudah Hassim and knew that the Brunei

prince was just as eager as he to free the Borneo

waters from this menace. He also knew that

Pengiran Usop, backed by Serip Usman, was work-

ing against Hassim and succeeding in turning the

Sultan against him. Brooke had an official position

with the British Government as Confidential

Adviser in Borneo and in 1845 he visited Singapore

and had long talks with Admiral Sir Thomas

Cochrane, the naval Commander-in-Chief, about

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suppressing piracy. Cochrane agreed to visit Borneo

and deal with piracy there as soon as he could.

Cochrane’s fleet arrived off Brunei on August

8th, 1845 and was the biggest ever seen off the

Borneo coast. The flagship was H.M.S. Agincourt

and with her were H.M.S. Vestal and H.M.S.

Daedalus and two other sailing ships, Cruiser and

Wolverine. Steamships in the squadron were H.M.S.

Vixen and the Honourable East India Company’s

paddle steamers, Pluto and Nemesis.

The Admiral and Rajah Brooke with a strong

body of sailors id marines (soldiers carried on

board naval ships steamed up the Brunei River in

Vixen, Pluto and Nemesis to call on the Sultan. Sir

Thomas made it clear that he had come to deal with

piracy, but he added that he would also deal with

any trouble-makers in Brunei. Pengiran Usop

knew who Cochrane meant. Cochrane then with-

drew to the Pluto but he later charged Usop with

enslaving two Indian sailors from a British ship.

The Admiral said these were British subjects and

the treaty between Britain and Brunei had been

broker He said that the Sultan must punish Usop.

The Sultan replied that he was not strong enough

to punish Usop and that the British should do this.

Usop set about putting the defences of his house

in order, loading his cannon and preparing his

weapons. He was not going to give in without a fight.

He stayed at home all that night and all next

morning. In the afternoon Cochrane moved up his

steamers to a position where they could fire on

Usop’s house. He landed his marine and then

called on the Pengiran to surrender. When the

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time for surrender had passed without sign from

Usop, Cochrane ordered a gunner to fire a warning

round over the house. Usop returned the fire.

The Pengiran realized he had no chance, so he

fled and his house fell to the advancing marines. It

was found to contain a large supply of gunpowder,

so perhaps Usop preferred flight to being blown up

with his own magazine. The Brunei nobles refused

to help themselves to his property. Usop had been in

many tight corners before and had come through

safely, so perhaps they were wise. The common

folk, however, had no such worries and Usop’s

mansion was thoroughly looted. Cochrane had no

more interest in the matter and sailed off to Marudu

to deal with the other member of the partnership,

Serip Usman.

The Pengirans were right. Within two days of the

departure of the British fleet Usop reappeared at the

head of two hundred men. He attacked the town of

Brunei but loyal forces under Pengiran Bedrudin

strongly opposed him and there was some fierce

fighting. Usop’s forces retreated and Bedrudin’s

men gave chase. Usop’s wives, children and all his

remaining goods fell into the hands of the Bruneis

but he himself escaped.. By now he was an outlaw

and he took refuge along with his brother in

Kimanis where he was the ruler. The Penghulu

of Kimanis could not do anything else but receive

his lord, but he knew that Usop was an outlaw and

he was very unhappy.

His misery was soon increased by the arrival in

Kimanis of a messenger bearing instructions from

the Sultan of Brunei, Rajah Mudah Hassim and

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Pengiran Bedrudin. These instructions ordered

the Chief to put Pengiran Usop to death. The poor

Penghulu must have felt like the mouse who was

chosen to hang a bell on the cat’s neck. His main

problem was how to carry out his orders. It would

have been easy perhaps to take a long shot at Usop

and finish him off that way, or poison his rice or

use some other trick but the Chief knew this would

not do. Usop would have to be strangled with a

silk cord as befitted a prince of royal blood. If he

were not, the Chief himself would be put to death —

and not with a silken cord. Usop knew the danger

he was in and he and his brother took turns at

guarding each other. One stood ready with a

drawn kris while the other ate, bathed or slept. The

Penghulu waited for nine long anxious days.

On the tenth day Usop was taking his turn guard-

ing his brother, who was at his bath. He stood on the

landing-stage on the river bank, kris in hand. Usop

was, a heavy smoker of tobacco. He had a cheroot

but no light. He jerked his head at the Penghulu,

ordering him to bring a light. The Chief brought a

piece of firewood which was barely glowing at the

end and held it out to Usop. Usop tried to light his

cheroot but failed. With no thought in mind but that

of getting a smoke he put down his kris and took the

brand from the Penghulu, meaning to blow on it to

revive the spark. Too late he realized he was

unarmed. The Penghulu seized him and the others

standing around laid hands on his brother.

In due course the silken cord came into play and

half of the partnership was no more. But the other

remained, by far the more dangerous.

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Serip Usman was not very worried by the news

that Admiral Cochrane was sailing towards his

stronghold. He had faced danger before. Like many

other pirate leaders he was a kebal. A kebal was

a man who had undergone certain magic rites.

These meant that he had to go to a lonely spot in

the forest, clad in all his war gear and remain

there for three days and three nights in fasting and

prayer. If at the end of this time the prayers were

answered, the man fell into a trance and heard secret

words. After that he could not be hurt or killed by

shot or thrust of steel. He was invulnerable. Usman

had not a very clear idea of the forces he was up

against and like many other warriors in Borneo at

this time he put too much faith in forts and strong-

points.

Usman’s headquarters were on what was then

called the Marudu River — now the Langkon —

which runs into the southern shore of Marudu Bay.

(Admiral Cochrane called it the Maloodoo River.)

The position was chosen with great care about five

miles from the bay at a place where the river makes

a sharp bend, so that any attacking forces would be

under the guns of the stronghold before they realized

it was there. The river runs roughly from south to

north. On the western side (the left bank) and just

behind the bend, a tributary stream flows in,

making a small headland. Usop built a fort on

this. On the eastern side (the right bank) he built

another fort, larger and stronger. The forts were

supported by a floating platform on the western side

(the left bank) on which were placed some guns to

make a floating battery. Two hundred yards from

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the forts Usman built a barrier, or boom, across the

river. The boom was made of great tree trunks

fastened together with slabs of iron. Round all that

was bound a ship’s iron cable which was fastened at

either end to a tree on the river bank. There was no

way through the boom except a very narrow passage

on the right bank which would barely allow a small

canoe to pass. Many guns were sighted on the boom.

The armament was four eighteen-pounders, two

twelve-pounders, and three nine-pounders. This was

very strong indeed. There were about twenty small

brass cannon in the forts and small arms like rifles,

muskets and pistols for Usman’s regular troops, who

were all experienced soldiers. The force was about

one thousand strong and had ten commanders. With

all this strength in men and arms Usman could

hardly be blamed for being confident that he could

beat off an attack.

If Usman was not afraid of Cochrane, then it

was the same with the Admiral, who was not afraid

of Usman, for when he arrived in Marudu Bay

on August 17th, 1845, he decided to send only a

small part of his force to attack the pirate stronghold.

This numbered about five hundred and fifty,

which was about the same strength as the party

which attacked Pengiran Usop in his house. The

attacking fleet was made up of the steam-driven

ships, Vixen, Pluto and Nemesis. Cochrane was in

Vixen. With the fleet went most of the boats from the

squadron. On some of these boats guns were

mounted. The attackers moved up to a position as

near the mouth of the Murudu as they could.

This was on the morning of August 18th, and in the

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afternoon the assault force under Captain Charles

Talbot, commander of H.M.S. Vestal, moved off.

The force reached the mouth of the river in good

order and anchored for the night just inside it.

Talbot had orders to spy out Usman’s position

and the strength of his troops ‘either attacking the

Serip on his refusal to surrender should he feel equal

to enterprise, or falling back to some suitable

position while he communicated (with the Admiral)

in the event of his not considering his force

sufficient to guarantee success’. These instructions

gave Talbot very wide powers and seem to show that

Cochrane had little fear for Usman as an enemy. He

appeared to think that five hundred and fifty men

would be enough to knock him out — roughly the

same number, as we have seen, which he used on

Pengiran Usop’s lone house.

The next morning Talbot’s boats moved up the

Marudu River to carry out Cochrane’s orders.

Captain Talbot was no doubt a fine sailor and could

command a ship in a sea battle with great skill, but

he was no great soldier. Instead of sending a small

force ahead to spy out Usman’s defences he appears

to have gone straight up the river in his boats,

finally breaking out round the bend of the river

which covered the pirate’s stronghold, in full view

of the forts. He halted to take in the scene. The

banners of Usman’s Arab captains flew proudly

over their positions in the forts, topped by the

Serip’s own flag, a tiger on a red background. The

small fort, you remember, was built on a headland

where a tributary ran in. An attacking force could

come at it only by water. Talbot saw this and also

- 8 -

saw that the large fort, over which Usman’s banner

flew, had a river in front of it. In fact, this was not a

river at all but a wide shallow stream. Usman’s main

fort could have been attacked by land and, as the

soldiers say, his flank could have been turned. The

troops could then have got through to the houses of

the settlement which lay behind the defences and

done great damage. Talbot did not know this and he

decided that the only way to capture the stronghold

was to cut a way through the boom, sweep through

with his boats, land his men, and attack the forts.

Why he decided to take such a great risk without

sending patrols to find out the depth of the rivers or

to see if they could work round behind the defences

is difficult to understand. He must have known that

Usman had cannon and every one of them would be

trained on the boom, and that his cutting party

could be shot to pieces in minutes.

Talbot brought his boats up to the boom and as

he did so a canoe from Usman’s fort came to meet

him. One of the Serip’s captains dressed in his war

gear, scarlet coat and silk head cloth, sat in it

carrying a white flag of truce. On behalf of his

Chief he asked Talbot, as well he might, what was

the purpose of the array of fighting men. Talbot

said he had come to call on Serip Usman to

surrender and hand over his stronghold. He added

that he would meet Usman on the spot where they

were or inside the boom, whichever he wished, but

that the Serip must bring all his fighting men to the

meeting. The pirate captain took this demand

back to the Serip and returned to say that Usman

- 9 -

did not agree, but he was prepared to parley with

two of Talbot’s senior officers inside the fort. Talbot

in answer gave Serip Usman fifteen minutes to come

out and discuss surrender terms.

Talbot then prepared for action. He brought his

gun boats up to the boom. In the centre he stationed

a cutting party under Mr. Gibbard, an officer of the

Wolverine. The other boats, crammed with riflemen,

were placed in a position where they could support

the gunners with their fire, and a rocket section was

emplaced on the right bank of the river ready to fire

on the forts. It was a tense moment. In the forts

gunners with their matches already alight crouched

squinting along their pieces, trained on the boom.

On high ground above the large fort a three-gun

battery was prepared to open fire on Talbot and his

men. Usman and his ten captains, proud in their

scarlet coats, stood watching for the next move,

exposed and unafraid. The fifteen minutes went by.

It was about ten in the morning.

Talbot moved his axemen in on the boom.

Bright steel flashed in the bright sun. The battle

was on. The pirate guns crashed out. The river was

crammed from bank to bank with boats and men.

The shots could not miss. Mr. Gibbard was killed.

A sailor fell dead. Three men lay in one boat,

badly wounded. In those days when the guns fired

the force of the shot used to cause them to run back

or recoil. Usman’s gunners do not appear to have

carried out enough drill with their guns because

they failed to make their pieces bear well on the

boom after the recoil. After the first salvo their

aim was wild. The navy returned the fire. Their

- 10 -

gunners were better trained and the rocket men

were deadly. One rocket made a direct hit on a

pirate gun and killed all its crew. Small arms fire

from rifle and musket was heavy, grape-shot

bullets from the navy guns whistled through the

air, but the pirate chiefs in their red coats encouraged

their men and defied Talbot with their yells,

showing no fear. A shot hit Usman’s flagstaff,

bringing his standard down. One of his men

instantly clambered up it like a monkey and coolly

tied the flag to the stump while half the weapons

of the enemy blazed away at him. When he was

satisfied the flag was secured he leapt down

unharmed. The struggle went on.

For nearly an hour the axemen hacked at the

boom and at last two boats loaded with marines

could squeeze through. They immediately landed

and attacked the battery of three nine-pounder guns.

They captured this battery and, from its height,

opened a heavy fire on the large fort. The garrison

broke and fled, back through the houses and on into

the forest. Usman stuck to his post supported by a

small gallant band of trusted followers, but a bullet

pierced his neck, he fell dead and his men carried

his body away: his kebal had failed. This was

really the end.

The gap in the boom was now wide and the naval

boats crowded through. The defenders of the

small fort lost heart when they saw this and turned

and ran. The sailors and marines, chased after

them in an unruly mob. One of the officers,

Lieutenant Pascoe of H.M.S. Vestal was disgusted

at this lack of discipline among the troops. ‘On

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leaving the boats to advance,’ he said, ‘all was

helter-skelter as going to a fair.’ The Navy had done

a great deal of damage with gunfire and there were

many dead and wounded. There was great confusion.

Many of the sailors and marines treated the whole

affair as a great skylark. Some of them nearly paid

for their high jinks with lives. They grabbed the

armour and finery from dead pirates and put them

on themselves for a joke. Some of their mates

mistook them for pirates and went for, them,

cutlasses to the fore. The jokers managed just in

time to stop their mates from killing them. This

spirit of fun was still strong when later the order

was given to burn and destroy the stronghold. Every

one grabbed a light and set about burning houses

right, left and centre, so that several parties were

nearly cut off and roasted alive. By noon it was all

over and the troops took a break. They rounded up

all the goats and chickens they could, roasted them

in the fires that were still burning and made a meal.

At two in the afternoon they set off for their ships

which they reached by sundown. Between dawn and

noon the stronghold of the terrible Serip Usman had

fallen and the power of the Marudu pirates was

broken for ever.

A large quantity of arms and ammunition was

captured and among the other loot were many

things which proved without doubt that Usman

was a pirate. There were boxes of china, bales

of cloth, manufactured goods, camphor, two ships’

bells — one marked with the name of the ship

Guilhelm Ludwig and its home port Bremen (in

Germany), a ship’s boat and several ships’ cables.

- 12 -

The attackers lost six killed and fifteen wounded but

the enemies’ losses were very severe. As well as

Usman, these included Serip Mohamed, the chief

who parlied with Talbot. Mohamed was shot while

trying to spear Mr Pascoe. Usman’s son lost his life.

As could be expected, most of the dead pirates

were Illanuns.

The next day Talbot sent a party to make sure the

stronghold was completely destroyed. Then the fleet

sailed away. If ever a commander was lucky in battle

it was Talbot. He made some very bad mistakes but

managed still to succeed. Any commander in hi

senses would have sent small parties to reconnoitre

(spy out) the enemy position. If he had done this he

would have found that his troops could wade the

river in front of the large fort and attack it, taking the

pressure off the men at the boom. Luckily for him

the pirate marksmen on the cannons were not well

trained. Cochrane seems to have thought nothing

wrong about this because in a despatch to London he

praised himself for picking Talbot for the task.

Nothing succeeds like success.

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Exercises

1. Where did most of the pirates at Marudu come

from?

2. Explain in your own words what a pirate is.

3. What do the following words from the story mean?

displaced, heir, menace, marine, cannon.

4. Explain what mistakes by Usman’s men during

the battle led to the fort being captured.

5. What is meant by the last sentence of the story,

‘Nothing succeeds like success’?

- 14 -

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2 The Story of the Lizzie Webber

In 1863, just over a hundred years ago, there was

a famous sea fight off the island of Labuan. Captain

John Ross of the sailing ship Lizzie Webber fought a

pirate fleet single-handed. The action was also

remarkable because Mrs Ross was on board the ship

and, far from remaining hidden below, she played

her part in the fray. Not so her small son who wanted

to be in it too. She bundled him kicking and

screaming into a cabin out of harm’s way.

Captain Ross was a shipowner and trader who

plied between Singapore and the Borneo ports of

Labuan and Brunei. His first ship was called the

Wild Irish Girl, and he and his vessel became well

known in Borneo waters. He was a good friend of

Sultan Abdul Mumin of Brunei. In 1862 a strange

thing happened to him. His ship, the Wild Irish Girl

was lying off Labuan when a Royal Naval vessel,

H.M.S. Bulldog, put in to the harbour. Her captain

was under orders to stamp out piracy in the area. The

chief pirate was the brother of the Sultan. Ross was

ordered to pilot the Bulldog upthe Brunei River and

to act as interpreter for the naval officer. It was

difficult for him because the naval commander

would have no delay and harshly demanded that the

pirate prince should be put to death. Ross was

ashamed to put these rude orders to his friend, the

Sultan, but he was given no choice. Next day the

- 16 -

death sentence was carried out on the deck of a

prahu tied up near the Sultan’s palace. A tall

handsome man dressed in robes of yellow was duly

strangled with a silk cord as befitted a prince of

royal blood. Ross refused to watch the execution and,

as the naval officer had never seen the prince, he had

no doubt that his request had been complied with.

And so it had — after the royal customs of those

times when a slave could be sacrificed in place of his

master. Some say the prince went to Sulu and some

that he went to Palawan, but he was never seen in

Brunei again. Ross remained a good friend of Sultan

Abdul Mumin.

Soon after this Captain Ross sold Wild Irish Girl

and bought a bigger vessel as his business was doing

well. The new ship was a brig called Lizzie Webber.

She was a fine ship and well armed because in those

days of pirates trading captains hoped for the best

but prepared for the worst. She had six twelve-

pounder guns, and six muskets per man as well as

small arms like pistols and cutlasses and parangs.

Before long even she was too small for Ross and he

made a bargain in Singapore to buy a ship twice her

size, the Don Pedro. Meantime, he made one last

trip in the Lizzie Webber.

In 1863 she set sail for Labuan and Brunei and

made a peaceful voyage to the Brunei River. There

she took on her cargo which included a large sum of

money. Ross was an easy man to deal with. He got

on well with the local people and his ship was

usually crowded with traders, the captains of local

craft from nearby lands. This time one of these,

Si Rahman, made several trips to the ship to

- 17 -

trade but he did not strike any bargains. He seemed

very interested in the Lizzie Webber’s guns. Kassim,

the Lizzie’s serang, did not like this at all. He

knew they had a valuable cargo including cash and

could be in very great danger. He found out that

Rahman was an Illanun, and to Kassim being an

Illanun and being a pirate were one and the same

thing. He went to Ross and told him the story.

The captain had never had trouble before, so,

though he listened to Kassim, he did not take

warning. The ship sailed for Labuan where she

took on more cargo and a passenger called Meidrum

who was bound for Singapore.

With all snug aboard, the Lizzie Webber set out

from Labuan, but the winds were light and she made

little headway. This continued during the hours of

darkness when she slowly drifted towards the Brunei

coast. With the next day’s dawn the wind dropped

completely and she came to a stop — as sailing men

say — becalmed. As the light grew, Ross and his

crew could see eight long low war prahus lying

in wait for them. No one mistook these boats

for peaceful fishing vessels. Everyone knew

they were Illanun pirate ships, moved by oars,

fast and dangerous.

Ross may not have paid much heed to Kassim

before but he knew now that he was in terrible

danger and he wasted no time. He rapped out his

orders, guns were made ready, muskets loaded and

placed to hand, cutlasses passed out and the crew

took their posts to repel an attack. Ross went below

and spoke to his wife. She was to stay down

out of harm’s way and look after four-year-old

- 18 -

Johnny. Her husband gave her a pistol and said

if all was lost she was to shoot the boy and then

herself. It was a grim moment. As it happened

Mrs Ross did none of these things. She locked

little Johnny away and went off to play a very

important part in the struggle, and if she used the

pistol at all it was against the enemy and not against

her family.

Back on deck Ross watched the pirate fleet

bearing down on him. Twenty pairs of oars flashed

in each boat, armed men crowded their decks, the

captains of each proudly standing on the central

platform, clad in their red war coats. It was not hard

to pick out Rahman in the leading prahu. The boats

came within earshot and Rahman yelled that he was

short of tobacco and asked if he could come aboard.

Ross looked at the faces of Simpson, his mate,

Kassim, his serang, and Meldrum, his passenger. He

knew no one was deceived. He yelled back to

Rahman that he knew a pirate when he saw one and

if he did not haul off he would be blown out of the

water. Si Rahman yelled back that Ross had better

surrender as he had not a chance. He declared that he

was a kebal and could not be killed or wounded: he

was invulnerable. You will remember from the story

of the Battle of Marudu, what a person had to do to

reach this magic state.

Ross kept silent but Kassim, who was very

excited, thought his captain had raised his hand in a

signal for battle, and he opened fire on the enemy

with his twelve-pounder gun. The rest of the ship’s

guns crashed out a broadside and those of the crew

not serving the guns seized their muskets and

- 19 -

let fly at the enemy with shot after shot. There

were forty-three men in all and six loaded muskets

a man, so they were able to produce a heavy fire.

The pirates replied. They had small swivel cannon.

Their prahus had sides specially strengthened with

belian, the Borneo iron wood. This could take the

shock of a cannon ball. The men were heavily armed

and outnumbered the Lizzie Webber’s crew, but she

probably made up for this because her guns were

loaded with bullets as well as cannon balls.

Simpson, the mate, and three sailors fell

wounded and had to be carried below where Mrs

Ross tended their wounds. It was then that little

Johnny got in the way, so she locked him up,

howling with rage, in a cabin.

The pirates did not come in for a direct attack.

If they had done so it would have gone hard with

the Lizzie Webber and her desperate crew. But

direct attack was not the pirates’ way; they kept

on circling their prey, keeping up a hot fire in

the hope that they would fight their victims to a

standstill. Ross answered their fire keeping the

pirate prahus at a distance, but he knew that they

could afford to play a waiting game. Though he

was well armed he feared for his stocks of

p o w d e r a n d s h o t w h i c h c o u l d n o t l a s t

out for ever.

Si Rahman, trusting in his powers of kebal,

scorned the protection of the iron-wood bulwarks

and stood up on his platform open to shot from gun

or rifle, encouraging his men, urging them on to the

kill. Ross was determined to pick him off. ‘For

goodness’ sake do bowl over that ruffian in the

- 20 -

scarlet dress,’ he yelled to his passenger Meldrum

(at least we are told he said this, but a rough sailor

like Ross in the heat of battle would hardly have

use these words). Meldrum took careful aim

at the prancing Rahman, but missed. Ross

fired and missed. Shot after shot was aimed at

Si Rahman but he remained unhurt, taunting

the marksmen and mocking them for their bad

aim. Kassim, the serang, grew desperate and fired

a cannon ball from his gun at the pirate, but

with no effect.

The struggle went on. The Lizzie Webber’s crew

grew anxious and desperate and in the heat of the

attack began to make mistakes. One of them was

nearly the finish of the gallant brig and all souls on

board. Mr Jenkins, the second mate, was now first

officer because Mr Simpson was lying wounded

below. He saw that the powder for the guns was

running out, so he ordered two Malay seamen to

bring up more barrels from the magazine. To reach

the magazine they had to go through an opening in a

store room. Leading to the magazine were trails of

powder spilt when kegs had been hastily hauled up

before the battle. Spilt powder covered the floor of

the magazine itself. The sailors, without thinking,

took a flaming torch with them to light the gloom of

the below-decks. They were about to enter the

magazine with this held aloft when Mrs Ross saw

them. She grabbed the flame from them and hurled it

through an open porthole. It was a good thing that

she was not at that time sitting in a cabin reading

little Johnny a fairy story to keep him quiet.

Shortly after this, and about three hours after the

- 21 -

fight had opened at daybreak, Rahman drew back

his forces. Some of the ship’s company thought, or

perhaps hoped, that the enemy was going to retreat.

Even had the pirates gone off to refit there would be

a chance of a wind and the hope of escape. But Ross

gave his men no time for thinking. He gave orders to

sponge out the guns, bring up the remaining powder,

load all rifles, muskets and pistols and clear away

ready to repel another attack. This was not long

in coming.

Si Rahman, scarlet coat making him an easy

target, swept in to the attack at the head of his line

of war prahus. They came in on the starboard side

of the Lizzie Webber aiming to run in close and

leap aboard (sailors call this boarding). As they

outnumbered Ross’s company this would have

meant the end, had they succeeded in getting aboard.

Ross knew his chances were small and he knew the

cruel fate which would come to all on board. For one

wild moment he thought of dashing below and

killing his wife and child to give them a swift,

merciful death, but his courage returned and he

determined to fight to the last. The fleet came on and

now the Lizzie Webber’s starboard guns were firing

as fast as they could be reloaded, but as the prahus

came nearer the gunners could not bring their guns

to bear down on them, as they were too low in the

water. Shot after shot went harmlessly over the

heads of the attackers.

Si Rahman’s prahu was now almost alongside the

Lizzie Webber, its men ready to leap on board for the

hand-to-hand battle that would finish her off.

Kassim aimed his gun at the pirate boat and was

- 22 -

about to fire when Ross, seeing that once more the

shot would pass over the enemy’s head, leaped

in and stopped him. Kassim showed his captain that

he could not get the gun down any lower and Ross,

seeing that this was so, looked wildly round for help.

His eye fell on a spar lying on the deck. He was a

very strong man but his despair must have added to

his strength and made a superman of him. He lifted

up the gun, piece, mounting and all, and yelled to

Kassim and the rest of the gun crew to roll the spar

under the gun. This they did while their captain,

every muscle straining, held the gun up. The spar in

place brought the muzzle of the gun down enough to

bear on Si Rahman’s prahu. Ross coolly squinted

along the gun sights, allowed carefully for the

movement of the vessels and fired. The shot found

its mark. Screams of pain from the Illanuns mingled

with cheers from the Lizzie Webber. Wreckage

covered the water and through the clearing smoke

Ross saw his red-coated enemy sink to his

grave in the ocean.

The fight was not over, but danger for the present

was lessened as the pirates drew away to lick their

wounds and decide on their next plan now that their

leader was dead. Aboard the trading brig, guns

were again cooled and cleaned and the small

arms reloaded and laid ready. The ship’s company

took time off for their first meal of the day. Their

luck seemed to be turning because a breeze sprang

up and the ship began to move under her sails. But

the pirates hung on like a pack of hunting wolves.

With their oars they could move faster than the

Lizzie Webber in the light breeze and their best plan

- 23 -

was to wait for darkness and attack again. Ross

knew that to stand a chance he must have a good

stiff wind. His ship was speedy and with a strong

wind she might get away.

As it grew dark the wind got up and Lizzie

Webber picked up speed. The pirates saw their prize

slipping from their grasp and they moved to attack

once more. Once more battle was joined, as hot a

fight as before. The Lizzie Webber’s crew must have

been in the lowest depths of despair. After all they

had come through and all their hopes they were in as

great a danger as ever. No one knew their feelings

better than Mrs Ross and when she saw that the

powder in the magazine was down to the last six

barrels she came up on deck and told the captain

herself. She feared if the rest knew they would be

tempted to give up the struggle. Ross received the

bad news calmly and sent his wife below. Mrs Ross

obeyed and was no doubt prepared to shoot her son

and herself if the ship were taken.

Ross was not beaten yet. He loaded his guns

with their last charge of powder and decided to

attack. The Lizzie Webber rounded on the enemy

and, before they knew where they were, she was

among them, guns blazing. A prahu faltered

and its steersman lost control so that it came

broadside on to the Lizzie Webber, a sitting target

for attack. Ross spun the wheel and his brig rammed

the enemy ship hard, grinding it to matchwood,

but some of its crew managed to clamber aboard the

trader, only to fall under the cutlasses of Ross’s

Malay crew.

It was now fully dark and the pirates had had

- 24 -

enough. They fell astern as the Lizzie Webber sped

through the night out of harm and danger.

All this time little Johnny had been below and no

doubt was still raging at missing all the fun. But it is

to him we owe the story of the Lizzie Webber. Later

in life he wrote a book called Sixty Years’ Life and

Adventures in the Far East, and his book contains

this story amongst many others.

- 25 -

Exercises

1. Describe what sort of ship the Lizzie Webber was.

2. What words have the opposite meaning to the

following?

harmlessly, starboard, strength, better, attack.

3. Why did Captain Ross give his wife a pistol?

4. What do you think is meant by ‘the pirates drew

away to lick their wounds’?

5. Explain kebal.

- 26 -

- 27 -

3 Mat Salleh and the Fight

at Ranau

Most people in Sabah have heard of Mat Salleh

but few know very much about him, although his

story has been written many times. He was the son

of Datu Balu, a Sulu chief who ruled part of the

Labuk and Sugut area in the days before the Sultan

of Sulu ceded his part of Sabah to what later became

the North Borneo Chartered Company. His mother

was a Bajau woman from the Inanam River and it

was there that Mat Salleh spent his childhood. But it

was as a trader on the Sugut River that in 1894 we

first hear of Mat Salleh. He had moved into his

father’s old territory. Mat Salleh had made a noble

marriage. His wife, Dayang Bandang was a Sulu

princess who was so highborn that she never put foot

to ground and was carried everywhere in a litter,

at least so they say. Many people thought she was

a witch.

Mat Salleh was a trader but he seems to have

had a band of followers even as early as 1894

when the Chartered Company had been in existence

for about twelve and a half years. There had been

trouble between him and the District Clerk at

Jambongan for some time but the Government did

not act until 1894 when two Dyaks were killed by

Mat Salleh’s men. The Government tried to arrest

him but failed. Some time later, however, he made

peace with the Company and swore an oath on the

- 28 -

Koran to be of good behaviour. But this did not last

long because on August 17th, 1894, he appeared

outside Sandakan with a band of armed men and a

group of several chiefs from the Labuk and Sugut

areas.

Governor Creagh was away in Darvel Bay and,

though Mat Salleh and his men remained at Buli

Sim-Sim and made no attempt to enter the town, the

Chinese traders in Sandakan were in a rare panic.

The chiefs said they wanted to complain about taxes

and boat permits; Mat Salleh wanted to protest about

the behaviour of his enemy, the District Clerk: but

the officials in Sandakan would not listen. They told

the chiefs to go home and put their complaints to the

Government in the proper way. On August 20th the

chiefs packed up and went away. All in Sandakan

breathed a great sigh of relief. When the Governor

returned on August 26th he dealt with the incident.

Everyone except Mat Salleh got off with a

reprimand, but Mat Salleh’s arrest was ordered

because he had previously given trouble, and also

because his followers had recently robbed a shop

on an island near Sandakan. Further, he was

supposed to be sheltering the men who murdered

the Dyaks. A squad of police under the command

of the Resident set out for Mat Salleh’s village

near Jambongan to arrest him and the f our

murderers . The police stormed the vil lage

but Mat Salleh and his followers fled to the

jungle. Once again the Government had failed

t o a r r e s t h i m . H e l a t e r w r o t e t o t h e

Government wanting to know why he had been

attacked.

- 29 -

The Government’s answer to Mat Salleh was to

send a series of expeditions against him. One of

these destroyed his fort at Lingkabau on the Sugut.

Next, a three-pronged attack was mounted against

him, aiming to contain him in the Labuk. In July

1896 he was declared an outlaw and an expedition

under a Government officer, Raffles Flint, destroyed

two of his forts on the Limbawan River, but failed

to capture him. There was another skirmish at

Padang on the Sugut in March 1897, but still

he remained at large.

By this time Mat Salleh was well known and

respected. By some people he was also feared.

He was a tall, handsome man with a love of good

clothes and finery. When in 1898 he went to meet

Cowie, the Managing Director of the Chartered

Company, he was dressed magnificently in ‘a gold

cap, smart green embroidered tunic, and Suluk

embroidered trousers with no waistband’. (The

quotation is from Cowie’s diary.) When the

Government forces attacked his village in August

1894 they captured, amongst other booty, two

yellow silk umbrellas which seem to show that Mat

Salleh looked upon himself as a king. (They could

not have belonged to Dayang Bandang because she

went everywhere in a litter.) But the local chiefs

probably looked up to Mat Salleh because he was

supposed to have performed the rite of kebal; as you

will remember from the last two stories, this meant

that he was invulnerable. Apart from this wonderful

power, Mat Sal leh was said to have been

tremendously strong, able, when a young man, to

throw a buffalo. He was a good soldier and, if we

- 30 -

can go by the description of his fort at Ranau, a first

class military engineer. But he believed that might is

right and, in places like Ranau and Tambunan where

he took over authority, he taxed the people, and built

his forts by forced labour. He also appears to have

been prepared to harbour murderers, thieves and

other criminals and protect them provided they

became his faithful followers. He felt that he should

have been a chief and his royal wife supported him

in this claim and urged him to keep on fighting. Mat

Salleh and all his men had great respect for Dayang

Bandang.

The scene of action now shifts suddenly and

dramatically to the west coast. Nakhoda Tinggi,

who fought a twelve-hour battle with Mat Salleh

at Padang on the Sugut, reported that his enemy

had a strong force and that nearly five thousand

more were ready to join him. Later reports, however,

said there were only seventy in all and that their

food supplies were running low. This was in

March 1897. In July of that year, after a surprise

rush down the Inanam River on the night of the

8th, Mat Salleh attacked and burnt to the ground

the Government post and trading station on Gaya

Island. Gaya is the big island opposite what is now

the capital town of Kota Kinabalu. In this attack

one policeman was killed. A Chinese clerk escaped

and reached Labuan to spread the alarming news

that the settlement was taken and sacked, and the

clerk in charge, Mr Neubronner, and all the rest

of the inhabitants were prisoners. A Government

launch Ranee, with fifty armed police on board,

set off for Gaya and found it in flames with some

- 31 -

of Mat Salleh’s band still in possession. These put

off in boats to attack Ranee but, seeing what they

were up against, thought better of it and fled to the

shore. Mr Neubronner, it turned out later, had

escaped.

This unexpected defeat threw the Government

into a turmoil and forces were sent scurrying here

and there like ants from an overturned anthill. A

force was sent from Sandakan to Gaya aboard the

launch Normanhurst, a force aboard S.S. Labuan

went to the Labuk to cut off Salleh from the east

coast; another expedition went in August to the

Sugut. All failed. In November Mat Salleh struck

again, this time at Ambong where he set fire to the

Residency. The Government now began to look a

little silly. They had punished the people of Inanam,

who had helped Mat Salleh, by driving them out and

burning their crops and villages but they had failed

to capture the leader. They determined that they

must do this at all costs.

Mat Salleh’s general plan in his campaign against

the Government was to carry out raids and, when

pursued, to retreat to a fort. If he could resist

attack on his fort well and good, but if not

he disappeared just in time into the jungle. These

tactics worked well but they were dangerous. They

were based on usages of war which were out of date.

In these times the Government could bring up

modern artillery far superior to the powder-burning

cannons in local use. Yet this was the plan used time

and time again in Borneo by pirate and other war

chiefs. Serip Usman, the Marudu pirate used it,

as did Pengiran Shabandar in his struggle against

- 32 -

the Company at Padas Damit in 1888. The end was

always the same, the attackers brought up greater

forces than the garrisons of the fort expected, the

garrisons delayed their escape till it was too late and

their fort, instead of a stronghold, became a death

trap. James Brooke of Sarawak fought so many

actions of this kind against pirates that he could have

directed them in his sleep.

Mat Salleh had fallen back on his stronghold at

Ranau. The Government decided to send an

overwhelming force against him and make an end of

him. The fort at Ranau was immensely strong and

surrounded by an earth wall and palisade, in all a

hundred and twenty yards long and seventy yards

wide. Around it the ground was stuck with

sharpened bamboo stakes called sudah. Through

these an attacking force had to tread warily as sudah

could inflict a severe wound. Their purpose was to

slow up assaulting troops and make them an easy

target for fire from the defenders. Against this fort

and its confident and resolute garrison the Company

brought a force from the west coast under Hewett,

Ormsby, Wise and Jones. (Jones was the police

A d j u t a n t f r o m S a n d a k a n , t h e r e s t we r e

administrative officers.) This contingent left Abai on

November 29th, 1897 and approached Ranau from

the north by way of Peranchangan and Toruntongon.

On December 12th Barraut, the Resident of

Sandakan, joined them with a number of police and

a seven-pounder gun and thirty-eight shells. As well

as the regular police there were about two hundred

and fifty Dusuns and Dyaks in the Government

force.

- 33 -

First the Company’s troops cut off the water

supply to Mat Salleh’s fort, then they drew up their

plan of attack. The gun was to be mounted at night

in the rear of the stronghold and next day it was to

shell the fort and give covering fire for the assault.

Before the attack the position was to be surrounded

by the Dusuns and Dyaks to cut off any retreat by

the garrison. On the night of December 12th the gun

was set up about a hundred yards from the fort.

Jones was in charge of this position, while Barraut

and Ormsby stationed their men to cut off retreat.

Thirty-eight Indian police under Hewett and Wise

prepared for the most dangerous part of the work —

the assault. At 6.45 a.m. on December 13th the gun

opened fire and continued shelling till noon, when

the attack went in.

Jones and Wise led the assault while Hewett

remained to fire off the last three rounds from the

gun. The storming party made slow progress through

the outer defences, but they gained an entrance and

set fire to the houses inside the earth-works, all the

time without a shot from the enemy. They then

turned on the fort and immediately came under

withering fire. Jones and four police fell dead in

their tracks and nine men were wounded. The

attackers fought bravely but were forced to break off

the fight. In the action, Sergeant Natua of the police

was twice wounded but he was determined to bring

out the body of Jones. After two attempts he

succeeded and then returned to the action. He was

later made an officer in the police and given a medal

for bravery.

This was a serious defeat for the Government.

- 34 -

The attacking force had completely misjudged the

situation. The shelling had been acurate; in all thirty

shells landed inside the perimeter. There had been

little return fire and they had heard cries coming

from the defenders. They were therefore encouraged

to rush the fort, only to meet disaster. Hewett and

Wise left a holding force at Ranau to contain Mat

Salleh and set off quickly for Sandakan for

reinforcements of men, supplies, and ammunition.

They made record time and were back on January

5th, 1898 to renew the attack.

During the lull Mat Salleh sent out his women-

folk to take refuge in Bundu Tuhan. Some Dyaks of

the holding party decided to follow the ladies and

the second attack had to be held up until these

wanderers returned, minus one of their number

killed in an ambush. As we will see later, Wise and

Hewett should have taken heed of this incident and

also the fact that Charles Brooke of Sarawak, who

had no love for the Company, was threatening to

outlaw all Dyaks who fought in its service.

The artillery had been strengthened by one more

seven-pounder and it was decided to mount both

guns in a single battery sited about three hundred

and fifty yards from the fort and bearing on its more

exposed section. On January 6th, Hewett, Wise and

Barraut with a party of non-commissioned officers

made a reconnaissance of the position, but, by the

greatest ill-luck, suffered a tragedy. A long shot of

over five hundred yards hit Sergeant-Major Shere

Singh over the heart and killed him instantly. Hewett

said in his report that this misfortune cast a

considerable gloom over the whole camp.

- 35 -

The plan of attack was the same as before. On the

night of January 7th the guns were put in position: at

daybreak, when the guns opened fire, the troops

were ready. At first the defenders replied but when

the shells began to find their mark in the fort their

guns fell silent. All through the hot morning the

seven-pounders battered at the fort until 11 am.

when the troops rested and ate and the guns were

allowed to cool. At noon the fire was resumed

until 3 p.m. when a halt was called. No one could

see what damage had been done except that the

roofs were wrecked. Fearing that the enemy might

still be safe behind their defences, the leaders of

the Government troops decided to call off the

attack for the day. They doubled their guards

against any escape by the defenders. There was

heavy rain until midnight and at 1.30 a.m. firing

broke out round the gun position. However the

‘enemy’ in this case turned out to be peaceful

Dusuns (Kadazans) who were carrying rice into the

fort. Next morning patrols were sent out. They

attracted no fire and, on entering the stronghold,

found it deserted. Mat Salleh had retreated in the

night, passing through the Dyak lines while these

warriors were either asleep or sheltering from the

rain.

The fort was considerably battered and, had an

attack gone in at 3 p.m., there would have been an

end of Mat Salleh. As it was, he escaped, this time

south via Randagong and Patau to Tambunan.

Hewett describes the fort as being in a square of

about twenty yards a side, three sides being buildngs

and the fourth a wall. The walls of the build-

- 36 -

ings were of stone, eight feet thick with large

bamboos built in them for loopholes. On the outer

walls the loopholes bore on the perimeter fence; on

the inner ones they bore on the inside of the square

itself. Hewett says there was neither entrance nor

exit to the buildings and that even if a force had got

into the square they would have been shot down like

sheep. We do not know quite what Hewett means by

this. As there was a garrison in the buildings there

must have been some way in and way out. The

buildings of the fort had first been built about seven

feet off the ground on stout timbers, later the spaces

beneath had been walled in and the ground beneath

dug down to give a fair sized shelter. Unfortunately

for the defenders there was a space of about seven

inches between the lower and the upper storeys and

shells had penetrated through this gap.

The fort, which had taken two years to build, was

completely destroyed on January 13th, 1898 and the

neighbouring tribes came in and made their sub-

mission to the Government — there is a memorial

stone at Ranau to commemorate this event — but

Mat Salleh was still at large. He was last reported at

Tambunan when Hewett, Wise and Barraut left the

scene. Hewett then stated, ‘it would be well for the

Government to consider the probability of having to

send an expedition to Tambunan’. Hewett was right.

- 37 -

Exercises

1. Why was Mat Salleh’s wife carried everywhere in

a litter?

2. What do you think is meant by ‘the Chinese

traders in Sandakan were in a rare panic’?

3. Make up another short phrase meaning the same

as ‘might is right’.

4. Do you think that the fight at Ranau was a success

for the Government?

5. Give the meaning of the following words from

the story?

reprimand, squad, invulnerable, respect,

progress.

- 38 -

- 39 -

4 Mat Salleh’s Last Battle

The failure at Ranau made the Company’s

officers in Sabah more determined than ever to make

an end of Mat Salleh. But this was not the view

of the Chartered Company’s directors in London,

particularly that of the Managing Director, William

Clark Cowie. Cowie appeared on the scene in Sabah

early in 1798 and took charge. His plan was to meet

Mat Salleh and persuade him to make peace with the

Company, and keep it. In his younger days the

Managing Director had been a trader in Borneo

waters. He was a trusted friend of the Sultan of

Suluk and well known to the father of Dayang

Bandang, Mat Salleh’s royal wife. He had his

faults but he was a brave and determined man,

as we shall see.

On March 11th Cowie wrote to Mat Salleh

asking for a meeting. He promised a free pardon for

him and all his followers if the chief would submit

to the Government. If not, Cowie warned, the

Government would hunt him down until he was

captured or killed. Enclosed with this letter was one

from the Sultan of Suluk to Dayang Bandang saying

that Cowie was his friend and could be trusted. The

story goes that His Highness also wrote to Mat

Salleh telling him to continue the fight.

Mat Salleh agreed to meet Cowie and he

journeyed down to Menggatal, one of the places

suggested for the meeting. The Menggatal River at

- 40 -

this time was not under the Company’s rule though

its overlord, Pengiran Kahar, had agreed to hand it

over. The Pengiran sent word to Cowie that Mat

Salleh had arrived. Cowie was on board the

Government launch Petrel at the river mouth. On

April 19th he was rowed up the river through the

mangrove to Kahar’s village. He had made up his

mind to meet Mat Salleh alone and unarmed. Mat

Salleh’s camp was three miles away through padi

and forest, and Kahar with some of his men went

with Cowie to the meeting.

The scene must have been one of the most

dramatic in Borneo history. On the one side was

Cowie, carefully and formally dressed as Europeans

were in those days, alone, unarmed, with only the

backing of Kahar and his people who could not

safely be relied on to protect him. (Some of them

had followed Mat Salleh in the raid on Gaya Island.)

On the other side was Mat Salleh, a magnificent

figure in his gold cap, embroidered green jacket and

embroidered Suluk trousers, tall, proud, also

unarmed, but with a backing of twenty trusted

followers, each with his kris, and two hundred and

eighty or so armed Tambunans, but far from his

stronghold and at the mercy of Government troops.

All this was set against a background of green padi

fields, grey-green forest and the blue sky and

moving white clouds of a hot, steamy Borneo

morning. Greetings were exchanged and Cowie

coolly told Mat Salleh that he was glad the chief

had come to submit. He then told the Tambunans

that he hoped they would submit too but if they

did not he assured them they would come to

- 41 -

no harm provided they behaved themselves. He

added that if they disturbed the peace they would

be severely dealt with. We must admire Cowie

for speaking so boldly when he and all others

present knew that his life hung by a hair. The

feeling in the air remained tense while both men

smoked several North Borneo State cigars. Mat

Salleh started to tell the story of his grievances, but

Cowie stopped him saying he would need months to

look into these complaints. Mat Salleh, however,

insisted on telling about Haji Otang who had

brought him into trouble with the Government.

When Cowie would not agree that wrongs had been

done to him Mat Salleh grew excited and cried out,

‘At any rate your Company cannot prevent us from

dying for what we think are our rights.’ Cowie

agreed with a smile that this time he was probably

right. There was a general laugh, all considering that

Mat Salleh had scored a point, and the tension was

broken. Cowie said it was time he was offered a seat.

Mat Salleh begged his pardon for not thinking of this

before and called, ‘Otto, fetch yonder harrow for

Tuan Cowie to sit on’. The harrow was brought and

Cowie invited his host to share it, but Mat Salleh

refused saying as he had come to submit he would

sit on the grass.

The two men then discussed terms while their

followers looked on. Now the atmosphere was

friendly with smiles and polite compliments all

round. Mat Salleh asked for two things. First, he

wanted his friends set free from prison and next to

be allowed to live in Inanam with his followers,

without interference from any other chief. Cowie

- 42 -

knew these requests were coming because Wise, the

District Officer, had told him they would be made.

Wise was set on keeping Mat Salleh out of Inanam

and said he would ask for transfer if this were to be

allowed. Wise was a key man and this threat was

enough to make Cowie refuse Mat Salleh’s requests.

He said he did so even though he had been told that

Mat Salleh would avenge himself on him if the

requests were refused. He went on to offer Mat

Salleh liberty to live in Tambunan, if the people

would have him, or, if not, anywhere else in the

interior except the Labuk and Sugut headwaters. The

leader and his Tambunans had a long discussion and

in the end Mat Salleh agreed and also, at Cowie’s

request, said he would hand over the rifles taken in

the raid on Gaya. He then added, ‘I should first like

to say that even in the event of my not having agreed

to your terms, we do not revenge ourselves on our

friends, and we consider you our best friend. We are

extremely grateful to you for coming to settle this

matter.’

Cowie was pleased at this but went on to say

something which was to have very serious

consequences. He said if Mat Salleh kept the peace

for twelve months he would send him a present and

recommend him to the Court of Directors for an

appointment as chief or headman of a district. We

have only Cowie’s account, written in his diary, of

what was actually said. Mat SalIeh appears to have

had a different idea of what was promised him. This

led to trouble over the final written agreement. Still,

all this was in the future and the two men parted

good friends with a promise to meet the next day.

- 43 -

Cowie must have been feeling pleased with

everything as he walked back the three miles

through the woods and padi. In the evening Mat

Salleh sent in his kris and spear as signs of his

submission and, with a true feeling of politeness,

Cowie returned them to the sender.

Next day there was another meeting. This time

Wise and Pearson and the Governor, Mr Leicester

Beaufort, came with Cowie. This affair was much

more business-like. Mat Salleh kept the others

waiting for one hour and three-quarters. He had

two hundred men armed with kris and spear.

Some even carried rifles. They went over the same

ground, but this time Mat Salleh put forward his

complaint about his position as a ruler. He said

the Ulu Sugut and Ulu Inanam areas belonged to

him and his people, as the Sugut had been given

him by the Sultan of Suluk and the Inanam by the

Sultan of Brunei. There was some justice in his

claim. The Sultans had never had any real authority

over the areas they claimed and it did not mean

much to them to give away portions of land they had

never seen — and to give them away not once but

many times. Mat Salleh said he was not out to press

his claim against the Company, but against the

Sultans. The rest of the discussion ranged over the

old ground, the release of his followers, permission

to live in Inanam and the surrender of his guns. The

only point on which the officials gave way was over

the release of two old men, Sabandar and Malam, on

account of their age.

Mat Salleh was invited aboard the Government

launch Petrel, but he refused. He was ready to

- 44 -

trust Cowie but not the others, perhaps Wise in

particular. Wise was a strong character, a good

District Officer and a brave, hardy soldier. He

wanted no nonsense, and Mat Salleh knew this. It

was a great pity that there was no meeting on the

Petrel. Away from his followers who were watching

every move, Mat Salleh could have argued and

bargained without loss of face and when agreement

came he would have understood it.

The meeting broke up and later that day Cowie

sent a message by Pengiran Kahar stating that Mat

Salleh must either come himself on April 21st or

send in his final answer. The message also rebuked

Mat Salleh for bringing armed men to the meeting.

Probably Wise complained about this, because there

had been armed men at the other meeting but Cowie

had said nothing. Cowie said plainly that if Mat

Salleh ignored this request he would have ten days

in which to return to his base. Presumably after this

the Government would march against him. Mat

Salleh said he would go to Tempassuk and tell his

men what he was going to do, then he would come

back and submit. Cowie would have none of this and

insisted that Mat Salleh should report on board the

Petrel to submit, or perform the act at the ceremony

at Menggatal on the 22nd, when the Government

took over the territory. Later Cowie gave him until

the 23rd, but Mat Salleh sent in to say he would

come on the 22nd.

On the morning of April 22nd, 1898, a company

assembled for the formal handing over of the

Menggatal River. On parade were Cowie and

Beaufort, Wise and Pearson, a force of police —

- 45 -

bearded and turbannned Sikhs — and a party of

sailors and marihes from H.M.S. Swift. Pengiran

Kahar met them at the place fixed for the ceremony.

The naval party formed up on three sides of a

square before the official flagstaff, and at 10 a.m.

Cowie stepped forward and spoke to the company

from the Swift. He thanked them for their help and

said they would now see the final scenes of the

trouble which had brought them there. He then told

the local people that the Government was taking

over, but the Pengiran would stay as their ruler; he

also told them at length about the benefits of

Company rule. No doubt he enjoyed himself to the

full, but no doubt also he was a little anxious

because up to now there had been no sign of Mat

Salleh, without whom the show would fall very flat.

Kahar asked his people if they agreed to Company

rule. They did. Marine buglers sounded the Royal

Salute. The troops presented arms and the flag was

hoisted slowly to the masthead. There was still no

sign of Mat Salleh. Cowie called for three cheers and

the troops roared them out. Kahar and his men

echoed the cry. There was silence and the parade

stood still as a man appeared with a white flag.

Behind him came a small group of men, Mat Salleh

and his lieutenants, unarmed, ready to submit.

Before all the assembly and on the Koran he swore

an oath of loyalty. The large flag used for the

ceremony was hauled down to be replaced by the

ordinary type used on Government buildings. It was

suggested that Mat Salleh should hoist this and he

did it willingly.

The next day Cowie, Beaufort and Mat Salleh

- 46 -

signed an agreement. Under this the chief and his

followers, except those who had escaped from gaol

or who had committed other crimes, were pardoned.

The two old men were to be let out of gaol or, as the

paper said, they would be if they were still there.

The people who had been turned out of the Inanam

area could go back when the District Officer and

chiefs permitted. Mat Salleh could live in Tambunan

or anywhere else in the interior except on the Labuk

and Sugut. He was required to help to arrest

criminals and to keep the Government informed of

his plans. If he came to the coast he had to report to

the District Officer. So Mat Salleh returned to

Tambunan.

Mat Salleh was a remarkable man. Attacked near

Jambongon, he fell back on the Sugut: attacked there

he took refuge on the Labuk and played hide-and-

seek with the police until he settled in his childhood

home, Inanam. Chased from there he resorted to

Ranau and Tempassuk. Pushed out of Ranau he

settled in Tambunan. Wherever he went he could

always find followers and allies.

The events of April 22nd and 23rd at Menggatal

were a great triumph for Cowie, but soon there was

trouble. Many Government officers resigned in

protest against the terms of the agreement, which

they thought were too lenient. These included

Ormsby, Hewett, Reddie and Wise. Whether or not

we agree with them, we must admit that Mat Salleh

had escaped lightly. According to his own story, he

had no complaint against the Government, only

against the Sultans. Yet he had destroyed Company

proper ty and t aken the l i ves of innocent

- 47 -

people. The Government officers argued that if one

man were allowed to kill and burn and disobey the

law without being punished, others would do the

same. This happened. The people of Ternpassuk

began to give trouble and showed little respect for

the forces of law and order.

Mat Salleh himself complained that the

agreement in the paper he signed on April 23rd was

different from the one he reached at the discussions

with Cowie and the others. He once again brought

up the question of being allowed to settle in Inanam.

There is no doubt that Mat Salleh had the idea that

he had been promised that he could return to

Inanam if he kept the peace for a year. Cowie is

supposed to have told this to Swettenham, the

High Commissioner in Singapore, but Beaufort in

a letter to Wise said that this was a mistake. Mat

Salleh had been told he could not go back to Inanam,

he said, and the promise to him about an appoint-

ment had been rather vague — just that ‘something

would be done for him’. This fits in with what

Cowie said in his diary. This, you remember, was

that Cowie would recommend Mat Salleh for an

appointment as a chief or a headman of a district.

But you will also remember that just before this they

had been discussing Mat Salleh’s return to Inanam.

There on that bright morning, in the hot sun, words

and promises flew backwards and forwards,

sometimes through interpreters, with pauses to light

cigars or to ease cramped limbs. Offers were made

and requests rejected. Discussions kept breaking

out in the ranks of the onlookers. Under these

conditions it would be easy for Mat Salleh

- 48 -

to gain the wrong impression. After all, at times like

these we all hope the other man is going to say what

we want him to say and Mat Salleh could have

thought, ‘Aha! He says if I behave for a year I may

be made chief in a district. That means I can go back

to Inanam after twelve months.’ The trouble arose

because the discussions were held under the sky, in

the presence of armed men, in an atmosphere of

tense excitement. If they had taken place quietly

round a table, Mat Salleh would have understood

perfectly what the Government expected him to do.

We know he refused to come to the Petrel, so

perhaps the misunderstanding was partly his fault.

But Cowie and Beaufort should have tried harder to

persuade him to settle everything round a table. If

they had done so, further trouble might have been

avoided. Of course it is easy for us to be wise, long

after the event. Cowie, when he heard from Wise

that Mat Salleh felt he had been tricked, wrote in his

diary, ‘Mat Salleh is right, the terms of submission

signed by him are not altogether in accordance with

those verbally agreed upon, but the matter can be

easily explained and put right.’ It seems that this was

not done.

The Tambunan plain, a most pleasant and

beautiful place, was at that time outside the

Company’s rule. The two main tribes, the Tegas and

the Tiawans, were enemies. Mat Salleh took the side

of the Tegas against the Tiawans. He taxed the

people to support himself and his band and he built a

fort with forced labour. Beaufort, the Governor, did

not like this and tried to get Mat Salleh out of

Tambunan. He said the Government might help

- 49 -

him to make a pilgrimage to Mecca, but Mat Salleh

refused this help. The Tiawans did not like the state

of things either, and they asked Beaufort to set up a

Government station at Tambunan. Senior Govern-

ment officers did not like it either. They shook their

heads and said that before long Mat Salleh would be

on the warpath again. They were right.

There was a meeting between Beaufort and Mat

Salleh in the chief’s fort near Teboh, about six miles

from Tambunan. This took place after the Tiawan

chiefs had taken oaths of loyalty to the Company.

At this meeting Mat Salleh said some surprising

things. He told Beaufort that neither he nor the

Tegas were going to attack the Tiawans and the

only grudge he had against the Tiawans was that

they had helped two of his men, Abdurahman and

Thalib, who had fallen out with him. But he also

said that he had built forts and had intended an

attack on the Tiawans that very day, only the

meeting with the Governor stopped it. Beaufort does

not seem to have found this in the least unusual and

indeed promised to help by removing the two

offenders from the district.

After this all three sides seemed to take up

different positions in the affair. Mr F.W. Fraser, the

Company’s officer at Keningau, felt that now that

the Tiawans had submitted to the Government, a

post should be set up at Tambunan. He and most

other officers on the spot were prepared for Mat

Salleh to make trouble. If he did they made up their

minds to deal with him once and for all. They were

very upset when the Governor of the Straits

Settlements gave his opinion that they could do

- 50 -

nothing against Mat Salleh because, under the

agreement reached with Cowie, the chief was on

probation for one year. Beaufort felt it was hopeless

if Mat Salleh could collect round him all the rogues

and criminals who made their way to Tambunan

and the Government had to stand idly by. The

directors of the Company, far away in London,

thought that they should still strive for peace.

They felt that Tambunan should be brought under

Company rule, but that Mat Salleh should be given

a Government post as chief. They fixed his salary

at thirty dollars per month and said he should have

two hundred dollars back pay. Even after Mat

Salleh had been guilty of attacking and killing

innocent people in Tambunan they were prepared

to pardon him. Mat Salleh felt differently from all

the others. He thought that the Government had

no right to take over Tambunan. He felt he had

been given the territory by the agreement of April

23rd, 1898. Now, he argued, the Government were

trying to drive him out of Tambunan on top of

having tricked him over permission to return to

Inanam. This was too much. He made up his mind

to fight.

At the head of a group of Tegas, Mat Salleh

attacked the Sensurons and killed thirty people and

drove off eighty head of cattle. He went to Lawas

in Sarawak to buy gunpowder. He had plans to

raid Keningau. He attacked the Tiawans at Tam-

bunan, swooped down as far as Putatan in a raid,

and, at a meeting with Resident Little near Paper,

demanded that the Company should take away its

officers from Tambunan. The raids went on. The

- 51 -

directors in London had decided on one last attempt

at peace which was Little’s meeting — and if that

failed the men on the spot must act as they thought

fit. This meeting had failed, so the Government got

ready to renew the war. Mat Salleh was by now

openly against the Company. He sent a message

saying that, if the Government was going to take

Tambunan, he thanked them very much, but if they

did he would take Sandakan and Labuan and he

hoped the Government would not be cross with him.

So the case was hopeless. Both sides had made up

their minds to fight.

On December 18th the Government forces under

Captain Harington, the police Commandant,

advanced towards Tambunan. They arrived on

December 31st, 1899 after a few brushes with Mat

Salleh’s troops. They numbered one hundred and

forty in all and had a seven-pounder gun and a

machine gun. With Harington were Dansey, Fraser,

Dunlop, Atkinson and Conyngham. Dansey was a

police officer and Conyngham was a doctor.

Harington set up his headquarters at Tembau, two

and a half miles from Tambunan, and on January 9th

attacked a strong point nearby, killing four of the

enemy and sending the others into flight. Next day a

much stronger force attacked the village of Piasau.

The gun was brought into action here. In this action

sixty villagers were killed for one of the Government

troops. Harington was sick with a very high fever

but Dansey, the next senior police officer, though a

young man without experience of fighting, took over.

Harington recovered and was back in command in a

few days.

- 52 -

Mat Salleh’s luck began to run out. His plan of

defending a fort was always a dangerous one against

an enemy with modern artillery. This time he was up

against a seven-pounder gun and a machine gun. The

village of Teboh, held by his allies the Tegas, was

only nine hundred yards away from his fort, and he

counted on the support of its people. On January

15th Harington opened up on it with his seven-

pounder. Four rounds fell and the Tegas were

completely cowed. They surrendered. One after

another villages gave in. From his stronghold Mat

Salleh could see the white flags fluttering over them.

Harington moved in and took over Teboh. More and

more villages surrendered until Mat Salleh and his

followers stood alone.

Harington was not in the Ranau battle. He came

up after it was over to relieve Wise, Barraut and

Hewett, but he had learned the lessons that battle

taught. He was not prepared to storm the fort at

Tambunan until he had squeezed it from all sides

and pounded it with his gun. Day after day this went

on. Dansey, Dunlop and Fraser dug their party in at a

position only two hundred and fifty yards from the

fort. On January 21st a reserve fort under Mat Sator,

Mat Salleh’s second-in-command, was hit by a shell,

set on fire and completely gutted. This was a disaster

for the defenders. Harington put troops in the ruins

of the burnt-out fort and set up his machine gun in

another position where it could rake the one

remaining fort at any angle. More troops arrived and

Harington set up more posts. The siege started in

real earnest on January 20th and on the 25th the

attackers cut off the fort’s

- 53 -

water supply. Posts were pushed up within fifty

yards of the fort and the pounding continued. Short

of water, bombarded all day, the defenders appeared

to be losing courage. They kept below their walls

and their yells of defiance ceased. They held on in

grim silence.

Harington moved his gun around, battering the

walls of the fort and its guard houses. On the 29th

he set up the seven-pounder on Sensuron hill,

eight hundred and fifty yards away and fifty feet

above the fort. From here he poured in a murderous

plunging fire, pinning the garrison down below

ground. He kept this up for three days. On

February 1st in the early hours of the morning

Niuk, a Bajau woman, was caught escaping. She

said that Mat Salleh was dead, killed at noon on the

previous day. At dawn the patrols entered the fort

and found very few people alive. Some had fled but

there were some who could flee no more. ‘Those left

alive were in a sorry state. For four days they had

gone without food and water. In that fierce heat with

the unburied dead, the air must have been

unbearably foul. Yet no one had attempted to

surrender.

Mat Salleh’s body was found. He had been

killed by a bullet in the head and buried in the

manner of his religion, in a white cloth. In the

fort sixteen were killed for the loss of two of the

Government troops. Mat Salleh’s family of three

wives, one son and two daughters were safe. As

Dayang Bandang was a Suluk princess she was sent

back to Sulu but we do not know if she walked or

was carried.

- 54 -

This was the end of Mat Salleh, but Clifford, the

new Governor who arrived just as the war was over,

had a hard task for the next few months dealing with

his followers, especially Mat Sator who attacked

Kudat and burned, robbed and killed. But soon the

country, including the Tambunan valley and the

Inanam and Menggatal areas, settled down. In these

places, the Government was never again given

trouble.

The story of Mat Salleh is a sad one. If he had

trusted people more, and if the Government had

been ready to listen to him earlier, he may have

become an important and powerful chief. Instead, he

met a brave but tragic end.

- 55 -

Exercises

1. What do the following phrases from the story

mean?

a) to make an end of

b) thought very little of

c) to press his claim

d) to the full

e) in a sorry state

2. Why did Cowie refuse Mat Salleh’s request to be

allowed to live in Inanam with his followers?

3. Give three reasons why the confusion arose as to

whether or not Mat Salleh had been told he might

return to Inanam after twelve months.

- 56 -

- 57 -

5 The Revolt of the Double

Tenth, 1943

In October 1943 Sabah lay under the iron heel of

the Japanese. The armies of Japan had invaded

Borneo in January 1942 as part of the Japanese war

of conquest in the Far East which had begun on

December 7th, 1941 with the victory by the forces of

the Emperor over those of the United States of

America at Pearl Harbour, Hawaii. Labuan was

taken on January 1st, 1942. At that time Great

Britain was engaged in a struggle for its very life

both in Europe against the Germans, and in the Far

East against the Japanese. She could not spare arms

and men to defend Sabah, so the North Borneo

Chartered Company ordered its officers not to fight

but to hand over their powers to the Japanese. The

North Borneo Government issued special orders to

the people to obey their new masters and not to get

themselves into any trouble.

The only fighting men who could have defended

Sabah were the police and a Volunteer Force. This

force was small and was made up of clerks, school

teachers, planters, Government officers, and others

who had been given army training in their spare time.

When the Japanese came the Volunteer Force was

broken up (disbanded) and the men returned to their

homes.

The Japanese army at first allowed the European

Government officers to carry on at their posts.

- 58 -

They put out an order to confirm this, but the order

made it very clear that everything in Sabah was

under the control of the Japanese. This order,

made on January 13th, 1942, said two very impor-

tant things. The first was that the Japanese had

the power to demand from the people anything they

wished for themselves. The second was that all

local produce must be sold to the Japanese at a

reasonable price whenever they asked for it. Of

course, the Japanese would decide what was a

reasonable price. All this meant that the Government

of the country was in the hands of the Japanese and

if they wanted anything from the local people they

could take it.

This was the greatest blow ever to fall on the

people of Sabah. They had never had much say in

their Government either under the Pengirans and

Sultans or under the Chartered Company, but they

had always been given rights. Now they had none.

They were slaves. The people did not realise this at

first. The Japanese wished to make friends of them.

They talked about a great new age when Sabah

would be happy and prosperous with the rest of Asia

— under the Japanese of course. For a short while

all went well.

Suddenly things changed. The Europeans were

rounded up and put into prison where for years until

the Liberation they were treated harshly, and the

Japanese took over the Government completely.

The reason for this change was that the Japanese

found they were not winning the people over to their

side and they felt that the best thing to do was to get

r i d o f t h e E u r o p e a n s . U n f o r t u n a t e l y ,

- 59 -

after the disappearance of the Europeans the people

did not love their conquerors any better, so they

were treated harshly. Every Sabahan had to bow to a

Japanese wherever he met one, even in the street. If

he did not do so the Japanese would slap him hard

on the face or beat him with a cane. The conquerors

took away rice from the padi farmers. The farmers

looked upon this as theft. The usual amount was

about forty per cent of the crop, but the collectors

also helped themselves, so sometimes up to eighty

per cent was taken. Many farmers hid their rice and

drove off their cattle to hideaways in the forest, but

if they were caught they suffered fines,

imprisonment and severe beatings.

The Japanese set up strong army posts in the

interior to control the local people. Ranau, Keningau,

Tenom, Beaufort and Pensiangan had garrisons. The

strongest were at Ranau and Pensiangan. There were

some troops also in the main coastal towns. They

appointed headmen in the villages and gave them big

tin badges to wear as a sign of their authority. They

also appointed spies to report on these headmen. If

the spy said the headman was not carrying out

instructions the poor chief was punished. The up-

country villagers who had always led a free-and-

easy life under the Chartered Company now found

they had little freedom. What they really hated was

forced labour. The Japanese made them work

without pay on roads and airfields and other public

works. The people of the interior began to hate the

Japanese.

The fishermen and island dwellers round the

coast of Sabah are proud and freedom-loving. The

- 60 -

Sulu islanders of the east coast had many friends and

relatives in the Sulu Islands of the Philippines and

they kept in touch with them. The Philippine Sulus

were holding out against the Japanese under a leader

called Alejandro Suarez who had the rank of

Lieutenant-Colonel in the army of the United

States of America. This kept the spirit of revolt

alive among the Sabah east coast islanders. Off

the Sabah west coast as far north as Mantanani

Island the Bajaus, Binadans and Sulus of the off-

shore islands were equally set against their overlords.

These folk had been, in the days before the Char-

tered Company, pirates and slave traders. Defiance

of danger was in their blood.

Hardest hit of all by the Japanese conquest were

the Chinese people. For many years Japan had been

at war with China and the overseas Chinese had

given large sums of money to help their mother-

land. The Japanese now made them pay for the

war against their own people. They made an

order that all goods and cash owned by the Chinese

belonged to Japan. Anyone who disobeyed orders

was thrown into prison and beaten and tortured.

One of the places where this took place was the

Jesselton Sports Club which was taken over by the

Japanese Military Police; the Kempeitai. People

living near this building used to be wakened at night

by the screams of the victims. A mild form of

punishment was to stand people in the hot sun for

hours. Another, less mild, was to make two pri-

soners fight each other with fists while the Japanese

stood round roaring with laughter. If the fighters

were half-hearted they were soundly beaten and the

- 61 -

loser was always given a hiding for not trying. These

‘fights’ were staged on what is now the town padang

in Kota Kinabalu. More severe beatings took place

inside the building. Often the victim died. Another

form of punishment was the water torture. Large

amounts of water were poured down the victim’s

throat until his stomach greatly. The Japanese

then jumped on him until the water was forced

out again.

No Chinese was safe from arrest. One trick the

Japanese had was to invite a number of people to a

big dinner. After the feast many of them would be

thrown into gaol. Those who received invitations to

these parties did not know whether to go to them and

be arrested or to stay away and be arrested for not

attending.

All this time the people of Sabah had great hopes

that the Allies would invade Borneo and drive out

the Japanese. The British officers who went into

gaol in Kuching were quite sure that they would be

free in six months. Only those who knew how the

war was going could see that the defeat of Japan

would take years, not months — and there were few

in a position to know this in Borneo.

The lowland farmers and the people up-country,

though they hated the Japanese, were not ready to

fight them. They wanted to keep out of trouble,

but they saw little hope for themselves and their

families as more and more of their food was taken

from them. The off-shore islanders were keen to

attack their masters, but they were not organized;

nor were the Chinese, nor the Eurasians. Day by

day all the people of Sabah were becoming more

- 62 -

desperate. There was need of a leader, and one came

forward.

Albert Kwok, a young Chinese, had come to

Jesselton (now Kota Kinabalu) in 1940. He was a

Sarawak man, born in Kuching, where his father was

a dentist. He was trained in the arts of Chinese

healing and had been a very successful Chinese

doctor in Nanking, Hankow and Canton. He returned

to Borneo in 1940 and made his home with his sister

and her husband in Jesselton. Here he carried on his

work as a Chinese doctor until his stock of

medicines ran out. Kwok was a busy man, full of

energy. He always tried to look on the bright side of

things and hoped for the best. He had seen

something of the Japanese in China and hated them

for their cruelty to his people. Right from the start he

made up his mind to oppose the invaders. Kwok

heard that in Dutch Borneo (Kalimantan) there was a

party of Dutch, British and Americans still holding

out in a place called Long Nawan. In February 1942

he tried to make his way there through Pensiangan

but found when he got to the Sabah border it was

firmly held by Japanese. He could go no further

because the rivers were carefully controlled. He

therefore returned to Jesselton. It was well he did so

because in August of that year the Japanese suddenly

fell upon the settlement at Long Nawan and killed

everyone they found — men, women and children.

Not long after Kwok’s return from Pensiangan

the Japanese sent out an order. It was dated June

13th, 1942 and said, amongst other things, ‘Let not

the Chinese forget that the power of seizing them

and putting them to death rests with one decision of

- 63 -

the Japanese High Command.’ By ‘High Command’

they meant the command in Borneo, not in Tokyo.

This showed Kwok that he must really do something

in Borneo to oppose the Japanese. In this, the

Second World War, men who fought against

invaders either openly or secretly, were called

resistance fighters. Kwok found out that there was a

resistance movement in the Philippines. Through a

business man in Jesselton called Lim Keng Fatt, he

got to know a Filipino named Imam Marajukim who

was in touch with Suarez, the Philippines resistance

leader. The Imam was a Muslim priest but he was

also a trader and a very fine sailor. Suarez had sent

him to Borneo to find out what was happening there.

As a trader in sugar Marajukim came to Lim Keng

Fatt’s shop where he met Kwok.

Early in 1943 Kwok and the Imam went to Sulu to

visit Suarez. The guerilla leader was not too happy

about Kwok at first but soon came to trust him.

Guerillas are fighters not belonging to any regular

army (though the officers are sometimes regular

soldiers) who carry on small wars against an

invading enemy. The most famous guerillas were the

bands who opposed the French in Spain during the

Napoleonic Wars. Kwok learned a great deal about

guerilla fighting during his stay in Sulu and when he

returned to Jesselton in May 1943 he was

determined to form his own guerilla band.

He first made contact with the Overseas Chinese

Defence Association in Jesselton and collected

eleven thousand dollars and medical supplies to help

the Sulu resistance forces. He also enrolled about

two hundred men to fight. In June 1943 he

- 64 -

paid another visit to the Philippines with Imam

Marajukim, taking his cash and his medicines with

him. He was then given an appointment as a

Lieutenant in the American army by Suarez and

sent back to Borneo. He reached Jesselton on

September 21st 1943 and started to organize a

group of resistance fighters as well as to help collect

money for the Oveseas Chinese Defence Associa-

tion.

Kwok could count on help from the Chinese for

his secret army. The islanders were also keen to

join and so were many of the Volunteers who had

been disbanded. The farmers and the Muruts of the

forest were not ready to revolt. Though they hated

the Japanese, they hated still more the risk of losing

their homes and having their families ill-treated. To

this there were two exceptions. Musah, the leader

who had fought against the Company, and was now

living in retirement at Membakut, agreed to form

a guerilla band. He did not get a chance to fight,

but was nevertheless put into prison by the Japanese.

The other was a Murut, former Chief Inspector

Duallis, who kept up resistance to the Japanese

right to the very end, killing many of them in daring

raids.

Kwok called his small band the Kinabalu

Guerilla Defence Force and made his headquarters at

Menggatal. He encouraged leaders to form groups at

Inanam, Tuaran, Kota Belud and Talibong. He also

planned to form others in places south of Jesselton to

link up with Musah at Membakut. Hiew Syn Yong,

an Assistant District Officer, commanded at Kota

Belud; Mr Charles Peter, formerly

- 65 -

officer-in-charge of the police district at Jesselton

was at Tuaran, with Subedar Dewa Singh; another

ex-policeman, Kong Sze Fui, was at Menggatal;

and Mr Jules Stephens as ‘Adjutant’ was the or-

ganizing chief. Stephens had been a Sergeant in

the Volunteers. The chief of the islanders was

Penglima Ali, Orang Tua of Sulu Island off Jessel-

ton, with Arshad of Oudar (off the mouth of the

Menggatal River), Jemalul of Mantanani and

Sarrudin of Danawan.

The Kinabalu Guerillas kept in touch with Suarez

in the Philippines through Lim Keng Fatt. Lim

owned a boat and was a good seaman. He was made

a Captain in the American army by Suarez. Lim

also was in contact with Major F.G.L. Chester, a

British officer, serving with the Australian army,

who made frequent visits to the east coast of Sabah.

Chester had been a rubber planter on the west coast

of Sabah and knew the country well. Through

Lim he warned Mr Peter not to start anything with

the Japanese until the Allies were ready to help.

He made it quite clear that at present no help could

be given.

Lieutenant Kwok made rapid progress with his

scheme for resistance against the Japanese and was

working on expansion plans when suddenly every-

thing was changed. He learned that the Japanese

were going to take three thousand young Chinese

men and force them into the army. These forced

recruit (conscripts) were to form garrisons at places

in the interior and on the islands and so would free

Japanese troops for other duties. This was a blow to

Chinese pride and also a serious threat to Kwok’s

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plans for a resistance army. All the men he counted

on to help would be taken away and Japanese troops

would be free to hit back at the guerillas in any

part of Sabah. This was not the only blow. Kwok

learned that the Japanese intended to sieze a number

of Chinese girls and force them into the service of

the army. They were also going to call up all the

former Volunteers for military duty. To take the

girls would bring great shame on hundreds of

Chinese homes. To take the Volunteers away

would mean the end of the guerilla bands. Kwok

made up his mind to strike.

Against him were the regular Japanese Army, the

Japanese Military Police (the Kempeitai) and the

local police under Japanese control. There was

also a force of irregulars — the Jikidan, who were

set in villages to watch their fellow men and report

their movements. There were few regular troops

stationed in Jesselton or in any of the coastal towns.

They were in garrisons in the interior, mainly at

Ranau and Pensiangan. In Jesselton there were three

places where the police were stationed, the police

station in South Road, the Jesselton Sports Club,

which was the headquarters of the Military Police,

and the former Armed Constabulary depot at

Victoria Barracks, Batu Tiga. There were also police

garrisons at Tuaran and Menggatal. Another well

guarded place was the Customs area, of wharf

buildings and godowns in Jesselton.

On his side Kwok had about one hundred of his

Kinabalu band and could count on nearly twice that

number of islanders. Very few of his men had any

military training. Peter and Dewa Singh were

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ex-policemen and Li Tet Phui and Jules Stephens

had some part-time experience as soldiers. The rest

were new to the business. No written orders of the

force have survived. Very likely there were none.

People have taken different views of what Kwok’s

plan really was. Some think he intended to knock

out the Japanese in Jesselton, hold the town and

rally supporters to his banner, then, with help from

the Allies, throw the Japanese out of Sabah. We

know that Kwok was a man who always looked

on the bright side of things and hoped for the best;

but we also know he was no fool. It would have

been a very stupid leader who would hope that such

a plan would succeed. It is more likely that he

hoped to strike a blow at Jesselton and rouse up

other bands to further resistance while he pulled

back hoping for help from the Allies, and for arms

and supplies from Suarez in the Philippines. With

this aid he could keep up attacks against the enemy

until the Allies invaded and drove them out. Perhaps

he hoped only to strike a desperate blow against

the Japanese, losing all in the effort but at least

making the enemy think again and drop his plan

to enslave the Chinese youths and girls. We will

never know what he really hoped, but we do know

he sent for arms from Suarez and planned the

burning of the Jesselton godowns so that the blaze

would attract help from a friendly ship or submarine

from the Allied fleet. We also know that through

Lim Keng Fatt he had been told that the Allies could

not help and had been advised to keep quiet until

a more favourable time. But, as we have seen,

his hand was forced. The Chinese youths and

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girls were about to be conscripted and the

Volunteers had been rounded up by the Japanese and

told that they would shortly be returned to duty.

Albert Kwok had a hard decision to make but he

made it with cheerfulness and courage. He fixed

his rising for the night of October 9th, 1943, the

eve of the great Chinese festival of the Double

Tenth. This is the day on which the Chinese

celebrate the triumph of the revolution of Dr Sun

Yat-sen. He thought that, if the Sabah Chinese

could celebrate the festival as free men, it would

do wonders for their spirits.

Kwok’s plan for the assault on Jesselton was

simple but required good organization and careful

timing. A lorryborne force was to drive straight into

the town and knock out all the police posts except

Victoria Barracks, which was thought to be too

difficult to capture. A group on foot was to come

into the town by the back way through Likas and

Signal Hill and take post at the landward end of the

Customs, while the islanders were to swarm over the

sea wall and attack the seaward end of this area.

Another force of landers was to attack the town near

Fraser Street. The signal for the assault of the

islanders was to be the sound of the bugles blown by

the lorry-borne force after getting to grips with the

enemy. As we have said, no one knows for certain

what Kwok planned to do next.

The night of October 9th was perfect for the

attack. Despite their well-organized spy system the

Japanese had no idea of what was coming and had

arranged for a lecture at the Koa Club (the Jesselton

Recrea t ion Club) and al l leading c i t i zens

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were supposed to attend. The moon was nearing

the full but there was some cloud which gave the

men cover. Kwok had on his army uniform and t

he rest of them wore dark clothing, except some

who dressed in chawats and darkened their

otherwise bare bodies. The force had three lorries

which were to take the road party into Jesselton.

They dowsed one headlight, showing only one as a

sign of recognition.

The first blow was struck at Tuaran where all the

Japanese police were killed and six rifles and a

quantity of ammunition were captured. Next came

the Japanese police station at Menggatal where the

garrison of fifteen Japanese was wiped out and three

local policemen killed. These two swift blows

accounted for thirty enemy, all killed without any

loss to the guerillas. The two-pronged attack on

Jesselton now developed. The overland force made

off for Likas and the lorried force prepared for its

swoop down the road. Meantime the sea raid was

being prepared. For days the islanders had been

gathering in their boats. From as far north as

Mantanani they came, sailing at night to avoid

detection. The islanders mustered in their boats on

the beaches of the off-shore islands near Jesselton,

then moved in and stood off the sea wall ready for

the attack, the pirate blood of their ancestors fully

roused.

It was too much to hope that the attack would be

a complete surprise. The alarm was given by

aTiawanese spy who ran in from Menggatal. The

Japanese meeting broke up in confusion and many

Japanese made their way to places of safety. But the

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lorry borne fighters were soon in town and attacking

their first objective, the police station on South

Road. This post was supported by troops in the

nearby military post office and there were armed

men in the Japanese Military Police post in the

Sports Club not far away, so the guerillas had a

difficult task. They succeeded after a short, fierce

battle. The Military Police did not interfere to

help their comrades. But the guerillas were dis-

appointed because there was very little ammunition

in the police station.

Bugle calls gave the signal to the islanders and

they stormed over the sea wall to attack. The

party ordered to attack the Customs went in bent on

death and destruction. They hurled flaming torches

at the godowns — many of which were filled with

rubber — and started fires which burnt for a week.

Unfortunately, there were no Allied ships in the

area, so no help came. The Japanese guard ran

frantically down the mole towards the town but

found their way blocked by the overland force who

had arrived dead on time. The guard, perished to a

man. The second group of islanders attacked along

Fraser Street where there were many Japanese.

These they sought out and killed. Some Japanese

fled to the Victoria Barracks at Batu Tiga. These

were too strongly held and the guerillas wisely left

them alone. Two Japanese started running and did

not stop until they reached safety at Kinarut. One

Japanese plunged into the sea and swam to Gaya

Island where he hid until the battle was over. The

Japanese Police Chief, Ishikawa, also managed to

escape but the Manager of the Japanese Nauri

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Company and his assistant were not so lucky. Nor

was the Japanese Food Controller, who was dragged

from his car and beheaded. The guerillas assumed

that anyone in a car or lorry (except their own one-

eyed vehicles) was enemy. Unfortunately, the

Chinese driver of the Sanitary Board lorry decided

to try to escape in his vehicle. He and his newly-

married wife were mistaken for Japanese and shot

dead.

Lieutenant Kwok issued two notices. One was

a declaration of war against the Japanese. The

other was an appeal to the public to help his men.

Among other things, he asked the people not to give

his troops strong drink. He then gave orders for all

his men to withdraw from Jesselton. The islanders

took to their boats and the rest of the resistance

fighters went back by road to Menggatal. They

destroyed the bridge at Inanam to delay any pursuit.

They need not have done so. The Japanese were so

bewildered that they did not know what to do. In all,

the whole operation (as the soldiers say) had taken

three hours. These were three hours of black defeat

for the Japanese and of glorious victory for the men

of Sabah. Next day in Jesselton and on all big

buildings as far as Tuaran, flags flew to celebrate the

Double Tenth. They were the Sabah Jack, the Union

Jack, the Chinese Flag, and the Stars and Stripes.

The people celebrated the feast in freedom.

Lieutenant Kwok’s headquarters this day were at

Mansiang near Menggatal and here the celebration

was gayest of all.

On October 12th a small force under a colourful

character called Rajah George set out to capture

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Kota Belud. George was an ex-school boy of All

Saints’ School and their star athlete. At Tenghilan

they ran into three Japanese and after a short fight

killed them. One of them was Ishikawa, the

Jesselton Police Chief who had escaped on the night

of the raid. George telephoned Kota Belud and

ordered the Japanese there to be arrested. He

then rode into the town clad in Ishikawa’s riding

boots and wearing his sword. On his instructions

the Japanese police were executed.

On October 13th the Japanese struck back.

Troops and planes were rushed to Jesselton and the

villages along the Tuaran road were bombed and

machine-gunned and later taken over by Japanese

troops. They were after anyone who had helped

Kwok and his men but were not too particular about

whom they punished. Many people fled in terror

only to be rounded up and accused of helping the

guerillas, beaten and tortured.

Kwok and his men were forced back beyond the

Tamparuli bridge to Ranau-Ranau where they beat

off an attack, but had to pull out to new positions.

They kept up the fight but their ammunition stocks

were low and they desperately needed supplies

from the Philippines. Because they hoped daily

that they would have news of this help they could

not seek safety in the hills. By the middle of

November some of the band were losing hope and

though they knew the terrible danger they would

be in if they returned home, they wanted to be

back with their families. Kwok allowed them to

go and the remainder of the band made their

way to Kiangsam near Inanam. Here they were

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attacked by the Japanese and scattered. Kwok and

six others took refuge in the Northern Chinese

settlement near Penampang.

Meanwhile the Japanese were taking revenge on

the people of Jesselton, Inanam, Menggatal and

Tuaran. They made many arrests and beat

their prisoners to make them confess their part in the

revolt. Kwok in hiding received reports of these

happenings and was very much upset by them. He

was being supplied with money and food by Chong

Fu Kui, a shopkeeper from Donggongan on the

Penampang road. Chong’s messenger was a gam-

bler who could not resist playing for high stakes.

He was sent to Kwok with a sum of money but

gambled it away. Chong was furious and there was

a fierce quarrel between the two men. Unfortunate-

ly, a spy overheard them and ran to the Japanese

with the news of Kwok’s hideaway. The area was

surrounded and though Lieutenant Kwok and his

men were well armed he decided to give himself up

hoping that all further bloodshed would cease. In

this hope he was disappointed. This was on

December 19th, 1943. Ten days later Lim Keng

Fatt arrived off the coast with the arms from Suarez

but as Kwok had surrendered he did not land,

returning straight to the Philippines. The Japanese

had arrested many people, both townsfolk and

islanders. On January 21st, 1944 they decided to

make an end. They had about four hundred prisoners

in Jesselton. They condemned a hundred and

seventy-six of these to death and a hundred and

thirty-one they decided to transfer to Labuan — of

these only nine remained alive at the end of the

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war — and the rest were to remain in Batu Tiga gaol

in Jesselton. The place of execution was prepared

outside the village of Petagas on the railway just

south of Jesselton. At 3 a.m. the victims were

pushed into cattle trucks and taken to Petagas. The

roads to the village had been blocked for three days

to prevent the people from making trouble.

At Petagas Lieutenant Kwok, Charles Peter,

Chan Chau Kong, Kong Tse Phui and Li Tet Phui’

were made to stand in a row and photographed.

They were then beheaded. The rest of the doomed

men were killed by machine gun fire and their

bodies pushed into long trenches already dug in the

sand. There is a memorial garden now built on this

spot and every year on the anniversary of the

executions there is a religious service to honour the

memory of these men who died for their country.

Among these were Rajah George, Orang Tua

Penglima Au and Jules Stephens. Musah was

condemned to death but he persuaded the Japanese

to change his sentence to imprisonment. He could

not stand gaol conditions and died three months after

being shut up.

The islanders were next to be punished. Their

leaders had died at Petagas but that was not enough.

Suluk and Danawan were visited by the Japanese

and all the men were killed. The women were

taken away and forced to work in the rice fields of

Bongawan. Udar and Mantanani were attacked

and many men killed. There was another mass

execution on May 5th, 1944, this time in Batu Tiga

gaol. In all a thousand people were executed or

tortured to death. Japanese deaths were eighty-six.

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The Japanese made light of the affair but it was a

severe blow to their pride and they cancelled their

plans to conscript Chinese youths and girls, so at

least in this the revolt was a success.

Was the Double Tenth Revolt a glorious failure?

It was very costly for the people of Sabah — a

thousand lives were lost and many women left

without husbands and many children made orphans.

But it lit a fire of resistance which kept burning until

the Allies drove the Japanese out. Duallis, the ex-

police officer and his Muruts waged a private war on

the enemy right to the end. On the east coast attacks

on the Japanese became more and more frequent.

The people of Sabah showed that they were not

beaten, though the revolt of the Kinabalu guerillas

had been put down.

Was Albert Kwok a great leader? Perhaps he was

or perhaps he was not. It is difficult to say. He was

unlucky. If he had held out a few days longer he

would have received arms from the Philippines and

could have fought on. Even without the arms he

might have saved himself and his cause if he had not

given himself up in the hope that the killing would

stop. This was very noble of him, but a great leader

has to be heartless sometimes in order to succeed. As

it turned out the killings did not stop. Each of us can

have his own views on this subject but whether or

not we believe him a great leader, one thing is

certain: Albert Kwok was a hero who fought bravely

for his country and gave his life so that others could

live in liberty and peace.

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Exercises

1. Why did the Japanese imprison the Europeans

after at first allowing them to remain in their jobs?

2. Explain why the people round the coasts and

islands of Sabah continued to defy the Japanese.

3. Why did the Chinese suffer more than anyone else

at the hands of the Japanese?

4. Do you think that Albert Kwok was wise to make

his rising when he did? Give your reasons.

5. Give the meaning of the following words from the

story:

confirm, soundly, guerilla, conscript, pursuit.

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