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
1
Chapter 2 - The Story of Lizzie Webber
15
Chapter 3 - Mat Salleh and the Fight at Ranau
27
Chapter 3 - Mat Salleh’s Last Battle
39
Chapter 5 - The Revolt of the Double Tenth, 1943
57
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 working 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 -1-
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 withdrew 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 -2-
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 -3-
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 guarding 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. -4-
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 strongpoints. 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 -5-
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 -6-
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 -7-
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 -8-
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 -9-
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 - 10 -
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. - 11 -
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’?
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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 - 15 -
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 twelvepounder 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 - 16 -
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 - 17 -
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 - 18 -
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 powder and shot which could not last 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 - 19 -
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. R oss 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 - 20 -
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 - 21 -
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 - 22 -
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 - 23 -
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.
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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.
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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 - 27 -
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 mur derers. The police st or med t he village but Mat Salleh and his followers fled to the jungle. Once again the Government had failed to arrest him. He later wrote to the Government wanting to know why he had been attacked. - 28 -
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 l eh w as sai d t o ha ve been tremendously strong, able, when a young man, to throw a buffalo. He was a good soldier and, if we - 29 -
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 - 30 -
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 - 31 -
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 Adjutant from Sandakan, the rest were 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. - 32 -
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. - 33 -
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 womenfolk 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. - 34 -
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- 35 -
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 submission 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.
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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.
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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 - 39 -
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 - 40 -
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 - 41 -
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. - 42 -
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 - 43 -
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 — - 44 -
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 - 45 -
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-andseek 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 p r o p e r t y a n d t a ke n t h e l i v e s o f i n n o c e n t - 46 -
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 hi mself complai ned 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 appointment 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 - 47 -
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 - 48 -
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 Government 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 - 49 -
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 Tambunan, 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 - 50 -
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. - 51 -
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 sevenpounder. 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 - 52 -
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. - 53 -
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.
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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.
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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. - 57 -
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 important 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 rid of the Europeans. Unfortunately, - 58 -
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 upcountry villagers who had always led a free-andeasy 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 - 59 -
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 offshore islands were equally set against their overlords. These folk had been, in the days before the Chartered 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 motherland. 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 prisoners 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 - 60 -
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 - 61 -
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 - 62 -
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 - 63 -
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 Association. 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 - 64 -
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 organizing chief. Stephens had been a Sergeant in the Volunteers. The chief of the islanders was Penglima Ali, Orang Tua of Sulu Island off Jesselton, 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 everything 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 - 65 -
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 - 66 -
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 - 67 -
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 R e cr ea t i o n Cl ub) a nd al l l ea di n g c i t i zen s - 68 -
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 - 69 -
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 disappointed 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 - 70 -
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 oneeyed vehicles) was enemy. Unfortunately, the Chinese driver of the Sanitary Board lorry decided to try to escape in his vehicle. He and his newlymarried 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 - 71 -
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 - 72 -
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. T hey made many arr est s 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 gambler 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. Unfortunately, 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 hundr ed 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 - 73 -
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. - 74 -
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 expolice 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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