Sandakan

“ Leaving Jolo, a picturesque walled city with a reputation for dangerous Moros (one is not supposed to go outside the walls without an armed guard, and many men carry a "45" at their hip at all times) , we sailed southwest through the countless islands of the [Pg 30] Sulu Archipelago, and after a run of about twenty hours passed the high red cliff at the entrance to the harbor of Sandakan, the capital of British North Borneo, and were soon alongside the dock.
Sandakan is a rather pretty little town of two or three thousand inhabitants, including about fifty white people. ”

“ Tuesday, April 12th.—Mabelle and the children went out for a ride this morning, while Tom and I paid a visit to Dr. Hoffmeister, whom we found much better. It was very hot work walking down to the shore again, and even the children seemed to find the temperature rather trying. Fortunately for the inhabitants of Sandakan, the nights are always cool, a fact to which the little community owes its excellent health and the preservation of its strength and energy. ”

“ The rainfall is steady and not usually excessive. The shade temperature at Sandakan ordinarily ranges from 72° to 94° F. The population of the company’s territory is not known with any approach to accuracy, but is estimated, somewhat liberally, to amount to 175,000, including 16,000 Chinese. Of this total about three-fourths are found in the districts of the west coast. The seashore and the country bordering closely on the west coast are inhabited chiefly by Dusuns, by Kadayans, by Bajaus and Ilanuns—both Malayan tribes—and by Brunei Malays. ”

“ There is a Protestant mission which supports a church—the only stone building in the territory—and a school at Sandakan, with branches at Kudat, Kaningau and Tambunan. The Roman Catholic mission maintains an orphanage, a church and school at Sandakan, and has missions among the Dusuns at several points on the west coast and in the Tambunan country. Its headquarters are at Kuching in Sarawak. The Chinese have their joss-houses and the Mahommedans a few small mosques, but the vast majority of the native inhabitants are pagans who have no buildings set apart for religious purposes. ”

“ Our course lay among groups of lush islands which simmered in steam and fever, and the merciless, overhead sun beat upon us, as if focused through a burning glass until the pitch oozed from the deck cracks, and the sweat from our pores, and the self-control from our curdled tempers. Faces that had been sullen at Sandakan grew malevolent and menacing at 150 degrees, east, where, if I remember rightly, we crossed the equator.
The scowls of the men dwelt hatefully upon Captain Coulter as he paced the bridge. ”

“ The principal town in the territory, and the seat of government (though an attempt has been unsuccessfully made to transfer this to Jesselton on the west coast) , is Sandakan, situated just inside the mouth of the Sarwaka inlet. ”

“ The schooner laboriously plowed along toward Sandakan, on the Bornean north coast; it was necessary to tack constantly, and progress was heavy. The glass stood low. The air was thick and murky.
“I reckon there’s more rain in Borneo than anywhere else on earth,” observed the mate, as he and Captain Bearman stood conversing a few minutes near the wheel just prior to the latter’s going below for his usual four hours of sleep. The mate and the captain relieved each other every four hours, while the seamen worked on a schedule of two on and six off, day and night. ”

“ Several of the natural harbours of North Borneo, on the other hand, are accessible, safe and commodious. Sandakan Harbour, on the north-east coast (5° 40′ N., 118° 10′ E.) , runs inland for some 17 m. with a very irregular outline broken by the mouths of numerous creeks and streams. The mouth, only 2 m. across, is split into two channels by the little, high, bluff-like island of Barhala. The depth in the main entrance varies from 10 to 17 fathoms, and vessels drawing 20 ft. can advance half-way up the bay. ”

“ I should add that Sandakan is a creation of the Company's and not a native town taken over by them. When Mr. Pryer first hoisted his flag, there was only one solitary Chinaman and no Europeans in the harbour, though at one time, during the Spanish blockade of Sulu, a Singapore firm had established a trading station, known as "Kampong German," using it as their head-quarters from which to run the blockade of Sulu, which they successfully did for some considerable time, to their no small gain and advantage. ”

“ Once more we board the steamer, and after touching at Kudat, a fine harbour in the great bay at the north end of the island, turn southward towards Sandakan, the capital of the Territory, where we shall end our voyage. On the deck of the little vessel is a crowd of Chinese coolies. The Chinese are the real workers on all the coasts of North Borneo, just as we found them in the Malay 63 Peninsula. ”

“ In 1848 the island of Labuan, off the northwestern coast of Borneo, was occupied by the British as a crown colony and some years later the Labuan Trading Company established a trading post at Sandakan. In an attempt to open up the country and to start plantations the company imported a considerable number of Chinese laborers, but it did not prosper and its financial affairs steadily went from bad to worse. ”

“ Next to it there is an insignificant village of Islams on the river Suñgalihut, and is only inhabited on account of the edible birds’ nests found in the interior.
Between the eastern point of Labuk Bay and the islands there is a three-fathom channel. The coast is low, with no marked features until we round the point, and the bluff islands of Sandakan Bay are visible. Then the land appears to rise gradually into pretty hills, presenting beautiful slopes for cultivation; but as we approach the entrances of the Kina Batañgan, the land again becomes low. ”

“ As is common throughout Malayan lands, the trade of North Borneo is largely in the hands of Chinese shopkeepers who send their agents inland to attend the Tamus (Malay, těmu, to meet) or fairs, which are the recognized scenes of barter between the natives of the interior and those of the coast. At Sandakan there is a Chinese population of over 2000. ”

“ The only really fine natural harbour in the island of which any use has been made is that of Sandakan, the principal settlement of the North Borneo Company on the north coast.
Geology.—The geology of Borneo is very imperfectly known. The mountain range which lies between Sarawak and the Dutch possessions, and may be looked upon as the backbone of the island, consists chiefly of crystalline schists, together with slates, sandstones and limestones. All these beds are much disturbed and folded. ”

“ Though the stout Cockney, harbormaster, known as "Pinkie" because of his rosy complexion, was pallid with fear, the other European residents of Sandakan seemed utterly indifferent to the danger to which they were exposed. But [63] life in a land like Borneo breeds fatalism. As an official remarked, with a shrug of his shoulders, "After you have spent a few years out here you don't much care how you die, or how soon. Plague is as convenient a way of going out as any other."
The greatest obstacle to the successful development of Borneo's enormous natural resources is the labor problem. ”

“ The people of the country are by no means heavily taxed, a large number of the natives of the interior escaping all payment of dues to the company, the revenue being for the most part contributed by the more civilized members of the community residing in the neighbourhood of the company’s stations. There are bank agencies in Sandakan, and the company does banking business when required. The state, which has adopted the penny postage, is in the Postal Union, and money orders on North Borneo are issued in the United Kingdom and in most British colonies and vice versa. ”

“ Next to Labuan lie the districts of Padas and Kalias, well filled with an agricultural population, quiet and fairly industrious. Their principal industry is the cultivation of the sago palm and pepper. Padas had been chosen as the starting point of the telegraph line, which has been carried across the country to Sandakan Bay, a distance of three hundred miles. It does not appear to work very successfully, as it is liable to constant interruption from the wires being broken by falling trees. ”

“ Rentab a Sakarang pirate, 126; expedition against, 126; their principal fort taken, 127; condemned as pirates by Commission, 135; faithful soldiers, 136; harass Chinese, 167; sharp traders, 257. Samarang, H.M.S., capsizes in Sarawak River, 59; recovered, 59; proceeds to Brunei, 60. Sambas, Sultan of, encourages Chinese to rebel, 144. Samboangan, Spanish settlement, 96. Sandakan, telegraph to, 240; the capital, 242; fine bay, 244; mixed population, 246. Sapong, experimental plantation, 243. Sarawak, 13; country offered to Brooke, 25; its government ceded to him, 48; increase of population, 67 ”

“ Sandip has power, but no strength of righteousness. The weapon of his which rouses up life smites it again to death. He has the unfailing quiver of the gods, but the shafts in them are of the demons.
Sandip's handkerchief was not large enough to hold all the coins. "Queen," he asked, "can you give me another?" When I gave him mine, he reverently touched his forehead with it, and then suddenly kneeling on the floor he made me an obeisance. "Goddess!" he said, "it was to offer my reverence that I had approached you, but you repulsed me, and rolled me in the dust. ”

“ Bosambo went on, "I tell you this: swearing you all to secrecy that this word shall not go beyond your huts" (there were some two thousand people present to share the mystery) , "my lord Sandi has great need of me. For who of us is so wise that he can look into the heart and understand the sorrow-call which goes from brother to brother and from blood to blood. I say no more save my lord desires me, and since I am the King of the Ochori, a nation great amongst all nations, must I go down to the coast like a dog or like the headman of a fisher-village?" ”

“ Not loud, open warfare, but a silent battle never ceasing; and the one hope left in Sanda's heart for her own future was death in the desert. She had determined to go on, and she would go on; but blinding, blessed suns of noon might strike her dead; she might take some malarial fever in the swampy, saltpetre deserts through which the caravan must travel. There were also scorpions and vipers. These things she had heard of as among the minor perils of Stanton's expedition, and there were many more formidable, of course, such as Touaregs and Tibbu brigands. ”

“ As for Sanda, if she ever thought that Ahmara might stab her some night when Max was off guard, she told herself that she did not care. She longed for death as the one way out of the cage into which she had foolishly flown, and would have prayed for it, if such a prayer were not to her mind sacrilegious. She was too young to realize that to wish is to pray. Sanda was always hoping that something might happen to put an end to everything for her. ”

“ Sandip is just such a force of destruction. His immense attraction gets hold of one before fear can come to the rescue, and then, in the twinkling of an eye, one is drawn away, irresistibly, from all light, all good, all freedom of the sky, all air that can be breathed—from lifelong accumulations, from everyday cares—right to the bottom of dissolution.
From some realm of calamity has Sandip come as its messenger; and as he stalks the land, muttering unholy incantations, to him flock all the boys and youths. The mother, seated in the lotus- heart of the Country, is wailing her heart out ”

“ In the end, he had decided to put her from his mind, persuading himself that he was sick to death of the tigress-woman whom he had thought of carrying with him on the long desert march. Still, he had been sad and thwarted, and the music of the tomtoms and räitas, instead of tributes to his triumph, had been like voices mocking at his failure. Then Sanda had magically appeared in the desert: fair and sweet as the moon in contrast with the parching sun. ”

“ Stanton, and Colonel DeLisle's daughter's a French subject, though she is half British. You may find difficulties."
"Damn difficulties!" exclaimed Stanton, all his savage impatience of opposition breaking out at last. "Don't you say so, Sanda? When a man and woman need each other's companionship in lonely places outside the world, is the world's red tape going to make a barrier between them? My God, no! Sanda, if your church will give you to me, and send us into the desert with its blessing, is it, or is it not, enough for you? If not, you're not the girl I want. You're not my woman." ”

“ I needn't give you details, but Sanda has unfortunately offended this man in perhaps the one way an Arab, no matter how enlightened, cannot forgive. From what she tells me I can't wholly blame him for his anger, but—it's impossible for her to stop longer in his house. Not that she's in danger—no! that's incredible, Ben Râana being the man he is. An Arab's ideas of hospitality would prevent his offering to send a guest away, no matter how much he might want to be rid of her. Yet I can't endure the thought of asking him for a caravan and guard after what seems to have happened. ”