Under a peaceful rule, this race had greatly multiplied at
Sarawak. Some branches of industry had indeed almost fallen into their
hands. Especially in all mining operations was their help a positive
necessity. For the Dyak, though industrious enough on his little
plantation, will not work, except on compulsion, in the mines. These
places are bitter to him with the memory of forced labor and unrequited
misery. Besides, he believes that the bowels of the earth are filled
with demons, and no amount of pay gives him courage to face these. As a
result, the conduct of the mines was left to the Chinese, and they were
unwisely permitted to work them in large companies of several hundred,
under their own overseers. This gave them the advantages of a compact
organization: to a dangerous degree they became a state within the
state.
When the war in China broke out, the Chinese residents at Sarawak,
sympathizing with their countrymen, were naturally greatly excited; and
when tidings came that the English fleet had been repulsed from before
the Canton forts, they were emboldened to take the desperate step of
attempting to put to death or to drive out of the country Rajah Brooke
and the rest of the English people, that they themselves might take
possession of it.
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