most, of the Dyak tribes are held
as _private property_: any rascally Borneon making a present to
the sultan, gets a grant of a Dyak tribe, originally to rule, now
to plunder or sell; and in this way the portion of the Sibnowans
settled at Lundu are under Bandar Sumsu; but, being a resolute
people, he cannot do them much wrong. This Bandar Sumsu has lately
been disturbing the Lundu Dyaks in the following manner: a Sibnowan
Dyak lived with the Lundu Dyaks, which gave him an opening to demand
of the Lundus the sum of fifty reals (100 rupees), which was paid;
but unluckily the Sibnowan died in the course of a few months, still
with the Lundus, and a farther sum of eighty reals, or 160 rupees,
was demanded, which not being raised, the daughter of one of the head
people was seized, and sold for that sum to a Chinaman!

"Pangeran Macota has likewise been injuring these poor people,
though I shall find it difficult to bring it home to him. His agent,
Bandar Dowud (a man involved in debt), took fifteen Dyak cloths and
sold them, or rather forced them to take them, at an exorbitant rate;
in a month or two after, he returns and demands 200 reals over and
above the large price already paid for articles worth seven or eight
reals; the poor Dyaks not being able to pay, he seizes the chief's
daughter (a married woman), and demands four other women in lieu
of the sum. Happily for the poor Dyaks, this news came to my ears,
and I sent to Lundu in haste. They had all fled, having _stolen_
their two women, one from each Bandar, and carried them away. On the
Patingi and Tumangong reaching Lundu, they found two of the tribe, one
the Pangeran, the other the father of the girl sold to the Chinaman,
after a long search in the jungle. These two men I have now with me,
and wait for the Orang Kaya Tumangong before going into the case. The
Pangeran is the same Dyak whose conversation I have detailed at large
on my first visit to the place. He is a man of intelligence; and this
tribe (if it may yet be so called) has always borne the character of
being the most hospitable and generous among the Dyaks. I may at some
future time revert to them.

"There is a rumor of war between the Sarebus and Sakarran Dyaks, in
consequence of the former tribe seizing a Balow woman on the territory
of the latter, and refusing to restore her. Let these two predatory
tribes employ and weaken one another, and it will be well for us and
all the other people of this coun