Women! They madly love Casanovas for their traits and equally hate them for being disloyal.
– Himmilicious, pen name of Himadri, Indian poet
WHEN James Brooke arrived in Kuching on board the Royalist, he brought two Malacca Eurasian translators — Domingo de Rozario and Thomas Williamson.
In the early years, Domingo and Williamson married Kuching Malays while other Brooke officers followed suit.
They were Lt Henry Steel, constabulary officer Inspector Joseph Middleton and businessman George Steward who also married into the Malay, Dayak and Chinese communities.
All their children were sent to St Mary’s, the first school built by Reverend Bishop Dr Francis MacDougall.
However, Steward, who accompanied Datu Patinggi Ali on an expedition in Batang Saribas, was killed in 1844.
Williamson drowned shortly after and 15 years later in 1859, Steele was killed together with Brooke officer Charles Fox by Melanau rebels while building a fort in Kanowit.
When Charles first arrived in Sarawak in 1852, he dressed like an Iban and learnt the language and customs under Orang Kaya Jugah with whom he stayed in Lundu.
Another mentor was a brave Malay-Melanau leader Abang Aing from Lingga, who became Charles’ confidante and later army commander.
Like Aing who had several wives, Charles picked up the Iban custom of ‘Ngayap’ courtship.
Sandra Pybus in ‘White Rajah’ (1996) said: “The uninhibited sexuality of the longhouse life was one of the great attractions. On visits to longhouses, Charlie would find himself invited to the bed of young women he might fancy, as was the custom of single men when they came to visit.
“Iban women were keen and sexually inventive lovers, he discovered. As Tuan Muda, he was in a position to take his pick. And he did. If he wanted a special young woman as a mistress, it was easy arranged.
“Should he tire of her, the woman could return to her longhouse to marry, her status and prospects enhanced by the experience.”
Ten years later, Charles married Aing’s niece according to Muslim rites and together with his common law wife, had a son.
In December 1866, Dayang Mastiah, who was pregnant with their first child, accompanied Charles to Kuching where she stayed at the Astana for two months before returning to Simanggang to deliver her child.
On August 27, 1867, ‘Isaka’ was born and raised by Dayang Mastiah as a member of the local community and spoke only Malay.
In his memoir ‘Ten Years in Sarawak’, Charles said that the best people to administer Sarawak were a race of “mixed races.”
“If the Europeans were to contribute anything lasting to the East, they must blend their genes with those of the indigenous people to produce a people embodying the best of each culture and physiology,” wrote Charles.
In an extract published in Colin Crisswell’s ‘Rajah Charles Brooke — Monarch of all he surveyed’ (1978), Charles expressed the belief on several occasions that the products of mixed marriages would become the most able citizens of the East.
Even as the Brooke officers continued to have mistresses, Charles defended his officers against the moral criticisms of the clergy who complained that some of his officers had “kept local wives”.
He declared, “I don’t feel disposed to interfere with the private affairs of unmarried men (Europeans) employed in this country.”
Charles ran the affairs of Sarawak from Simanggang until his 65-year-old uncle, Rajah James suffered a stroke and died on June 11, 1868.
As the new ‘Rajah’ Charles moved Kuching to administer the country, he soon discovered that the government he had inherited was bankrupt.
As such, it was important for Charles to marry a rich woman, he left for England to court his first cousin, the widowed Elizabeth Sarah Johnson.
In a twist of events, Charles didn’t marry his cousin but instead took Sarah’s daughter, 20 years his junior, as his wife on October 28, 1869.
Margaret then moved to the Kuching Astana where the marriage was consummated and they had a daughter, Ghita, on August 27, 1870.
Little did she know that Charles had married and had a son.
A year later, Charles shocked ‘Ranee Margaret’ when he brought Isaka to the Astana, causing a furore and initiating a series of mishaps and tragedies!
In 1871, Margaret bore twins James and Charles, hoping that one of them would eventually succeed her husband to the Sarawak throne.
A year later in January 1872, Charles got his son baptised as ‘Esca’ at the Anglican Church in Simanggang, hoping that his son would stand a chance to succeed him.
In May 20, 1873, Margaret who was pregnant with her fourth child, slipped and fell giving birth to a still-born child who was buried at the Muslim cemetery.
With another bout of bad news, in September 1873, Charles brought Margaret, Esca and his younger siblings, on a cruise back to London.
But when they left the port of Aden and entered the Red Sea, tragedy struck; James, Ghita and Charles contracted Cholera and died on October 11, 14 and 17 respectively.
Only Esca, who was six, survived, but was given away for adoption by his domineering stepmother.
To cut a long story short, Margaret was bitter that first-born Isaka had a good chance he would one day become a Rajah.
So, she devised a plan to deprive Isaka of his birth right by giving him away for adoption.
In London, Esca was raised by Reverend William Daykin and his childless wife, who migrated with Isaka to Canada.
Charles and Margaret returned to Kuching where she had three more children — 3rd Rajah Charles Vyner (1874-1963), ‘Tuan Muda’ Bertram (1876-1965) and ‘Tuan Bongsu’ Henry Keppel Brooke (1879-1926).
As predicted by Charles, several children of mixed heritage excelled during the Brooke administration.
One of the first Sarawak-born Eurasians Rev William Howell who was a missionary, became a pioneering ethnographer and philologist who compiled the first Iban language dictionary.
Horace Gray established the first telephone line from Kuching to the Baram in the early 1900s and was a noted pioneer of radio technology.
In 1921, Gray constructed a super-sensitive long-wave receiving tuner. His invention enabled Sarawakians to receive news on a regular basis from Moscow, Berlin and Constantinople.
The following year, Sarawak received two Marconi radio telephones and Gray was able contact Singapore through wireless telephone.
In 1926, Gray created history by contacting London using his transmitter.
Lily Eberwein was a German-Malay Muslim Eurasian school principal who founded the Kaum Ibu women’s nationalist movement and opposed the cession of Sarawak to Great Britain.
Melanau-English engineer Johnny Owen became the first Eurasian Council Negeri member in 1946 who was voted in favour of the cession of Sarawak to Great Britain on July 1, 1946.
After graduating, Esca married and then ventured into business and worked for Sir David Dunlap, one of Canada’s richest men at that time dealing in silver.
In 1927, when Esca was 60 and a successful businessman, he claimed a right to the succession in Sarawak but failed.
After the War, his half-brother Rajah Vyner ceded Sarawak for a fee of one million pounds and asked for his share of his inheritance as Charles Brooke’s oldest child, but again failed.
Esca died in Toronto in 1953 at the age of 86. His half-brother, the 3rd Rajah Vyner, died seven years later on May 9, 1963 — four months after Sarawak became part of the Federation of Malaysia on September 16.
Thus ended the 100-year saga of the White Rajahs of Sarawak.
The views expressed here are those of the columnist and do not necessarily represent the views of New Sarawak Tribune.
