isfortunes of the Dyaks of Sarawak did not
stop here. Antimony ore was discovered; the cupidity of the Borneons
was roused; then Pangerans struggled for the prize; intrigues and
dissensions ensued; and the inhabitants of Sarawak in turn felt
the very evil they had inflicted on the Dyaks; while the Dyaks were
compelled, amid their other wrongs, to labor at the ore without any
recompense, and to the neglect of their rice-cultivation. Many died in
consequence of this compulsory labor, so contrary to their habits and
inclinations; and more would doubtless have fallen victims, had not
civil war rescued them from this evil, to inflict upon them others
a thousand times worse.

Extortion had before been carried on by individuals, but now it
was systematized; and Pangerans of rank, for the sake of plunder,
sent bodies of Malays and Sakarran Dyaks to attack the different
tribes. The men were slaughtered, the women and children carried
off into slavery, the villages burned, the fruit-trees cut down,
[27] and all their property destroyed or seized.

The Dyaks could no longer live in tribes, but sought refuge in
the mountains or the jungle, a few together; and as one of them
pathetically described it--"We do not live," he said, "like men; we are
like monkeys; we are hunted from place to place; we have no houses; and
when we light a fire, we fear the smoke will draw our enemies upon us."

In the course of ten years, under the circumstances detailed--from
enforced labor, from famine, from slavery, from sickness, from
the sword--one half of the Dyak population [28] disappeared; and
the work of extirpation would have gone on at an accelerated pace,
had the remnant been left to the tender mercies of the Pangerans;
but chance (we may much more truly say Providence) led our countryman
Mr. Brooke to this scene of misery, and enabled him, by circumstances
far removed beyond the grounds of calculation, to put a stop to the
sufferings of an amiable people.

There are twenty tribes in Sarawak, on about fifty square miles
of land. The appearance of the Dyaks is prepossessing: they have
good-natured faces, with a mild and subdued expression; eyes set
far apart, and features sometimes well formed. In person they are
active, of middling height, and not distinguishable from the Malays
in complexion. The women are neither so good-looking nor well-formed
as the men, but they have the same expression, and are cheerful and
kind-tempered. The dress