These posts and the condition of the surrounding countryside are described in Gerlach (1881).

Invention of the Iban

Rejang Dayaks going on headhunting expeditions against other ethnic groups. An expedition of 1885 against the Bahau people of the Mahakam caused great consternation in that area, although intriguingly it was reported in the Sarawak Gazette as an officially sanctioned minor avenging mission against an "outrage committed by a lawless body of Pieng Kayans" (S.G., Sept 1,1885:82).*

In 1894, 31 Punans were massacred in the upper Balui region, and as this occurred on the Sarawak side of the border, the Rajah was outraged. He

harangued the Dayaks at Kapit, claiming that the younger men were abusing the protection of government as in former times they would not have risked the reprisals from the Kayans of the Balui. Furthermore, he claimed, such attacks were contrary even to their owticustoms (S.G. July 2 1894:96). The Ulu Ai

people were creating some new customs.

In the first decade of this century there was an exceptionally violent and continuing episode of disorder. Dayaks from the Rejang and border regions carried out raids on other Sea Dayaks, on far inland groups and also on the inhabitants of the more recently acquired northern rivers of Sarawak. Unlike some of the earlier inland skirmishes, large numbers of people were killed. The marauding inland headhunter took over from the sea pirate as the

stereotypical image for the ethnic group. The Ulu Ai Iban replaced the Saribas Sea Dayak as the authentic icon of the group.

Each time Sarawak obtained a new slab of territory from Brunei, a series of ethnic rearrangements occurred at the old border. The excuse to acquire territory was usually based on unrest in the region. Either the powerful inland people had been terrorising the region, or the followers of the Sultan of Brunei had been aggravating them. Middle river regions became depopulated as the inhabitants either moved downriver to shelter with their coastal relations, or

1. Nieuwenhuis (1900, Vol.2:17, 22, 85,127-129) gave a somewhat different account from the laconic references in the Sarawak Gazette. The massive raid changed power relations on the Mahakam as the powerful Penihing chief Belare’s house was destroyed and his people scattered, leaving the Kayan leader Kwing Irang as the most influential chief of the river. The Iban force evidently destroyed houses of people uninvolved in the original headhunting incident which provoked the raid. Because the Iban had guns, it was believed they had been armed by the White Rajah’s government and that the Rajah had sanctioned the carnage preparatory to taking over the region. Elshout (1926:184) reported that the raid even led the Kenyahs to fear that the Apo Kayan would be overrrun.

2. Pringle (1970:210-246) has headlined his chapter on these episodes as "Bantin’s Revolt", but it is apparent from the Sarawak Gazette reports that many transgressions were occurring in the

climate of confusion generated by the lengthy episode involving Bantin.

moved into remote and unpopulated upriver regions, or else whole villages applied to move into Sarawak territory. A vacant piece of river bank would be found for them. When the Baram, the Trusan and the Limbang were actually acquired by Sarawak there was a great deal of empty territory in the midriver regions, and many populations lived in inaccessible inland locations. The

Sarawak government constantly encouraged the indigenous people of the rivers to move back down closer to the government station, and also encouraged Sea Dayaks to move in. They were always eager to do so, and usually there were some in residence already, often living in local longhouses and married to local women from other ethnic groups.

However the authorities did not approve of Sea Dayaks living in other people’s houses as they were prone to cause trouble, so such individuals were moved out and placed with communities of immigrant Sea Dayaks on an officially designated territory. * These immigrants arrived in their own boats, in Chinese coasting vessels, in Malay trading boats and on steamships, clutching government passes which said where they were allowed to go. This coastal migration was a bureaucratically regulated affair in which the immigrants were required to live and farm in their enclaves, separate from the indigenous

population of the region, and to behave to the satisfaction of the government on pain of being sent back whence they had come.

In 1899 the Rajah declared there was to be no impediment to Dayaks from the Second Division and the Rejang moving across to the headwaters of the coastal rivers where small populations were already in place (S.G. Sept. 1 1899:281). Within the next four years there were complaints that the Rejang, Skrang and Lemanak were becoming depopulated by such migrations, while on the coast there were pleas from administrators and native populations alike that such migrations be restricted (Bailey S.G. Aug. 1 1900:160, Deshon S.G. July 1 1901:142, Bailey S.G. Mar.3 1904:54, Cox S.G. Nov.2 1905:253). In 1906 the Rajah decreed that no more migrations from the Second Division would be allowed. However Rejang Dayaks would be allowed to migrate into the Baleh

1. For example, on the Baram some were located on the Bakong tributary (Douglas S.G. July 2