1. HISTORY - Nine States / From Fourteenth to Sixteenth Century / Johor, Dutch and Bugis / Minangkabau Ascendancy / British Intervention.

2. MINANGKABAU POLITY - Mother-Right and Tribes / Tribal Law of Property / Criminal Law / Political System ; Elder, Tribal Chief, Territorial Chief, Ruler. 

3. MINANGKABAU BELIEFS - Medicine-Man / Shaman and Shaman's Familiars / Sacred Place / Muslim Influence.

4. Bibliography. 

FROM THE FOURTEENTH TO THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 

There was a settlement on the Klang river in the middle of the XIVth century. It is mentioned as subject to Majapahit along with Pahang, Ujong Medini, Langkasuka, Kelantan, Trengganu, Dungun, Muar, Tumasik (Singapore), Sang Hyang Ujong, Kedah and Jerai in the Javanese poem, Nagarakrtagama, composed by a Buddhist courtier Prapanncha in honour of Hayam Wuruk, the famous conqueror of ancient Singapore. 

The next reference to it is in the Malay Annals. In the reign of Muzaffar Shah, ruler of Malacca from about 1445 to 1458, the people of Klang deposed an unnamed chief (pĕnghulu) and asked Malacca to appoint another. Sultan Muzaffar appointed a member of the Bendahara family, Tun Perak, who holding no court office had married and settled at Klang. When the Siamese attacked Malacca and Muzaffar Shah called up all his fighting men, Tun Perak brought not only the men but their families to Malacca, explaining that men fight even more fiercely for their women and children than for their rulers. Struck with this, the Sultan made him a herald at court and detained him at Malacca where in time he rose to be Bendahara. In the time of ‘Ala’u’d-din, first Sultan of Johor, the chief of Klang was entitled Mandulika; perhaps this, a title appearing on the 14th century Trengganu stone, had always been the style of the Penghulu of Klang. 

Sang Hyang Ujong of Majapahit days appears in the Malay Annals as Sening Ujong and in Negri Sembilan folklore as Semujong, finally being corrupted to Sungai Ujong. Before the time of Mansur Shah, Sultan of Malacca, who reigned from about 1458 until October 1477, Sang Hyang Ujong had belonged to two Malacca chiefs, namely to the Bendahara Paduka Raja, Tun Perak, once chief of Klang, and to the Sri Nara ’diraja, Tun 'Ali, brother-in-law of Sultan Muhammad Shah (1424-46), and husband of Tun Perak’s sister Tun Kudu, whom Sultan Muzaffar (1445-1458) had divorced to give him. The partition of the fief may have followed the retirement of the half-caste Sri Nara ’diraja from the great office of Bendahara in favour of the Malay Tun Perak. Anyhow a Penghulu at Sang Hyang Ujong named Tun Tuakal (or probably Tawakal “Submissive to God’s Will”) offended Sultan Mansur Shah, who had him executed and bestowed the undivided fief solely on Sri Nara ’diraja. Tun Tuakal has survived in Sungai Ujong folklore as Tun Tukul “Mr. Hammer” and has been provided with a mythical brother, Tun Landas “Mr. Anvil,” the two of them being credited with having used their instruments to circumcise the impervious Batin Iron-Claws, an aboriginal chief of Sungai Ujong! 

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There is an interesting Malacca survival in Negri Sembilan custom. The waris or heirs of territorial titles generally belong to a few privileged families inside a tribe unknown in Sumatra, termed the Biduanda tribe. These waris, as we now know, were members of the noble family of the Bendaharas of old Malacca. But who were their often backward and simple associates, the Biduanda? Biduanda was a polite term at the old Malacca court for protected persons who were either not Muslims or were recent converts to Islam. The early Chinese settlers on Bukit China were called in the Malay Annals Biduanda China. The name still survives in Negri Sembilan for a band of Jakun, that is of Proto-Malay heathens. In Rembau the office of territorial chief or Undang rotates between privileged families (waris) in the Biduanda Jawa and the Biduanda Jakun, and a typical bit of Sumatran folklore ascribes the inclusion of Javanese and Proto-Malays in the Biduanda tribe to miscegenation on the part of descendants of the Bendahara Sekudai! Actually the nomenclature must mean exactly what it says. The old Malay empire of Malacca recognized certain early “Javanese” (a term then including Sumatrans) and Proto-Malay converts to Islam in Rembau and termed both Biduanda : later Minangkabau influence turned them all into a tribe, the Biduanda tribe. As might be expected, Rembau has the biggest number of Biduanda of any of the States, because it borders on Malacca and it was there that Malacca’s trade first attracted early settlers, dealers in tin and jungle produce: moreover, unlike Naning, it was far enough away not to have to discard all relics of old Malay sovereignty after the Portuguese conquest. A few colonists went further afield. In Sungai Ujong and Jelebu, the tin districts, Biduanda predominate, because it was tin above all that led adventurous Malaccans up the jungle-lined rivers and those adventurers’ descendants saw to it that the later Minangkabau immigrants got only agricultural land and did not usurp the tin- fields. Not till about 1820 did the Biduanda tribe of Jelebu adopt exogamy, splitting into two for that purpose and allowing one of tlie divisions to adopt the fictitious name of a Minangkabau tribe! Again in Johol the Minangkabau predominance of Four Tribes has never obtained; the Biduanda tribe outnumbers the other three tribes together and in it the Minangkabau rule of exogamy does not prevail. In Johol when a Proto-Malay becomes Muslim, he becomes a member of the Biduanda tribe, while, at the election of an Undang or even of a Minangkabau tribal headman, the Batin or chief of the heathen Proto-Malays for the district attends and has his say. As a fossicker for tin and gold the Proto-Malay must have been valuable in old Johol. 

For not only did Klang, Sungai Ujong, Naning and Rembau exist in Portuguese times; d’Eredia’s map shows also Johol and Jempul as place-names. Who were the inhabitants of these places other than aborigines is uncertain. Undoubtedly Klang and Sungai Ujong owed their early comparative importance to the existence of tin-fields. d’Eredia records that the yearly output of tin from Klang was more than one hundred bares and from Penagi (now called Penajis) more than one hundred. “The earth is dug out of the mountains and placed on certain tables, where the earth is dispersed by water in such a way that only the tin, in the form of grains, remains on the tables: it is then melted in certain clay moulds and by a process of casting is converted into large slabs which are called ‘ lock slabs ’ of two hundred and fifty slabs to the bar.” That there was tin-mining at Kenaboi in Jelebu even in the neolithic and bronze ages is known from the discovery there of tiny socketted bronze axe-heads, stone discoidal circlets, small clay crucibles and a stone cross-hatched bark-cloth pounder. At Klang too there have been found a bronze bell-like article and three iron tools of a type common in prehistoric sites in Malaya. 

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When did the Minangkabau colonists reach Malacca's hinterland? At Pengkalan Kempas in the Sungai Ujong territory, among a number of megaliths of Sumatran type, is a stone carved with inscriptions both in Arabic and in Sumatran Malay (in old-Javanese characters derived from the Adityawarman inscriptions of the Minangkabau or Padang Highlands, Sumatra). The date in both inscriptions corresponds to 1467 A.D. and the Arabic inscription records that it was the time of Sultan Mansur Shah. It marks the grave of one Ahmad, called Majanu and Shaikh, who according to the Sumatran inscription came downstream to play a dirty trick and was defeated, caught and died a low death (presumably at the hands of the executioner), while according to the Arabic inscription the grave is a mansion of peace, a place of goodness, and the peace and help of God are invoked for its occupant. There is one doubtful word followed by a puzzling title in the Sumatran inscription: ? nakanak Tun barah kalang katangkap. One ingenious commentator finds in Tun barah kalang the Indo-Chinese title Pra-Klang, though why a stone apparently erected by Sumatran Malays should use a composite title half Malay half Siamese is inexplicable. Can it be Tun Perak Kalang to whom the inscription refers as the contemporary Raja? Just as aboriginal folklore has turned Tun Tuakal into Tun Tukul, so its “Batin Merah Galang" seems to represent “Tun Perak Kalang” and corroborate the interpretation of this stone. The fact that the inscribed stone is surrounded by megaliths of Minangkabau type suggests that Shaikh Ahmat or his followers were early Minangkabau immigrants. Minangkabau gold was famous and Correa and d’Albuquerque speak of it being brought to Malacca to exchange for Coromandel stuffs. 

By the XVth century A.D. the immigration of Sumatran agriculturists had become large as Portuguese historians confirm. As early as 1586 the Minangkabaus behind Malacca abandoned their friendly relations with the Portuguese and took the side of the Sultan of Johor in an attack on Malacca, devastating the country-side and cutting off supplies. So numerous and formidable they were that an expedition of one hundred Portuguese and six hundred natives, mostly equipped with fire-arms, took the field, found the Minangkabaus 2,000 strong drove them out of their village and set fire to it. The Portuguese marched to Rembau, which a Johor captain had fortified; but before their arrival he had fled. The villagers of Rembau pleaded innocence and were spared. 

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Again. Writing in 1613 Godinho d’Eredia speaks of most of the inland country as “uninhabited and deserted except in the district of Nany” (Naning)* “which is occupied by Monancabos engaged in the trade of betre’’ (betel) ‘‘an aromatic plant which is chewed with a mixture of chalk and areca in order to tone the stomach. These Monancabos with their stocks of betre come down from Nany to the Pangkalan whence they proceed by boat to the market-place at Malacca.’’ 

d’Eredia terms these Naning Minangkabaus vassals of Portugal. Like Rembau, Sungai Ujong and Klang, the little State of Naning had been part of the Malay kingdom of Malacca before the arrival, of the Portuguese in 1511, though it is unknown who were then its inhabitants: if in 1586 it could muster 2,000 Minangkabau fighting-men (and it required 700 trained soldiers to subdue it), then Naning must have had settlers from Sumatra for at least a century and probably far longer. In 1613 d'Eredia records that “past Nany one proceeds to Rombo, head of the Malayo villages in a territory which belongs to the Crown of Johor: Rombo also is peopled by Monancabos.” In 1634 Barretto de Resende wrote, evidently of Naning: “Inland the land” (that is, Malacca) “borders on that of the Manamcabos, Moors of a land called Rindo” (? Lindu or Rembau), ‘‘vassals of the King of Pam” (namely Pahang), ‘‘and close by live five or six thousands of the same Manamcabo Moors, vassals of His Majesty” the King of Portugal. “under the government of a Portuguese married man of Malacca called Tamungam,” or Temenggong, “an office conferred by the Viceroy. To him they owe obedience and should one of these Moors die without heirs, the said Tamungam inherits his property, and if there are heirs he makes an agreement with them and receives ten per cent, upon such goods as he thinks fit. At the present day a Portuguese holds the office for life. These Moors cultivate extensive land by which they maintain themselves. They especially cultivate the betre. They purchase tin from the inhabitants of the interior and bring it to Malacca.” In his report, dated 7 September 1641, to the Council of India on the past and present condition of Malacca Schouten tells us more: “ For the control of the Minangkabau and Malay vassals of the villages Naning and Ringy, a burgher was appointed Tommagon or bailiff for life. He adjudicated in all their disputes, punished their misdeeds and reported murders to the Governor of the Castle. His pay was a percentage of the betel or sireh sent from Naning to the Malacca market, which amounted yearly to quite 1,000 crusados. He had an agent at Naning who informed him of what was happening there. A Minangkabau boat coming down-river had to pay him 1 crusado and to give certain presents on its cargo of fruit, chicken and cattle... Under him were one or two Orang Kaya.” Schouten adds that Rembau was ruled by a Minangkabau styled Lela Maharaja, was subject to Johor and was a manor (Heerlijkheid) of the Dato' Bendahara who enjoyed a revenue from it. 

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The Dagh-Register confirms the existence of trade with the hinterland in the Portuguese period. As early as December 1641 the Sungai Ujong river was blockaded to keep out foreign traders. And in March 1642, corroborating the suzerainty of his Malacca ancestors, the Sultan of Johor wrote to Rembau and Klang (addressing Khatib Hitam the Shahbandar of one of those States) to exchange Christian slaves for traders captured by the Dutch on the Penagi and Ujong rivers. On 23 May 1643 the Sultan was ordering the Shahbandar of Sungai Ujong to recover the boat of one Cosma Daimode. In 1644 after Captain Forsenburgh and Collector Menie had been killed by the people of Rembau, the same Sultan informed the Governor at Malacca that his Shahbandar was guarding Dutch interests in Sungai Ujong. The office of Shahbandar, Sungai Ujong, would hardly have been newly created by the Sultan of Johor in Portuguese times: it must go back to Malay rule in Malacca and antedate 1511. Moreover as there is an entry in the Dagh-Register under October 1644 that assured of the ‘'treachery” of Sultan ‘Abdu’l-Jalil III of Johor, “the Minangkabaus very bravely removed their property from Pahang, ” it is almost certain that these Sumatran immigrants had reached the east coast of the Malay Peninsula before the Dutch captured Malacca from the Portuguese in 1641, 

JOHOR, THE DUTCH AND THE BUGIS. 

On 14 January 1641 the Dutch captured Malacca from the Portuguese. Not content like the Portuguese with mere naval bases, they started to interfere in the affairs of the inland states. During the siege of Malacca the Malays of Johor and the Minangkabaus of Naning and Rembau had helped the Dutch, “mainly for their own advantage, robbing and stealing especially from the slaves of the Portuguese but also from the native Christians who fled by reason of hunger and were ordered to leave the town.” A Raja Merah was now recognised as chief of Naning, and as “agent” one called by Schouten ”Inche Vador,”—perhaps identical with Enche’ Woddat or Wadat who is elsewhere described as headman of Malikai. These two did not agree. Moreover Schouten records that owing to his promise to give up Christian slaves and arms, the Naning folk were not pleased with the administration of Raja Merah, in consequence of which Alexander Mendes went to Naning and induced Dato’ Bongsu and Raja Merah s brother and other Naning chiefs to visit Malacca, where on 24 July 1641 they acknowledged the suzerainty of the Dutch and agreed to have Raja Bongsu appointed co-chief with Raja Merah and to sign a treaty. So on 15 August 1641 articles were concluded between Joans van Twist, Governor of Malacca, and the elders of Naning, to wit, “To’ Lela Pahlawan Captain, Raja Merah,* Perpatih Suatan (? = Perpateh Sa-batang!) Maranga Matran Mara and Bansade Raja (? = Bangsa ’diraja).” 

Naning promised to be a loyal vassal, ready to surrender criminals and fugitive slaves, to pay a tithe of its rice, fruit, betel and pepper and a tenth of the money passing at sales of land and to hand over all pikes, muskets, daggers, swords, gunpowder and ball; on penalty of death and confiscation of property no Christians would they circumcise or sell to Moors or heathen and they would demand only half the price of slaves who might run away to become Christians; on pain of forfeiting life and goods they would not trade with any one except the Dutch at Malacca. Any free Malacca Christian might live voluntarily at Naning provided he paid the taxes in force for the district. If a Minangkabau of Naning should die without heirs, then, like their predecessors the Portuguese, the Dutch were to take half the property and the chief of Naning, half: if he left heirs, the Company and the chief were each to have a twentieth of the property. If a Naning man committed murder and fled, the Company would seize all his goods, returning half to a wife or heir, if any. At the collection of the rice tithe the Company undertook to give the planters 200 gantang of impounded rice for their maintenance, to present a piece of linen cloth and a piece of casse to the Captain of Naning and to pay 5 crusados each to the valuer of the crops and the Captain s clerk. All Naning vessels were to pay harbour dues on arrival in Malacca, Naning was to pay for one servant at the Malacca warehouse to attend to the needs of the crews of Naning boats. No Naning man might leave his house and go elsewhere without a permit for which he was to give a fowl. No Minangkabau from elsewhere might remove to Naning or travel there without a permit for which he had to pay 8 reals a head. 

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There was nothing new in this one-sided agreement, which was based on Portuguese precedent and allowed the weaker side hardly more rights and privileges than a Minangkabau would allow one of those Jakuns whom his legal system chose to regard as ancestresses. But unlike their predecessors at Malacca, the Dutch were energetic and insistent on observance of agreements. Naning was so slow to surrender arms and Christian slaves that it was decided to appoint an officer as procurator of the district. At Naning s request a “mean” Portuguese, Pero Dabreu, alias Red Face, was provisionally appointed Temenggong but Schouten distrusted him and would have preferred Anthonio Pingero, a Malacca-born man, married to the sister of the Shahbandar’s wife. However in January 1642 it was decided, in order to advance the trade in rice and betel, to send the Shahbandar Jan Menie as Temenggong of the Naning villages with a considerable force in order to secure his safety. On 20 January Menie returned to Malacca after blocking the Penagi (or Naning and Rembau branch of the Linggi river) with felled timber and so shutting in some dozen Malay trading vessels: two boats (balen) laden with salt-roe were seized along with their crews to punish the Naning folk for having sent Christian slaves in irons to Bengkalis. Bricklayers were badly wanted to construct fortifications at Malacca. So in February Francisco Carvaiglio was sent with a sum of 200 reals and a letter from the Dutch governor of Malacca to the “Captain Toubelapalwan” (To’ Lela Pahlawan) to ransom all the Christian slaves in Naning; with great trouble a roll of all the Christian fugitives there was compiled and forty slaves were redeemed for 365 crusados:- the people of Naning tried to retain two Malacca boys and several women who had of their own free will become betrothed to Minangkabaus. On 27 February 1642 after a journey of twelve days Jan Menie with ten Dutch and twenty Malacca soldiers returned to that port with thirty Christians, slaves and free, whom he had redeemed in Naning and Rembau for 649½ crusados to serve on public works. Rembau agreed that, existing slaves and freemen excluded, it would for the future surrender Christian fugitives to Malacca for half their value. And on condition that Rembau would trade only with Malacca, the Dutch raised the blockade of the Penagi river,- though by May Rembau envoys were in Malacca begging for Dutch intercession with the Sultan of Johor who had fined the Lela Maharaja and his elders $200 for allowing foreigners to frequent the Penagi river and for their refractory attitude to the Dutch! 

The Governor-General decided to defer in Naning any demand for payment of a poll-tax, and rent on houses and lands but the villagers were to deliver one tenth of their fresh fish and their betel to the Dutch, who for the half year fanned out the collection of the former for 200 reals and of the latter for 110 reals: at the end of that period the farmers bid 240 and 130 reals respectively. The collection of the fruit tithe was leased for 170⅞ reals:- the year before (1641) half the fruit had been given as payment to the gatherers. In March 1642 Jan Menie was sent with twelve four-oars and fifty armed men to collect a tenth of the rice crop. He found Naning in great disorder owing to the slackness of the chiefs and made them swear on the Quran to administer justice as in Portuguese times - probably a euphemism for the extortion of a promise to collect tithes more rigorously! In May the heads of the four Naning villages brought to Malacca 2,000 gantang of rice, which was badly wanted for cattle: they were promised that they would not be held liable for debts contracted with the Portuguese during the siege - and no Portuguese was to visit Naning without a pass from the Temenggong. For the moment Rembau gave no trouble and though tithes and fines were hard to collect, the Naning folk were so “obedient” that Jan Jansz Menie was instructed to study the aborigines of Naning, of whom he wrote an interesting account, describing how the Minangkabaus constantly captured and enslaved the people who have been elevated by Minangkabau theorists into their matrilineal ancestresses and owners of the soil! In October Naning asked to commute the rice tithe for cash or pepper and arranged to sell all its pepper to Malacca for 30 crusados a bahar. But trouble soon broke out. 

Malacca records say that the people were indignant at the banishment of “Tuan Lela Riawan,” who must be the To' Lela Pahlawan created their Captain in 1641. In 1643 the Malacca Council decided to send a deputation “to persuade the Minangkabaus of Naning to adopt an agricultural and peaceful life.” But selected to raise the refractory villagers “from the state of barbarism under which they laboured” senior merchant Snoueq said that he was unwell and not proficient in Malay and that the road was impassable. So on 3 February Governor Jeremias van Vliet set out, escorted by Captain Laurens Forsenburgh, the Shahbandar Jan Jansz Menie, the fiscal Gerrit Rijser and the secretary Joan Truijtman with 60 Dutch and 100 native soldiers. The intention was to compose a quarrel between some chiefs and the villagers and to recover black Christians free and bond together with the arms that had fallen into the villagers’ possession during the siege of Malacca, the chiefs were informed that the planting of more pepper and rice would eradicate malignity. One unworthy malignant Enche’ Wadat, headman of Melikai, was to be deposed; the river down to Pengkalan Nawar was to be kept clear; one-tenth of the rice was to be delivered annually to Malacca in kind or in cash; Raja Merah was to come in person or by deputy to pay homage to the Governor,- and the chiefs were to be instructed as to the extent of their civil jurisdiction. But though it required only the labour of four men to clear the river, the obstinate villagers declared that they were Raja Merah‘s subjects and not his slaves. However they were exhorted not to murmur at such trivial labour, when the Governor himself had come there to punish the wicked and protect the obedient and loyal; it would be imprudent to resist his wishes. Accordingly with one consent and loud voice the villagers exclaimed, “The will of the Governor of Malacca be done.’’ Raja Merah was given a commission as subordinate chief over the districts of Naning, Melikai, Inak and Perling. One disaffected chief, Orang Kaya “Per Muttu Merah” (or Permata Merah) a gambler and a cockfighter was, with the concurrence of Raja Merah, fined 50 crusados, and for some “enormous crime’’ Contella (or Cancella) Lascara, exheadman of Perling, was fined $100 crusados or in default to be scourged and banished. The deputation took a survey of the country nearly as far as the Rembau forests and decided that, if pepper were planted, the Company would derive great profit. But when it demanded slaves and arms and certain stolen goods and Tampin, inhabited by a Malaccan Alexander Mendos (or Mendes), the people of Rembau procrastinated and declared that Tampin had been given to them by Johor and that they had paid Menie compensation for the stolen goods. Sent from Naning to hasten matters, Captain Forsenburgh and Menie with six Dutch soldiers were ambushed and massacred. Going to the spot with all his force, Governor van Vliet was so hard pressed that he abandoned a chest containing 13,000 to 14,000 reals and retired to Malacca. Thirty of the Dutch forces fell at Rembau. 

Alarmed on his own account, the Sultan of Johor sent Hang Kamis and Hang Sikam to Malacca to express his distress at the death of his good friend Menie and he sent Sri Maharaja Lela and Raja Lela Wangsa to Batavia to testify that their rebellious Minangkabaus were not the Sultan’s subjects but tenants of his Bendaharas. However the Council of India at Batavia considered the envoys need not have taken this constitutional quibble further than Malacca and it required the Sultan to punish Naning and Rembau. On 5 May 1643 Rembau folk plundered and burnt a Malacca fishing-boat in Sungai Baru and killed two men. By 23 May the Rembau and Naning “murderers,” that is, villagers, had fallen into great poverty, owing to the Dutch blockade of the Penagi river; Raja Merah was reported to want peace but was too afraid of Rembau to come to Malacca. The Dutch were now at war with Rembau and Naning: they feared Johor and Johor feared them. The trade of Malacca decreased and plantations along the river were abandoned. In August 1644 five Naning Malays, Itam, Bongsu, Silap, Putara and a slave Patchium (who turned informer) were convicted of horrid treason. Hitam had often been entrusted with letters for the chiefs of Naning and Rembau but now having planned to lead a thousand Minangkabaus against Malacca he was tortured to death and his body exposed on a gibbet. Silap and Bongsu were beheaded and quartered; Putara was beheaded and quartered and had his head placed on a gibbet. Patchium the informer was acquitted. A little later two Rembau folk were caught on the Muar river and executed. But before they dared to carry out any of these executions the Dutch had sent Peter Sourij to arrange peace with Johor, after which the Sultan commanded Bendahara Sekudai to deal with his “tenants.” 

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Proceeding to Rembau the Bendahara (a direct descendant in the seventh generation of Sri Nara ’diraja Tun ’Ali {p. 42}) adopted the diplomatic method of putting his “grandson,” that is a junior relative, in office, and tradition says that that ‘‘grandson” was Lela Maharaja Sri Rama, first Undang of Rembau. Another Sri Rama was second chief of Naning in 1664. Further, tradition makes a To’ Laut Dalam one of the founders of Rembau. Three brothers, great-great-great-grandsons of the lame old Bendahara who fled from Malacca after the Portuguese captured it on 10 August 1511 and died at Segamat, bore the names of Maharaja Tun Laut, Paduka Sri Rama and Megat Sri Rama. This visit by the Bendahara Sekudai left a lasting impression on Negri Sembilan folklore, which makes him ancestor of the territorial chiefs of the old Pasir Besar (and the modern Johol) and makes a Megat Sri Rama the founder of Pasir Besar, Sri Menanti and Pasir Panjang just before he murdered the sadist and pervert Sultan Mahmud of Johor in 1699 at Kota Tinggi. All Negri Sembilan tradition relates that after settling affairs at Rembau and Naning, Bendahara Sekudai crossed the peninsula by way of Sungai Ujong to Pahang, while an entry in the Dagh-Register for October 1644 tells how “assured of the treachery” of the Sultan of Johor, “the Minangkabaus very bravely removed their property from Pahang.” The evidence suggests 1644 as the year of the visit of Bendahara Sekudai. 

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Not till February 1645 did the Dutch seek to avenge the massacre of Forsenburgh and Menie, when at last a force of 350 men under Joan Truijtman set out to ‘‘exterminate” the men of Rembau and Naning. It burnt the nearest village, Melikai, destroyed orchards and rice-fields and, by reason of exhaustion lack of supplies and the mustering of 2,000 Minangkabaus, retired. The enemy continued to plunder and enslave Malaccans by forest and shore. In February 1646 Governor Arnold de Vlamingh van Outshorn sent a force of 570 men, including 290 whites, under his second in command, Valerio van Gistelen. After five days they reached Naning and felling 800 coconut and betel palms built a stockade for the weary troops. Short of ammunition van Gistelen decided to bivouac there for two days to save his face and then retire. But dismayed by the burning and felling the enemy unexpectedly hoisted a flag of truce. The Dutch marched home with the loss of one man, and five days later the enemy’s seven envoys arrived, among them ‘‘Chilly Molucco brother-in-law of Lela Maharaja, chief of Rembau, and Khatib Itam Muda, brother-in-law of the Rembau Shahbandar.” 

The proposals were that chiefs from Naning and Rembau should be executed for the murder of Forsenburgh and Menie, three from each place and three for each victim, and similarly common fellows for their murdered followers. All stolen persons and van Vliet's chest were to be restored. The Minangkabaus were to defray the cost of the Dutch expeditions and publicly to ask pardon. The Council of India having long recognised that the haste and violent threats of van Vliet had largely caused the trouble, remitted the death penalties. The Minangkabaus declared that they had no money to defray the costs of the expeditions but they promised to pay by instalments compensation for stolen persons and van Vliet s belongings, meanwhile restoring 6 stolen slaves, 1 silver candlestick, 2 silver spoons, 8 silver dishes, 1 Spanish cassock, 1 undergarment, 1 red satin doublet with gold buttons and a silver-plated handle. 

On 17 September 1646 the Orang Kaya Maradia (= Maharaja), Shahbandar and all the Rembau elders swore to the Shahbandar Abraham Steen representing President Arnoldt de Vlamingh van Outshoorn that they would treat the Dutch as friends and brothers, opening the Penagi river: this contract was signed at Rembau at the house of Chillij Moloug by Lela Maradia, chief, Marra Bangha Radia (hulubalang “captain”), Zoutan Coija (= Sultan Kaya), Magat Mantijaija (?= Mantri Yahya), Panjaij, Burop, Pocamos, Patambo and Enche Saperhadt. At the same time and place Naning renewed its former treaty, the signatories being Raja Merah, Raja Stiawangsa, Marra Namsa, Amudt ’diraja, Raja Gaga and Raja Stia, captain (hulubalang). On 24 October 1646 Raja Merah with six of his principal chiefs arrived in Malacca and (on 15 November) stood with uncovered heads, confessed their guilt and listened to their pardon read in Portuguese and Malay in the presence of the Chinese Captain, Notchim, and in the name of His Highness Frederick Hendrick, Prince of Orange, Count of Nassau. However instead of adhering to their promises the “idle, sluggish, lazy, faithless and perfidious” Minangkabaus kept pleading poverty. The Naning rice tithe did not cover the cost of collection, so that in prosperous years a small formal money payment was accepted instead and in lean years (such as 1675 to 1677) the Dutch got nothing: having to pay tithes to his own chiefs, the peasant was not disposed to pay over again to the Dutch. In 1647 the Rembau folk delivered to Meydert Clinckert, the Dutch agent, 81 reals weight of silver plate, 117 gold buttons, 2 old blood-stained hats, 2 ragged pairs of breeches, 270 gantang of rice and 22½ reals in cash! 

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In 1651 Sri Raja Merah was publicly thanked for apprehending a fugitive Malacca slave guilty of murder. In 1652 he and his sons paid tribute of pepper and received a present of cloths. In 1652 the Dutch deprecated the execution of Sri Raja Merah's son-in-law by the Naning chiefs for an attempt on the lives of his wife and father-in-law and held that he should have been tried at Malacca. The Council at the same time sentenced to death one Enche' Jumaat for attempting the life of Sri Raja Merah. 

During 1663 Raja Merah, a mild gentleman, and one of his scatterbrain chiefs Raja Stia Wangsa were at variance: in December Raja Merah was allowed to move his residence in Naning and lent 100 reals. Early in 1664 Raja Stia Wangsa was deposed and the Orang Kaya Sri Rama Penghulu created second chief in his place, being installed by the governor of Malacca and his Council. Raja Stia Wangsa was confined in Malacca but he escaped and in the autumn of 1664 did homage to Raja Merah and paid 20 reals as earnest of compensation for certain stolen goods. Instead of paying he and his people took to the jungle and plundering, but he was caught and shut in Malacca's Slavenburgh (alias De Misericorde) “the old high stone castle erected by the Portuguese” on the site where the Malay rulers had lived, and there he still lay in the middle of 1665. In the latter half of that year Raja Merah complained of the tax-farmer Maria de Silvera for detaining betel-dealers till their sireh leaves were stale and unsaleable and for neglecting repair of the Naning rest-house at Malacca. He suggested that .Anthony Pinjero and Manuel Ferere should be appointed collectors of duty in Silvera's place. The Council chose Manuel Ferere as more conversant with the Malay language. In 1668 the tithe on the Naning betel crop yielded the Company hardly 30 reals a year! 

In 1673 Jambi sacked Johor Lama and drove the Sultan to Pahang, whence he removed to Riau, not returning to Johor until 1689. Meanwhile the Minangkabaus having “prospered and multiplied and waxed proud and arrogant’’ ceased to render obeisance to Johor. Rembau, Sungai Ujong and Klang, all subjects of Johor, joined with Naning and chose a Minangkabau prince from the east coast of Sumatra for their overlord, one Raja Ibrahim, who claiming to be a saint and a descendant of the old Malacca kings ascended the Penagi river without ceremony in a single ship and with only a few followers. Bort denounced him as a fugitive Muhammadan “priest” driven out of Acheh for his turbulence. On 11 March 1677 Bort received from him a letter demanding that the Dutch patrols in the Straits should not interfere with his people, and stating that he was established in Naning and intended to proceed to Mecca. No answer was given to a missive that lacked a proper seal and appeared to have been “written to the order of a presumptuous insolent madman.” The “impostor’s” claim to be able to poison the wind, bewitch firearms and render himself invisible so terrified the “black Roman Catholics and other silly, credulous people,’’ that Governor Bort sent a letter to the aged Raja Merah explaining why he had not answered the “kinglet’s” missive and requiring that some of the Naning chiefs should come to Malacca for a conference. One Ossenina Maharaja took the letter to Naning, where it got no answer. 

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People now flocked into Malacca fort. The principal streets of the north suburb were barricaded and a breastwork was thrown up from the seashore to the garden of the farmer Rulof Gerritsz. Here the enemy, who numbered about 3,700 men and had taken Batang Tiga, was stayed and repulsed again and again by the Dutch forces. None of the Dutch troops were killed and only three wounded, in particular Lieut. Jan Rosdom who unhorsed by a Minangkabau pikeman got him down till help came and he was killed “with all his fine habiliments” and had his head stuck on a post, the Dutch blockaded the Penagi river with the yacht 't Wape van Malaca and the sloop Onrust and cut off the enemy’s supplies, but having only 253 soldiers and just over 600 levies, Bort could not take the offensive or prevent the ravaging of the country-side. Meanwhile Malaccans became as eager for local sireh leaves as they had always been for the Naning leaf. Bort appealed to Batavia for 150 troops to safeguard Malacca and 600 for a punitive expedition to “exterminate the Minangkabaus and clear the countryside for industrious Chinese.” 150 soldiers arrived on July 21 by the fly-boat Soesdijk but their Honours could not spare troops for the punitive expedition, which had to await a more convenient season. The little war cost fl.7814.15.10 which the Governor hoped to raise by freewill offerings from the public! On 27 June 1678 Governor Bort wrote to Batavia that after the rice-harvest the Minangkabau kinglet would attack Malacca again and that meantime his people were damaging villages and orchards and had killed one Dutchman. 

In 1679 Raja Ibrahim, the invulnerable, was “treacherously murdered” by a Bugis, Baggia, a slave of Raja Merah, and on 21 August the new Governor of Malacca, Jacob Jorise Pitz, wrote to Batavia that Raja Merah and the Naning chiefs had sued for peace, saying that they had been misled by Rembau, and now, having discovered their error, had killed the kinglet. The Dutch suspected that this move was dictated by their overlord of Johor who at war with Jambi wanted to placate Malacca. Anyhow by 13 February 1680 Malacca had renewed and amplified the old treaty with Naning and Rembau, and the new treaty was duly ratified by Batavia in August in the following despatch: 

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“The Governor-General Ryckloff van Goens and the Council of India at Batavia make known. We have carefully considered the treaty of peace and the articles and conditions accepted and concluded between the Extraordinary Council of India and Governor Jacob Jorissze Pits and the Council of Malacca on the one side, with Sri Maharaja Baginda Maulana, sons and deputies of Raja Merah, Stia Hulubalang head of the Tiga Batu folk, Raja Begagar head of the Sri Melenggang folk, Sri Rara Garang head of the Batu Hampar folk, and Che’ ‘Abdu'l-Backy head of the foreigners, envoys of Raja Merah chief of Naning, with Stia Hulubalang, Shahbandar of Rembau, Pa’ Enche’ Gagal head of the Mungkal folk, Pa’ Enche’ Lela head of the Johor folk and sent in place of the Captain to Rembau, Paduka Bangsa sent in place of Merbangsa captain of the Payakumboh folk, Marra Pahlawan head of the foreigners, Mantri Hulubalang in place of Stia Maharaja head of the Batu Hampar folk, Goulon Cassumba vice Che Bassaer head of the Tiga Batu folk, representatives of Rembau and its dependent villages on the other side, made and concluded at the town and fortress of Malacca on 25 January and confirmed and mutually signed on 13 February 1680. We the highest authority of the Generaele Nederlandse Geoctroyeerde Oost-lndische Compe. ratify and approve.” 

On 26 October the aged Raja ]Merah with his three sons came to Malacca to plead poverty as a reason for not delivering 60 slaves, 100 buffaloes and 25 cattle as a fine for their rebellion; and in May 1681, Rembau and Naning still pleading incapacity to pay, their hostages had to be released. In 1685 the Dutch again requested Johor to instruct Rembau, Tampin, Sungai Ujong, Klang and Selangor to observe their old friendship at Malacca. One unverified authority states that in 1701 Johor transferred her suzerainty over Naning by treaty to the Dutch. 

In 1703 Malacca appointed Sri Maharaja Juara Megat Penghulu of Naning in place of the old and infirm Raja Merah. Juara Megat had sought out in the fastnesses of Muar Genta di-Langit, the abductor of one of the Sultan of Johor’s concubines, slain him and taken the wretched woman to Malacca. The pious ‘Abdu’l-Jalil, first Bendahara ruler of Johor, thereupon recommended Juara Megat to Malacca and bestowed on him two slaves, a sword called the Sated Serpent, a silk coat, a genealogical tree and a tract of Gemencheh territory. In 1705 Juara Megat received a seal and insignia from his royal Johor patron and in 1707 the then ruler of Rembau got a title and seal “by the grace of the Bendahara Sri Maharaja,” a brother of the same Johor Sultan. The (Shah)bandar of Sungai Ujong got a seal in 1715. These seals did not create new offices. The Sultans of Malacca had stationed a Shahbandar in Sungai Ujong, and the Minangkabaus of Klang and Rembau and probably of other states had always been tenants of the Bendaharas and now a Bendahara (Sri Maharaja, as he is called on old silver in the Johor palace) was Sultan of Johor and prepared to give seals and insignia for services rendered. 

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But in 1710 this Sultan ‘Abdu’l-Jalil Shah was driven into exile in Pahang and killed by the Minangkabau pretender, Raja Kechil, and the next Sultan, Sulaiman, who ruled from Riau, was a puppet in the hands of Bugis allies called to assist Johor against the said Raja Kechil. In 1700 the To’ Engku of Klang, a relative of the first Bendahara Sultan, had given a seal of authority to a Bugis Yamtuan of Selangor and it was from there Daing Parani  summoned reinforcements to combat Raja Kechil's attacks on Riau: to create a diversion the Bugis attacked Linggi which Raja Kechil hurried to defend. In 1772, according to the Dutch records in Malacca, there was ‘‘a son of the Sultan of Minangkabau” at Rembau, ready to lead the tribes against the Bugis. It was a forlorn hope, seeing that for half a century the energetic Bugis were to be a new and powerful factor in the politics of Malacca’s hinterland. 

In 1745, ousted by Bugis adventurers, Sultan Sulaiman ruler of the old Johor empire from the new capital at Riau, made a treaty with the Dutch that when he could exercise his former authority over Selangor, Klang and Linggi, he would observe Johor’s old treaties with the Netherlands East India Company—in the matter of a tin monopoly. In 1756, grateful for Dutch assistance in his Siak war and confident of Dutch power, Sultan Sulaiman granted the Dutch Company a monopoly of tin in Selangor, Klang and Linggi. Actually these territories were in the strong hands of his turbulent domestic enemies the Bugis: Selangor under Sultan Salahu'd-din, Klang under a Raja Tua and Linggi under the famous Bugis chief (Yam-tuan Muda) Daing Kemboja. Before the end of the year Daing Kemboja and his Rembau allies were wasting Malacca territory, though by May 1757 they were driven back to Linggi. The Malay party, Sultan Sulaiman and Sultan Mansur of Trengganu, then tried to get the better of the insubordinate Bugis by handing over to the Dutch Rembau and Linggi, which in actual fact no longer belonged to the Johor ruler but to the Bugis: on 12 December 1757 they signed a treaty offering to give to the Company Rembau and its nine countries (negeri) together with Linggi, subject to two stipulations, firstly that the Dutch would not interfere with the Muhammadan religion or alter the prayers for the Sultan of Johor, and secondly that power and place should not be granted to Daing Kemboja, Raja ‘Alam, Raja Said, Raja Haji, Raja Tua of Klang or Raja ‘Adil of Rembau, who had ruined Malacca. 

The Dutch wanted to be friends and trade alike with Malays and Bugis, and they tried to help their old ally the Sultan of Johor. So on 1 January 1758 the Bugis were persuaded to sign a treaty at Fort Filipina, Kuala Linggi, promising that the Company's friends, in particular the Sultan of Johor, should always be their friends, and in their turn granting the Dutch a monopoly of the tin from Linggi, Rembau and Klang. On 11 November 1759 a treaty was signed between David Bulen, Governor of Malacca, and Raja Muda Daing Kemboja of Linggi, Raja Tua of Klang and the heads of the nine countries of Rembau, namely Maharaja Pakki, Penghulu Dagang, Stia Probo (? Purba), Paduka ‘Alam of the Four Tribes and the Penghulu Pandita Kaya and Shahbandar Pandita Garang. It was agreed that the parties to the treaty should be friends, that the Company would restore fugitive slaves or freemen who fled to Malacca, that the Company should have a monopoly for the purchase of the tin of Linggi, Rembau and Klang at 38 Spanish reals a bahar of 300 kati and that the chiefs would endeavour to suppress piracy and allow no boats to pass the Straits of Malacca without a Dutch pass. 

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This treaty is interesting for several reasons. It contains the first authentic mention of the nine districts of Rembau and one wonders if the existence of nine districts there did not later fire Raja Melewar to want Nine States under his control. Secondly the treaty is signed not by Raja ‘Adil but by the heads of tribes. For from the Malay agreement of 12 December 1757 it is obvious that the associate of Daing Kemboja, Raja Haji and Raja Tua of Klang was not a Minangkabau prince but a Bugis, who claimed to be at Rembau as the delegate of the Sultan of Johor, an overlord he treated merely as a convenience. Raja ‘Adil was counted a Yam-tuan Muda of Rembau, an office named after that of the head of the Bugis in the Riau-Johor empire though apparently for Rembau no such office had been sanctioned by the Johor Sultan. Raja ‘Adil married the daughter of a Bugis chief and his grand-nephew, Raja ‘Ali, was the son of a Bugis chief Daing Alampaki. The Bugis ancestry of the founder of the house of the Yam-tuan Mudas of Rembau and Tampin explains much in Negri Sembilan history. Not only did Raja ‘Adil leave a son Raja Asil, who in 1798 took the title of Sultan Muhammad Shah, Yang di-pertuan Muda of Rembau; by a wife of the Tiga Batu tribe he is reputed to have become the grandfather of Tengku Ahmad Shah, alias Sabun, who became first Yam-tuan Muda of Jelebu. How did Raja ‘Adil get a footing in Jelebu? About this time the  territorial chief of Jelebu is said to have got the title of Dato’ *Mandulika Mantri Akhir Zaman Sutan Jelebu from Raja di-Baroh, son and deputy of Sultan Sulaiman of the Riau-Johor empire. When Raja di-Baroh died in January 1761, Bugis and Malays were at peace. Did Raja 'Adil contrive to go to Jelebu to instal the chief who had got the new magniloquent title? Alone of Bugis chiefs he managed to become absorbed by the Minangkabaus and be treated as a Sumatran prince. But the Jelebu title is half Malaccan and half Minangkabau, the first half even dating back perhaps to the time of tin-miners from Sri Vijaya, the second half added after the coming of Raja Melewar. Perhaps Raja di-Baroh gave the Mandulika a seal, but it cannot have home the Minangkabau words equivalent to “Licking Creation.’' 

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The Bugis invaded Sungai Ujong. The title of its territorial chief, another relative of Bendahara Sekudai, was changed from Penghulu Mantri to Klana Putra and local tradition still gives the Klana the rank of a Yam-tuan Muda, a style affected by the Bugis princes of Riau and suggesting that its first holder in Sungai Ujong may have been one of Daing Kemboja's Bugis associates. In 1872 ‘Abdu'l-Samad, Sultan of Selangor, handed over Tanjong Tuan for a light-house “with the consent of the Dato’ Klana of Sungai Ujong because according to the old Johor constitution he is as it were our parent.” Moreover not till the second or third decade of the XIXth century did Sungai Ujong adopt Minangkabau matriarchal custom. Daing Kemboja left Linggi in 1760 never to return, but its present population are descendants of colonists who came from Riau first to Rembau and then, it is said, in 1783 removed to Linggi there to follow their own patriarchal life. 

The Bugis influence in this part of the Peninsula was now passing. In 1760 the able and vigorous Daing Kemboja went to Riau to resume his office of Yam-tuan Muda of the Johor empire and there he remained until his death in 1777 with the famous Raja Haji as his assistant. In 1784 Rembau and Pedas joined in Raja Haji’s attack on Malacca which led to the death and defeat of that redoubtable Bugis warrior, to the Dutch conquest of Bugis Selangor and to the Dutch conquest of Riau and their expulsion of the Bugis from that island. The Dutch who thereafter brooked no Bugis at Riau were not disposed to support them in the hinterland of Malacca. These decades when first the Bugis chiefs were busy ruling Riau and later were scattered in exile, provided opportunity for the rise of the Minangkabau prince destined to be founder of the present royal house of Negri Sembilan. 

BRITISH INTERVENTION. 

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The British first came into touch with Negri Sembilan when they occupied Malacca from 1795 to 1818. In 1801 a treaty was made with Raja Merah Captain Penghulu of Naning, 'dul-Sayid, Lela Hulubalang, Maulana Hakim, Orang Kaya Kechil, Membangun Kaya, Maharaja Orang Kaya and Maulana Garang, to wit, that the people of Naning would be submissive and faithful, deliver up the disobedient, give the British a monopoly of all tin coming to Naning from Sri Menanti, Sungai Ujong, Rembau and other places at 44 rix-dollars a bahar, deliver pepper “whenever any great quantity is to be had" at 12 rix-dollars a bahar, bring all inland goods down the river to Malacca and not traffic with inland nations on the river Penagi on pain of forfeiting lives and property, let their Penghulu be appointed by the British Governor of Malacca, restore all fugitive slaves to Malacca, accept half the value of slaves escaping to Malacca to become Christians and not sell or circumcise any Christian slave or freeman. Naning was bound to deliver one-tenth of its rice and fruit crops to the East India Company ‘‘ but in consideration of their indigent circumstances." the Company agreed to be content with the annual homage of the Penghulu or his deputy bringing, “ as a token of submission,” only 400 gantang of rice. The chiefs of Naning had been signing treaties of this sort with Portuguese and Dutch for centuries. The tithe on rice had hardly ever covered the cost of its collection and in lean years had been waived so that from 1765 onwards the Dutch had accepted instead the tribute of 400 gantang or quart measures. 

In 1818 Malacca was restored to the Dutch and Timmermann Thyssen renewed with Raja ‘Ali and the chiefs of Rembau the treaty made in 1759 with Daing Kemboja (p. 57) but Batavia content with a vague suzerainty refused to ratify this engagement. 

In 1824 the British returned to Malacca. During their first occupation, they had made the 1801 treaty with Naning and installed in 1802 ‘Abdu’l (or ’dul) Sayid as Penghulu on condition that he used the Company’s seal. In 1807 Colonel Farquhar had remitted the yearly tribute of buffaloes and the boat-tax on the Malacca river, both relics of Dutch days, in return for Naning’s surrender of the power of capital punishment. The British desired control of the death penalty in Naning in the interests of British subjects. But "European governments do not make treaties with their own subjects” and the British had made the 1801 treaty to control the foreign relations and secure the domestic peace of a neighbouring semi-independent tribute state. Had Governor Fullerton, that vigorous stickler for legal principles, kept his eye open to this elementary principle of international law and had he waited long enough to discover that the Dutch had never claimed or exercised any right of alienating land in Naning as they had in Malacca, the East India Company would have been saved the expenditure of £100,000 on a ludicrous and humiliating campaign against the ragged creeses and rusty muskets of a few hundred Minangkabaus. 

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But Fullerton was cursed with a headstrong adviser, Lewis, eager as himself to enforce the rigour of the law. Lewis told Fullerton that Naning was part of the territory of Malacca and, as Garling the Resident Councillor of Malacca insisted at the time, Lewis told Fullerton wrong. For six months Fullerton held his hand. Then Lewis dilated on the loss of revenue due to remission of the tithe on a rice-crop which he estimated at a million and a quarter gantang, and he proposed to bribe the Penghulu and chiefs with allowances to become British tax-collectors. The chiefs refused. Lewis sent his own tax-collectors who were forced to ask for military protection. The Penang Council sceptical of the Company's right to the tithe advised delay. Just then the Penghulu of Naning heard a murder case and fined the family of the victim! In spite of the advice of his most experienced officials Fullerton was persuaded that legally the Naning chiefs were no more than tax-collectors and village constables. He decided however to await the death of 'Abdu’l- Sayid before taking away the Penghulu’s judicial powers and handing them over to Malacca’s newly constituted court of judicature and he decided to refer the question of the tithe to the Directors. The Penghulu refused to meet the Governor and he obstructed a census by the Malacca Land Department. In July 1829 Fullerton sent Church, Deputy-Resident of Malacca, with a guard of sepoys to allay fears instilled into ‘Abdu’l-Sayid by designing Dutch merchants at Malacca, who were anxious to reap the profits of a war. Church was to tell the Penghulu that the Company had no designs on his liberty and that the collection of the tithe was deferred, though not finally dropped, and he was to avoid reference to the chief's powers of jurisdiction. So successful was this mission that Abdu’l-Sayid recovered from what he described as his "state of terror" and allowed the census, but by the end of 1829 other and sinister counsellors prevailed with him ; he refused to meet the Governor at Malacca, and Naning prepared for war. Fullerton collected a military force to invade Naning and then, as his Councillors disagreed with his policy, stayed action for the Supreme Government to decide. ‘Abdu’l-Sayid, convinced that the Governor’s vacillation was due to fear, seized the fruit of certain trees claimed by Surin, a Malay Proprietor in Malacca territory. The new Governor, Ibbetson, referred this problem also to the Indian Government. In June 1830 the Directors instructed the Governor that the Company possessed sovereign rights over Naning and could legally collect tithes and exercise judicial powers within its borders but, to avoid war, the assertion of these rights was to be deferred. Ibbetson misled by Mr. Lewis answered that things had gone too far for inaction and that unless ‘Abdu’l-Sayid were now forced to pay the tithe, the Malays in Malacca territory would also refuse to pay the tithes on their produce which took the place of a land-tax. The Supreme Government left the solution to the Governor. ‘Abdu'l-Sayid now demanded absolute independence. 

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So in July 1831 150 sepoys with two six-pounders dragged by bullocks were despatched to Naning but were bogged and had their retreat impeded by the felling of trees in their rear, so that with guns lost and heavy baggage destroyed the red-coats had to retire ‘‘expeditiously" to Malacca. Persuaded that the British would attack Rembau also and supplant him by Raja Laboh, Raja 'Ali had sent his son-in-law, Sayid Sha‘ban (the only brain of this and the subsequent campaign) to 

help Naning, and, that object effected, Sayid Sha'ban had accepted $500 to allow the British force to retreat! Victorious, 'Abdu'l-Sayid wrote to Malacca complaining that the Assistant Resident had come with sepoys and shot down a Panglima who had been sent as an honorary escort to receive him! Actually clad in scarlet broad-cloth, brandishing a spear and whirling a sling, the Panglima had danced derisively before the British guns and having stood two rounds of grape was hit by a third in the midst of a demivolte. A dignified reply was sent to ‘Abdu'l-Sayid inviting him to come to Malacca! In that town “fear whispered that every hush concealed a Malay and converted every stick into a musket barrel." On the grave of his Panglima 'Abdu'l-Sayid sacrificed six out of seven convicts captured during the "war," keeping the seventh to read to him the Kuran. He also proceeded to fine every Malacca village within his reach twenty reals. And on 24 October, he and his chiefs wrote to the King of England, complaining of the doings of the Malacca government. 

Too late the Malacca officials at last discovered in the archives that since 1765 the Dutch had commuted the tithe into nominal tribute! Angry as Bengal was, it recognized that war was inevitable, and it approved of a rapprochement with “the ruffianly, half-clothed and poverty-stricken” chiefs of Rembau, as Captain Begbie, an eye-witness, described them. Two treaties followed, 

one dated 30 November 1831 and the other 28 January 1832; it was agreed that “the Rembau government will be at liberty to rule within its own territories according to the laws and usages of that country” and the British and Rembau were never to attack one another or take possession of the territory of each other. $1,000 was offered for the apprehension of ’dul-Sayid dead or alive, and after the rains, in March 1832 a fresh force of over 

a thousand men set out from Malacca. That retreat this time might not be impeded by the felling of trees, the commander, Colonel Herbert, had a road 600 feet wide cut at the rate of three or four miles a month over the twenty-two miles of country to Naning’s capital, Taboh. Casualties on both sides were negligible but even a jinjal shot caused the troops to stand to arms till daybreak and the Colonel was very nervous and talked of “troops knocked up” and of acting on the defensive against an enemy who, had he known it, never numbered more than one hundred men.  ‘Abdu’l-Sayid threatened to hamstring all the buffaloes of any one supplying carriage to the British troops. However at the end of April, impressed by the inevitable if caterpillar advance of the British, Raja 'Ali sent from Rembau Sayid Sha'ban and a force of Malays. 

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Sayid Sha'ban’s spies had knowledge of the enemy’s sporadic energy so that he could descend on deserted stockades and capture them. Thanks to this “petty chief,” on June 15 Taboh the principal village was taken by surprise, 'Abdu'l Sayid’s dinner being left untouched on his mat. The Naning defence was broken. On 27 June. John Anderson, author of the "Considerations” arrived from Penang as Commissioner for Naning but he died on 5 August from cerebral malaria. 

Diffident about assuming the administration of the State, the Company first offered Naning to Raja 'Ali who respectfully declined. So the Company included it in Malacca territory, abolished (temporarily) the posts of Penghulu and tribal headmen and appointed a Dutch gentleman, Mr. Westerhout,* as Superintendent 

to collect tithes and see that criminal cases were sent to the Recorder’s court. In 1833 the revenue was $762 and the expenditure $463; in 1835 the figures were $1,240 and $490! Promised a pardon ‘Abdu’l-Sayid surrendered in 1834 and was given a house and garden with a pension of $100 a month on condition that he did not leave Malacca. He lived there until August 1849 when he died, esteemed as a physician. He took to shoes and a buggy and he bought rice-fields and jewellery for his women-folk. It is not surprising that this generous treatment of a defeated foe impressed the Malays of the inland States more than the British conduct of the Naning wars. 

The Naning war settled nothing in Negri Sembilan except the position of that long since "vassal” State. Immediately after the war Raja 'Ali of Rembau proclaimed himself Yam-tuan Besar of Negri Sembilan and Sayid Sha'ban Yam-tuan Muda of Rembau. But one Muhammad Katas, To’ Muda of Linggi, that little fifty-year-old colony from Riau, was an enemy of Sayid Sha'ban. Fighting broke out. The Penghulu of Rembau stood aloof. Sayid Sha'ban sent a band to surprise and kill the Penghulu. Rembau and Sungai Ujong declared war, drove out Raja 'Ali and Sayid Sha'ban and elected Raja Radin to the throne of Negri Sembilan. Still petty fighting was rife. In 1844 the Governor of the Straits Settlements was recalling Sayid Sha‘ban from Jementah (now in Segamat) which he and the swashbuckler Raja Kerjan had attacked carrying off 18 buffaloes: the Governor cordially congratulated the Temenggong of Muar that in this foray Raja Kerjan had been "gallantly killed." 

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In the same year the Governor was warning To’ Katas of Linggi not to listen to interested merchants like Westerhout and Neubronner and Company but to rest assured that the British government would not interfere in his tin trade. In June 1845 the Dato’ Klana of Sungai Ujong reported that he and To’ Katas had quarrelled in consequence of which the river Linggi was blockaded and the tin trade was stopped. The Governor begged the Klana to address him direct and not through Messrs. Neubronner, to avoid interested traders and not to let his people buy arms in Malacca: Malacca would sell arms to neither side. In the ’50s the “illegal” collection of taxes on the Linggi river led to much correspondence with Rembau and Sungai Ujong. In 1851 the Penghulu of Rembau promised to make enquiries but in spite of a meeting and agreement between the Governor, the Penghulu of Rembau and the Yam-tuan, taxes were still being collected by one, Lebai Kulup, at Kuala Linggi in May 1852. The Klana, who had been no party to the agreement, was now told to stop the lebai from his recalcitrant feudalism. In December the Governor declined to help the Klana in a fight with Rawa Malays and emphasized that illegal river-dues were at the bottom of all his troubles. Not till August 1855 did the Klana take vigorous action and drive Lebai Kulup out of his tax-collector’s stockade at Simpang on the Linggi river: though he could not get British help, the Klana surprised his enemy by using the British flag, a ruse that evoked strong gubernatorial expostulation. Till the end of 1855 the Klana was fighting and capturing feudal customs stations on the Linggi. In November 1855 the Governor issued a notice in the name of the Governor-General of Bengal prohibiting the erection of stockades on the Linggi and Ujong rivers and in 1856 the Governor promised to send a gun-boat periodically to ensure that the notice was observed. But in I860 and 1861 one Haji Musa was imposing tolls on British craft at Lubok China, apparently with the authority of To’ Sedia Raja, Penghulu of Rembau. In the south one Bujal of Muar was illegally collecting taxes from people of Sungai Ujong. In 1861 the Governor informed the Klana that Sultan 'Ali had sold Johor to the Temenggong, and he assured the Klana that the British would not trespass in Sungai Ujong or allow British subjects to take up land there, In 1862 His Excellency was begging the Klana not to destroy commerce by petty fighting. In 1865 the Penghulu of Johol wrote offering Gemencheh to the British if they would attack that mining centre and oust one Penghulu Ja'far, who offended at his leasing of the mines to Baba Bom Tiong and Towkay Cham had attacked the writer on a dark night and killed and wounded his men. The British did not want to extend their territory. In 1866 the Penghulu of Johol reported that he had paid $300 to one Lela Mantri, another feudal tax-collector, to remove from Ayer Kuning which was British territory, but the Governor refused to meet the bill because Lela Mantri still remained there! In 1870 Rembau made a treaty with Selangor defining the boundary at Sempang, but there was nearly war between Rembau on the one side and Sungai Ujong and Linggi on the other over this same boundary. The Dato’ Muda of Linggi refused to bring the annual token of allegiance to Rembau. Rembau appealed for British arbitration (but the affair dragged on till the end of the Sungai Ujong civil war and till the settlement of the struggle between rival candidates for the office of Yam-Tuan Sri Menanti put those inland States under British administration, whereupon in 1877 first Sungai Ujong and then Rembau ceded that bone of contention, Sempang, to the British). 

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In March 1872 the Klana and the Tengku Laksamana Laut, Sayid ‘Abdu'r-Rahman bin Sayid Ahmad al-Kadri, signed an agreement granting Mr. Henry Velge ‘‘Setoh, Sempadan and Rajang" for tin-mining or any other purpose, the Malay chiefs promising to protect Velge's agents and not to tax any imports but opium, and Velge engaging to pay $4¼ on every bahar of tin exported and to collect a tithe on the profits, if any, of the commerce in those localities, one-third of the tithe to be kept by him and two-thirds to be paid to the Klana. A vague and dangerous agreement! 

Then came Sir Andrew Clarke. Downing Street had now seen that interference in the Malay States was inevitable in the cause of Malayan peace and Malayan trade. On 21 April 1874 the Klana, Sayid ‘Abdu’r-Rahman al-Kadri, and the Dato’ Muda of Linggi signed the following engagement: 

“ Whereas disturbances have at various times existed in the territory of Sungai Ujong, and whereas certain evil-disposed persons, without colour of right, have at various times placed stockades on the banks of the River Linggi, and have there by force of arms prevented the free passage of peaceful traders with their merchandise up and down the said river, and whereas the British Government is willing, at the request of the Chief of Sungai Ujong, and for the protection of the interests of its subjects, for the advancement of trade, and for the prosperity of the said territory to extend its guarantee to the Government of the said territory: 

And whereas the recognized Chief of the said territory of Sungai Ujong has endeavoured to free the said river of such persons and their unlawful exactions and to that end has ordered a supply of warlike arms and ammunition now lying in Singapore under embargo: 

And whereas it has been represented to his Excellency the Governor of the Straits Settlements that the said Chief is desirous of again attempting to free the said river, to the end that the trade therein may be restored and increased, and for this purpose has asked that the supply of arms and ammunition should be given up to him, to be taken to the said territory of Sungai Ujong, and the said Governor, while anxious to aid the said Chief in his own lawful purpose of clearing the said river from all impediments to free passage thereon, considers it necessary, before acceding to the request of the said Chief, as to the giving up to him of the said arms and ammunition, and extending to him the protection of the British Government, that there should be good and sufficient guarantees that the said arms and ammunition should not be used for purposes dangerous to the peace of the said territory, and injurious to the interests of traders and others frequenting the said territory, and that the Government of the said territory will be carried on by the said Chief and his officers, on principles of justice and equity, and that the lives and properties of such traders and persons shall be duly protected by the said Chief and his officers; 

and whereas the said Chief and certain of his officers are willing to enter into an obligation to that effect; 

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“ Now these presents witness that we, whose names and seals are hereunder set, do acknowledge ourselves to be held and firmly bound to Her Majesty Victoria, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Queen, and so forth, in the penal sum of 50,000 dollars, to be paid to Her said Majesty, Her heirs, and successors, for which payment to be well and truly made we bind ourselves and each of us our successors in office, and our and each of us our successors in office, and our and each of our heirs, executors, and administrators, and any one, two, or more of them. 

And, on the understanding that so long as the conditions of this obligation are faithfully kept by the said Chief and his officers, the moral and material guarantee and protection of the British Government will be accorded to them to secure the independence, peace and prosperity of the territory of Sungai Ujong. 

“ The condition of the above written obligation is such that if the said obligors and each of them, their and each of their heirs and successors, shall in all things well and truly carry on the Government of the territory of Sungai Ujong, in so far as lies in the power of them, and each of them, on principles of justice and equity, and will protect from injustice and oppression all persons frequenting the said territory and passing up and down the said River Linggi, peacefully engaged in their lawful avocations, and will keep the said River Linggi open to lawful traffic and commerce, and will prevent any persons from interfering with the free passage of the river, and from exacting duties or taxes on the navigation of the said river, under any pretext or pretence whatever, other than the fair and reasonable duties and taxes originally put on the navigation of such rivers, for the protection and convenience of traders, by the authority of the recognised Chief of the said territory, and with the sanction and the approval of the Government of the Straits Settlements, and, on the requisition of the said Government will give up any offenders against the laws of the said Settlements who may have taken refuge in, or be found in, the said territory, and will not give refuge to the enemies of the British Government, or of States and Chiefs in alliance with, and at peace with, the British Government, and will not permit such persons to form or attempt to form expeditions, or to collect men or arms in the said territory of Sungai Ujong against the British Government or against the friends and allies of the British Government, and that they will give early and true information to the British Government of all events of political and mercantile importance, happening in the said territory, and that the Station, District or Settlement at Sempang, with all the river bank on both sides of the River Linggi, from Sempang as far as Permatang Pasir, shall be placed under the control, order, and direction of the British Government; then this obligation to be void, otherwise to remain in full force and effect." 

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The Bandar was a strong old-fashioned ruler, popular with Malays as the harbourer of notable refugees from Selangor: the Klana was mild and unpopular as a friend of the British. On 28 August 1874 the Klana wrote to Sir Andrew Clarke promising to build roads and a gaol and asking that Mr. Isemonger, Magistrate Malacca, should be made Resident. The 80 year old Bandar was no party to British intervention and as he threatened trouble, a force of 60 police and 44 coolies went with Mr. Pickering of the Chinese protectorate, to settle the differences between him and Klana Putra. On Sunday 10 October, 1874, a flagstaff “as large as a schooner s main-mast’’ was erected by the Klana's house at Ampangan and on the next day the British flag was hoisted to a salute of 21 guns: a pot of incense was burnt at the foot of the flagstaff and an old Haji knelt and recited prayers. But still the Bandar refused to meet either the Klana or the Governor: for years he had treated the Klana as a puppet, had usurped the chief power over Sungai Ujong and had levied taxes at will till the 10,000 Chinese were tired of his exactions. The Klana started to attack his rival's strongholds but the mere presence of Raja Mahmud a warrior refugee from Selangor in the Bandar’s ranks 

dissipated all the Malays whom the Klana had collected and left him only a small force of Straits police, 20 Arab, Turk and Egyptian mercenaries and 2 Somali negroes armed with spear and shield!* 

However this small force aided by Tengku Abu of Tampin took Rasak and Rahang. At last 84 British soldiers of the 10th, 20 artillerymen and 54 men of the Charybdis arrived. On 28 November the Bandar wrote to the Governor that, while he appreciated the British flag, he objected to not having been consulted by the Klana: on 14 October the Klana aided by white men had attacked and captured Rasak with its guns, weapons and buffaloes, on 11 November had made a night attack on his house at Kepayang and on 18 November had burnt Rahang. On 30 November the Bandar’s deputy agreed that the old chief should surrender, go to Singapore and defray the cost of the war, leaving Sayid ‘Abdu'r-Rahman (alias Aman) to rule Sungai Ujong. On 16 December the Bandar acknowledged his war-guilt and surrendered his tired bitter old person. 

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Hardly quit of the Bandar, Sayid 'Abdu’r-Rahman was attacked by Yam-tuan Antah who was urged and abetted by the Penghulu of Ulu Muar and the chiefs round Sri Menanti, disapprovers of the Klana’s friendly relations with the British and with Tengku Ahmad Tunggal, son of Yamtuan Imam (who had died in 1869) and claimant to his throne but not his elected successor. The troops in Sungai Ujong when Sir William Jervois assumed office as 

Governor had to be increased before the end of 1875 to some 150 infantry and a detachment of artillery to deal with disturbances in Sri Menanti and Jempul. There was a little guerilla skirmishing. A British officer won the V.C. for leaping over a stockade on a Friday (one of the Malays’ many days of rest), and driving a few Malays away from their cooking pots. 

By January 1876 military forces were withdrawn from everywhere except Sungai Ujong. In April the Governor wrote to Carnarvon, the Secretary of State, reporting that Rembau, Johol and Sungai Ujong were strongly opposed to the appointment of another Yam-tuan Besar and, if forced to accept one, would probably back out of the friendly treaties' they were disposed to make. He had suggested Sultan ‘Ali (of Muar) for the office but the Dato’ of 

Rembau had replied that Sultan ‘Ali could be of no more use than a coconut palm. Jervois now proposed that Tengku Ahmad Tunggal be made Malay Captain of Sri Menanti, Ulu Muar and Jempul with a British Agent as his adviser: to put the three States under the British Agent at Sungai Ujong would look like putting the Yam-tuan under the Klana. In June the “proud truculent-looking” Tengku Antah surrendered at Johor and promised the Governor to bring in the chiefs of Johol, Ulu Muar, Terachi and Gunong Pasir, to whose bad counsel he ascribed his attack on Sungai Ujong. In August Lord Carnarvon replied, rejecting the proposal for a Malay Captain and a British Agent at Sri Menanti: Malacca had a barrier of friendly and orderly States to protect its borders and Her Majesty’s Government were “unwilling to allow any further extension of the system of Residents until they shall have had further experience of the working of those already established."

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By October the Dato’ of Ulu Muar had surrendered and troops were retained only in Sungai Ujong. On 23 November 1876 Tengku Antah “still determined in appearance but courteous and dignified” brought all the chiefs who supported him to Government House and an agreement was signed recognizing Antah as Yam-tuan not of the whole country but over Sri Menanti, Johol, Ulu Muar, Jempul, Terachi, Gunong Pasir and Inas, and promising to refer any disputes for the arbitration of the Maharaja of Johor. 

Not only did the little States round Sri Menanti agree to refer their differences to the Maharaja of Johor: early in 1877 the Lela Maharaja of Rembau and the Yam-tuan of Jelebu signed similar treaties. In July 1877, when the Colonial Secretary (Mr. Douglas) made a tour up the Muar river, he found that Enche’ Andak, the Maharaja’s man at Muar, was away in Sri Menanti, having been sent up as a sort of Resident of those States by the Maharaja on 23 July Che’ Andak was at Segamat with Yam-tuan Antah who was awaiting the arrival of the Maharaja. Rembau was the first to repudiate this Johor suzerainty. As Governor Sir Frederick Weld discovered, the Rembau treaty of 1877 had been signed by the territorial chief only and not by the tribal headmen and was therefore invalid. Haji Sahil, the Lela Maharaja, had in fact contracted the treaty with the Maharaja of Johor, when the Maharaja was on a visit to Rembau, because Haji Sahil was at loggerheads with his tribal headmen and the treaty enabled him to get titles and money from Johor. In 1883 the Rembau tribes deposed Haji Sahil and chose the Governor as their arbiter in place of the Maharaja of Johor. 

As for Jelebu, the Penghulu and his tribal headmen were furious with their Yam-tuan Muda ‘Abdu’llah for having dared to sign the quite innocent but unconstitutional treaty of 1877 

without their consent and collaboration. Besides the Yam-tuan Muda committed the enormity of executing a man without trial by the Penghulu and headmen. It was decided to “root him up.” But several of the headmen were on the Yam-tuan’s side and though the Penghulu rooted them up and appointed others in their stead, they did not wither but started to intrigue with Pahang, After several years of bloodshed and disturbance, the Yam-tuan Muda and the Penghulu applied separately to the Governor to arbitrate over their quarrel, to send a British Resident to Jelebu and to settle the boundary between Jelebu and Pahang. His Excellency decided that it was inexpedient as yet to send a Resident to Jelebu. As for the Yam-tuan Muda he had been recognized by a treaty and his uprooting had not been reported to the British Government nor did it appear effectual. But in consideration of an allowance of $100 a month, he agreed not to take part in the ordinary administration or to claim dues that had hitherto belonged to the commoner chiefs or to interfere with the transport of tin to Sungai Ujong or elsewhere. 

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But again in January 1884 the Yam-tuan Abdu’llah was required to sign a bond undertaking not to meddle in administration. Owing to the disturbances mile after mile of homesteads and rice-fields were deserted. In December 1884 Yam-tuan ‘Abdu’llah died. There were three claimants for the little throne of Jelebu. In June 1885 the first British collector arrived and the Penghulu asked for the abolition of the office of Yam-tuan Muda, whereupon it was decided not to elect another holder. In September 1886 the Penghulu, Sayid 'Ali bin Zin al-Jafri, in conjunction with the lesser chiefs, signed a treaty surrendering the conduct of Jelebu’s foreign affairs to the British and the collection of royalty on tin and of other revenue as well as the alienation of land and civil and criminal jurisdiction to the British officer of whose continued assistance they asked to be assured. 

In 1887 the chiefs of Rembau signed another treaty, leaving all revenue matters and certain civil and criminal jurisdiction to an officer appointed by the Governor of the Straits Settlements: one-third of the revenue was to be paid to the Penghulu in council for the benefit of himself and other chiefs entitled to participate. In 1889 the rulers of Rembau and Tampin joined the Sri Menanti confederacy of 1887 to make a confederation of Nine States, the number being reached by the inclusion of Gemencheh as a separate State: all placed themselves under British protection. There was now one British Resident for Sri Menanti, Rembau and Tampin, and another for Sungai Ujong and Jelebu. In 1895 the Yam-tuan 

Besar of Sri Menanti together with the rulers of Johol, Sungai Ujong, Jelebu, Rembau and Tampin placed their States under British protection, formed a confederation of six States that were to bear the historic name of Nine States and asked for a British Resident. In this treaty Sri Menanti and Johol signed for and included the little States of Ulu Muar, Terachi, Jempul, Gunong Pasir, Inas and Gemencheh. In 1898 the four great chiefs of Sungai Ujong, Jelebu, Johol and Rembau elected the son of Antah Yam-tuan Besar of Sri Menanti to be Yam-tuan Besar of the whole of Negri Sembilan, namely Sungai Ujong, Jelebu, Johol, Rembau, 

Ulu Muar, Terachi, Jempul, Gunong Pasir and Inas. The Yang di-pertuan Besar was not to interfere in the customs of the country or in Muhammadan law and every matter that arose in each State was to be settled in consultation with the Resident. Only if any one of the four great signatories appealed to the Yang di-pertuan Besar to settle a boundary, might His Highness intervene. The office was to remain elective but every Yam-tuan was to be one of the royal princes.

THE TRIBES. 

The sub-tribe must have arisen not from any attempt to 

evade the rules of exogamy but because tribes became too large 

and later perhaps too scattered for one tribal chief to serve them 

without assistance:—the lesser size of the sub-tribe facilitated, for 

example, the distribution of property on death to the rightful 

heirs. When a common ancestress is remembered for two or more 

sub-tribes, none of the members of any of them can intermarry. 

Even a whole tribe may be debarred from marriage with another 

tribe. The tribes being of the same descent, a Sri Lemak tribe 

in Terachi may not intermarry with a Sri Lemak tribe in Muar. 

Two of the pioneer Rembau tribes are debarred from intermarriage 

because they are descended from half-brothers. 

The word for tribe suku means literally quarter and it has 

been surmised that in Minangkabau a State or country arose from 

the commingling of four trib^, two of which had the jus connubii 

with the other two. In Rembau it is related that of the original 

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colonists one chief brought over from Sumatra the Batu Hampar 

and Mungkal tribes and another the Payakumboh and Tiga Nenek 

tribes. These tribes settled downstream and had an original council 

of four chiefs. Later four more tribes settled upstream and there 

was formed a council of eight chiefs. Still later twelve more tribes 

were added, whose chiefs gained no real share in the constitution. 

Even if the lists had to be faked, multiples of four appealed to 

the framers of the Rembau constitution as to those of nearly all 

the States. 

Most of the Negri Sembilan tribes have Minangkabau names. 

But as time passed and numbers grew these plain designations 

became inadequate so that we get subdivisions, due to local 

settlements and local migrations, such as the Sri Lemak tribe 

that came from Minangkabau ” and the Sri Lemak tribe that 

came from Pahang,” or “ the Biduanda tribe that came from Sungai 

Ujong ” and so on. For not only is there one tribe for Achinese 

and another for Malacca folk who have “ bellowed ” when they 

entered the Minangkabau “ byre ” and have adopted mother-right, 

but there is also that most interesting of all the tribes, bearing 

a name unknown in Minangkabau, the Biduanda tribe. 

The name Biduanda occurs in four contexts. The “ Chinese 

Biduanda ” was a title given by the Malay Sultans of Malacca 

(before the Portuguese had captured that port) to early Chinese 

settlers there. Biduanda is abo the name of a proto-Malay tribe 

in Negri Sembilan, aborigines who have always sought the protection 

of powerful neighbours, so that the tribe may well have got from 

the Malacca Sultans a honorific that means ‘ followers ’ and was 

applied to non-Malays:—today it is the Johor word for police 

probationers! It is also the name of a tribe treated by 

the Minangkabau colonists as the premier tribe though in their 

homelands all tribes were equal and none had supremacy. A section 

of the tribe was descended from early patriarchal Malacca exploiters 

of the hinterland and some—if this is not a Minangkabau fiction— 

from proto-Malay women married to matrilineal Minangkabau 

settlers whose coming antedated authentic history. In States like 

Naning and Rembau, Minangkabau strongholds in close contact 

for centuries with the civilisation of Malacca, the aboriginal woman 

has long been no more than the heroine of the matrilineal theory, 

a survival in culture. Inland in Johol and Jelebu where the 

Minangkabaus were less civilised and the aborigines abounded, 

proto-Malay influence has been strong and to prove their descent 

and title to land from these “ antediluvian families, fellows that 

the flood ” of emigation from the continent of Asia “ could not 

wash away,” Jelebu chiefs cherish among their insignia proto- 

Malay women’s trinkets and those proto-Malay headmen the Batins 

are asked to sanction the election of Johol’s territorial chief. In 

Johol and Jempul, the Minai^kabau rule of exogamy b not in 

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force for the Biduanda tribe and all its sub-tribes can intermarry! 

As the Jelebu sayings frankly admit of their early colonists:— 

Then we met the Batin chieftain 

And forsook our older custom. 

They go on to describe the political theory and actual late local 

practice of their acquisition of land: “ the Batin and his assistant 

scored the trees that marked the boundaries, the waris dragged 

the cord of survey, the territorial chief (head of the waris) fixed 

the price and the Minangkabau tribal headman hammered in the 

boundary marks,’’ “ Dull-witted ” says a Malay proverb, are 

the men of Minangkabau who have no footing on the sea ” and 

here they were hoodwinked by a simple jungle-tribe! 

Sometimes the Biduanda tribe claims wrongly to be called 

the waris tribe. In Negri Sembilan the Arabic word waris has 

four meanings. It is used by Kadlis for inheritors under Muslim 

law, and by tribal authorities for inheritors under mother-right. 

It is used loosely of the whole Biduanda tribe, whose members 

are always anxious to arrogate to themselves the rights and 

perquisites of certain families in that tribe. It is used properly 

of those few families that still provide Ihe big territorial chiefs, 

descendants of the earliest chiefs in the country, delegates or 

relatives of the great patriarchal Bendaharas or viziers of the 

old Malay kingdom of Malacca in the fifteenth century. These 

Malacca families were the owners of what the Minangkabau colonists 

wanted, “ the land from the trickle of the watershed down to the 

waves breaking at the river-mouth ” but the theory of mother-right 

has introduced the proto-Malay woman and played havoc with 

traditional history. Waris land, even when leased to a tenant, 

was exempt from attachment by a Minangkabau tribe, though 

the land of a Minangkabau tribe could be attached by the waris. 

Would civilised Minangkabau be so altruistic in dealings with 

aborigines? Would they have paid higher fees, too, for an aboriginal 

bride than for one of their own women? No member of a waris 

tribe ever demeans herself or himself or gives up her or his 

prerogatives by accepting adoption into a Minangkabau tribe—a 

thing a naked savage would have been proud to do! In Rembau 

if homicide was committed, the slayer’s tribe (unless it were a 

waris tribe!) had to compensate the tribe of the slain by giving 

it one of its own members: but if the slain were of a Waris tribe, 

five substitutes had to be given. To any one who knows the 

people it is incredible that Minangkabau Malays should not claim a 

substitute for their dead from aborigines, whose women they claim 

to have abducted for wives, and should have compensated a half- 

aboriginal (or to their matrilineal ideas aboriginal) tribe by giving 

five Malays for the life of one proto-Malay! But all these privileges 

and perquisites would be proper for representatives of the great 

Bendaharas of old Malacca, merged and. lost though they are in 

a matrilineal tribe with a name now interpreted to mean aboriginal!