![]() This effectively broke the Dutch monopoly on trade throughout the region and meant that British and East India Company ships could at least pass through Dutch waters without fear of being attacked by the Dutch, even if they still had to worry about pirates. Although the war was generally disastrous for the British, in the case of Asia, the Royal Navy was able to seize Ceylon and its fine naval base at Trincomalee and was able to open Indonesian waters for trade of all nations. Herbert was recalled.īritish interest throughout the Dutch Indies returned remarkably quickly thanks to the American War of Independence where the Dutch had sided with the French, Spanish and American Patriots. Herbert argued that Labuan itself might make a more appropriate base of operations but by this time the Company back in London had lost faith in Herbert and that they had already lost enough money in their investment. The British officials barely escaped to the island of Labuan whilst their factory was utterly looted and destroyed. Therefore, the Sulus and Pirates combined to attack the factory in 1775. When he tried to demand goods for payments already made, he offended Sulu traders whilst also earning the antipathy of pirates who were suspicious of a European base in the midst of their area of operations. Herbert was not a good choice and offered too generous terms of credit at first whilst siphoning off company funds for his own gain. A small flotilla was sent there in 1773 under the command of John Herbert. When it eventually emerged in 1770 the plan was to set up a factory at Balimbangan Island at the entrance of Marudu Bay on the Northern tip of Borneo. Therefore, Dalrymple's Borneo scheme returned to the fore. Unfortunately for the EIC, any hopes they had of seizing the Philippines as an EIC base of operations was scuppered by the ending of the war back in Europe before news of the seizure of Manila could be included in the peace negotiations. Concurrent with these developments, the EIC sent out a separate expedition against the Spanish colony of the nearby Phillippines at the tail end of the Seven Years War and managed to seize Manila itself in 1763. It was Dalrymple who was able to come to terms with the Sultan of Sulu in 1761 which would give the EIC a factory in his territory along the Northern coast of Borneo to facilitate trade between the Sultan of Sulu, the EIC and China. ![]() In 1759 William Dalrymple lobbied his company for permission to explore and make new charts around the China Seas. ![]() With its success in India, the East India Company was feeling strong enough to challenge the Dutch stranglehold over the spice trade once more. Tentative attempts to re-establish their colonies in Soekadana from 1693 to 1694 and again in Bandjermasin from 1700 - 1707 (and once more from 1737 - 1747) still highlighted Dutch primacy and hostility to rival activity in the region. The English were successfully out-manouevered from the region after a massacre of their traders further South in Amboina which deterred English activity in the area for most of the rest of the century. The English East India Company had half-heartedly attempted to establish trading bases in South-East Borneo at Soekadana and at Bandjermasin as early as 1609 but both of these projects had been abandoned by 1612 largely due to Dutch hostility and perceived opportunities elsewhere. ![]() The Dutch did all in their power to prevent any rival ships in any form from carrying legitimate cargoes and so the alternative was either not to trade or turn to piracy. It should be said though that it was Dutch mercantalist and monopolist policies that contributed to the presence of much of the pirate activity in the first place. The Dutch had long since seized control of much of the valuable spice trade throughout South East Asia as a whole, but even they gave Northern Borneo a wide berth due to the hostile tribes and easier pickings elsewhere. It was generally thought of an as an area to avoid. Sarawak, on the northern coast of the huge island of Borneo, had become synonymous with piracy, slavery and wild head hunters (known as Dyaks) with its critical location alongside the busy South China Sea routes. Pirates, Dyaks and Initial British Contacts
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