Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
and rice cooked under the fire in bamboos or wood, which lasts longer
than that cooked in pots. We could well call that land the Land of
Promise, because before finding it we suffered very great hunger, so
that many times we were ready perforce to abandon our ships and go
ashore that we might not starve to death
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Amidst such plenty and feôted by the smiling, naked islanders,
many of the voyagers must have felt, like Tennyson's Lotos Eaters:
Surely, surely, slumber is more sweet than toil,
the shore Than labour in the deep mid-ocean, wind and wave and oar;
O rest ye, brother mariners, we will not wander more.
Yet there could be no tarrying. They sailed on to Brunei and a
welcome that set their eyes wide with its magnificence and gener-
osity. This ancient sultanate, Islamised in the previous century, was
at the height of its prosperity and power. By conquest and com-
merce Sultan Bulkiah and his predecessors had extended their influ-
ence over most of Borneo and many islands of Indonesia, Malaysia
and the Philippines. The travellers had heard of Bulkiah's legendary
wealth but they were quite unprepared for the reality. Royal barges
ornamented with gold came out to meet them, bearing gifts. Their
envoys were conveyed on richly caparisoned elephants to the chief
ministers' residence, where they feasted off plates of gold and fine
porcelain. When the captains were summoned to the sultan's palace
they found themselves surrounded by a gaudy display of luxury such
as any European monarch might envy. The great audience hall was
hung with silk and decorated with ornaments of precious metal set
with gems. Bulkiah, himself, could only be glimpsed in an adjoining
room screened by a scarlet curtain and the visitors' messages had
to be conveyed through a hierarchy of intermediaries. For the first
time the Europeans were in the presence of a 'savage' ruler who ri-
