On that day he became Rajah of Sarawak, though a feudatory Rajah, a position which he was not content to hold for long, as such a position would have proved untenable.
Sarawak was then of very limited extent; it was a little governorship extending from Cape Datu to the mouth of the Sadong, and included, besides smaller streams, the Lundu, Sarawak, and Samarahan rivers; and this district, about 3000 square miles in area, is, with the inclusion of the Sadong river, now known as Sarawak Proper. In the days of Hasim Sarawak was not a raj, but a province under a governor. Hasim was not actually the Rajah of Sarawak, though his high birth gave him the right to the courtesy title of Rajah. His real title was the Pangiran Muda;[93] Muda is inseparable from the title, and was not a part of his name. Pangiran Muda, the heir to the throne, is the correct Bruni title. Rajah Muda (young Rajah) also means heir-apparent.
The districts from Sarawak up to Bintulu, and beyond, formed separate provinces, and were under separate governors, but Hasim's high rank naturally gave him some influence over these officials. Sadong was governed by Sherip Sahap, his subjects being Land-Dayaks; his power, however, extended to the head of that river. Sherip Japar of Lingga, Sherip Mular of Sekrang, and Sherip Masahor of Serikei, held nominal authority only over the main population of their respective districts occupied by the Sea-Dayaks, for these people acknowledged no government, and lived in independence even in the vicinity of the Malays. Such, moreover, was the case with the Saribas, which was nominally governed by Malay chiefs. The districts of Muka, Oya, and Bintulu were under Bruni pangirans, but, having only Melanaus to govern, their control was complete. In the Baram, a river inhabited by warlike Kayans and Kenyahs, the Malays, nominal rulers and traders, lived on sufferance alone, and so it was in the Sea-Dayak countries of the Batang Lupar, Saribas, and Rejang. Over the Malays, the Land-Dayaks, and the Melanaus, the Bruni Government had power—the Sea-Dayaks and Kayans scorned it. The sherips, as the title denotes, are of Arab origin, and they claim descent from the Prophet. They are half-breeds, and were dangerous men. Earl, in his _Eastern Seas_, 1837, says:—