Of Rajahs and Hornbills: A timeline of Brooke Sarawak
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Not the armed armed forces, but the rich and wealthy. The colony has grown from all the foreign investments into local oil, gutta-percha, and natural coal, but the growth was also done through the expropriation of native lands and the conscription of native labor (though there are many workers whom are contracted from the Philippines). To the colonial bosses, Sarawak's stand on native rights would be their worst nightmare, and the fall of Brunei and its oil fields confirmed their worst fears regarding Dayak participation, which led to all the rubber barons and timber magnates fleeing Sandakan when Sabah began to get invaded.
Almost all of the rich are fleeing to the Philippines, which, along with Spain, are neutral in the conflict. The colonial army and navy are hastily defending their escape route through the Sulu Sea, though a few groups are fleeing to defensible Papua, though that is also being eyed by Australia.
Sabah as a whole is going to be an... interesting front in the Great War. The Brookes are more adaptable to jungle warfare, yet their army and blue-water navy are technologically inferior to the colonial forces. In a more latent sense, there is also the problem of dealing with slighted local tribes who won't be so open to White Man rule, even if said figure is paternalistic. Italian colonialism will fall, but how it will fall shall confound just about everybody.
I wanted to test out a new perspective, but the result didn't gel well with the update I planned in mind. Might as well post it here instead of scrapping it. Albonio and Felipe will stay after the fall, though they are sorta correct that the new government will be too busy dealing with interior matters and won't be taking notice of them (or their pay) for a while.
Well, until India and Australia gets involved in the colonial spree, then all bets are off.
July 1905: The fall of Brunei and bombardment of the Far North
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Binatang Secondary School Examination (History)
Name: Aminah Bacha bt. Gumbak
Date: 21/06/2012
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Question 1: Essay
With the Great War breaking communications and naval reach from Europe, what was the response of the British colonies in the Indian Ocean?
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For the British Empire across the world, it was a test of how much could they maintain themselves without the guidance of the British Isles. New Zealand, southern Africa, India, Singapore, and Australia, all of them realized that it falls on them to help the Mother Country when it cannot help them, especially with the Royal Navy busy in Europe and the Atlantic.
A plan emerged after days of negotiations with all the governments.
A plan emerged after days of negotiations with all the governments.
1) Maintain communication between Wellington to Calcutta.
2) Open the sea routes of New Zealand and Australia to India through the East Indies.
3) Defeat enemy colonies in Indochina, Papua, and East Africa.
4) Link up with their Arabian bases and save the Royal Navy holdout at the Suez Canal.
5) Link up with the Cape Colony and defeat French Madagascar.
...
2) Open the sea routes of New Zealand and Australia to India through the East Indies.
3) Defeat enemy colonies in Indochina, Papua, and East Africa.
4) Link up with their Arabian bases and save the Royal Navy holdout at the Suez Canal.
5) Link up with the Cape Colony and defeat French Madagascar.
...
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Amal Sahak, Brunei’s Twentieh Century, (Saifuddin Press: 1999)
…The closest Brunei came to true annihilation was during the Great War.
For the past 59 years, demolishing the sultanate had been a matter of policy for Sarawak. To the Brookes and their cohorts, it was a surety that great swathes of the Bornean Empire were carved up and ceded to the kingdom as a sign of their rise. The sultans weren’t managing piracy and headhunting well, so why not cede the burden to a family who are more competent? Now, with the Great Powers of Europe at each other’s throats, Rajah Charles saw a chance to complete what his predecessor began. Through piggybacking on the War and Great Britain’s conflict with Italy, the Kingdom of Sarawak could now achieve its final form: through the total swallowing of Bandar Brunei. The potential obtainment of the lucrative Seria oilfields was another good incentive to wage a new campaign.
And it was thus that the Sarawakian ruler signed the war declaration on July the 17th, officially plunging his exotic kingdom – with all its tattooed warriors, sea traders, and traditional mores – into the catastrophe of the Great War, and sending the administration of Bandar Brunei in a panic. Even with their inferior methods of war, a belligerent Sarawak could give the now profitable protectorate a bashing for the ages, especially considering their sultanate’s exposure to the South China Sea and the formidable allied Royal Navy contingent docked at Singapore. The later announcement that the British would join Sarawak in combating Italian Borneo made the situation direr.
The effect was immediate. Upon the declaration’s arrival, the city’s Resident ordered whatever gunboats anchored nearby to protect the petroleum-rich Seria estuary while the Bruneian monarchy sprang their own machinations behind the Residency’s back. For all that Brunei clamoured for a protector against Brooke expansionism, they have chosen a rather dubious knight. For over two decades, Italy offered invaluable protection and supported the royal court through generous stipends, but it also came at the partial loss of temporal power and authoritative decision-making even at the city level, leaving the monarchy with only religious and cultural prerogatives. Simply put, the sultan and local nobility became clawless prisoners in gilded cages.
For Sultan Aqmaddin, it was a bargain he enormously regretted. His sons were as equally opinionated and the dawn of the 20th century saw numerous plans discussed behind closed doors for a new protector for Brunei, preferably the Ottoman Empire [1]. The reach of Kostantiniyye was furthest at the Malacca Straits, but the years leading to the Great War saw the crafting of a secret plan that entailed an overturn of the Italian Residency and inviting the Porte’s gunships to take control in a risky gamble of fait accompli. When news came of the Italo-Balkan alliance declaring war on the Ottomans in 1905, a group of nobles embarked to Aceh and Riau-Lingga to carry out the plan, requesting aid and protection if possible and some measure of weaponry if not. [2]
However, the Bruneian monarchy was also caught flat-footed by Sarawak’s declaration and found themselves paralysed with indecision as talks were still inconclusive in Kutaraja and Penyengat Inderasakti. There was also fear of the palace’s telegraphy system being under surveillance, which negated any measure of quick contact with the outside world. Three stressful days passed with barely a word, until Sarawak finally forced the royals’ hands. On the night of July 20th, the oil town of Seria fell to a multi-pronged attack from both Sarawak and the Royal Navy. Despite heavy resistance, the fleet of Italian gunships protecting the estuary sank under the shots of the allied forces while the coastal Seria Fort buckled under an unexpected riverine attack of Dayaks bearing Maxim guns and Enfield rifles. The following morning saw news of more coastal settlements falling, and the afternoon was marked with a new missive from Charles Brooke: Surrender, or perish.
With almost all local gunboats now smouldering in Seria, the interventionist faction – led by the presumptive heir Pengiran Muda Besar [3] – finally took the initiative. At 10:30 p.m., the palace guards rebelled and slew the colonial guard, taking off with rifles and stashes of bullets. By midnight, the city was aroused with calls by palace-backed imams to overpower Italian high officials, whom were preparing to leave the city for Sandakan. Confusion reigned throughout the early hours of the morning, but the dawn of July 22nd saw the Italian Resident and his colonial guard fleeing Bandar Brunei ahead of a local armed mob, leaving stores of rifles and bullets behind. The nearby garrison island of Labuan tried to aid the escapees but was blocked by the arrival of the Anglo-Sarawakian fleet, whom blockaded and pummelled the base into surrendering the next day. As for the Resident, he was fished out of Brunei Bay and became the first high-profile prisoner of war in Borneo.
It was here that the situation became the most uncertain. Factions of the palace court wanted to fight the British and the Brooke family, but both Sultan Aqmaddin and Pengiran Muda Besar retorted how doing so would only ensure Brunei’s complete extinction. In the end, it was decided for a delegation to meet with the belligerents under flag of truce, which was met with surprise from the allied fleet, especially Rajah Charles. The city uprising formed an unexpected snarl to his annexation plans as the British commanders preferred dealing somewhat halfway with the monarchy, seeing them as useful allies in the colonial front. Unsurprisingly, the Rajah became intransigent as he favoured Brunei to capitulate with his son Clayton Brooke noting how his father’s relations with the commanders became strained as the hours went by.
As night fell, the three sides were at an impasse. But while the parties at Brunei haggled, an event at the far north began to play its turn…
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Off the coast of Bandar Charles, Kingdom of Sarawak, 23 July 1905
No one noticed the Victor Emmanuel. Not till it was too late.Off the coast of Bandar Charles, Kingdom of Sarawak, 23 July 1905
All night, the cruiser slowly slinked into the waters off Bandar Charles. Keeping silent, the gunship rounded the outcrop that was Gaya Island and coasted between the reefs protecting the town, evading the patrol boats that kept watch along the coast.
Then, it fired.
Anchored off the docks was the Ghita. A shallow-bottomed river gunboat purchased from India, she bobbed for only four minutes.
Not far-off from her was the Badruddin. Modern, sleek, and freshly brought in from Glasgow, she was amongst the new line of ocean screw steamers invested by Kuching. But like the Bruneian noble that gave the name, she burned and drowned fleeing the firing line.
Then, the Emmanuel turned landward. With Sarawak now in the war, Bandar Charles’ infrastructure is now a threat to Sandakan’s existence. Even if the docks couldn’t be upgraded to handle the new hulks of the Royal Navy, the port facilities and warehouses ensured a constant resupply for any river gunboats travelling from the south. For Eastern Sabah and the Kingdom of Italy, the harbour must be destroyed.
The order was given. Blast upon blast rocked the wee hours of the morning as the docks of the port town splintered and burst. Shophouses along the waterfront rattled and shook as their occupants were thrown out from their deepest sleep. Warehouses collapsed. Burning shells rained into the harbour. Boats and barges buckled and heaved, sinking where they moored as their hulls were ripped apart.
Then, something struck the Emmanuel.
It was a tiny artillery shell, and it made barely a dent on the hull, but the ship turned. Moored quite a ways off was… a sailboat!? No, a barque. All wooden planks and corded rope, her iron-plated hull glistened in the dim light. Her three masts and gun turrets soared into the early morning sky like telegraphic poles. A soaring tribute to a bygone era of sail. Despite her age of 48 years, and despite being outmoded and outclassed in every way, the Rajah of Sarawak was broadsiding the belligerent. Booms were heard, and another round of cannon and artillery shot struck across the Emmanuel’s side.
The cruiser’s answer was brutal.
Ten minutes later, the Victor Emmanuel left Bandar Charles. The waters below entombed the river gunboat and the two blue-water vessels she fought.
The war for Sabah has begun.
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Notes:
Remember what I said about the last instalment not gelling well with the update? The Victor Emmanuel was why. On another note, this will be my last presence on the site for a week as I’m leaving for the Hari Raya break (or Eid to all you non-Malays) and won’t be back until next Wednesday, so consider this a celebratory update for the festive season!
1.) This wasn’t as far-fetched as one might think. 19th-century Brunei always had a candle to the Ottomans IOTL and Sultan Aqmaddin even sent a letter to the Porte in 1903 (or more specifically, to Sultan Abdul Hamid himself) to request aid against Sarawakian machinations. ITTL, the Ottoman pull would be even stronger due to the empire’s protection of Aceh and diplomatic presence in both Johor and Riau-Lingga, and the Porte’s interventionism in northern Sumatra would not be taken lightly.
2.) See post #1201 to see a snapshot of such talks.
3.) Also known as Omar Ali Saifuddin IV, who got lucky ITTL and didn’t die of cholera before his father.
Looks like the Italians have just shown they they will not be expelled from the region easily in the most forceful way imaginable. One does have to admire the Rajah of Sarawak's doomed but brave effort though.
Oh, and Selamat Hari Raya!
Oh, and Selamat Hari Raya!
She died with honour and pride intact. Certainly a better fate for an outmoded warship than the breakers. The name will be used again for a more deadly vessel, probably during this very war if I were to make a bet. Perhaps one which will have the opportunity to avenge her namesake?
It's Bintangor's old name. You'll see a lot of Sarawak's town old name popping up, such as Simanggang(Sri Aman), Maling/Sibau(Sibu), and Hosetown(Marudi).
So Italian Brunei collapsed. But the Sultan seems to have salvaged something, and got some revenge on Italy's heavy-handed approach in his sultanate in the bargain.
My guess for Brunei is that the Sultan will end up a protectorate of Britain. The British want to wrap up Borneo as quickly as possible so cutting a deal to bring the Sultan onboard will appeal to them. Since Sarawak has contributed much to the war effort and Brunei was an enemy the Sultan will likely lose land to the Rajah, maybe even reduce Brunei to OTL borders, but Charles will not get his wish to remove the sultan from play.
I see this happening because the Empire still has Italy to deal with in Sabah and there is the war on New Guinea. But they will not want to unduly offend the Rajah still needing him for Sabah.
Meanwhile Italy has lost round one on Borneo, but it is far from out of the game. And Sarawak pays the price for a dated navy, even with a valiant effort put forth.
My guess for Brunei is that the Sultan will end up a protectorate of Britain. The British want to wrap up Borneo as quickly as possible so cutting a deal to bring the Sultan onboard will appeal to them. Since Sarawak has contributed much to the war effort and Brunei was an enemy the Sultan will likely lose land to the Rajah, maybe even reduce Brunei to OTL borders, but Charles will not get his wish to remove the sultan from play.
I see this happening because the Empire still has Italy to deal with in Sabah and there is the war on New Guinea. But they will not want to unduly offend the Rajah still needing him for Sabah.
Meanwhile Italy has lost round one on Borneo, but it is far from out of the game. And Sarawak pays the price for a dated navy, even with a valiant effort put forth.
The Kind of thing one makes movies about. Sleep soundly brave Sarawakians, White, Swarthy, Christian, Muslim, you all sleep together in the Rajah of Sarawak
.First off, thanks for the Hari Raya greetings everyone! I’m back from my kampung sojurn (which took longer than expected due to a wedding and the passing of an uncle) and it’s been nice to be reminded of the things that provided the inspiration for this tale.
That’s the million-pitis question, isn’t it? Leaving aside logistics, whatever Ottoman forces stationed in the Malacca Straits will be much more concerned with Russian Phuket and the defence of resource-rich Aceh to care for the sultanate. The fact that Brunei is surrounded by a British-backed Sarawak is another disincentive for any intervention. However, the presence of rich oilfields on the coast is a big draw, and the Bruneian court is open to whatever options available so long as it bears the stamp of the Great Turk; they really want the Ottomans to come.
With Sabah’s large coal deposits, the petroleum fields of Seria, plus strategic access to the South China and the Sulu Seas, the Italians have good reason to try and fight their neighbour. And to be fair, Sarawak’s poor oceanic navy does give off a sense of them being unprepared for an industrial war.
Honour and duty meant that the bombardment of Bandar Charles shouldn’t go unchecked, and there’s a (slim) chance for the R.o.S to inflict some damage to the Emmanuel, which is why the warship’s sailors sought to fight instead of simply running away. Given the importance of the town and the Sarawakian navy’s inclusion of Malays and Dayaks to crew their boats, the subsequent casualties will bring home the Great War to Sarawakians in a way that’s deeply close and personal. Think of the OTL raid on Scarborough and the effect it had on British public opinion, and you won’t be too far-off on how Sarawakians will be affected.
As for a replacement, the dockyards of the British Isles are already working overtime building new warships that could serve the Atlantic theatre, so any orders from Sarawak are going to wait a while. With that said, the Victor Emmanuel has made itself the boogeyman of Kuching, and avenging the losses of the north will sound pretty enticing to both government and the educated public. Besides that… Does anyone know anything about Indian, Canadian or Australian shipbuilding?
Don’t forget Bandar Charles (Kota Kinabalu) and Tempasok (Kota Belud)!
Town names across Nusantara are going to be altered due to many reasons, chief of which is the different course of colonialism and nation-building that’s taking place ITTL. But hey, that means local jokes will be more fun ITTL: – “I hail from the Ghost Pool and I wish to give my hand to the girl of Flies!”
Both sides have certain advantages that cancel out the other; Italy’s industrial capacity vs. Sarawak’s adaptiveness in jungle warfare. A dual victory – with the Brookes and British overrunning Sabah and Papua while Rome rumbles through Austria and the Balkans – may not be that impossible, but it would mean abandoning the hundreds if not thousands of Italians that have already settled in the overseas colonies, and that is unacceptable.
It’s less of a revenge and more of a change of protectors, but the Bruneian monarchy is nonetheless pleased to see the Orang Itali scrambling away with their tails between their legs.
Brunei’s position is going to be really contentious. A British protectorate with expanded powers for the royal court is the monarchy’s best bet, but they also want the polity to stop being carved up after so many times, which will go against the wishes of Rajah Charles and the regional oil barons. If the British do award Sarawak for their involvement, then the town of Seria and even the entire Belait district are high on the list of ‘places to be annexed’, but doing so could sink the goodwill between Brunei and the British. In any case, the final map of the region is still in flux, and there is still a few turns for the tale of Brunei in the Great War.
As for the surrounding region, New Guinea is another giant problem, but so is French Indochina. And as for the Bruneian royals themselves, they really really want the Ottomans to come.
Rome and Sandakan may not have the adaptiveness and experience in jungle warfare that Sarawak has, but their oceanic navy trumps the kingdom's many times over and they could raise hell with disrupting supplies across the South China Sea with regular stops in Indochina, if nothing else.
That’s the million-pitis question, isn’t it? Leaving aside logistics, whatever Ottoman forces stationed in the Malacca Straits will be much more concerned with Russian Phuket and the defence of resource-rich Aceh to care for the sultanate. The fact that Brunei is surrounded by a British-backed Sarawak is another disincentive for any intervention. However, the presence of rich oilfields on the coast is a big draw, and the Bruneian court is open to whatever options available so long as it bears the stamp of the Great Turk; they really want the Ottomans to come.
With Sabah’s large coal deposits, the petroleum fields of Seria, plus strategic access to the South China and the Sulu Seas, the Italians have good reason to try and fight their neighbour. And to be fair, Sarawak’s poor oceanic navy does give off a sense of them being unprepared for an industrial war.
The Kind of thing one makes movies about. Sleep soundly brave Sarawakians, White, Swarthy, Christian, Muslim, you all sleep together in the Rajah of Sarawak
Honour and duty meant that the bombardment of Bandar Charles shouldn’t go unchecked, and there’s a (slim) chance for the R.o.S to inflict some damage to the Emmanuel, which is why the warship’s sailors sought to fight instead of simply running away. Given the importance of the town and the Sarawakian navy’s inclusion of Malays and Dayaks to crew their boats, the subsequent casualties will bring home the Great War to Sarawakians in a way that’s deeply close and personal. Think of the OTL raid on Scarborough and the effect it had on British public opinion, and you won’t be too far-off on how Sarawakians will be affected.
As for a replacement, the dockyards of the British Isles are already working overtime building new warships that could serve the Atlantic theatre, so any orders from Sarawak are going to wait a while. With that said, the Victor Emmanuel has made itself the boogeyman of Kuching, and avenging the losses of the north will sound pretty enticing to both government and the educated public. Besides that… Does anyone know anything about Indian, Canadian or Australian shipbuilding?
Don’t forget Bandar Charles (Kota Kinabalu) and Tempasok (Kota Belud)!
Town names across Nusantara are going to be altered due to many reasons, chief of which is the different course of colonialism and nation-building that’s taking place ITTL. But hey, that means local jokes will be more fun ITTL: – “I hail from the Ghost Pool and I wish to give my hand to the girl of Flies!”
Both sides have certain advantages that cancel out the other; Italy’s industrial capacity vs. Sarawak’s adaptiveness in jungle warfare. A dual victory – with the Brookes and British overrunning Sabah and Papua while Rome rumbles through Austria and the Balkans – may not be that impossible, but it would mean abandoning the hundreds if not thousands of Italians that have already settled in the overseas colonies, and that is unacceptable.
It’s less of a revenge and more of a change of protectors, but the Bruneian monarchy is nonetheless pleased to see the Orang Itali scrambling away with their tails between their legs.
Brunei’s position is going to be really contentious. A British protectorate with expanded powers for the royal court is the monarchy’s best bet, but they also want the polity to stop being carved up after so many times, which will go against the wishes of Rajah Charles and the regional oil barons. If the British do award Sarawak for their involvement, then the town of Seria and even the entire Belait district are high on the list of ‘places to be annexed’, but doing so could sink the goodwill between Brunei and the British. In any case, the final map of the region is still in flux, and there is still a few turns for the tale of Brunei in the Great War.
As for the surrounding region, New Guinea is another giant problem, but so is French Indochina. And as for the Bruneian royals themselves, they really really want the Ottomans to come.
Rome and Sandakan may not have the adaptiveness and experience in jungle warfare that Sarawak has, but their oceanic navy trumps the kingdom's many times over and they could raise hell with disrupting supplies across the South China Sea with regular stops in Indochina, if nothing else.
*Puts on General knowledge hat*
Dunno bout India or NZ, but Australia had the Cockatoo Island shipyards in Sydney Harbour, could produce up to cruisers if I recall.
Oooh, now that's something. Given the earlier date of the Great War, the shipyards won't have the experience of producing their own cruisers, but I can see the Brookes ordering some gunboats or even a few destroyers from them once they get to the swing of things. Now if only the building times could be shortened, but oh well.
Any chance Siam will get in on the action? OTL at this point they had lost Laos to the French little more than a decade ago and the French were still occupying part of their territory by this point I think. So might the Reform King decide to throw in with the British to get revenge on the French, his patrimony back, and send a message to the colonizers that Siam is not theirs to carve up?
Siam is technically aligned with the Russians, so they might go for either British Burma/Malaya or French Laos/Cambodia depending upon the situation around them.
The problem with going to war with Britain is India and its army nearby. The British Empire seems better poised to strike out in Asia compared to France and Italy being on the defensive.
That being said, the Russian alliance does complicate things.
I sometimes forget that there are actual locals who can understand the local context on their own. Correct!
Siam is aligned with Russia as the Romanovs support the kingdom's territorial integrity in exchange for Phuket as a naval station, but the two aren't allies. The kingdom has control over the previously French-held border provinces of Chantaburi and Trat, thanks to said Russian alignment, but they had to lose northwestern Cambodia to the French in return.
For the Siamese government, the Great War is forcing them to think hard. There are voices in King Chulalongkorn's court whom are clamouring for involvement with either the British or French, if only to regain Malaya, Cambodia and/or Laos as a reward. On the other hand, their previous affairs with the Great Bear is placing them in high suspicion from the British, and any intervention for Russian Phuket or against Malaya will bring down the wrath of British India on their heads. Besides that, a British victory might open the door to a pink-tinged Indochina instead of a blue one, which is the last thing Bangkok wants.
Similarly, any war with the French in Indochina has the chance to turn really ugly, and in any case, the French embassador ( with some wrangling by the Russian embassy ) have... suggested... that they might relinquish some border areas if the court could cause a ruckus elsewhere. For now, king Chulalongkorn is staying informed, hoping the regional situation would change in his favor.
In update news, I have been travelling with my family across Malaysia for more weddings and reunions, so new installments are going to be pushed back until at least mid-July. If there are any questions or discussions regarding this story, don't be afraid to ask!
mini-update: the disquiet of Kudat
Kudat, Kingdom of Sarawak, 31 July 1905
Something did not feel right.
No matter how much Carlo Amari tried to shake it off, there remained a sense that something was off in this place. The damage he inflicted on the Government House of Kudat was evident, but the disquiet ran deeper than what he or his company did to the building just thirty minutes hence.
“Find someone to secure the perimeter!” he heard his superior’s voice, and before he knew it, Carlo and a few others were drafted into patrolling the port town’s outskirts. As he walked along the earthen paths that ran the landward edge of Kudat, the disquiet intensified, and the soldier couldn’t shake off the feeling of being watched.
Still, he couldn’t help but gaze at the sights before him. Compared with stately, organized Sandakan, Kudat looked as if someone scattered a crop of buildings around a hilly strip before the sea. The warehouses were smaller and the wooden homes stood rather higgledy-piggledy, as did the dirt roads. The people, too, are different: faces and bodies that hail from China to Malaya, with the local natives outnumbering them all by three to one. None of them smiled. Many of them seemed curious. A few (mostly the natives) looked hostile.
“What do you think? Why on earth do they think this place’s worth a damn to us?” barked his partner, Lorenzo. “This town stinks, and none of the locals even look that grateful.”
“If you don’t like it, why don’t you just go home?” he asked back. Then it hit him.
I am a migrant from the fields of Venezia. What am I doing here?
Now, Carlo understood his anxiousness. It is one thing to fight away from home, but another if your home is right close to your enemies. Enemies who know more about the land than you.
Lorenzo grumbled. “I am going home, after my time here is done. After this, I’ll never set foot in places this hot again. I may even settle far from Milan once this war’s done with. I hear Argentina’s good. What about you?”
“I… I live here. I have a farm near Sandakan.”
“Wait, what? How on earth do you survive down here? Did your wheat turn into rice the moment you plant them? I bet palm toddy’s the only thing that grows well in this heat...”
Carlo tuned out the man’s words, but what he said stung deep. It wasn’t easy, convincing his parents that his fortune is better served in Borneo rather than the Americas. That Sabah had more potential for a migrant than Canada or Uruguay. That planting cash crops was worth more than working as a labourer or in an assembly line.
Now, more than ever, he wondered if he did the right thing.
And with that, he never saw the ambush.
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Notes:
1) In OTL, the settlement of Kudat was originally the capital of British North Borneo and was thus built in an organized manner, at least until the authorities moved to Sandakan in 1883. In this timeline, the Italian ownership of Eastern Sabah and the Kingdom of Sarawak's focus on Bandar Charles has relegated the town to an informal second-tier status.
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