William Pryer

William Pryer (1839–1899) was the first Resident of the East Coast of North Borneo and the founder of Sandakan, the port town that would become the principal settlement of the region. Landed at Sandakan Bay on 11 February 1878 with a staff of two, he established British authority in the area through personal energy, sympathetic engagement with indigenous communities, and the judicious use of force when necessary, laying the foundations of the British North Borneo Company’s presence on the east coast during its most precarious early years [1, pp. 35].

Early Establishment and Consolidation of Authority

Pryer arrived in the wake of Baron von Overbeck and Alfred Dent, who had concluded cession treaties with the Sultans of Brunei and Sulu in late 1877. Overbeck’s instructions were explicit: cultivate friendly relations, introduce changes only gradually, invite district chiefs to sit on the bench in judicial matters, and ensure that no land was purchased from natives except through the Resident [1, pp. 35–36]. Pryer was deposited at “Kampong German,” a former gun-running base far up Sandakan Harbour, and immediately set about investigating his Residency, exploring the Segaliud River, collecting customs dues, and conversing with chiefs, headmen, and traders [1, p. 36].

Within his first month he had won the support of the Bajau tribe in the bay, the Sulus, and the communities up the Segaliud [1, p. 36]. His authority was tested in April 1878 when he compelled Nakoda Ahung, a trader who had murdered two Chinese creditors, to submit to the settlement of a deceased man’s estate by a show of armed force; Ahung received him with “politeness” and the matter was resolved without bloodshed [1, pp. 38–39]. A more serious challenge came in September 1878 when the Spanish warship Eldorado entered the harbour demanding the hoisting of the Spanish flag. Pryer gathered the bay’s chiefs, displayed armed men, and invited the Spanish officers to dine; the Spaniards withdrew to Manila for reinforcements that never came, and Dent’s protest in London helped secure the Royal Charter [1, pp. 41–42].

Founding of Sandakan and Economic Development

Pryer’s original village was destroyed by fire on 15 June 1879, with losses including $3,000 worth of rattans belonging to Toongal and $1,000 to Hadji Basoh [1, p. 42]. He relocated to Booly Sim Sim at the harbour mouth, naming the new site “Elopura,” which was soon abandoned in favour of the name Sandakan [1, pp. 42]. The settlement grew rapidly: by 1891 its population had reached 6,350 [1, p. 48]. Trade in jungle produce—rattans, damar, birds’ nests, and camphor—flowed down the rivers, and in 1879 Qui Hing contracted with the Orang Seemoonals to purchase 500 planks for export, marking the beginning of the North Borneo timber trade [1, p. 43].

Pryer also explored the potential of the Segama River gold deposits, confirmed by an official report in 1886, but the alluvial deposits were exhausted by September 1887 and no reef was ever found [1, p. 47]. He was appointed Resident of the Gold Field District but the boom collapsed almost immediately [1, p. 47].

Later Career and Death

With the arrival of Governor W. L. Treacher at Kudat in 1882, Pryer’s administrative role diminished. He turned to agriculture, planting coconuts, coffee, areca nut, sago, and cocoa on Pulo Buy island and mainland estates near Sandakan [1, pp. 45]. He returned to England and formed the British North Borneo Development Corporation, opening estates at the Byte and the Kabeli river where he planted hemp, sugar-cane, nutmegs, cotton, gambier, and indiarubber [1, p. 48]. None of these crops survived the turn of the century, though hemp was later revived [1, p. 49].

Pryer’s absence from Sandakan in 1895 proved consequential: the leader Mahomed (Mat) Salleh arrived seeking a bichara (negotiation) with him, but was refused audience and subsequently declared an outlaw, setting in train a series of events that disrupted much of the territory [1, p. 49]. Suffering from severe pain, Pryer decided to return to England in late 1898 and died at sea on 7 or 8 January 1899, at the age of sixty, and was buried at Suez [1, p. 49].

Research and Documentation

Tregonning’s 1954 article in the Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society remains the principal biographical study of Pryer. It draws heavily on Pryer’s own preserved diary and the British North Borneo Company’s Papers, transferred to the Colonial Office upon the Company’s liquidation after the Second World War [1, p. 35, n.1]. Tregonning was compiling a broader history of the Chartered Company (1881–1941) at the time of writing, and this article served as a biographical precursor to that larger work [1, p. 35, n.1]. He also noted the intention to publish the diary of Pryer’s wife, Mrs. Ada Pryer, in a future issue of the Journal [1, p. 48, n.25]. The article’s value lies in its extensive use of primary diary extracts, which convey the texture of daily administration and the personal qualities that enabled one man to establish order in a remote and volatile frontier.

MBRAS Sources

K.G. Tregonning (1954). William Pryer, the founder of Sandakan. JMBRAS 27: 35–50

References

K.G. Tregonning (1954). William Pryer, the founder of Sandakan JMBRAS 27(1): 35–50.