Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society/Volume 79/The Circumstances Attending the Murder in 1859, of the Botanist James Motley
The Circumstances attending the Murder in 1859, of the Botanist James Motley.
By I. H. Burkill.
In Britten and Boulger's useful Biographical Index of British and Irish Botanists (London, 1893) the following is the entry regarding James Motley, its abbreviations expanded for clearness:—
Motley, James, (fl. 1847-55). Murdered in Borneo by Mohammedan settlers. Of Aberafon, Glamorganshire, and afterwards of Labuan. Contrib.[utor] to Phyt.[ologist] ii. (1847) and Journ.[al of] Bot.[any], 1847 and [of] Carmar—then plants to Top.[ographical] Bot.[any], (551). Collected in Malaya, 1852-55. [Published "Contrib.[utions] to [the] Nat.[ural] Hist.[ory] of Labuan" (with L. L. Dillwyn), 1855. Plants [collected by him are] at Kew. [Vide] Linn.[ean Society's] "Trans.[actions], xxiii, 157; R.[oyal] S.[ociety's] C.[atalogue], iv, 495. [Commemorated in] Barclaya Motleyi, Hook. f.
The statement that he was murdered by Mohammedan settlers is derived from the Transactions of the Linnean Society, loc. cit., where Sir Joseph Hooker in dedicating to him the jungle water-lily, Barclaya Motleyi, states that the examination of it was almost the last botanical work that he did. The implication that the murder was done in 1855 arises from want of evidence as to the date. But the events which led up to his death are recorded in the Singapore Free Press for 1859; and as apparently there appears to be only one file of the paper existing, it seems desirable to recall them. The word "settlers" disappears from the story.
James Motley was a Civil Engineer, who about 1852 went to Labuan in connection with coal-mining there, and became later the Superintendent of the coal-mining operations of a private company upon a concession in the territory of the Sultan of Banjermassin. This concession was along the Sungei Banyu Irang at two or three days journey to the south of Banjermassin town. There he was in 1850. In the very commencement of that year sinister whispers of sedition brewing in Banjermassin reached the Dutch Government in Batavia; but so badly was the Government served by their Resident at the Sultan's court that they were told in answer to their immediate enquiries that it was nothing. It was in fact a court-intrigue to replace the ruler by his brother, and, in doing so, to overthrow Dutch authority by which the reigning Sultan was maintained. The plotters played upon religious fanaticism, producing for their purpose a man who claimed to have come from heaven, and instigated the Dyaks to rise. They rose on April 28th,[1] and attacked the mines at Pengaron which is on the east of Banjermassin, about as remote from it as the Sungei Banyu Irang is to the south. Though they were beaten off, they succeeded in arresting the messenger sent to Banjermassin to report, and killed him.
Three days later they attacked Motley's mines, killing Motley at a place called Bangkal,[2] and Motley's wife and three children at a place called Kalangan;[2] where also they murdered the rest of the company's stalf, their wives and children, all except a few infants. They murdered also about the same date in the same region a Dutch political officer and several missionaries. They all but got possession of the country, so that the fighting extended to Banjermassin itself, and it was not for two years that there was quiet again.