ofthe SAME TREE

lier centuries when the transpeninsular routes were heavily used by traders.
A 1644 Dutch reference mentions the seizure of Johor subjects on the Perak
River by Orang Laut. 59 The latter were obviously not under the ruler of Johor
but may have been serving Perak or another of the northern kingdoms. These
may have been Urak Lawoik, but there is no way of knowing. Both the Urak
Lawoik and the Moken would have seen the value of strengthening their
mutually beneficial exchange arrangement with the local rulers. One way that
this was done was through marriage. Ivanoff makes an intriguing comment
that among the Moken such a practice was an attempt to “imprison their
overlords in kinship relations.” 60 Whether the wording was intentional or not,
it suggests that the initiative came from the Moken. More specific information,
however, is simply unavailable in the sources, unlike the situation of the
Orang Laut in the southern half of the straits.
In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries there are numerous references
to raids and counter raids by Orang Laut serving the rulers of Jambi,
Palembang, or Johor. The Orang Laut serving Jambi were prominent in the
destruction of the Johor capital in 1673, while Johor’s Orang Laut played an
equally important part in the subsequent retaliation against Jambi. 61 The first
few decades of the eighteenth century were particularly tumultuous because
of the upheaval in Johor after 1699. Soon after the regicide, many of the
Orang Laut abandoned the new Bendahara ruler of Johor to serve Raja Kecil,
who claimed to be the son of the murdered ruler. According to the Tuhfat
al-Nafis, Raja Kecil later sought to make peace with the new Johor dynasty
by offering “to return Johor’s Sea People and those from Johor’s outlying territories
(memulangkan rakyat Johor dan teluk rantau Johor).” 62 In 1717 ten
boatloads of Orang Laut left Lingga to seek service in Jambi. 63 But not all the
Orang Laut had abandoned Johor, for there were groups who assisted Raja
Sulaiman in 1723 in the attempt to rescue his family from Raja Kecil. 64 Shifting
allegiances among the Orang Laut continued into the nineteenth century.
When the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824 created a British and Dutch sphere of
influence, some 270 boatloads of the suku Galang moved to Singapore from
the Dutch sphere so they could continue to offer allegiance to their lord, the
Temenggong of Johor. 65
The ability of the Orang Laut to transfer their loyalties because of perceived
mistreatment by their Malayu lord or because their best interests were
served by such moves made it imperative that the Malayu lord continue to
offer rewards and recognition to the Orang Laut. How such a relationship
was formed is described in early nineteenth-century Lingga. The head of an
Orang Laut group would approach an individual of means, such as an orang
kaya, and offer his services. If the orang kaya accepted the offer, he would then
fund the expedition and be promised two-thirds of the booty. The sultan was
The Orang Laut and the Malayu 189