An English reprint of the commission appointing Overbeck Datu Bandahara and Raja of Sandakan, issued alongside the territorial transaction.
An appointment, distinct from the territorial grant
Overbeck needed authority to govern as well as rights over territory. The Sultan’s commission supplied an office and specified its powers. Reading it beside the grant explains why the Sulu case distinguishes delegated government from the underlying territorial title.
Why this record matters
The commission gives Overbeck governmental powers derived from the Sultan and commands obedience from those owing the Sultan allegiance.
Delegation in the Sultan’s own words
“which we hereby delegate to him of our own free and sovereign will”
Commission of 22 January 1878 · English reprint in Saleeby, The History of Sulu (1908), p. 226.
Read the passage in context ↗Reading the evidence
The commission names territories in North Borneo, invests Overbeck with governmental powers and calls on those owing allegiance to the Sultan to recognize his authority. Saleeby reproduces its English text on pp. 225–226.
Sources & further reading
Bureau of Printing, Manila · Project Gutenberg
Najeeb M. Saleeby, The History of Sulu (Manila: Bureau of Printing, 1908), royal genealogies and pp. 161–164, 225–226. Project Gutenberg, ebook 41771.