 Conrad makes clear that the country, though officially ruled by the petty, melodramatic Rajah Tunku Allang, was effectively dominated by several groups of people prior to the arrival of Jim.These groups included a brigand group led by Sherif Ali in a stockade at the top of one hill, and a community of Bugis, led by their large, quiet, stately chief Doramin.While Conrad, a well-traveled individual who had led an adventurous seafaring life, intended the country to be a fictional place, the essential character of Patusan certainly has some basis in reality and in European perceptions of the East Indies around the turn of the 20th century.