to beget unstinting friendships and unsparing
enmities. Resolute, self-reliant, disposed
rather to knock down than avoid an obstacle,
intolerant of opposition, proud of heart, blunt
of speech, quick at friendship, quick at hate,
and honest, except in a  certain cant of plainness
which not a few men like to admire in
themselves, we judge Mr. Brooke to have
been; not only from his own records of the
work he did, but from the depositions of the
enemies he soon managed to raise about his
path.

By the beginning of June, eighteen hundred
and thirty-nine, Mr. Brooke's yacht had
reached Singapore. There, its owner remained
for about a month, recovering health, and
hospitably received by the inhabitants. At
Singapore he made up his mind to sail thence
on or about the first of July for Borneo
Proper, where the Rajah was reported favourable
to Europeans, and had lately behaved
well to a shipwrecked crew. He proposed
to look at the coast as minutely as he could,
and visit Saráwak, a river unknown and
unmarked on the charts, whence small vessels
brought antimony ore. There, he expected
to establish friendly acquaintance with the
Rajah, who would carry him on to the capital.
Failing Borneo Proper, he determined to go
on, as first proposed, to Malludu and return
by Celebes, thus making the entire round of
the island.

Disappointments connected with the
manning of the yacht delayed the start from
Singapore until the end of the third week
in July. In two days they then crossed over
to Panjong Api, discovering an island not
laid down, made further surveys and soundings
in correction of the charts, and reached
the entrance of the Saráwak river, on the
right bank of which rises the noble peak of
Santobong, clothed in the richest verdure.
Straggling trees mixed with cliffs, crown the
summit. Below, there is a white beach,
fringed with light tropical foliage. Crossing
the difficult entrance to the river, the
explorers anchored just inside, and despatched
a boat to the Rajah Muda Hassim, who, after
many inquiries from the boat people, sent a
pangeran of rank to welcome them. They
then dropped up the river, taking hasty
survey by the way, thirty-five miles through
deep water, now and then broken with
awkward rocks, to Kuchin or Cat Town, off which
they anchored on the morning following, and
fired twenty-one guns in honour of the Rajah.

Muda Hassim was afterwards described by
Sir H. Keppel, whose ship he visited, as a
wretched looking little man, but still with a
courteous and gentle manner about him that
prepossessed one in his favour. During that
visit to the man-of-war there was much
distress shown on the royal countenance, traced
afterwards to his having been informed that
he must not spit in the cabin. On his way
out, however, he squirted betel juice over the
deck as he held his hand out to the first
lieutenant, who called him a dirty beast,
which, not understanding, he smiled
graciously. Muda Hassim, little, middle-aged,
plain, but intelligent and partial to the
English, was uncle to the Sultan of Borneo, and
virtual governor of a considerable tract of
country. Second in rank on the Saráwak
river was the Rajah's brother, Muda Mahommed,
and third in rank was the Pangeran
Makota, governor of the place in the
Rajah's absence. Of the place itself this was
Mr. Brooke's earliest impression. It is newly
established, and likely to prove important in
a commercial point of view. "Antimony ore
is produced in any quantity—gold, tin,
rattans, bees' wax, and birds' nests are likely
procured from the surrounding country, and
at the place itself is a white clay, excellent
for pipes, and which the Dutch would
prize." After dark on the evening of
Mr. Brooke's arrival off the town, the
Pangeran Makota came to talk with him.
He said that the Dutch had written offers of
assistance in opening the mines, and had asked
leave to trade; that he feared to refuse, but
did not like the Dutch, and had not
answered them. He did not wish to act without
the Rajah's authority and responsibility.
Would Mr. Brooke speak about this to the
Rajah? He went on to say that three
English vessels from Singapore had already
taken away antimony ore, and asked
whether Mr. Brooke could answer for the coming
of a sufficient number of English vessels to
take the produce of the country when its
resources were developed? Certainly, replied
Mr. Brooke, if they are safe from outrage:
where there is profitable trade, there need
not be a lack of English ships. Makota
finally asked, whether the trade with Borneo
would be a consideration that would induce
England to enter into a defensive alliance
with them, and protect them in case of
attack from the Dutch. Mr. Brooke thought
that England would not interfere in the
concerns of a foreign power, and told Makota
that he had nothing to fear from Dutch
aggression while his state—the last independent
Malay state—resisted overtures of the
Dutch for a first footing on its soil. When
once they assisted in opening a country they
established claims on it, and were not easily
again got rid of.

On the day following the Royalist had leave
to go up the river to Samarahan. They found
it a noble river, navigable for fifty miles,
rolling over a rich alluvial land clothed with
forests and rice grounds, and broken with
granite mountains. Other rivers intersect it,
most of them equal to the Thames in width
and depth, save at their entrances, but at a
hundred miles or less inland, all of them
narrow streams. These rivers, to the
distance of thirty to seventy miles, and about
a hundred and forty miles of coast, were,
for the first time, surveyed. A friendly footing
was established with the Borneans, and