free permission was found for the trade with
Borneo of English vessels, while the Dutch
were excluded, and their correspondence on
the subject with the governor Makota came
into Mr. Brooke's possession. An unfortunate
rebellion prevented the explorers from
penetrating, so far as they wished, into the country;
but, Mr. Brooke, during the first visit,
had so little thought of establishing himself
at Saráwak, that he said, in a published
letter, written at the time, "I have thought
it right, when asked my opinion, to express
it to the native prince. As an English
gentleman, without interest or partiality, I have,
for his own safety, strongly recommended
him never to allow any government, or
any body of white men to settle in his
country."

Towards the middle of October, eighteen
hundred and thirty-nine, the Royalist left the
coast of Borneo, and returned to Singapore,
where Mr. Brooke was thanked by merchants
for the service he had done, and coldly
received by the governor, who discouraged the
blending of political doctrine with his exploration.
His ambition and self-confidence are
at once evident in his letters. "If I was
governor of the Straits," he says, "with power
to restrict the Dutch, I would spread the
British name and commerce through many
channels now shut or unknown. One thing I
regret not having tried to effect whilst at
home, and that is, getting a knighthood—a
civic knighthood." He desires it for no
meaner object than that increase of
consideration among colonists, which would give
greater influence and greater power to push
forward his patriotic schemes. From this
time forth he never drops the subject of the
knighthood until it is obtained.

In November eighteen hundred and thirty-
nine Mr. Brooke started from Singapore
upon his second cruise—spent four months
among the coral reefs of the deep Bay of
Boni at the south of Celebes, where he found
the natives bold, enterprising, hospitable, and
open-hearted,—spent six weeks in the interior,
and laid down four or five hundred miles of
coast line. After his return to Singapore, he
writes home in one of the private letters
published by his friends, " I am really
becoming a great man, dearest mother; the
world talks of me! The rulers of England
threaten to write to me! Newspapers call
me patriotic and adventurous! The
Geographical Society pays me compliments! Am I not
a great man? I wish I had fortune, and then
they should see that I deserve something. At
present, my sphere, though I am well content
with it, is very cramped. With more fortune,
I would come home, and return to this field
and finish it, and that would be a solid
monument of fame."

We dwell somewhat minutely upon these
first days, because we may find in them, better
than elsewhere, the key to Mr. Brooke's
subsequent career. The desire for money is
expressed often, and is blended, inconsistently
to all appearance, with expressions of
contempt for riches and appreciation of the
sweets of luxury. But a man who has no
sense of the luxury of indulgence can deserve
no credit for self-denial. In the words we
have just quoted, the adventurer wished for
more wealth, that he might spend it upon
what he regarded as a patriotic enterprise,
an enterprise upon which—to the wonderment
of those who have denounced him as
a sordid speculator—he has already spent the
fortune that he had.

In the middle of August, eighteen hundred
and forty, Mr. Brooke sailed from Singapore,
as he believed, for his last cruise to Borneo.
He proposed to get from Borneo to Manilla,
and thence probably to cross to China, where
the war, which he considered just and politic,
was one in which he "should greatly have
liked to have been dashingly employed, or
usefully."

"After this cruise to Borneo," he wrote,
"I shall feel that I have done fully as much
as I promised the public, except going to
New Guinea, which I abandon with reluctance,
but from prudential motives, for I do
not intend to involve myself for the public
benefit, and my money, which I have devoted
to this voyage, is running low."

But it happened that upon touching at
Saráwak, Mr. Brooke found the Rajah Muda
Hassim still beset by the rebellion which had
been raging for four years, and unwilling to
part with a European whose help might
secure to him the victory. Mr. Brooke
stayed, therefore, and helping to fight the
Rajah's battles,—general of an army of Malays,
Chinese, and twenty tribes of Dyaks, officered
by a dozen of his shipmates,—in three months
brought the rebels to an unconditional
surrender, and then with difficulty saved the
lives of all who had surrendered.

Of this turning event in the story of Saráwak,
we give Mr. Brooke's own rapid and
accurate sketch, extracted from a vindicatory
pamphlet published by him in a later year.

"I visited Saráwak in my yacht. I was
unconnected with commerce. I met a native
prince involved in difficulties. I assisted
him. He offered me the country. I at first
declined, as it would be ungenerous to accept.
I was not eager to embrace the offer. The
war was terminated successfully. Muda
Hassim made out an agreement purporting
that I was to reside at Saráwak, to seek
for profit. I objected, and was assured
that this was not the agreement understood
between us. Trusting to the good faith of
the Rajah, I purchased a vessel. I loaded
her with cargo. I made this cargo over to
him. I was detained mouth after month, at
a ruinous expense " (the return cargo of
antimony not being supplied). "I requested
repayment, or the fulfilment of his promise.
The Rajah allowed the justice of what I
urged, and again pledged himself to give me