the country. Delays followed—poison was
attempted. I resolved to bring matters to an
issue. I loaded the guns, obtained an interview,
and with many protestations of kindness
towards the Rajah, I threatened Makota
with attack, as neither he (the Rajah) nor
myself were safe, whilst Makota continued
practising these arts. The Rajah then
fulfilled his repeated promise. The Sultan's
signature was freely obtained" (that is to
say, in consideration of a yearly tribute of
two thousand dollars) " to the same grant of
Saráwak, and I declined the government of
all the rivers along a coast line of three
hundred miles." Makota would seem to have
been too doggedly mindful of the advice given
him by Mr. Brooke on his first visit as an
English gentleman without interest or
partiality, " never to allow any government, or
any body of white men to settle in his country."

There can be no doubt, we think, that in
these proceedings, Mr. Brooke acted as a
partial judge in his own cause, the cause, he
had right to think, of humanity. At the
very time when he had proposed abandoning
his chosen field of enterprise, there was
opened to him a fair way of settling as a
chief among the Borneans, and using all his
energies from the best point of action for
diffusing a better civilisation among the
natives, by establishing a model state, and
showing them the way to active commerce.
At the same time he might secure a point of
action for his country, from which she could
extend her influence in the Indian
Archipelago, according to the principles that he
had advocated when he first made known his
project of an Eastern cruise. It flattered his
ambition, too, to have, on any scale, the
power of a king, and there was a touch of
heroism in the whole situation, that would
naturally gratify his love of adventure.
Rather than lose the opportunity presented
to his grasp, as he must otherwise have
done, he produced the guns of the Royalist as
evidence on his behalf to overweigh the
opposition of Makota. But had this been done by
a Dutchman, what would Mr. Brooke, now
Rajah Brooke, have said?

The Dutchman, if he had done this, would
have done it for pelf only. Rajah Brooke
unquestionably thought of the social benefits
he might extend. His first act was to secure
the release of a number of imprisoned women,
wives belonging to a hostile tribe. He
examined laws, and revived righteous ones that
had become obsolete. He lessened very
greatly the oppression suffered by poor Dyak
labourers, and began at once to lay foundations
of the prosperity that he did not fail
ere long to secure for Saráwak.

Muda Hassim, we have said, was uncle to
the Sultan. The title of the supreme monarch
in Borneo is Jang de per Tuam, and this
title was in abeyance when Mr. Brooke
received the grant of Saráwak. On the death
of the last Jang, Muda Hassim's father
wished to place his son upon the throne, but
his daughter urged the claim of his grandson,
who was the direct offspring of the deceased
ruler. Neither claim was abandoned, neither
was urged to extremity. The grandson took
no more than the title of Sultan, and
Muda Hassim, on the death of an elder
brother, succeeded to his claims and to the
powers of Bandharra, or prime minister, who,
since the Sultan was imbecile, had really the
chief power in the state. An illegitimate son
of Muda Hassim's father, the Pangeran Usop,
restless, energetic, and ambitious, had pressed
Muda. hard, and had fomented rebellion
against him. This man was himself afterwards,
among the intrigues of the Bornean
court, defeated, deserted, and destroyed.

The Rajah's little state began to prosper.
"We have diamonds, gold, tin, iron, and
antimony ore, certain; we have copper, reported.
Besides the mineral wealth, we have a soil
fit for the cultivation of the richest vegetable
productions. Coffees, nutmegs, cotton, would
all flourish here. Rice, sago, and any other
grain grow in abundance and perfection, and
the country is greatly cleared of wood and
jungle by the industry of the Dyaks. Our
chief want is inhabitants, and of these we
shall have enough, provided the government
is just and fair in its dealings." How
the labourers had been oppressed under
Makota's rule, is shown by the fact, that they
were forced to supply him, for two rupees,
with ten pekuls of the antimony ore, which
he sold again at two rupees a pekul; and
beyond this profit of a thousand per cent.,
extorted five hundred per cent. more out of
the labourer by using false measures, against
which he dared not complain. Rajah Brooke
quadrupled the price of this labour, and
made it no longer compulsory. He retained
to himself the profit of the mines which are
royalties throughout the Archipelago: not for
his own sole and exclusive use, but as the
main part of the revenue upon which alone
he could support his plans for the amelioration
of the country. To be released from
the necessity of looking for a public revenue
to the private anxiety of trade, was a desire
constantly expressed by him, and to the
misapprehension that fixed on him reproach for
adventuring at once as prince and trader, he
could reply, in eighteen hundred and fifty-
three, that not only had his trading been for
the relief of his subjects from oppressive
tribute, but that he was twenty thousand
pounds poorer than he had been when he
started from the East.

Moreover, he had piracy to battle with,
and among the pirates found none that
caused so much insecurity to his colony as
the Sakarran and Serebas Dyaks, men
without fire-arms, using rude arrows, powerless
indeed against the European, but the
strong cause of misery among defenceless
tribes, whose wives and children they