82 BROOKE, JAMES. 



ment. Having recovered, he was ordered to 

 report for duty in India, but, his furlough being 

 extended, he travelled for a time on the Con- 

 tinent, and, being shipwrecked on his voyage 

 to India, did not reach headquarters till some 

 time after its expiration. Finding that he had 

 thus forfeited his position in the army, he re- 

 signed, and sailed from Calcutta, for China, in 

 1830. Observing the condition of the islands 

 of the Indian Archipelago, and the prevalence 

 of piracy there, he formed the determination to 

 attempt the improvement of their condition. 

 Returning to Europe in 1834, after the death of 

 his father, -he purchased one of the yachts of the 

 Royal Ya'cht squadron, and, selecting a crew 

 with great care, whom he drilled thoroughly in 

 a preliminary cruise in the Mediterranean, he 

 sailed from London, in October, 1838, for the 

 East. Arriving at Sarawak, a province on the 

 northwest coast of Borneo, he found Muda 

 Hassim, the uncle of the Sultan of Borneo, 

 and acting Rajah of the province, carrying on 

 an unequal contest with rebel tribes from the 

 interior, who descended in large bands upon 

 his territory to plunder and lay it waste. He 

 promptly offered his assistance, and, with his 

 guns and trained troops, soon punished the 

 rebels so severely that they were glad to make 

 peace. Muda Hassim at once prompted his 

 nephew to offer the Englishman the rajahship 

 and make him absolute governor of the prov- 

 ince. Mr. Brooke accepted the appointment, 

 and, selecting a council of intelligent Dyaks to 

 aid him in administering the government, he 

 commenced a series of reforms which, carried 

 out through many years, entitled him to be re- 

 garded as the greatest benefactor of the native 

 population of Borneo. He would not suffer 

 the people of Sarawak to be taxed for his sup- 

 port, but maintained himself upon his own in- 

 come, and the rewards paid by the British 

 Government for the suppression of piracy. 

 His people had been a nation of pirates, but, 

 by attaching the native rulers to himself by 

 his astute measures for their welfare, and by 

 making war upon pirates a pastime, he suc- 

 ceeded, in a few years, in clearing the entire 

 archipelago of its bands of freebooters. He 

 accustomed his people to the strict execution 

 of justice, suffered no bribes to be given, was 

 as accessible to the lowest and humblest of 

 his subjects as to the mightiest; encouraged 

 industry, commerce, and such manufactures as 

 they were capable of producing, and so won 

 the love of his people, that they almost paid 

 him divine honors. The jealousy of some of 

 the officials of the East India Company was 

 excited, by the independence of the Rajah ; 

 they coveted his territory, and desired to 

 squeeze from the natives the revenue which 

 Rajah Brooke had so nobly refused, and hence 

 they were loud in their clamors against him, 

 to the English Government, to which he was 

 really not responsible. Waiving his rights in 

 the matter, however, Mr. Brooke visited Eng- 

 land, in 1847, and courted the most thorough 



BROUGHAM, HENRY. 



investigation of his conduct. This resulted in 

 a complete approval, in his receiving the honor 

 of being created Knight Commander of the 

 Order of the Bath, and a baronetcy, and of his 

 appointment as Governor of the island of Lab- 

 nan, near Sarawak (which had been pur- 

 chased by the British Government), with a 

 salary 2,000. He still retained his office as 

 Rajah of Sarawak. He returned to his Dyaks 

 and prosecuted, with even more zeal than 

 before, his measures for their improvement and 

 elevation. The port of Sarawak, which at his 

 first visit contained but 1,000 inhabitants, had 

 risen, under his management, to a population 

 of 25,000, and its exports from 25,000 to 

 more than 300,000. He compiled laws, 

 coined money, made roads, established schools, 

 raised a regular revenue, and provided for the 

 security of persons and property, and the 

 strict administration of justice. But his 

 enemies were still unsatisfied. Taking advan- 

 tage of a change of administration, they pro- 

 cured his removal from the governorship of 

 Labuan, thwarted his projects for making the 

 ports of Borneo free to British vessels, and 

 professed the utmost horror at the strictness of 

 his rule over the lawless and thievish tribes of 

 the interior, and the Chinese pirates, who 

 began again to make their appearance on the 

 coast of Borneo. The attachment of his peo- 

 ple was strikingly manifested in 1857, when 

 he was suddenly attacked in his house, at 

 night, by a band of about 4,000 Chinese 

 pirates and opium-smugglers, who hated him 

 for his interference with their nefarious busi- 

 ness. They burned his house, destroyed his 

 gardens, and committed terrible havoc with 

 his property, and he was compelled to save 

 his own life by swimming. In the early 

 morning, however, he had collected his faith- 

 ful Dyaks, who were almost frantic with grief 

 for the losses which the Chinese had inflicted 

 upon him, and, leading them in person, attacked 

 the Chinese, defeated them in several succes- 

 sive fights, and drove them into the jungle, 

 with a loss of over 2,000 killed. The next 

 year he returned to England again, and though 

 a public subscription was made, amounting to 

 a large sum, to reimburse his losses at Sarawak, 

 yet the bitter attacks made upon him by his 

 enemies in Parliament distressed him, and 

 probably induced a paralytic attack, from 

 which he suffered that year. He made his 

 residence thenceforward in Burrator, Devon, 

 but in 1861 made two voyages to Borneo, for 

 the purpose of suppressing an insurrection, 

 and settling the government, which* he after- 

 ward left in charge of his nephew, though 

 he retained the title and authority of Rajah 

 till his death. Portions of his journals have 

 been published, and also " The Private Letters 

 of Sir James Brooke, K. 0. B., from 1838 to 

 1853," edited by J. C. Temples, Esq., in three 

 vols., London, 1853. 



BROUGHAM, HENRY, Lord BROUGHAM AND 

 VAUX, a British statesman and reformer, Lord 





