IN BORNEAN FORESTS [chap, xxiv 



was thus unable to resume his service in the Indian army. He took 

 the opportunity to travel to China, and during the voyage saw 

 something of the islands of the Malay Archipelago, the beauty 

 of which made such an impression upon him that he then and there 

 determined to explore them. 



In October, 1838, he left England for the China seas in his 

 yacht the Royalist, a schooner of 142 tons, with a crew of 20 picked 

 men, whom he had fully tried during a cruise in the Mediterranean. 

 On arriving at Singapore he heard that at Sarawak there was a 

 Rajah very friendly towards the English. This decided him to 

 visit that place, and he anchored with his yacht off Kuching on 

 August 15th, 1839. 



Muda Hassim, the Rajah at that time, received Brooke with 

 great cordiality, partly, no doubt, because he well knew how 

 advantageous his assistance would be in restoring order in his 

 State, which was then troubled by a revolt of some of the inland 

 tribes. Brooke consented to assist him, and it was mainly owing 

 to his aid that the Rajah was able to quell the rising and capture 

 the rebel chiefs, whose lives were spared at the request of Brooke. 

 But it appears that Muda Hassim was tired of ruling his small 

 State, and accordingly on September 24th, 1841, he made a regular 

 cession of it to Brooke, who thus became the legal Rajah of Sarawak, 

 in which high position he was solemnly invested and confirmed 

 by the Sultan of Bruni in the following year. 



During the first succeeding years, in conjunction with Captain, 

 afterwards Admiral Keppel, commanding H.M.S. Dido, Brooke 

 was busily engaged in the suppression of piracy, at that period 

 the scourge of the coasts and rivers of North Borneo. A fatal 

 blow was finally given to these hordes of pirates by the flotilla 

 commanded by Sir Thomas Cochrane, and Brooke took a prominent 

 and very active part in all the operations. Meanwhile Omar Ali, 

 the Sultan of Bruni, who had at first invoked the help of the British 

 in the suppression of piracy, treacherously had Muda Hassim and 

 several other prominent men put to death, as being too friendly 

 to Europeans. When he heard, however, that the British fleet 

 was on its way to Bruni to punish him, he fled into the interior, 

 hoping to escape the consequences of his treachery. 



After Sir Thomas Cochrane had left, the suppression of piracy 

 was continued by Captain Mundy and Rajah Brooke, who had 

 also been given the task of restoring order in Bruni by the Admiral. 

 Brooke succeeded in getting from Omar Ali an abject letter craving 

 forgiveness, and he was eventually allowed to return to his capital. 

 But his prestige was hopelessly shaken, and went on declining 

 until at his death, which took place on May 30th, 1885, he 

 being more than 100 years old,, his kingdom was reduced almost 

 to vanishing point. 



356 



