895 A VISIT TO THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAaO. 



even less reprelicnsible in t!iis point of view tbau a pro- 

 fesdonat pirate " to the manner born/' But we must do 

 what is necessary to prevent iitjury to others from piratical 

 habits, before we can indulge in compassion for the pirate. 

 Our sympathy must be first witli the victims and tJie 

 endangered ; vdth the murdered before the murderer, the 

 slave before the sbve-dealer/' 



Those observations are worthy to close my chapter on 

 PiRACr. They should do so, but that I cannot resist 

 addiiig a word—Jiot my own either — for each of the two 

 different classes, who liave argued, and who may again 

 be called upon to argue tlie question of Bcr^miU; — ^how far 

 it m justifiable — advj&able — salutary in eflect, I have a few 

 facts for the one class, and a few obsen^ations from no 

 mean reasoner for the other. 



In a letter just received by me, from my fdend Captain 

 Brooke, nephew of Sir James, dated 25th August, 1852, 

 is the following passage " I wish yon were her© to com- 

 mand our expedition about to start for Serebas and Sakar- 

 ran, though the object this time is peaee, not war. The 

 Contest is just come in from Labuan, and Captain 

 Spencer, I believe, intends accompanying us, and manning 

 our gmi-boats wltli blue-jaHikets ; this will be very pleasant, 

 and will give us an opportunity of trymg tiie rate of our 

 new gun-boat, — the first attempt at European ship-^ild- 

 iiig in Sarawak. If you should come out agatJi, you will 

 find, I think, considerable changes in Borneo ; Sarawak is 

 deddeilly steadily advancing. Tbe whole coast, from 



