THE DEATH OF RAJAH BROOKE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 2049, 29 August 1868, Page 3

THE DEATH OF RAJAH BROOKE.

(From the Scotsman, June 15.) "Death hath this also," says Bacon, " that it operieth the gate to good fame, and extinguisheth envy— Extmctus arnatur idem." Before he died, however, Sir James Brooke's good fame had been established, and the cavillings which his exploits once excited had ceased. ; Sooth to say, his contemporaries had almost, forgotten him in his Devonshire retirement. The " condition of Borneo'* "is not a standing. Parliamentary question; and in these days of telegrams, and consequent feverish desire foir novelty, deeds that have passed into history within living memory without producing effects which Constantly obtrude themselyei upon one's notice,. are ; apt to excite but a languid interest. If. may be that "Rajah" Brooke will hereafter become a very prominent figure' in Oriental records, however; and, '. may be the success of the institutions which he founded in Malaysia, his name must always rank high on the roll of gallant adventurers whohad ' a philanthropic motive for their daring. ... Just a quarter of a century ago, the i Rajah commenced his- dashing crusade against the. Eastern pirates—the most formidable obstacles to civilisation in insular Asia. The invalided young Indian officer, deprived of his commission, after his health was restored, by an accident, sought another field of adventure. He got Ms crew of little, more than twenty well in hand, during cruises in the-Medi-terranean, and elsewhere, and then set out in his yacht to. civilise Borneo. So thoroughly English in.his immvaise Jwnte, as well as his manliness, was the modern Raleigh that his heart used to come into his mouth when he began to read prayers before his tiny ship's company. He became, however, Rajah ;of : Sarawak, and having made, the acquaintance of Captain Keppel during a visit to China, persuaded that easily persuadable officer to give the Borneo pirates a taste of the Dido's powder and shot; The pirate hu,nt commenced as soon as the Dido dropped anchor in the Sambas river. Rajah Brooke went with the tracking boats. After a smart engagement, against heavy odds, they utterly routed a fleet of piratical prahus. The Dido's boats and the Rajah's craft,-the Jolly Bachelor, to say nothing of intermediate exploits, afterwards, started to harry-the pirates' nests on the mangrove-fringed Sarebus river, Captain: Keppel and the Rajah vyin» with one another xs to who should be foremost in the fight. On:! one occasion, the captain's gig, ■ squeezed through a barrier of matted trees, suddenly found itself in front of three belching forts.. The current was fast carrying the boat towards tliem; the pirates rustled, yelling, down to the shoxe to seize their prize \ but: at last the boat's head was got rotmd, and pulled against the,.'-all-pitted stream ; and whilst the Rajah, steered as if upon the Thames, Captain Keppel and his coxswain popped away at .the pirates as coolly as if they had been jjartridges. In ten days, in spite of barricades and forts, a few score of white men had swept hundreds upon hundreds of Malays from the river—had j made it a solitude which was comparatively a peace. Town after town had been taken and burned. The dwellers on the banks were cowed through, superstitious awe. If nothing.-,else could save them, they had thought that their river's <c bore " would be 5 theor. protection ; biit that, too, the wLiteman had braved unscathed. "Wh?.t was the 1 good of fighting against Tuiuia Besax (gceat

man), the Malay chiefs asked. The English Rajah had charmed down the bore w? ml deJ" S foll™ers invulnerabkC When the Englishmen returned to Sarawak, the wnole town turned out to greet them ma boat-procession flaunting with, gaudy flags, and almost cracked their tympanums with tomtoms, gongs, howlW poeans, and ever-firing muskets. Raiah Muda Hassira received Rajah James tfrooke and his dare-devil colleague irt state, and gazed upon them with silentlyadmiring awe —much as an old Greek chief might have welcomed the Dioscuri to his tent. The Dido being under sailing orders for China, the brethren in arms could not at once gratify their'wish of inflicting similar punishment on the Sakarran pirates. Rajah Brooke also for a, time had to leave Borneo, managing ht the interval to get severely wounded in. an expedition against the Acheen pirates, which he had joined as a volunteer. Whei he returned to Borneo,he teamed that the insolence of the Sakarrans had become so great that they had even, ventured to threaten to sack Sarawak He therefore summoned the Dido onca more to his aid. She, and the Indian, Phlegethon, eventually aided H.M.S. Samarang, under Sir Edward. Belcher, gave the Sakarrans so thoroudz a drubbing that, like their brethren on the Sarebus, they, utterly lost heart. They came, when summonedj- to- an assembly, in which:Rajah Brooke addressed . them in their native tongue, anathematizeing piracy and eulogizing lawful trade, ihey held their breath whilst h&spoke, and afterwards broke out in enthusiastic applause, clamouring for the inauguration, of such trade under British protection, in this way Rajah-Brooke won his hold on. the Asiatic mind, thrashing his antagonists, and then convincing them that ha. had done so for their good. It must have been a strange career lalook back upon from a sickbed in tbe peaceful atmosphere which broods abovfe the green,: high-hedged,, wild-flower-streamered Devonshire lanes ; but it must have been a satisfactory one too Although the fruits ; of his labours lay far away in_ space, and perhaps also in time, -fctajah Brooke, could whisper Vixi as He died.