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Brooke, having made up his mind to the high task of civilising a barbarous people, and by every means in his power of putting an end to the wholesale annual murders committed by a nation of pirates, whose hands were, like Ishmael's, against every man, sailed from England in his yacht, the Royalist schooner, with a crew of picked and tried men, and proceeded to Sarawak, where he found the rajah, Muda Hassein, the uncle to the reigning sultan of Borneo, engaged in putting down the insurrection of various chiefs of the neighbouring territory.
We visited the rajah several times, who invariably received us with urbanity, and entertained us in a very hospitable manner. Muda Hassein is a man about fifty years of age, some think more, of low stature, as are most of the Malays, well made, and with a very prepossessing countenance for a Malay. His brother, Budruden, is a much finer man, very agreeable, and very partial to the English.
A whole troop of them; as many as a hundred camels, loaded with great packages of cloths and shawls for turbans, carpets and rich spices, and the beautiful red and green morocco, of which, when I was a little girl, we sometimes had shoes made, but we see it oftener now on the covers of books. All these things belong to the Sheik Hassein.
Then follows a long talk, and the smoking of pipes, while the servants make coffee, and serve it in little cups. Hassein tells Abdel Hassan of the wells of fresh water which he left but one day's journey behind him, and he tells of the rich cities he has visited. Abdel Hassan gives him dates and salt in exchange for cloth for a turban, and a brown cotton dress for his little daughter.
At last he was successful: Muda Hassein made over to him a large tract of land, over which he was constituted rajah, and Mr. Brooke took up his residence at Kuchin; and this grant was ultimately confirmed by the seal of the sultan of Borneo. Such, in few words, is the history of Mr. Brooke: if the reader should wish for a more detailed account, I must refer him to Capt.
By menaces, however, accompanied by the presence of some cruisers, England, France, and the United States caused their flags to be respected. Ali, the successor of Amar, had died in 1818, and was succeeded by Hassein Pasha, who, from the commencement of his reign, evinced the strongest antipathy to the French power.
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