EVENTS IN THE SAGO RIVERS—THE RAJAH PROCEEDS TO ENGLAND—CORDIAL
RECEPTION—FIRST PARALYTIC STROKE—BUYS BURRATOR—TROUBLES
IN SARAWAK—LOYALTY OF THE POPULATION—THE RAJAH RETURNS TO
BORNEO—SETTLES MUKA AFFAIRS WITH SULTAN—INSTALLS CAPTAIN BROOKE
AS HEIR APPARENT—AGAIN LEAVES FOR ENGLAND—SARAWAK RECOGNISED BY
ENGLAND—LIFE AT BURRATOR—SECOND AND THIRD ATTACKS OF PARALYSIS—HIS
DEATH AND WILL
The insurrection over, and all his absent officers returned from
England, the Rajah had more time for the rest he required; but no
sooner had a little calm been restored to him, than he was strongly
moved by the news of the Mutiny in India. ‘He turned clammy with
agitation when he first heard of it’; and how true is the ring of the
following—‘I felt then, annoyed and disgraced though I have been,
that I was an Englishman, and the ties and feelings which men have
wantonly outraged are planted too deep to be torn up.’
Though it is highly probable that the many changes which had taken
place in the management of the army in India had conduced to the
Mutiny, by separating the officers from their men, and weakening the
dependence of the soldiers on their superiors in order to concentrate
everything in the hands of the War Department at Calcutta or
elsewhere, yet one of its causes was the great increase in the number
of married officers, who were completely out of touch with the native
element, and heard nothing of what was going on among the men in the
regiment.
A little later the Rajah wrote to his nephew, Captain Brooke: ‘I have
sometimes thought that since the earlier days the bonds of sympathy
between the native and European have been slacker.’ These words
reflected the thoughts which had arisen in my own mind during the
visit I paid to Sarawak in 1857. It was not so much that there was
any outward sign of the mutual sympathy being less, but there was
little of that old familiar intercourse which undoubtedly produced
and fostered it. And this, ungallant as the opinion may seem, I put
down to the presence of the ladies. After dinner they retired to
the drawing-room, and we could hear music and singing going on, and
most of the gentlemen were eager to join them. The native chiefs,
and others who had continued their evening visits, soon became aware
of this, and gradually they frequented Government House less and
less, and finally ceased going except when business called them
there. Under these conditions the same intimate friendship could not
continue. I have been so long absent from Sarawak that I know but
little of the present state of affairs there, but I fear that the
former easy intercourse was never wholly re-established, and that
those pleasant evenings with the best class of natives are things of
the distant past, in fact, of the days of the old Rajah.
For these and many other reasons I think that gentlemen who govern
native states should not marry, or if an exception be made in favour
of the chief, certainly his subordinates, who are employed in
out-stations where natives abound, should not be married. And this
rule might well be applied to the officers sent to our North-Western
frontier in India. Marriage immediately separates the governors from
the governed. Ladies as a rule cannot be brought to understand that
the natives can in any case be considered as equals, and are apt to
despise them accordingly. With such ideas, how can bonds of sympathy
exist between the rulers and the ruled?
At that time, 1857, the Sago Rivers, north-east of the Rejang,
were very much disturbed. Though there were some extenuating
circumstances, the action of Sarawak was not altogether free from
blame. A quarrel had arisen between two native chiefs, one the
governor of the district of Muka Pangeran Nipa, and the other his
cousin, Pangeran Matusin. The first act of the tragedy was that
the latter dashed into the house of the former and murdered him
and eleven of his women and children. The second was the driving
out of Matusin and the slaughter of thirty-five of his friends
and relations. Sarawak, then administered by the Rajah’s nephew,
unfortunately sided with Matusin, and interfered with arms in her
hands within the Sultan’s territory.
Before, however, these latter acts occurred, the Rajah had been to
Brunei to try and induce the Sultan to let him settle matters in the
Sago Rivers,[10] and although no formal documents were executed he
was requested to see that right was done, but the Sultan would have
nothing to do with that man of violence, Matusin. The Rajah went
to Muka, and a period of calm followed this visit, but nothing was
settled on a permanent basis.
Sir James now decided to proceed to England, as many important
affairs required his presence there. On his arrival he found everyone
disposed to treat him with distinction, and Lords Clarendon and
Palmerston were especially cordial. They even offered a Protectorate,
all that was really wanted to ensure the stability of Sarawak and
its future progress. But that unfortunate Commission had made
the Rajah suspicious of Ministers. He thought they might grant a
Protectorate, and then thoroughly neglect Borneo affairs. This was,
no doubt, an error, as under the Protectorate of England, Sarawak
has progressed to its present prosperous state without needing, or
being required to submit to, the slightest interference on the part
of Her Majesty’s Government. The Rajah thought, however, that if
England had a monetary interest in Sarawak she would be more apt to
look after the nascent State. He therefore asked that they should
repay him the money he had expended in bringing the country to its
present condition. Another reason for this request was that after the
Chinese insurrection he had been compelled to borrow £5000 from the
Borneo Company, and he wished to repay it. Every penny of his own
fortune had been spent, and his only assured income was the pension
of £70 which had been granted to him on account of the wound received
in Burmah. But this does not alter my opinion that he should have
accepted the Protectorate without further question. The Government
next offered to establish a naval station in one of the ports of
Sarawak; why this was not accepted I never heard.
On February 21, 1858, Sir James Brooke went to a Drawing-Room, and
Her Majesty spoke to him most graciously, and the Prince Consort
shook him cordially by the hand; indeed, the Royal Family ever showed
the greatest interest in his career; and his reception at the Prime
Minister’s greatly pleased him.
Then came a change of Ministry, as Lord Palmerston had been defeated
on the Conspiracy Bill, and the Rajah instantly felt a difference in
the tone adopted towards him by the Government. Lord Derby cared
little for Borneo, though his son, then Lord Stanley, showed a very
appreciative interest in Sarawak.
The Rajah’s friends thought that by continually agitating, by
dinners, meetings, and deputations, they might influence the
Government, and they persuaded him to join in the movement, but
upon a temperament so nervous as the Rajah’s this wrought infinite
mischief. His nephews also were wounding his feelings by writing from
Sarawak that the Rajah desired to ‘sell Sarawak into bondage.’ No
wonder he felt dreadfully ‘hurt and humiliated,’ and cried out that
‘he was weary, weary of heart, without faith, without hope in man’s
honesty.’
On the 21st October 1858, after making a brief speech in the Free
Trade Hall at Manchester, he says, ‘I felt a creeping movement come
over me. I soon knew what it was, and walked with Fairbairn[11] to
the doctor’s. Life, I thought, was gone, and I rejoiced in the hope
that my death would do for Sarawak what my life had not been able to
effect.’ Thus the Rajah described his first attack of paralysis. This
closed his active participation in the movement, though his friends
did all they could, and a very strong effort was made to interest
the commercial classes and induce the Government to do something in
support of his position in Borneo.
As soon as the Rajah could be moved with safety, he went to his
cottage at Godstone to rest, but with little result, as his friends
were then negotiating with the English Government respecting Sarawak.
His views on the subject were quite clear and he was now strongly
in favour of a Protectorate. Many wished the Government to take
the country over as a Crown colony, but that would have proved an
expensive failure, as the people were not sufficiently advanced to
bear the necessary taxation.
A great deputation, one of the most influential that ever waited on
a Minister, had an interview with Lord Derby, but all to no purpose.
His lordship was as unsympathetic as he could well be. He failed to
appreciate the noble conduct of the Rajah, and could only look upon
his efforts in Sarawak as a sort of speculation—half commercial,
half political. He had evidently not taken the trouble to study the
subject, or he was incapable of appreciating a generous nature. But
the Cabinet was not of the same opinion, and soon overtures were made
by Lord Malmesbury with reference to a Protectorate being granted
by England. Before anything could be settled, however, Lord Derby’s
Ministry resigned.
The Rajah was now again worried by his pecuniary embarrassments. The
Borneo Company pressed for the repayment of the £5000 advanced after
the Chinese insurrection, but a generous lady came forward and freed
him from this claim. At the same time some of his friends raised a
testimonial to mark the appreciation of his public work. Had there
not been some underhand opposition by those who pretended to support
it, it might have reached the amount expected, namely, £20,000, but
it only realised £8800. With a portion of this he bought the small
estate of Burrator on the skirts of Dartmoor, and here he ever felt
truly at home. He became strongly attached to the place, and it was
difficult to make him leave it even for a season. It was a charmingly
wild spot, under the shadow of the great tors which render the
country about them so wonderfully picturesque. The air is pure and
bracing, and his sojourn there may be said to have relit the lamp of
life which had been almost extinguished.
In Sarawak affairs were in a bad state. The unreasonable efforts made
by its Government to support Pangeran Matusin in Muka, the savage
instigator of the civil war, were the cause of much strife, and the
illegal conduct of the officer administering the Government was
deeply resented in Borneo. The Sarawak officials were possessed with
the monomania that the Sultan of Borneo was always intriguing against
them, which was a pure myth, as the Brunei Government had neither the
energy nor the power to affect them.
The intriguers were within their own territories, for whilst they
were watching for outside plots and hostile action, a dangerous
conspiracy was being hatched by some discontented chiefs. The heads
of this conspiracy were the ex-Datu Patingi Gapoor, now named Datu
Haji, as he had made the pilgrimage to Mecca, who had been permitted
to return to Sarawak after the Chinese insurrection, and Sherif
Musahor, a chief of Arabian descent, established on the Rejang.
The first evidence of this treachery was the surprise of the fort
at Kanowit, and the murder of two Sarawak officers, Messrs Fox
and Steele. Yet so ignorant of the real plotters were the English
officials at the capital, that when an expedition was sent to
punish the murderers, Tani, one of our best friends, was accused
as an accomplice and was executed. As he was led forth to death he
protested his innocence, but added, ‘You will soon know who is the
real culprit.’ In the end not one of the actual murderers escaped, as
they were tracked for years, and were all ultimately killed.
Sherif Musahor, however, was the real instigator of these murders,
and the truth soon came out that the Datu Haji and he were the
promoters of all the disturbances. The former was banished and the
latter driven out of the country. He had practically no influence
in Sarawak, and the Malay chiefs were as ready to follow Charles
Johnson in his campaign against him as against any other enemy of the
Government. All the stories about his mysterious influence were all
nonsense, and had no effect on the minds of the Sarawak people.
Some of the biographers of Sir James Brooke have fallen into the
error of supposing that Sarawak was abandoned by the English
Government during these perilous years. This, as I have already
shown, was not so, for immediately after the Chinese insurrection,
both Lord Palmerston and Lord Clarendon offered a Protectorate, but
this offer was refused, except under conditions difficult for the
British Government to accept. A naval station placed within Sarawak
territory was also proposed; this likewise was rejected. Therefore,
it must be confessed, the charge of entirely abandoning Sarawak
was not well founded, as the refusal to accept British protection
tied the hands of Ministers. The British Government went as far as
they thought they could safely go, but, as I have already remarked,
the Rajah did not feel satisfied with a bare Protectorate, as he
mistrusted their sincerity.
On my way home from Brunei to England, early in 1860, I stopped at
Singapore, and falling in there with Charles Grant, who had come over
to recruit an English crew for a small gunboat, I heard of all that
had been going on in the Rajah’s territories. I resolved to go over
to Sarawak to judge of the situation for myself, so as to be able
to carry home the latest news to Sir James Brooke. All real danger
was now past. The energy and courage of the Rajah’s nephew, Charles
Johnson, the present Rajah, had triumphed over all difficulties,
and the coast as far as the Rejang was completely tranquil. It is
easy to be wise after the event, but I did not then believe, nor do
I believe now, that the Sarawak Malays were in any way affected by
the plottings of the Datu Haji or of Sherif Musahor. They were afraid
of some assassinations of foreigners until the former chief was
banished the country, but on my arrival, in March 1860, I found them
as sound and as loyal as ever they had been. If they had not been so,
there was nothing to prevent them expelling every European from the
country. They were all unanimous in their praise of the manner in
which Charles Johnson had met the danger and crushed it.
Things were indeed now about to assume a brighter aspect. The same
generous lady who had paid off the debt due to the Borneo Company
found the money to buy a steamer, and with a steamer the stability of
Sarawak would be finally established. The Rajah visited Glasgow to
look out for a suitable one, and soon selected the _Rainbow_, for so
he christened her, as the emblem of hope. Arriving in England shortly
after this purchase, I went down to Scotland with my old chief to
see the steamer start. There was no more despondency. He would nail
his colours to the mast. In fact, the presence of the steamer on the
coast as the property of the Sarawak Government closed the period of
alarms, of plots and troubles, and since then I do not believe there
has been a single dangerous conspiracy to check the progress of this
little kingdom. But before the _Rainbow_ arrived on the coast there
was to be one more difficulty.
When Johnson drove Sherif Musahor out of the districts subject to
Sarawak, he first fled to Muka, and then proceeded to Brunei and
Labuan. His stories did not influence the Sultan, who knew the man,
and was well persuaded that he had instigated the murder of Fox
and Steele. Indeed, before I left Brunei, he had confided to me
his suspicions. But the Sultan was still angry with the action of
Sarawak, which had treated his sovereign rights with great contempt,
so he encouraged the fugitive to proceed to Labuan and lay his
complaints before Governor Edwardes, who was known to be hostile both
to Sir James Brooke and his rising raj. This led to an interchange
of views between the Governor and the Sultan, in which I fear the
former promised to use all his influence to lower the position of His
Highness’s great feudatory, and he sent for a ship of war to carry
out his intentions. Unfortunately, he obtained an Indian steamer, the
_Victoria_, instead of one of Her Majesty’s navy. No naval officer
would have countenanced his proceedings.
Early in 1860, Captain Brooke returned to Sarawak and took over the
administration of the Government, and I am persuaded he had the
firm intention of living at peace with his neighbours, but he found
that the high-handed proceedings of the previous year had been so
deeply resented that the Governor of Muka, Pangeran Dipa, son of
the murdered chief, had ordered all the Sarawak trading vessels to
leave his district, and having fortified the entrance to the Muka
River, awaited the effect of Sherif Musahor’s appeal to the Acting
Consul-General.
Captain Brooke, thinking that he could settle these difficulties by
negotiation, went with a small force to Muka to interview Pangeran
Dipa, determined to try every method of conciliation, but no sooner
did his vessels enter the Muka than the guns of the fort opened
fire on them. Captain Brooke thereupon retired to the entrance of
the river, built a stockade, and sent for reinforcements. These
soon came pouring in, a brisk attack was opened upon the enemy, and
success would soon have crowned their efforts, had not Governor
Edwardes appeared in his steamer and commanded Captain Brooke on his
allegiance to suspend his operations. He naturally protested against
such interference, but prudently withdrew his forces, and retired to
Sarawak. The Governor had brought down with him Sherif Musahor, the
murderer of his fellow-countrymen.
Captain Brooke now appealed for justice to the British Government,
and Lord John Russell, who was at the Foreign Office, thanked him for
his conciliatory and prudent conduct, and then took Mr Edwardes in
hand.
When I left Brunei early in 1860, I had requested Mr Edwardes to
accept the acting appointment of Consul-General, which had enabled
him to interfere on the coasts of the Sultan’s dominions. But as
soon as I heard of his violent proceedings I could not but offer to
sacrifice my leave and return to Borneo to resume my official duties.
Sir James Brooke decided to go back to the East by the same mail in
which I had taken my passage. From Singapore the Rajah went over to
Sarawak in his own steamer, the _Rainbow_, and I followed in H.M.S.
_Nimrod_, Captain Arthur. I called in at Kuching, and there addressed
a letter to the Council of Sarawak, stating that Her Majesty’s
Government disapproved of Mr Edwardes’s interference. I then went on
to Labuan, relieved my substitute of his position as Consul-General,
and proceeded to my post in Brunei. I found the Sultan very reserved,
and rumours were rife that the Governor of Labuan had promised
not only to interfere in Muka, but to remove all the English from
Sarawak, and restore that country to the Sultan. This, I imagine, was
but an invention of the Oriental mind, which jumped too hastily to
conclusions. At all events the Sultan and all his high officers of
State were still very angry, and naturally so, at the original armed
interference of Sarawak within their territory. But when they found
that the Rajah himself had arrived at Kuching, that he would pay over
all the fines his nephews had raised within the Sultan’s frontiers,
and that he was prepared to make advantageous proposals to the Brunei
Government, their brows cleared, and I found myself once more a
welcome visitor in their Halls of Audience.
The Rajah arrived, and matters were soon explained and arranged.
The Brunei Government decided to banish Sherif Musahor from
their dominions, and to send for the Governor of Muka to explain
his conduct. I was requested by both parties to act as mediator,
and I went as soon as possible to Muka in Her Majesty’s corvette
_Charybdis_, Captain Keane. We entered the river with all the boats
of the ship, and were soon behind the fortifications with two hundred
marines and blue-jackets. This judicious display of force awed these
turbulent chiefs. No show of resistance was made, and both Sherif
Musahor and Pangeran Dipa decided to obey the Sultan’s mandate.
Little, therefore, remained to be done. The Rajah went up to Muka
with a large squadron, and all the chiefs there kept their word and
submitted. Dipa went off to Brunei, and Musahor was exiled to the
Straits Settlements. With all his faults, nay, crimes, I could not
but pity him. He had been such a good fellow in former years, and
he had been so injudiciously treated by the local Sarawak officers
with whom he had come in contact, men very inferior to him in every
way, and totally unfitted to deal with a man of rank, a supposed
descendant of the prophet Mahomed. He lived for many years in
Singapore, but I do not know whether he is still alive.
The Rajah took up his residence for some weeks in the fort at Muka to
endeavour to restore order in what might be called a regular chaos of
misgovernment, and succeeded to a great extent. It was regretted by
all that his stay was so short, as his magnetic influence over the
natives was so remarkable that they all were ready to carry out his
views and submit to his superior judgment. No one only accustomed
to European countries could imagine the confused state of affairs,
for no man among the lower classes appeared to know whether he was a
free man or a slave, and if the latter, who was his master, as he had
probably been sold half-a-dozen times by people who had no authority
over him. However, in most cases, these sales were more nominal than
real, as the self-created masters, unless chiefs, seldom attempted to
enforce their fictitious rights.
We soon went to Brunei again, and then the Rajah gladdened the heart
of the Sultan by taking over the Sago districts on a yearly payment
of four thousand five hundred dollars, and giving him a year’s
revenue in advance. Past complaints were now put on one side, and all
was peace.
I had been promoted to be _Chargé d’Affaires_ in Hayti, so that as
soon as I had introduced my successor to the Sultan, I prepared to
proceed home; but as the Rajah had decided to leave for England also,
we returned together to Sarawak, where he wished to arrange some
affairs before bidding adieu to Borneo.
At his nephew, Captain Brooke’s, request he publicly installed him
as Rajah Muda or heir apparent, and left him in charge of the
Government. To this ceremony Sir James Brooke summoned all the
principal men of the country, and introducing Captain Brooke as the
Rajah Muda, bade them all farewell; adding, however, that should his
presence ever be necessary, he would return to resume the Government
and to aid them in their difficulties. I never heard a better speech;
many of the audience burst into tears, and all were deeply moved.
Definite explanations were exchanged between the uncle and his
nephew, which gave the Rajah a free hand in all negotiations in
England, and these arrangements were reduced to writing. I also had a
distinct explanation with Captain Brooke as to his views, so that I
might advance them as far as I could agree with them.
We started for Singapore in the _Rainbow_, and, as we were detained
there by an accident to the mail steamer, the inhabitants of the
settlement, to show that no unkind feeling remained in any section
of society, gave the Rajah a ball. At supper his health was drunk
with all the honours; some good speeches were made, and most of his
friends then said farewell to him, thinking they should see his face
no more. Though rejoiced at my removal from Brunei, I could not leave
the Further East without regret, as I had spent many happy years
there.
Among Sir James Brooke’s most active friends and supporters was Mr
John Abel Smith, who was very intimate with Lord John Russell, our
Foreign Minister, and, in 1862, he opened negotiations with him and
other Ministers for the recognition of Sarawak as an independent
State. At first there was a proposal to make it a Crown Colony, but
that was prudently discarded. Then a Protectorate was proposed, and
at last all the negotiations centred on one point, the recognition
of Sarawak. There was little or no opposition in the Ministry, when
someone unfortunately suggested that Lord Elgin, the Governor-General
of India, should send over an official to report on the actual
condition of Sarawak. The Governor of the Straits Settlements,
Colonel Cavanagh, was chosen to prosecute this enquiry. Instead of
simply carrying out his instructions, he showed Captain Brooke the
secret and confidential papers which had been entrusted to him. The
latter thought that his rights were being tampered with, whereas,
had he been fully informed, he would have found that recognition
was the only question then under the consideration of the Ministry.
But Captain Brooke was not quite himself at that time. He had just
lost his second wife and his eldest son, and the inquisitiveness of
the Governor probably chafed him. Whatever may have been the cause,
he wrote to Lord John Russell to say that the country could not be
handed over to England without his and the people’s consent, and then
sent a defiant letter to his uncle announcing that he had assumed the
government of the country and would defend his rights by force.
The Rajah could not accept such a defiance. He returned to Sarawak,
met his repentant nephew at Singapore, and sent him home on leave.
Bad advisers in England induced him to withdraw his submission, and
it ended in a complete estrangement between the uncle and nephew. He
was deposed from his position as heir apparent, and thenceforth he
ceased to have any interest in Sarawak. He had been my most intimate
friend, and I regretted his action exceedingly, particularly as it
was one of my own confidential memoranda to our Government which had
incited his ire. This memorandum related to a different question from
that which was before the Government, and had he been more patient
he would have learnt that Lord John Russell fully recognised the
inhabitants of Sarawak as a free people, whose consent would have
been necessary to any transfer.
When the news reached England that the Rajah’s authority was
uncontested in Sarawak, and that Captain Brooke had retired from the
scene, Lord John Russell determined to acknowledge its independence,
and appointed a consul, who had to ask for his _exequatur_ from
the Sarawak Government. Thus this much vexed question closed to
the satisfaction of all those who loved and admired the Rajah,
but not to that of a group of false friends who had been working
against him in all kinds of underhand ways. But as these are now
turned to dust I will not refer to them again. It was a triumph
for the Rajah, and was the reward of his constancy, of his high
principle, his irreproachable character and devotion to his people.
The evilly-disposed were now silenced, and left him at peace for the
remainder of his life.
I was at that time in Hayti and did not see the Rajah during the
years 1863, 1864 and 1865, but we kept up a constant correspondence.
I could not rise superior to injuries as he did, and in one of my
letters I slightly reproached him with appearing to forgive a person
who had deeply injured him, and remained impenitent. His answer shows
the kindly nature of the man. ‘True it is he injured me, and deeply,
and perhaps what you say is true, he will injure me again, but in
Sarawak _I cannot quarrel_ or feel resentment against anyone, however
great the evil done to myself.’
Mr Ricketts was named consul at Sarawak, and he soon sent home highly
interesting reports about the country. He stayed there two years,
but as there was really nothing for a consul to do, a vice-consul
succeeded him. At present Great Britain has a vice-consul at Brunei,
who is accredited to the Rajah of Sarawak as well as to the Sultan.
The Rajah, during these years, really enjoyed life. His anxieties had
almost ceased. The revenues of Sarawak were improving, thus ensuring
increased stability. There was both peace and contentment there,
and trade was rapidly extending throughout all its dependencies.
His own health was remarkably good, and he could enjoy visits to
country houses, and occasionally indulge in partridge shooting. He
could now write, ‘In spite of trials and anxieties, calumny and
misrepresentation, _I have been a happy man_, and can pillow my head
with the consciousness of a well-spent life of sacrifice and devotion
to a good cause.’
I never knew a man so ready to help when he saw the strong oppress
the weak. As an instance of this, he boldly threw the weight of his
influence on the side of Bishop Colenso, when he saw the great Church
dignitaries ready to condemn him.
The Rajah spent much of his time during the remaining years of his
life at Burrator, and became as popular and as beloved among the
small farmers and cottagers as ever he had been in the Far East
during the height of his prosperity. He often took me to visit these
rough but kindly people, and it was a pleasure to see how they all
greeted him. I particularly noticed how the children would run out
of the cottages to touch his hand, as if his gentle smile fascinated
them. He did all he could for the parish, helped to restore the
ruined church, and, in 1865, was cheered by the arrival of a
clergyman and his wife, Mr and Mrs Dakyn, who remained his kind and
tender friends to the day of his death.
In the autumn of 1866 he received a severe shock. His nephew wrote
that he had sold the steamer _Rainbow_ to pay off a debt due to
their Singapore agent—a debt incurred through careless extravagance
in carrying out too many public works at a time. For a moment it
almost stupefied him, as this steamer had not yet been paid for.
We soon proved to him, however, that there was but little cause
for uneasiness, as the Sarawak revenue was ample to meet all
disbursements, if more care were exercised in the expenditure on
public works. But Sarawak without a steamer, he felt assured, would
sink back into its old state of insecurity, and therefore a steamer
must be had. By great exertion he succeeded in raising the necessary
funds, and purchased a vessel which was christened the _Royalist_,
after his famous yacht.
I stayed with the Rajah at Burrator during the autumn of 1866, and
he appeared very much stronger. He took his daily rides and walks,
but he was full of anxiety about Sarawak, which continued until the
steamer was secured. When we were alone we would take our afternoon
ride and then return to tea, and between that meal and dinner he
enjoyed his reading. He liked to have someone with him, and every
now and then would put down his book and talk of any question that
was then interesting him. After a while he would resume his reading
and we would both remain quiet for a time. I never knew anyone who
understood better what has been called ‘the luxury of silence.’
Two or three days before Christmas I left Burrator for London, and
we went up together as far as Plymouth. I never saw the Rajah more
gay or full of spirits, and he played whist with great enjoyment,
but on his return home, the next day, he was struck down by a second
attack of paralysis, and we were hastily summoned to his bedside. He
partially recovered, but was never again able to write. His career
was closed. He lived on, however, for about two years, when the final
attack came at Burrator where, fortunately, he was surrounded by many
of his nearest relatives. He died on the 11th June 1868. After his
third attack he did not recover consciousness, but passed peacefully
away. He was buried at Burrator under the yew tree in the churchyard,
at the spot he had chosen himself. His death was felt by all his
neighbours as a personal loss, as he was, in truth, the friend of
everyone in his parish.
More than thirty years have passed since the Rajah’s death, and yet
the admiration for his character and his great qualities has but
increased among those who knew him well or could appreciate the work
he had done. I have endeavoured to portray him as he appeared to me,
but there was a grandeur about his personality which it is difficult
to describe. He could not enter a room without the impression being
conveyed that you were in the presence of great superiority, and yet
in manner he was ever simple and courteous.
The purity of his private life was such that it could not but
impress both natives and Europeans, and that magnetic influence, as
it is called, which he undoubtedly possessed was but the result of a
superior mind, ever influenced by a kindly heart. He was a _chevalier
sans peur et sans reproche_, and it will be difficult to look upon
his like again.
The Rajah bequeathed Sarawak to his nephew, the present Sir Charles
Brooke, G.C.M.G. He had lived to see the country prosper, and died
without anxiety as to its future. The public debt due to him by
Sarawak, he passed on to his successor, and the only encumbrance
remaining was for the money advanced to buy the steamers, and the
warlike expenditure incurred during the Muka expedition. This was
but a slight burden on the finances, and was soon paid off. I rather
dwell on this subject, as an unfounded statement has been made that
at the Rajah’s death Sarawak was a bankrupt State. There is no ground
for such an assertion. The paltry debt due was covered tenfold by the
value of the ships, the buildings, the public works, and the rising
revenue which had accrued principally from the security given by the
presence on the coast of Borneo of the steamers in the service of
Sarawak.
I will add a copy of the Rajah’s will, as far as it relates to public
matters:—
‘The last will and testament of Sir James Brooke, K.C.B., Rajah
of Sarawak. I, James Brooke, Rajah of Sarawak, of Burrator, in the
County of Devon, give, devise and bequeath all that my sovereignty
of Sarawak, aforesaid, and all the rights and privileges whatsoever
thereto belonging unto my nephew, Charles Johnson Brooke, Tuan Muda
of Sarawak, son of the Rev. Francis Charles Johnson, and the heirs
male of his body lawfully issuing; and in default of such issue
unto my nephew, Stuart Johnson, another son of the said Francis
Charles Johnson, and the heirs male of his body lawfully issuing;
and in default of such issue I give, devise and bequeath the said
sovereignty, its rights and privileges, unto Her Majesty, the Queen
of England, her heirs and assigns for ever; and I appoint Miss
Angela Georgina Burdett-Coutts of Stratton Street, Piccadilly, and
Thomas Fairbairn, of the city of Manchester, Esquire, and John Abel
Smith, of Chester Square, in the County of Middlesex, Esquire,
M.P., trustees of this my will to see the purposes aforesaid
carried into effect. I bequeath to my said nephew, Charles Johnson
Brooke, his heirs, executors and administrators, all my real and
personal estate in the Island of Borneo and England, and constitute
him likewise my residuary legatee.’ (After mentioning some private
legacies which he wished paid, he added), ‘I leave all my papers
to the care of Spenser St John, Esq., H.B.M. _Chargé d’affaires_
at Hayti, whom I appoint as one of my executors, together with
Alexander Knox, Esquire,’ etc.
Sir Charles Brooke, the present Rajah, has three sons living, and his
brother, Stuart Johnson, died, leaving one son.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 10: The Sago Rivers or districts are Muka, Oya, Egan Bruit
and Mato.]
[Footnote 11: Afterwards Sir Thomas Fairbairn, and one of the most
judicious and tried friends whom the Rajah ever had.]