On the 19th we arrived at Sincapore, and found the roads very gay with
vessels of all descriptions, from the gallant free trader of 1000 tons
to the Chinese junk. As Sincapore, as well as many other places, was
more than once visited, I shall defer my description for the present. On
June the 27th we weighed and made sail for the river of Sarawak
(Borneo), to pay a visit to Mr. Brooke, who resides at Kuchin, a town
situated on that river.

The public have already been introduced to Mr. Brooke in the volumes
published by Captain Henry Keppel. Mr. Brooke is a gentleman of
independent fortune, who was formerly in the service of the Company. The
usefulness and philanthropy of his public career are well known: if the
private history which induced him to quit the service, and afterwards
expatriate himself, could with propriety, and also regard to Mr.
Brooke's feelings, be made known, it would redound still more to his
honour and his high principle; but these I have no right to make public.
Mr. 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. Mr.
Brooke, with his small force, gave his assistance to the rajah; and
through his efforts, and those of his well-armed band, the refractory
chiefs were reduced to obedience. Willing to retain such a powerful
ally, and partial to the English, the rajah made Mr. Brooke most
splendid promises to induce him to remain; but the rajah, like all
Asiatics, did not fulfil the performance of these promises until after
much delay and vexation to Mr. Brooke, who required all the courage and
patience with which he is so eminently gifted, before he could obtain
his ends. 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
m