savages with their own consent, without any
means of coercion, and depending solely upon them for protection and
support, and at the same time to introduce the benefits of civilisation
and check all crime and semi-barbarous practices. Under his government,
"running amuck," so frequent in all other Malay countries, has never
taken place, and with a population of 30,000 Malays, all of whom carry
their "creese" and revenge an insult by a stab, murders do not occur
more than once in five or six years.

The people are never taxed but with their own consent, and Sir J.'s
private fortune has been spent in the government and improvement of the
country; yet this is the man who has been accused of injuring other
parties for his own private interests, and of wholesale murder and
butchery to secure his government!...--Your ever affectionate son,

ALFRED R. WALLACE.

* * * * *

TO HIS SISTER, MRS. SIMS

_Singapore.. February 20, 1856._

My dear Fanny,-- ... I have now left Sarawak, where I began to feel
quite at home, and may perhaps never return to it again; but I shall
always look back with pleasure to my residence there and to my
acquaintance with Sir James Brooke, who is a gentleman and a nobleman in
the noblest sense of both words....

Charles has left me. He has stayed with the Bishop of Sarawak, who wants
teachers and is going to try to educate him for one. I offered to take
him on with me, paying him a fair price for all the insects, etc., he
collected, but he preferred to stay. I hardly know whether to be glad
or sorry he has left. It saves me a great deal of trouble and annoyance,
and I feel it quite a relief to be without him. On the other hand, it is
a considerable loss for me, as he had just begun to be valuable in
collecting. I must now try and teach a China boy to collect and pin
insects. My collections in Borneo have been very good, but some of them
will, I fear, be injured by the long voyages of the ships. I have
collected upwards of 25,000 insects, besides birds, shells, quadrupeds,
and plants. The day I arrived here a vessel sailed for Macassar, and I
fear I shall not have another chance for two months unless I go a
roundabout way, and perhaps not then, so I have hardly made up my mind
what to do,--Your affectionate brother,

ALFRED R. WALLACE.

* * * * *

TO HIS BROTHER-IN-LAW, THOMAS SIMS

_Singapore. [Probably about March, 1856.]_