ousand. Kuching now possesses a well
built "Istana," or Palace of the Raja, a Fort, impregnable to natives, a
substantial Gaol, Court House, Government Offices, Public Market and
Church, and is the headquarters of the Bishop of Singapore and Sarawak,
who is the head of the Protestant Mission in the country. There is a
well built brick Chinese trading quarter, or "bazaar," the Europeans
have comfortable bungalows, and the present population is said to number
twelve thousand.

In the early days of his reign, Sir JAMES BROOKE was energetically
assisted in his great work of suppressing piracy and rendering the seas
and rivers safe for the passage of the peaceful trader, by the British
men-of-war on the China Station, and was singularly fortunate in having
an energetic co-adjutor in Captain (now Admiral) Sir HENRY KEPPEL,
K.C.B.

It will give some idea of the extent to which piracy, then almost the
sole occupation of the Illanun, Balinini, and Sea Dyak tribes, was
indulged in that the "Headmoney," then paid by the British Government
for pirates destroyed, amounted in these expeditions to the large total
of L20,000, the awarding of which sum occasioned a great stir at the
time and led to the abolition of this system of "payment by results."
Mr. HUME took exception altogether to the action of Sir JAMES BROOKE,
and, in 1851, charges were brought against him, and a Royal Commission
appointed to take evidence on the spot, or rather at Singapore.

A man like BROOKE, of an enthusiastic, impulsive, unselfish and almost
Quixotic disposition, who wore his heart on his sleeve and let his
opinions of men and their actions be freely known, could not but have
incurred the enmity of many meaner, self-seeking minds. The Commission,
after hearing all that could be brought against him, found that there
was nothing proved, but it was not deemed advisable that Sir JAMES
should continue to act as the British representative in Borneo and as
Governor of the Colony of Labuan, positions which were indeed
incompatible with that of the independent ruler of Sarawak. Sarawak
independence was first recognised by the Americans, and the British
followed suit in 1863, when a Vice-Consulate was established there. The
question of formally proclaiming a British Protectorate over Sarawak is
now being considered, and it is to be hoped, will be carried into
effect.[12] The _personel_ of the Government is purely British, most of
the merchants and traders are of