Lord PALMERSTON, to take
possession of Labuan, and Captain RODNEY MUNDY was selected for this
service. He arrived in Brunai in December, and gives an amusing account
of how he proceeded to carry out his orders and obtain the _voluntary_
cession of the island. As a preliminary, he sent "Lieutenant LITTLE in
charge of the boats of the _Iris_ and _Wolf_, armed with twenty marines,
to the capital, with orders to moor them in line of battle opposite the
Sultan's palace, and to await my arrival." On reaching the palace,
Captain MUNDY produced a brief document, to which he requested the
Sultan to affix his seal, and which provided for eternal friendship
between the two countries, and for the cession of Labuan, in
consideration of which the Queen engaged to use her best endeavours to
suppress piracy and protect lawful commerce. The document of 1844 had
stated that Labuan would be ceded "on such terms as may hereafter be
arranged," and a promise to suppress piracy, the profits in which were
shared by the Sultan and his nobles, was by no means regarded by them as
a fair set off; it was a condition with which they would have readily
dispensed. The Sultan ventured to remark that the present treaty was
different to the previous one, and that a money payment was required in
exchange for the cession of territory. Captain MUNDY replied that the
former treaty had been broken when Her Majesty's Ships were fired on by
the Brunai forts, and "at last I turned to the Sultan, and exclaimed
firmly, 'Bobo chop bobo chop!' followed up by a few other Malay words,
the tenor of which was, that I recommended His Majesty to put his seal
forthwith." And he did so. Captain MUNDY hoisted the British Flag at
Labuan on the 24th December, 1846, and there still exists at Labuan in
the place where it was erected by the gallant Captain, a granite slab,
with an inscription recording the fact of the formal taking possession
of the island in Her Majesty's name.

In the following year, Sir JAMES BROOKE was appointed the first Governor
of the new Colony, retaining his position as the British representative
in Brunai, and being also the ruler of Sarawak, the independence of
which was not formally recognised by the English Government until the
year 1863. Sir JAMES was assisted at Labuan by a Lieutenant-Governor and
staff of European Officers, who on their way through Singapore are said
to have somewhat offended the susceptibilities of the Officials of that
Settlemen