raffic,
the Dido was, owing to some changes in the distribution of the fleet,
recalled to China.

As the tide would not suit for my return to the Dido until two
o'clock the following morning, we sat up until that hour, when,
with mutual regret, we parted. I had just seen enough of Borneo and
my enterprising friend, Mr. Brooke, to feel the deepest interest in
both. No description of mine can in any way give my readers a proper
idea of the character of the man I had just then left; and however
interesting his journal may appear in the reading, it is only by being
in his company, and by hearing him advocate the cause of the persecuted
inland natives, and listening to his vivid and fair description of
the beautiful country he has adopted, that one can be made to enter
fully into and feel what I would fain describe, but can not.

We parted; and I did not then expect to be able so soon to return
and finish what I had intended, viz., the complete destruction of
the strongholds belonging to the worst among the pirate hordes, so
long the terror of the coast, either by capturing or driving from
the country the piratical Seriffs Sahib and Muller, by whose evil
influence they had been chiefly kept up. From all that I had seen,
the whole country appeared to be a large garden, with a rich and
varied soil, capable of producing anything. The natives, especially
the mountain Dyaks, are industrious, willing, inoffensive, although
a persecuted race; and the only things wanted to make the country
the most productive and happiest in the world were, the suppression
of piracy, good government, and opening a trade with the interior,
which could not fail of success. All these I saw partially begun;
and I felt assured that with the assistance of a vessel of war, and
the countenance only of the government, Mr. Brooke would, although
slowly, yet surely, bring about their happy consummation.

CHAPTER XVIII.

Captain Keppel sails for China.--Calcutta.--The Dido ordered to
Borneo again.--Arrival at Sarawak.--Effect of her presence at
Sarawak.--Great improvements visible.--Atrocities of the Sakarran
pirates.--Mr. Brooke's letter.--Captain Sir E. Belcher's previous
visit to Sarawak in the Samarang.--Coal found.--Second letter
from the Rajah Muda Hassim.--Expedition against the Sakarran
pirates.--Patusen destroyed.--Macota remembered, and his retreat
burnt.--Further fighting, and advance.--Ludicrous midnight