or the future, I confess that my
expectations have been greatly increased by the progress of events
since that period. It needed nothing to confirm my faith in the
results that were sure to follow from his enlightened acts--from
his prudence and humanity in the treatment of his Dyak subjects,
and the neighboring and interior independent tribes--from his firm
resistance to the Malay tyranny exercised upon the aborigines,
and his punishment of Malay aggression, wherever perpetrated. But
when I see these elements of good wisely seconded by the highest
authorities of England, I cannot but look for the consummation of
every benefit desired, much more rapidly and effectively than if left
to the efforts of a private person, even though that person were a
Brooke! If the appearance of H.M.S. Dido on the coast and at Sarawak
produced a salutary effect upon all our relations with the inhabitants,
it may well be presumed that the mission of Captain Bethune, and the
expedition under Rear-Admiral Sir Thomas Cochrane, must have greatly
improved and extended that wholesome state of affairs. Indeed, it is
evident, by the complete success which attended Mr. Brooke's official
visit to Borneo Proper in H.M.S. Driver, after receiving dispatches
from Lord Aberdeen appointing him British agent in the island,
carried out by Captain Bethune in November, 1844, that the presence
of a British force in those seas was alone necessary to enable him
to suppress piracy, and perfect his plans for the establishment of
a native government which should not oppress the country, and which
should cultivate the most friendly intercourse with us. Thus we find
the piratical Pangeran Usop put down, and Muda Hassim exercising the
sovereign power in the name of his imbecile nephew, who still retains
the title of sultan. The principal chiefs, and men distinguished by
talent and some acquaintance with foreign affairs, are now on our side;
and it only requires to support them in order that civilization may
rapidly spread over the land, and Borneo become again, as it was one
or two centuries ago, the abode of an industrious, rich, pacific,
and mercantile people, interchanging products with all the trading
nations of the world, and conferring and reaping those blessings
which follow in the train of just and honorable trade wheresoever its
enterprising spirit leads in the pursuit of honest gain. As the vain
search for the philosopher's stone conducted to many a useful and