these valuable possessions for the universal
trade of the East!

POSTSCRIPT TO THE SECOND EDITION.

June 6th, 1846.

In the foregoing remarks with which I closed the first edition of this
book, I ventured to congratulate the public on the cheerful aspect
of affairs in Borneo at the latest period of which accounts had then
reached me. I could then say, with a joyful heart, "Thus far all
is well and as it should be, and promising the happiest issue." But
now I must write in a different strain. The mischiefs I pointed out
above as likely to ensue from a desultory and intermittent mode of
dealing with Malay piracy have revealed themselves even sooner and in
a more formidable manner than I had anticipated. The weak and covetous
sultan of Borneo has, with more than the usual fickleness of Asiatics,
already forgotten the lessons we gave him and the engagements he
solemnly and voluntarily contracted with us. Mr. Brooke's faithful
friends, Muda Hassim and the Pangeran Budrudeen, with numbers of
their families and retainers, have been basely murdered by their
treacherous kinsman, because of their attachment to the English
and their unswerving determination to put down piracy; and what is
worst of all, Mr. Brooke's arch-enemy, the subtle and indefatigable
villain Macota, the man whose accursed head was thrice saved by my
too-generous friend, has now returned triumphantly to the scene
of his former crimes, and is commissioned by the sultan to take
Mr. Brooke's life by poison, or by any other of those treacherous arts
in which there is no more consummate adept than Macota. I could trust
securely to Mr. Brooke's gallantry and skill for the protection of
his life against the attacks of open foes; and my only fears arise
when I reflect on his utter insensibility to danger, and think how
the admirable qualities of his own guileless, confiding nature may
facilitate the designs of his enemies.

H.M.S. Hazard, from Hong Kong, having touched at Bruni about the
end of March last, was boarded by a native, who gave the captain
such information as induced him to sail with all speed for Sarawak;
and there this man made the following deposition:--

Japper, a native of Bruni, deposes that he was sent aboard
H.M.S. Hazard by the Pangeran Muda Mahomed, to warn the captain
against treachery, and to communicate the following details to
Mr. Brooke at Sarawak.

The Rajah Muda Hassim was raised by the sult