In 1848 Rajah Brooke decided to visit his old home in England, and ask his
countrymen for teachers and missions. His fame had preceded him. All England
was alive to his great deeds. There were greetings by enthusiastic crowds
wherever he appeared, banquets by boards of trade, and gifts of freedom of
cities. He was lodged in Balmoral Castle, knighted by the Queen, made Consul-
General of Borneo, Governor of Labuan, Doctor of Laws by Oxford, and was the
lion of the hour.
He returned to Sarawak, accompanied by European officers and friends, to carry
on his great work of civilization, and to make of his little tropical kingdom a
recognized power.
He died in 1868, and was carried back to England for burial, and I predict that at
no distant day a grateful people will rise up and ask of England his body, that it
may be laid to rest in the yellow sands under the graceful palms of the unknown
nation of which he was the Washington.
His nephew, Sir Charles Brooke, who had also been his faithful companion for
many years, succeeded him.
Sarawak has to-day a coast-line of over four hundred miles, with an area of fifty
thousand square miles, and a population of three hundred thousand souls. The
country produces gold, silver, diamonds, antimony, quicksilver, coal, gutta-
percha, rubber, canes, rattan, camphor, beeswax, edible bird’s-nests, sago,
tapioca, pepper, and tobacco, all of which find their way to Singapore, and
thence to Europe and America.
The Rajah is absolute head of the state; but he is advised by a legislative council
composed of two Europeans and five native chiefs. He has a navy of a number of
small but effective gunboats, and a well-trained and officered army of several
hundred men, who look after the wild tribes of the interior of Borneo and guard
the great coast-line from piratical excursions; otherwise they would be useless,
as his rule is almost fatherly, and he is dearly beloved by his people.
It is impossible in one short sketch to relate a tenth of the daring deeds and
startling adventures of these two white rajahs. Their lives have been written in
two bulky volumes, and the American boy who loves stories that rival his
favorite authors of adventure will find them by going to the library and asking