The Express.
London, England, 1847-12-24 00:00:00

leaving remained in Europe the full time allowed by hie
leave of absence, he prepared to return to India and pursue
the military profession. The step, however, in ',lnch he
nsbaresd, was wrecked on the Isle of Wight, and he had
therefore to undergo the trial of a 'second separation from
an family, The Castle Bundy, the next chip In which he
maid, was more fortunate ; there were numerous passengers
onboard, many of them well educated and talented; acd to
beguile the tedium of the voyage, it was proposed to publish
*weekly periodical, of which, by universal consent, Mr.
Smoke woo made editor. This task he undertook upon one
esedition, namely, that all the contribution should be in
wee, and that no one should indulge in personalities. The
publication was called the Nautilus, and it came out at first
on Feiday, but afterwards the day of its appearance was
changed to Saturday. The Nautilus always commenced
with a contribution from the editor, who usually wrote un-
der the formidable signature of" Cholera Morten."
On arriving at Matra, Mr. Brooke found that his period
I furlough had expired, aud that, in order to reinstate him.
adf in the position he had thus lost, a protracted and wean.
wee correspondence with the authorities at home would
probably be necessary; he therefore resigned the service at
one, and determincdon proceeding with the ship all the way
to China. This step was perhaps the most important of his
life, alit conducted him to the hello( his future labours. It
was new, in fact, that he saw for the first time the islands of
the Indian Archipelago with their natural riches and in-
tompar.ble beauty. B'y degrees the idea of visiting and
exploring them suggested itself to his mind. though it was
not suddenly brought to maturity. On his arrival at Can-
ton he enjoyed some opportunities of studying the Chinese
character, and, lathe multiplied imports of that city, of form-
iag some faint cenception of the value and variety of the
produce of the Archipelago. Returning to Europe, still
full of the design he had formed, be, in conjunc-
tion with another gentleman, fitted out a ship of
large burden in order to make the experiment
he so much at heart, and proceeded once more into
the China seas, where numerous circumstances concurred to
defeat his purposes. The plan of acting in conjunction
with another was abandoned, and he once more revisited
Europe, his views continually acquiring greater maturity
and development.
Mr. Brooke now, by the death of his father, succeeded to
a considerable fortune ; and, after the lapse of some time,
his project for opening op the Indian Archipelago to British
commerce and enterprise was resumed. After much thought
and investigation, he ens dyed upon making the attempt on
It male of great magnificence for a private individual, put- ,
chased a large and handsome yacht, and, having manned it
with a choice crew, left England on an experimental voyage
up the Mediterranean ; experimental, I mean in this Neese,
that he whited to test the soundness and sailing quslities of
his yacht, the Royalist, and the docility, courage, and at-
tachment of his men. It would protract this notice to far too
great a length to enter into a minute account of that voyue,
la the course of which he landed in Spain, and traversed a
large pinion of its southern provinces. Among the things
he sew was the Alhambra.
From the coast of Spain the Royalist pursued her wan up
the Mediterranean, passing ey Malta and Crete, and between
the numerous islands of the Ezean, until she reached the
mouth of the Dardanelles, for the purpose of paying a visit
to Constantinople. It unfortunately happened, however,
that the plague was then raging in the Turkish capital,
mowing down the population and diffusing terror and alarm
on au sides. Mr. Brooke judged it prudent, therefore, to
face shout in the Dardanelles, and, instead of proceeding up
the Sea ef Marmon, to land in the road, near the scene of
Homer's battles, on the Simois and Seamender, and thence
to drop down leisurely along the shores of Aaia Minor, ex.
pion the ruins of the ancient cities of lonia sod the adjacent
islands, Teos, Erythra, Smyrna, Ephesus, and Rhodes.
Having ascertained the Seaworthiness of his craft and the
excellent quality of his crew, Mr. Breoke left Europe and
tunnel his face eastward. After a prosperous and
agreeable voyage, Mr. Brooke arrived in the Sarawak
river, on the north-west coast of Borneo, at a time
when there existed a civil war between the Malay Rajah
and his subjects. This chief, who has since become
known to Europe under the name of Muda Hassim, imme-
diately understood the extraordinary advantages lie might
derive from the arrival of his European guest; on the other
hand, Mr. Brooke also perceived at once how useful the
actual posture of aff dm might prove in the furtherance of
his own designs. He. therefore, listened to the overtures
made him by Muds Hamien, and consented to lend his assist-
ance in putting down the rebellion, provided that such of the
insurgent chiefs and their followers as might be reduced to
obedience by his aid should be treated with justice and hu-
xaanity.
The insurrection was suppressed, and shortly afterwards
the Malay chief, on proceeding to the capital to take upon
himself the duties of minister to the Sultan, relinquished the
government of the province, with the title of Rajah, to Mr.
Brooke. We now behold him, therefore, raised by a course
of circumstances, by which be knew how to profit, to the
rank of a prince, the extent of whose territories it was not
easy to define ; for although the length of Sarawak on the
sea-coast he limited, it depends entirely on Mr. Brooke's
own moderation what frontier to assign to it inland.
We must not, however, suffer ourselves to ha dueled
by appearances, and fancy our countryman to be the
most fortunate of the human race, because be thus
became lord of Sarawak. Mr. Brooke himself perfectly well
understood the value of his acquisition. He saw himself
placed in possession of an extensive jungle, thinly sprinkled
with human habitations, and thou rage and imperfect
clearances which may be denominated Dyak farms.
The Dyaks had been accustomed, from time immemorial,
to carry on petty wars, not only of nation against nation and
tube against tribe, hut of every petty den and village against
its neighbours, and in this warfare the chief object of ambi-
tion was to cut off as many heads as possible, and bear them
home in triumph. These bloody trophies, after having
been well smoked, were suspended in a sort of temple, where
their importance in a public point of view may be estimated
from the prevalent belief that the ripening of their corn-
fields and fruit depended on the preservation of them; while
in their individual capacity, each Dyak was held in honour
or contempt, according to the number of enemies he had
killed, and of the heads he had brought home to his village.
Head-hunting, therefore, became a frantic pursuit which
constantly betrayed people into the worst of crimes, that they
might pewess. themselves of those marks of honour which
served them in lieu of the pomp of heraldry and titles of
nobility. The Sultan of Constantinople prides himself on
the name of " the blood drinker," and the Dyak would be
delighted by nothing so much, as to be denominated, Fir ex-
cellence, " the cutter off of human heads.
Now, so long as this propensity should continue among
them unchecked, all progress in ovilisation would be impos-
sible. Mr. Brooke, therefore, declared head-hunting to be
a capital crime, and caused it to be made known throughout
the province that whoever took a head—the euphemism for
committing murder—should be punished with death. This
decree, solemnly promulgated and strictly acted upon,
speedily brought the Dynes of Sarawak to their rinses.
When the rule became head for head, the old national amuse-
ment assumed anew aspect; people who set very little value
on their aeighboure' crania were found to entertain consider. I'
able respect for their own, so that Mr. Brooke's subjects per-
ceived that it would no longer do toile in wait for each other
as they had been accustomed, for the spolia opima, according
to the theory of honour prisealent in Borneo.
But if this barbarous custom fell speedily into disuse in
Sarawak, not so in the neighbouring provinces ; their heads
continued to be taken as before, or rather, the subjects of
the entree relates mere actively indulged their destructive
propensities in order to illustrate the superiority of indige-
nous rule over the government of a stranger from the west.
They thought it • very great hardship not to be allowed to
cut off the head of any person whom they could take at die-
advantage ; and en show their contempt for the Sarawakians
and their new governor, an adventurous hero from Sambas
undertook a decapitating expedition into Mr. Brooke's ter-
xitorirs. Fitting out a wall prahu, and creeping up along
the comet under pretence of trade, he entered the Sarawak
river, and pseud Mr. Brooke's house. He then made his
way to a considerable distance up the country, where the
people might be supposed to be most secure from attack.
Be,accompanied by a single friend, now left the boat, sad
=kin, his way towards the village, met and inveighed •
woman into the forest. There, in presence of his complain\
end against his advice, he cut off her bead, covered the beets
with leases, and, with his bleeding trophy under his mm,
hastened towards the banks of the stream. He got
into his prahu, deecended the river, parted Mr. Breske
house some hours after midnight, and returned into Sambas
without being discovered, boasted of his achievement, and
was probably regarded by his countrymen as one of the
bravest of the brave. Sambas, however. was not at war
with Sarawak ; and, therefore, when the circumstance came
to Mr. Brooke's knowledge, he sent an envoy to the native
*Ms, demanding that the murderer should be given up that
he might be tried, and, if found guilty, put to death w-
ending to tho laws of Sarawak. Whatever other fault.
native chiefs may have, they are generally not wanting
in politeness ; a number of excuses were made ; it was sae
that the offender could not be found, but that diligent
search should be made after him. and if it proved successful,
he should, without hesitation, he delivered over to punish-
ment. As time passed on, and the malefactor dii not make
his appearance, a second envoy was sent, threatening this
time that the Rajah of Sarawak, if his request were not
complied with, would carry fire and sword into the terri-
tones of the unjust prince, and would not desist from hos-
tilities till the murderer should be delivered to him. To
this message also a civil answer was returned, hot nothing
more ; it was hoped that the white rajah would, by degrees,
forget the circumstance, or grow weary of prosecuting an
unprofitable affair. Thie, however, turned out not to he the I
ease; Mr. Brooke sent message after message and threat',
after threat, and at length one of the two men engaged in
the crime came to Sarawak and delivered himself up to
justice. He declared, however, with the utmost earnestness
and solemnity, that he was no further memory to the mu,-
der than bring present at it, and said that he had counselled
his companion to desist; but that, being a young and im-
petuous man, he despised his advice. He was informed,
that, under the circumstances, nothing would be done to
him, that he must return to his village, explain the matter
to his countrymen, and convince them of the necessity of
delivering up the euilty person to be punished with death.
These representations at length produced the desired effect.
The murderer, no longer able to endure the constant impor-
tunities of his neighbours, who now apparently began to at-
tach some idea of criminality to head-hunting, at length
crossed the borders and came, in company with has former
companion, to Sarawak. There the whole affair was is.
vesegated, and the murder proved to had taken plug
under the most aggravated circumstances. The minimal
did not deny his guilt. Mr. Brooke, who sat in judg-
ment, demanded of him why he killed the womanl;
he replied, boldly, "beams it was his pleasure." The
cue was now closed; there could be no doubt of the
mania guilt, bat the lingering sentiment of humanity,
stronger sometimes than the sense of justice, inclined
the fudge to relent at the eleventh hour. He crewed
the river, milled about him a council of elders, and consulted
With them as to what was to be done. Having considered j