is rank, and he appealed to
the Sultan. The wily Sultan recognized that in this stranger he had
found a man who would be able to collect his revenue, and much to
Brooke's surprise, a courier entered Kuching, the capital, one day
and summarily dismissed the native Rajah and proclaimed the young
Englishman Rajah of Sarawak.

Brooke was a king at last. His empire was before him, but he was
only king because the reigning Sultan relinquished a part of his
dominions that he was unable to control. The tasks to be accomplished
before he could make his word law were ones that England, Holland,
and the navies of Europe had shirked. His so-called subjects were
the most notorious and daring pirates in the history of the world;
they were head-hunters, they practised slavery, and they were cruel
and blood-thirsty on land and sea. Out of such elements this boy king
built his kingdom. How he did it would furnish tales that would outdo
Verne, Kingston, and Stevenson.

He abolished military marauding and every form of slavery, established
courts, missions, and school houses, and waged war, single-handed,
against head-hunting and piracy.

Head-hunting is to the Dyaks what amok is to the Malays or scalping to
the American Indians. It is even more. No Dyak woman would marry a man
who could not decorate their home with at least one human head. Often
bands of Dyaks, numbering from five to seven thousand, would sally
forth from their fortifications and cruise along the coast four or
five hundred miles, to surprise a village and carry the inhabitants'
heads back in triumph.

To-day head-hunting is practically stamped out, as is running amok
among the Malays, although cases of each occur from time to time.

As his subjects in the jungles were head-hunters, so those of the
coast were pirates. Every harbor was a pirate haven. They lived
in big towns, possessed forts and cannon, and acknowledged neither
the suzerainty of the Sultan or the domination of the Dutch. They
were stronger than the native rulers, and no European nation would
go to the great expense of life and treasure needed to break their
power. Brooke knew that his title would be but a mockery as long as
the pirates commanded the mouths of all his rivers.

With his little schooner, armed with three small guns and manned by
a crew of white companions and Dyak sailors, he gave battle first
to the weaker strongholds, gradually attaching the defeated to his
standard. He found himsel