But efficient aid was at hand. In the summer of 1843 the British ship
Dido anchored off the entrance of Sarawak River. She was commissioned to
suppress piracy in and about the Chinese Sea. Her commander readily
entered into the views of the English Rajah. A boat expedition against
the strongholds of the Sarebus pirates was projected. Mr. Brooke
assisted with seven hundred Dyaks. A curious incident occurred, showing
how clearly the natives appreciated their dependence on their English
friend. When he asked their chiefs if they would aid him, they besought
him not to risk his life in so desperate an enterprise. But when he
assured them that his purpose was fixed, that he should go, alone if
necessary, they replied: "What is the use of our remaining behind? You
die, we die; you live, we live. We will go too." The expedition was
perfectly successful. Three fortified villages were stormed, many guns
spiked, many boats destroyed, and their defenders driven to the jungles.
This chastisement not sufficing, in the following year another
expedition from the same vessel attacked the Sakarran pirates and
inflicted upon them a punishment even more severe than that which had
fallen to the lot of their Sarebus brethren. Six forts, one mounting
fifty-six guns, scores of war-boats, and more than a thousand huts, were
burned. These lessons, though sharp, did not permanently subdue.

The blow which broke the power of these confederacies was inflicted in
1849. News came to Sarawak that the pirates had put to sea, marking
their course by fearful atrocities. At once Mr. Brooke applied to the
English Admiral for assistance, and the steamer Nemesis was despatched
to the scene of action. The Rajah joined her with eighteen war-boats, to
which were afterwards added eleven hundred Dyaks, in their bangkongs. On
the 31st of July, at night, they encountered the great war-fleet of the
Sarebus and Sakarran pirates, numbering one hundred and fifty bangkongs,
returning home laden with plunder. The pirates found the entrances of
the river occupied by their enemies,--the English, Malay, and Dyak
forces being placed in three detachments, while the Nemesis was fully
prepared to assist whenever the attack should begin. "Then there was a
dead silence, broken only by three strokes of a gong, which called the
pirates to a council of war. A few minutes afterwards a fearful yell
gave notice of their advance, and the fleet approached in two divisions.
In the dead