ration, and with a success which is
not yet complete, and for years cannot be fairly estimated.

MUDA HASSIM, the former rajah of Sar[=a]wak, was also presumptive heir
to the throne of Borneo; but, unfortunately for him, under the
displeasure of his nephew, the reigning sultan. The confirmation of Mr
Brooke's appointment, it was absolutely necessary to receive from the
latter; and Mr Brooke accordingly resolved to pay a visit to the prince,
in the first place, to obtain a reconciliation, if possible, with the
offending Muda, and secondly, to consolidate his own infant government.
There was another object, too. The sultan had power to release the
prisoners who had been spared in the wreck already mentioned; and this
power Mr Brooke hoped, by discretion, to prevail upon his majesty to
exercise. The picture of this potentate is thus drawn by Mr Brooke:

"The sultan is a man past fifty years of age, short and puffy in
person, with a countenance which expresses, very obviously, the
imbecility of his mind. His right hand is garnished with an extra
diminutive thumb--the natural member being crooked and distorted.
His mind, indeed, by his face, seems to be a chaos of
confusion--without acuteness, without dignity, and without good
sense. He can neither read nor write; is guided by the last
speaker; and his advisers, as might be expected, are of the lower
order, and mischievous from their ignorance and greediness. He is
always talking, and generally joking; and the most serious subjects
never meet with five minutes' consecutive attention. The favourable
side of his character is, that he is good-tempered and
good-natured--by no means cruel--and, in a certain way, generous,
though rapacious to as high a degree. His rapacity, indeed, is
carried to such an excess as to astonish a European, and is evinced
in a thousand mean ways. The presents I made him were
unquestionably handsome; but he was not content without begging
from me the share I had reserved for the other Pangerans; and
afterwards, through Mr Williamson, solicited more trifles--such as
sugar, penknives, and the like. I may note one other feature that
marks the man. He requested as the greatest favour--he urged with
the earnestness of a child--that I would send back the schooner
before the month Ramban, (Ramadan of the Turks,) remarking, 'What
shall I do