d in a schooner-yacht from London for Sarawak,
where he arrived in 1839. The uncle of the sultan was engaged in a war
with some tribes of rebels, and Brooke rendered him important
assistance. He returned to Kuching with the title of rajah, his
predecessor, a native, having been compelled to resign.

"The new governor immediately went to work very vigorously to establish
a better government, introducing free trade, and framing a new code of
laws. At this time the atrocious custom of head-hunting prevailed in the
island. Enemies killed in battle were decapitated simply for the sake of
the head, and the Dyak who obtained the greatest number of them was
esteemed the most valiant warrior.

"A Dyak girl would not accept the addresses of a young man who had not
obtained a head, in the earlier time; and murders were often committed
for the sole purpose of obtaining the head of the victim, either to
conciliate some dusky maiden, or as a trophy for the head-house, of
which there is one in every village. The heads were 'cooked,' as they
called it, though the operation was merely drying and cleaning the
skull. Rajah Brooke made the penalty of this kind of murder death,
without regard to the customs and antecedents of the natives; and he
soon abolished head-hunting in his dominion.

"The sultan, either directly or by 'winking at it,' encouraged piracy;
and the crime was as common as in the vicinity of the Malay states fifty
years ago. Sir James Brooke resolutely attacked the pirates, and with
the means at his command soon vanquished and drove them from the sea and
the land. The Dyaks, in spite of their head-hunting propensities, were
rather a simple people; while the Malays of the island were cunning,
dishonest, treacherous, and cruel. The simple Dyaks were no match for
them, and were cheated and abused in every possible way. There was no
such thing as justice in the land. The new rajah corrected all these
abuses.

"Having established his government on the basis of right and justice to
all, Brooke went to England in 1847. He was invited to Windsor by the
Queen, and created a K. C. B. (Knight Commander of the Bath), a
distinguished honor in Great Britain. The next year he was made governor
of Labuan. He was charged in the House of Commons with receiving
head-money for pirates killed; but the charge was disproved.

"Brooke continued to hold his position as Rajah of Sarawak while at
Labuan; but in 1857 he was superseded at the lat