,
it was a stimulus to industry and activity; but they allowed, at the
same time, that excess was highly injurious.

"The time at length came for my departure, but I was pressed to stay
one day after another, for our society was a relief to the usual
monotonous tenor of their lives. The papers were signed which made me
Resident of Sarawak. I started to Santobong, and reached the vessel
on the 13th of February; and after waiting two days, in the vain hope
of a lull or change of wind, we beat out of the channel."

Mr. Brooke did not remain long at Singapore. His principal object was
to procure a vessel to trade between that place and Sarawak. Trading,
however, was not his forte; but he already felt the deepest interest
in the welfare of those people. By accident--or, more properly,
by Providence--he appears to have been sent to put a stop to an
unnatural war, and to save the lives of the unfortunate rebels;
and the benefit he had conferred on so many of his fellow-creatures,
the good he had already done, and the infinity of good which he saw
he still might do, made him anxious to return.

After some difficulty, he succeeded in purchasing a schooner of 90
tons, called the Swift, which I recollected in the Malacca Straits as
the Zephyr, then a cruiser in the East India Company's service. Having
put a suitable cargo into her, he sailed with his squadron (Royalist
and Swift) for Sarawak early in April, 1841.

The rajah, already described as an indolent, weak-minded man, had
promised Mr. Brooke the government of the country; but, among other
obstacles with which he would have to contend in accepting it, I do not
think my friend calculated on jealousy, low cunning, and treachery,
or the dangerous enemy he had made in Pangeran Macota. He had been
an eye-witness to his cowardice, and had more than once detected
and exposed his cunning and trickery; sins not to be forgiven,
especially by a Malay. Notwithstanding this, firmness, courage, and
straightforward honesty gained the victory, as the sequel will show.

Among the characters with whom Mr. Brooke got acquainted during the
rebel war was a young chief named Si Tundo, who was constantly by his
side whenever there was danger. He was an Illanun, and had been sent
from Sadung, with some thirteen of his countrymen, by Seriff Sahib, to
offer his services to Macota, commander-in-chief of the rajah's forces;
and I resume Mr. Brooke's memoranda, with the following interesting
accou