James brooke sarawak1/13/2024 ![]() With the assistance of his ship's crew, he led Hassim's forces in a rout of the rebel headquarters at Belidah on the Sarawak River. ![]() However, he saw no future for himself there.Īfter a brief spell in Singapore, Brooke returned to Kuching on 29 August 1840 and immediately became embroiled in suppressing the rebellion. ![]() After investigating the coast and visiting the Samarahan and Lundu rivers, where he met the Malays and the Sebuyau Dayaks, he spent the next six months in the Celebes visiting the Bugis kingdoms of Waju and Boni, where he impressed the people with his horsemanship and his accuracy as a marksman. He also received full details of the rebellion which Hassim had been sent to quell when governor Pengiran Mahkota's half-hearted efforts had been unsuccessful. Entrusted by Governor Bonham of Singapore with the mission of thanking the sultan of Brunei's uncle, Raja Muda Hassim, for his assistance to some shipwrecked British sailors, Brooke was given a warm reception by Hassim when he reached Kuching, the capital, on 15 August 1839. In Singapore Brooke learned that the profitable antimony trade with Sarawak had been disrupted by a local rebellion against the sultan of Brunei, who exercised sovereignty there in the form of tax-collecting. The Royalist was armed-with six 6-pounders and swivels, flew the white ensign of the Royal Yacht Squadron, and so resembled a small warship. He saw himself as taking up the mantle of Alexander Dalrymple (1737-1808), hydrographer, and Sir Stamford Raffles (1781-1826), the founder of Singapore. His primary focus of interest was Marudu Bay in what is now Sabah, which he saw as one of a string of British settlements linking Singapore with Port Essington in northern Australia. In October 1838 he had published a prospectus of his voyage, reflecting the influence of George Windsor Earl's The Eastern Seas (1837) and indicating his desire to counter Dutch influence in those areas of the eastern archipelago not divided into clear spheres of influence by the Anglo-Dutch treaty of 1824. After a practice voyage in the Mediterranean in late 1836, he sailed on 16 December 1838 for Singapore. there is no pursuit for which you are less suited'Īfter his father died on 12 December 1835, leaving him an unencumbered 30,000 pounds, Brooke purchased a schooner of 142 tons which he named the Royalist. There was reason now to accept what his father had told him earlier: 'about trade you are quite ignorant, and. In 1834 he purchased a brig, the Findlay, and made an unsuccessful trading voyage to China. ![]() Presumably about then he had the idea of exploring the Indian archipelago. Unable to reach India before the expiry of his five years' leave, Brooke resigned his commission and returned home in 1831 on the Castle Huntley after visiting China, Penang, Malacca, and Singapore. There is no truth in the often-repeated story that the wound he suffered in Burma was to the genitals, and it may be significant that during his long recuperation at Bath he was briefly engaged, possibly to the daughter of a Bath clergyman. He was awarded a wound pension of 70 pounds per annum. Promoted lieutenant in August 1821 and sub-assistant commissary-general in May 1822, he commanded a troop of irregular cavalry in the First Anglo-Burmese War and was seriously wounded in one lung during an action at Rangpur, Assam, on 27 January 1825. On, aged sixteen, he entered the service of the East India Company as an ensign attached to the 2/6th regiment Bengal native infantry, and transferred to 18th native infantry in 1824. When his parents returned to live in Bath, he joined them there and was placed under the charge of a hapless tutor. His only formal schooling was as a boarder at Norwich grammar school, which he hated and ran away from after two or three years. He remained in India until the age of twelve when he was sent to stay with his paternal grandmother in Reigate. Sir James Brooke was born at Secrore, a suburb of Benares, India, on 29 April 1803, the second son of Thomas Brooke, chief judge of the East India Company's court at Moorshabad, and his Scottish second wife, Anna Maria (nee Stuart).
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