Governor Edwardes informed the Tuan Besar that he had received power from the _Sultan_ to interfere, and then called upon him in the name of the _Queen_ to retire from Muka; he was acting as a minister of Bruni as well as a British official. The Tuan Besar was unwilling to risk a collision. He need not have paid any attention to the Governor's summons, and it is probable that had he refused to listen to it, Mr. Edwardes would not have dared to interfere with violence. But Captain Brooke took the wise course of withdrawing his force and appealing for justice to the British Government. For this conciliatory and prudent step he received Lord Russell's thanks. I will not enlarge on Mr. Edwardes' conduct, but his constant association with the murderers of his countrymen was very much commented upon.[261] Protesting against the action of the Governor "as seriously affecting British trade and compromising the safety of British subjects," the Singapore Chamber of Commerce wrote to Lord John Russell, October 5, that the Governor was actuated by jealousy of Sarawak, "the interests of that colony (Labuan) being in some degree opposed to that of the settlement of Sarawak, the latter having attracted to it a large trade, part of which might but for the existence of Sarawak be expected to find its way to Labuan." Before the Tuan Besar left Muka, the Governor, both by word and in writing, pledged himself not to leave Muka until all the forts there had been demolished, and he guaranteed that trade should be opened, and that all those, both at Muka and Oya, who had sided with the Sarawak Government should not in any way be punished. But these were promises he had no intention to perform, neither had he any power to do so, for he returned to Labuan the day after the Tuan Besar had departed, and left Sherip Masahor under the ægis of the British flag to work his own sweet will on the people. By a significant coincidence the Sherip's arrival there had been simultaneous with his own.