The village of the Kajaman tribe, a short distance above Belaga. Footnote 286: Talip was a Matu Melanau of good birth; Sakalai was a chief of the Kanowit tribe; and Sawing was half Ukit and half Tanjong. [Illustration: A SEA-DAYAK HOUSE OR VILLAGE.] CHAPTER XI THE END OF THE FIRST STAGE [Illustration: THE RAJAH'S TOMB.] We are drawing near to the close of the first stage in the History of Sarawak. It had opened with great hopes. To his mother the Rajah had written in 1841: "I trust there may be marked out for me a more useful existence, that will enable me to lay my head on my pillow and say that I have done something to better the condition of my kind, and to deserve their applause," and again, "I hope that thousands will be benefited when I am mouldering in dust," and these hopes have been fulfilled. But the last period of the Rajah's life was clouded with sorrow, disappointment, and pecuniary anxieties. He had practically given up the government in 1863, though he reigned for five years longer, and could make his will felt when need be. His health had broken down, and he wrote on May 29, 1863: "I cannot stand the climate and work," and in that year he left Sarawak for good, having installed his nephew, the Tuan Muda, as administrator. He was then only sixty, but for over twenty years his life had been full of anxiety, and had been a continual struggle against adversities, the most serious caused by the "malignant and persevering persecutions"[287] of his own countrymen, to whom he had turned for a little sympathy and a little help, which would have cost England nothing. In his policy and his actions he had been guided by no personal ambition; the great desire of his heart had been throughout the extension of British influence in the Far East, the improvement of trade, the suppression of piracy, the horrors of which he had witnessed, and the amelioration of the lot of the oppressed and suffering natives, whom he had come to love and esteem for their many good qualities. With regard to the other countries included in the general policy of the Rajah, this book has little to do. It suffices to note that had that policy not been discredited, Siam,[288] the Sulu archipelago, the whole of New Guinea, and a greater part of Borneo might now have been under British influence. To the Rajah's unaided efforts, frowned upon at home, England owes it that Sarawak, Bruni, and Labuan are not now Dutch Residencies, and North Borneo, through conquest from the Spaniards, an American colony.