About a month after the departure of the _Dido_, the _Samarang_, Captain Sir Edward Belcher, arrived at Kuching. Sir Edward had been sent, consequent on Rajah Brooke's actions and recommendations, to inquire personally into and report officially upon the affairs and capabilities of north-west Borneo. As Sir Spenser St. John writes—[117] This visit was as useless as such visits usually are. What can the most acute naval officer understand of a country during a few days' or weeks' visit? He can describe more or less accurately its outward appearance; but to understand its internal politics is not possible in the time. And yet on such comparatively valueless reports the British Government relies in a majority of cases. Mr. Brooke suffered more than any other pioneer of civilisation from the system. On getting under way to proceed to Bruni the _Samarang_ grounded on a rocky ledge off the town, and Sir Edward's brief visit was protracted by a fortnight. The ship, which lay in an extremely critical position, was righted and got off the rocks before the _Harlequin_, _Wanderer_, _Vixen_, and _Diana_ arrived to assist her. Accompanied by the Rajah, Sir Edward proceeded to Bruni towards the end of August, but the latter's visit was very short; he saw the Sultan for two hours only, and then, as small-pox was raging in Bruni, departed for Singapore.[118] The principal object of the Rajah's visit was obtained, as he was enabled to bear away a deed granting Sarawak in perpetuity to him and to the heirs of his appointment. In December the Rajah left for Singapore, and there the next month he received the news of his mother's death. To quote the Rajah, after the first shock, he resolved to seek in activity a relief from the lowness of spirits which he suffered. This led him to join an expedition to punish certain pirates on the coast of Sumatra for injuries done to British ships. The ships employed were the _Harlequin_, Captain the Hon. G. Hastings; the _Wanderer_, Captain Seymour, with whom the Rajah sailed, and the East India Company's steamer, the _Diana_. At Achin[119] they found the once powerful Sultan unable to control or punish his own subjects, and the ships then proceeded to Batu and Murdu, the strongholds of the pirates. The former town was burnt without offering much resistance, but the latter gave them a tough fight of five hours before it was taken. The pirates lost from fifty to seventy men killed and wounded, the English two killed, and about a dozen wounded, amongst whom was the Rajah, who was shot inside the right arm, and had an eyebrow cut in two by a spear. This was on February 12, 1844. In Singapore the Rajah purchased a new vessel, the _Julia_, having sold the _Royalist_; the _Julia_ was fitted as a gunboat. Early in June he returned to Sarawak in the _Harlequin_.