Being so intimately associated with the Rajah and his people, it is natural I should be the last to hear the opinions of that portion of the British public unacquainted with the methods of these rulers, but I cannot help thinking that very probably then, and even now, the white Rajahs of Sarawak are classed with such adventurers, and on this account they found it so difficult to get proper recognition of their sovereignty from the British Government. Here was a country come suddenly into existence, with all the paraphernalia of a good Government, with its Ministers, its Courts of Justice, its safety for life and commerce, all in English hands, and owned by private individuals. Communication was slow in those days, and the real position of the rulers and their people was only known to very few and inquiring minds amongst the élite of English-speaking people. The Rajahs were, individually, subjects of the British Crown, and, despite of their belonging to an old and very much respected English family, they had few friends at the English Court to push forward their interests. The full recognition of Sarawak as an independent State by England occurred in 1863, whilst Lord Palmerston was Premier and Lord John Russell Secretary for Foreign Affairs. It was then that the first English Consul was appointed to Sarawak as a formal acknowledgment of its independence. Warships calling at Kuching saluted the Rajah’s flag with twenty-one guns, so that within his own country the Rajah was acknowledged by the British Government as an independent ruler. The first Rajah died five years after the appointment of the Consul, for it will be remembered that the present Rajah succeeded his uncle in 1868.