As we returned towards Sarawak the native chiefs of all the trading towns on the coast came to express their unbounded thanks to the English Rajah and to the Queen’s forces for the punishment they had inflicted on the pirates, and the prospect it held out of trade being carried on free from danger of pillage and death. CHAPTER V ATTACKS ON THE RAJAH’S POLICY—VISITS TO LABUAN, SINGAPORE AND PENANG—MISSION TO SIAM—THE RAJAH’S RETURN TO ENGLAND—DINNER TO HIM IN LONDON—HIS REMARKABLE SPEECH—LORD ABERDEEN’S GOVERNMENT APPOINTS A HOSTILE COMMISSION—THE RAJAH’S RETURN TO SARAWAK—COMMISSION AT SINGAPORE—ITS FINDINGS. We were fairly contented with the results of the recent expedition, and thought that all would be satisfied with our efforts to put down piracy and protect trade. We were therefore greatly surprised on our arrival in Sarawak to find that two English papers had commenced violent attacks on our proceedings, founded at first on some reports of excesses by our native allies during our expedition in the spring, when we punished the pirates at the Kaluka river. At the time we suspected, and it was clearly proved afterwards, that the originator of this campaign against the Rajah was Mr Henry Wise, Sir James’s discarded agent. I have already mentioned that Mr Wise had been accidentally entrusted with a mass of the Rajah’s private correspondence with his mother and with Mr John Templer; in the former Mr Wise found the expression, ‘A friend was worth a dozen agents’; and in the latter such words as, ‘If Wise does not obey my instructions I will kick him to the devil.’ Mr Wise was by nature vindictive, and it was not surprising that he was somewhat roused by such freedom of expression, though it occurred in confidential letters to the Rajah’s most intimate friends. The reason why these energetic remarks had been made was Sir James’s discovery that Wise was trading on his great name, and (as already stated) endeavouring to form companies with very large capital to develop the resources of Sarawak. The Rajah tried in vain to stem this current by pointing out that there could be no employment for a large capital in a new country, and that everything must advance gradually. This would not have suited Wise’s views, which were to gain for himself a large fortune, careless as to who suffered in the process. Mr Wise succeeded in floating the Eastern Archipelago Company, with a nominal capital of £100,000, and managed so to mystify the directors that they agreed to accept his own terms, by which he would have monopolised nearly all the profits. But notwithstanding that there were some respectable names among the directors the public did not come forward, and all, or nearly all, of the shares remained in the hands of the company. The City would not help, as it soon became known that capitalists of undoubted strength had been ready to find the money, but were suspicious of Mr Wise’s refusal to state his terms before the company was formed.