Having secured, as he thought, three thousand a year for certain, with other great advantages in prospect, Mr Wise threw off the mask, and now declared to Government that he could no longer associate himself in any way with Sir James’s sanguinary policy. He forgot entirely that his company had been formed to take advantage of the English Rajah’s unique position in Borneo, so as to develop its resources and to work the coal in Labuan, of which colony Sir James Brooke was Governor. Mr Wise was soon in communication with the press, but the majority saw through the discarded agent, and would have nothing to do with his pretended disclosures. He succeeded, however, in gaining the ear of Joseph Hume, who promised to bring the case before Parliament, and managed to win over to his side Mr Cobden, and, to a lesser degree, Mr Bright. I must here observe that because Mr Cobden advocated Free Trade with great ability and success, his followers appear to consider that words must not be applied to him which he was ready enough to apply to others. Many pretended to be shocked that Sir James Brooke answered these attacks with his characteristic energy; and I remember meeting one of the foremost statesmen of the present day at a dinner on my return from Borneo in 1860, who, in reply to a question of mine, said that the language which Sir James Brooke had employed when speaking of ministers had prevented them from restoring him to his position in the public service or showing their appreciation of the great good he had done. It took my breath away. After they had heaped on him every humiliation which was possible, he was to sit quiet and bear it. It was not, however, in his nature to sit quiet when calumny after calumny was propagated by his enemies. I will allow that his language was strong and occasionally injudicious, but we must remember the provocation, and that his heart was set on the safety of Sarawak. I must add that not one of those around him ever attempted to increase his indignation; on the contrary, we urged him to treat these attacks with contempt. After having spent one hundred and sixty days in ships and boats during the first eight months of 1849, we were, indeed, glad of a little rest. The squadron now dispersed, Her Majesty’s ships sailed for Singapore; Captain Brooke, suffering from fever, went to China for a change; and Grant and I remained with the Rajah. Though quiet, we were busy, as deputation after deputation arrived from the pirate rivers to express their firm determination to give up piracy, and messengers came from the distant inland tribes to interview the Rajah, ‘for the Dyaks had heard, the whole world had heard, that the Son of Europe was the friend of the Dyak.’ We also visited several of the interior tribes, and the manifold proofs that the Rajah witnessed of the great advance made by those poor and humble subjects of his raj must have been pleasing to him.