BROOKE, Sir JAMES, rajah of Sarawak, and governor of Labuan—a man strongly imbued with the spirit of the old adventurers of the Elizabethan time—was b. at Coombe Grove, near Bath, 29th April, 1803. He early entered the East India army, was seri ously wounded in the Burmese war, and returning home on furlough, spent some time in travel on the continent. Shipwrecked on the voyage out to join his regiment, he was unable to reach India before his furlough had expired; his appointments consequently lapsed, and he quitted the service. lie now conceived the idea of putting down piracy in the Eastern archipelago, and of carrying civilization to the savages inhabiting these islands. He purchased a yacht, which he manned with about 20 sailors, and after a three years' cruise in the Mediterranean, to test the sea-worthiness of his vessel and the seamanship of his crew, sailed from London for Sarawak, a province on the D.W. coast of Borneo, Oct., 1838. When lie arrived there, Muda Ilassim, the uncle of the sultan of Borneo, was engaged in a war with some rebel tribes. B. lent his assistance, and in return had the title of rajah and governor of Sarawak conferred upon him, the native governor being forced to resign. B. immediately set about reforming the government, instituted free trade, and framed a new code of laws. The murderous custom of head hunting, prevalent among the Dyaks, he declared to be a crime punishable with death, and vigorously set about the extirpation of piracy. This was done so draconically as to occasion great dissatisfaction in this country; and the result was, that parliament abol ished the " head-money" that had been previously paid for the slaughter of pirates. Certain charges, however, brought against B. in the house of commons, in connection with this matter, were declared by a royal commission to be unsubstantiated. The head-money was received, not by B. and his associates, but by the British ships-of-war that had co-operated with him. On his return to England, B. received a warm welcome,
was created a knight commander of the Bath in the year following; and the island of Labuan, near Sarawak, having been purchased by the British government, he was appointed governor and commander-in-chief, with a salary of £2000 a year. In 1857, B., who had been superseded in the governorship of Lathian, but who still acted as rajah of Sarawak for the sultan of Borneo, was attacked at night in his house by a large body of Chinese, who were irritated at his efforts to prevent opium-smuggling, and only escaped with his life by swimming across the creek. The Chinese committed great havoc on his property, but their triumph was short-lived. B. collected some natives, attacked the Chinese, defeated them in several successive fights, and ultimately forced them into the jungle, where they must have perished of starvation. Upwards of 2000 Chinese were killed, and all their flourishing settlements destroyed. Returning to Eng land soon after this, B. lectured in several of the chief towns on the advantages likely to result to this country from a possession of Sarawak, and urged the desirableness of the British government taking it under its protection, as otherwise it was likeiy to fall into the hands of the Dutch. To enforce this view, an influential deputation waited upon the earl of Derby (then head of the government) in Nov., 1858, but he declined to enter tain it. He returned to Borneo in 1861, but visited England again twice before his death, on the second occasion having the satisfaction of seeing the independence of Sarawak recognized by the English government. The town prospered greatly under his regime; he found it a place of some 1000 inhabitants, lie left it a town of 25,000; and the exports to Singapore, which, in 1840, amounted to £25,000, were in 1858, £300,000. B. died iu 1868; a biography appeared in 1877.