CO882-(1-2) — Page 368

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IV. Sir James Brooke's answer to

cenary views.

( 10 )

outery which has been raised on this subject cannot long continue. It must be at an end as soon as people take the trouble to learn, or have fairly placed before them the real truth. The same views which recommended the establishment of Labuan, will continue the course of policy calculated to extend our name and our commerce, and to eradicate piracy from the Archipelago."

IV. Insinuations proceeding apparently rather from personal malignity than imputation of mer- from any public grounds, have sometimes been made against Sir James Brooke, of being actuated by mercenary views; it is not deemed likely that such attacks will find any organ in the House of Commons; should however such be the case, the following extracts from letters received from Sir James Brooke, seem to furnish a complete answer:-

V.-Answer to the case of the captive female Dyak.

;

In a letter bearing date Labuan, 1st February 1850, Sir James writes- "I may tell you in addition, that I offer a reward for every captive made," (i. e. captured instead of killed) “and pay from £5 to £10 for each; that I have had many this year; that they have been fed, clothed, and lodged by me, and short, I have laid returned to their families and country as opportunity offered;

of humanity, and to check the future depredations of the out money for purposes pirates without loss of life, and if I added the presents I have made to native princes, to attain public objects, I have spent the sum total of my official salary of £500 per annum in the last twelve months, and have not devoted it to private objects."

Again he writes, with reference to the same class of attacks, under date Singapore, 5th March, 1850† :—“When they talk of private motives of gain and wealth, tell them that I am £10,000 out of pocket by Sarawak, and that the revenue of Sarawak is, like the revenue of any other place, applied for public purposes, and, if it were twenty times as large as at present, I could dispose of it for public purposes, studying to advance the good of the country and the people, and to cement the foundations of a government which shall last when I have crumbled to dust."

V. With reference to the charge that Sir James Brooke allowed a Linga chief, one of his partisans, to carry away as his captive, a female Dyak taken by Sir James in a skirmish with the Sarebas, April 1849, the answer contained in the depositions taken at Sarawak on the 27th of February 1850, + is perfecly clear and explicit, viz. that the woman on being captured was offered protection by Sir James Brooke, but that she, being by birth a native of Linga, and kidnapped thence in her youth by the Sarebas Dyaks, with whom she had since been living, elected to go back with the Linga chief, to her own country, in preference to going to live at Sarawak, under the protection of Sir James Brooke.

It is trusted that the above statement, which has been curtailed as much as possible, to bring it within moderate limits, will be found sufficient to answer any attack that may be made on Sir James Brooke in the House of Commons.

• Paper marked I in the list of documents.

+ Paper marked H in the list of documents.

* Paper marked J in the list of documents.

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

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Reference :-

C.O. 882

1

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

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Reference :-

6

2

69 ord

C.O. 882 1

COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

HEADS OF STATEMENT

OF THE

CASE

OF

SIR JAMES BROOKE, K.C.B.,

ETC., ETC.

Printed by II. Silverlock, 3, Wardrobe Terrace, Doctors' Commons.

69€ aged

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Reference :-

C.O. 882

COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH—NOT TO

BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-

1 ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON