board the British fleet, which, upon receipt of this news, had put into
Sarawak. Without delay the fleet sailed for Bruni. An immediate
explanation was demanded of the Sultan. The reply was a volley from the
forts which commanded the river. Without ceremony the ships returned the
fire. In a brief time these strongholds were stormed, and Bruni itself
was at the mercy of the enemy. The Sultan fled to the swamps. Sailing
out of Borneo River, the fleet swept along the whole northern coast,
taking in rapid succession the forts of the Illanum pirates who had
instigated the murders at Bruni, and inflicting upon them a signal
chastisement.

By this time the Sultan wearied of jungles and sighed for his palace. He
wrote a cringing letter, promising amendment, agreeing to ratify all his
former engagements, and as a sign of his true penitence was ready even
to pay royal honors to the memory of the men whom he had slain. There
was no further difficulty in respect to the cession of Labuan, and it
was taken possession of December 24, 1846,--Mr. Brooke being appointed
governor. It is said that the possession of this island goes far to make
England mistress of the Chinese Sea,--a statement easily to be credited
by any one conversant with English policy. At any rate, he who observes
how, at apparently insignificant stations,--on little islands, on a
marshy peninsula,--mere dots on the map,--England has established her
commercial depots,--at Hong-Kong in the north, at Labuan in the centre,
and at Singapore in the south,--will gain new respect for the sagacity
which in the councils of the mother country always lurks behind the
red-tapism of which we hear so much.

* * * * *

After an absence of nine years, Rajah Brooke revisited England in the