As our hero
was about to set sail, the Rajah opened his whole heart to him. His
prospects were anything but flattering. He found himself unequal to the
reduction of the rebels. He was surrounded by traitors. At the court of
the Sultan, a hostile cabal, taking advantage of his ill-fortune,
threatened his power and his life. In this strait, he besought his
visitor to remain and give him aid, promising in event of success to
confer upon him the government of the province. After a few days'
reflection, Mr. Brooke, believing, as he declares, that the cause of the
Sultan was just, believing also that what the whole people needed most
was peace, and that peace would place him in a position to render them
the greatest service, acceded to this request, without, however, be it
observed, binding Muda Hassim to any precise stipulations concerning the
government.
Many pages of his journal are devoted to an account of this war; and a
most curious story it is of cowardice, bravado, and inefficiency. It was
advance and retreat, boastful challenge and as boastful reply, marching
and countermarching, day after day, and month after month. "Like the
heroes of old, the adverse parties spoke to each other: 'We are coming,
we are coming; lay aside your muskets and fight us with your swords';
and so the heroes ceased not to talk, but always forgot to fight";--the
sum of all their achievements being to lay waste the country, to
interrupt honest industry, and to put in peril the lives of the
unoffending.
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