But these offers have been definitely rejected; the seeming
protection which Sarawak enjoyed through the position of its ruler as
Governor of Labuan has been withdrawn, and the little state left to work
out unaided its destiny. What shall be the final fate of this
interesting experiment, whether there shall arise successors to the
founder wise enough to maintain the government so bravely established,
or whether the infant state shall perish with the man who called it into
existence, and become only a memory, it is impossible to foretell; but,
living or dead, its annals will always be a noble monument to him whose
force of character and undaunted persistency created it.
* * * * *
The earlier portraits we have of Rajah Brooke depict him as a man of a
peculiarly frank, open, and pleasing exterior, yet with a countenance
marked by intelligence, thought, and energy; but underneath all a
certain dreaminess of expression, found often in the faces of those born
for adventure and to seek for the enterprise of their age fresh fields,
new El Dorados hidden in strange lands and unfamiliar seas.
The later portraits give us a face, plain, sagacious, yet full of an
expression of kindly benevolence.
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