Seventeen years among the Sea Dyaks of Borneo; a ... - Sabrizain.org

28 SARAWAK— SIR JAMES BROOKE
After his strenuous life in Sarawak, Sir James Brooke
had a great desire to visit England. Besides other
reasons, the wish to see his relatives and friends, he felt
he could effect more for the inhabitants of Borneo by
a personal interview with Government Ministers in England
than by correspondence. He left Sarawak, and
reached England early in October, 1847. There honours
awaited him. He was presented with the freedom of
the City of London ; Oxford University conferred upon
him the degree of LL.D. ; he was graciously received at
Windsor by the Queen and the Prince Consort. The
British Government recognized the work he had done,
and appointed him Governor of Labuan and Commissioner
and Consul-General in Borneo, and made him a K.C.B.
The warrant of investiture was issued by Her Majesty on
May 22, 1848.
The extirpation of piracy was the first step towards
introducing into the country the blessings of a settled
government, with all its civilizing influences. But he
was not satisfied with this, and soon began to take
measures for the establishment of a Christian Mission in
Sarawak. When Sir James Brooke visited England in
1847, he appealed to the Church, and especially to the two
Universities, to come to his aid. Neither of the two
great missionary societies was able at the time to undertake
this new enterprise through lack of funds, and a new
organization, the " Borneo Church Mission," was founded,
which laboured in the island for a few years. Then, in
1854, the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in
Foreign Parts was able to take up the work, and has ever
since been responsible for it. The original organization
had, however, done well in the choice of the missionaries
it sent out, the first of whom was the Rev. F. T. McDougall,