My life : a record of events and opinions - Wallace-online.org

SPENCER, HUXLEY, AND OTHERS 251Brooke led to my receiving several invitations to dinein Stratton Street, where my friend George Silk wasalso a frequent guest ; but my unfortunate habit ofspeaking my thoughts too plainly broke off theacquaintance. The rajah's nephew, Captain Brooke,who had been formerly designated as Sir James'ssuccessor under the Malay title of Tuan Muda (younglord), had done or written something (I forget what)to which Sir James objected, and a disagreementensued, which resulted in the captain being deposedfrom the heirship, and his younger brother Charles,the present rajah, being nominated instead. As I wasequally friendly and intimate with both parties andheard both sides, I thought the captain had beenrather hardly treated, and one day, when the subjectwas mentioned at Stratton Street, I ventured to sayso. This evidently displeased Lady Burdett-Coutts,and I was never invited again—a matter which didnot at all disturb me, as the people I met there werenot very interesting to me. When Sir James Brookeheard of my indiscretion, he wrote to me very kindly,saying that he knew that I was the captain's friendand had a perfect right to take his part, and that mydoing so did not in the least offend him and wouldmake no difference in our relations, and I continuedto receive friendly letters from him till he went toBorneo for the last time, in 1866. Soon after hisreturn he died at his Devonshire home, in June, 1868.I have given my estimate of his character and ofhis beneficent work at Sarawak in my " MalayArchipelago."Among the dearest of my friends, the one towardswhom I felt more like a brother than to any otherperson, was Dr. Richard Spruce, one of the mostcultivated and charming of men, as well as one of the