almost such an island as we have attributed to the dreams of fancy; we hear it called, the Eden of the eastern wave.'

It is not, indeed, quite small enough to be the wished-for retreat of a solitary misanthropist; compared with such individual romance, it is a vast continent; but if we look on it as likely to become an appendage to our own wide empire, it maintains its character of being strictly an island, and may claim all the poetic advantages which belong to that species of land. The natural advantages of an insular position, it certainly enjoys; for, though being on the equator itself, which pierces its very centre, it has no lack of water, both in the form of rivers and refreshing rains; these make the land fertile, almost to the satisfying of human cupidity, and also so moderate and regulate the heat of a tropical sun, as, from the idea which the book before us conveys, to render it perfectly habitable, or even in many situations a most delightful climate for European residents.

The peculiar advantages which the island of Borneo enjoys, we will enter into more fully as we proceed with our review of Mr. Brooke's Journal. A few prefatory remarks of our own on the subject of such islands generally, we have ventured to make, in order to bring the particular case before us under the notice of our readers in a manner to attract, rather than, as is too often the case, to repel a poetical view of the subject. Poetry, by which we understand high sentiment and true nobleness of action, is the element of all real improvement and all true civilization; and it is the utter want of this-the consideration only of what a certain school of philosophy would call the material in opposition to the spiritual which has been the cause of the little progress which European colonization has made in the improvement of the natives. Grasping avarice has been proved by the Dutch, to be in the end most short-sighted policy. After long possession of many islands in the Eastern Archipelago, they have now but little hold over them, and have derived but little profit from them. But take our own lamentable treatment of islands and continents somewhat further south. When parts of Australia and Van Dieman's Land came into our possession, how did we use them? Did we estimate such fair gifts as we ought? did we look on them as about to become, through our government, the future scenes of noble and high deeds, or did we strive to make them provinces for the spread of Christ's Church, where all the blessings of time and eternity might take root downwards and bear fruit upwards? This we should say would have been the view with which Christian romance would instinctively have taught us to regard these extensions of our empire. But instead of this, we filled them

with our refuse, as we throw dirt together in a heap in the remotest part of our premises. We made them the sink of our vices, and peopled distant lands with men, who having been, from the nature of the case, violators of human and divine law during their home life-having been hardened and corrupted by the exposure of a public conviction and association with their brethren in crime, and having further been so located in those countries as to banish, humanly speaking, all hope of repentance —become at last such demons of iniquity as to make our own devices, that were meant for our good, to recoil on us to our hurt. Here again was a selfish and short-sighted expediency, in the treatment of distant lands placed by Providence under our control, proved at last to be bad policy. More righteous would it be in the beginning, and more politic would it be in the end, if, taught by experience, we were to regard new possessions with nobler sentiments than avarice or short-sighted political selfishness can suggest, and to look on ourselves as being entrusted with moral responsibilities. The first step in this higher treatment of what is bestowed upon us, will consist partly in higher views of the wonderful works of God in the material world; but chiefly the Christian principle of the honour due to all men, be they wild and savage, deceitful, or helpless-or, more difficult than all, be they obstinate in their hostility to our notions of improvement.

We now turn, however, from our own speculations and our own conclusions, to the well-weighed opinions and practical experience of Mr. Brooke. But first, we cannot forbear offering that gentleman our warmest testimony to the excellent spirit in which all his undertakings have been carried through. Mr. Brooke exemplifies the maxim that honesty is the best policy: honesty in his case, consisting in a very exact appreciation of what was morally due to himself, to his country, and to the native inhabitants with whom he had to deal, and that in most varied and difficult circumstances. He was on many occasions heroically brave; on others he might have been thought, if we knew not the result, almost apathetically patient; and throughout he was uniformly considerate, kind, and the sincere friend of all around him, especially of the oppressed. With the small means at his disposal but a few years ago, and the extreme absence of all hurry throughout his proceedings, he reminds us of the more praiseworthy of two characters described by the son of Sirach: There is one that laboureth, and 'taketh pains, and maketh haste, and is so much the more behind. Again, there is another that is slow, and hath need of help, wanting ability and full of poverty; yet the eye of 'the Lord looked upon him for good, and set him up from his

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'low estate.' He ever seems possessed with the true confidence that patience and courage in a good cause can alone give. Throughout his expedition, it is obvious that much of his success arose from the fact, that he was responsible to no one but himself, that he was entirely his own master. He was engaged in his own private adventure, and had only himself to look to; and thus he enjoyed a great advantage over a commissioned officer with his work marked out beforehand, and the feeling that he is accountable to higher powers for every step he takes, and is liable to be recalled for any misconstruction that may be put upon his actions. A man under such circumstances is always apt to be too anxious for active measures, even when his own consciousness would tell him that the desired end might be effected more surely, by letting things work out their own course under the gentle but sure influence of the moral power and resolute will well known to belong to his cause. The only way to bring out the powers of a man, is to place confidence in him to perform his appointed task. It is the sign of a great statesman, or a great leader in any cause, to show discrimination in his choice of agents, but having chosen them, to give them free scope for their talents: it is an inferior mind which prefers to have a band of humble instruments, over whom he may exercise a constant and irritating supervision. The latter system may often appear most business-like and most politic, indeed it is the principle of modern times; but the former, as it requires a higher mind for its centre-for we estimate an acute knowledge of character far higher than the most comprehensive powers of circumspection-so it is the policy of the more enlightened and disinterested exercise of authority. The only difficulty is, when you have to deal with an inferior race of men whom you really cannot trust. But this applies not to Englishmen. All experience has taught us, and Mr. Brooke has, in the quiet times of peace, given us noble confirmation, that an English gentleman, of good education and natural intelligence, possesses innate powers of a high order, which only require their opportunity to come forth. With such a class to choose from, we think that those in authority are without excuse, if they prefer the inferior though sometimes necessary principle of reposing very limited confidence in their agents.

Those of our readers who are acquainted with Prescott's 'Conquest of Peru,' will find much in the character of Pedro de la Gasca, as there drawn, which is applicable to our present purpose. That distinguished ecclesiastic, in undertaking his mission to pacify the turbulent condition of the newly conquered empire of Peru, in the first place required that absolute

power should be given him, even to blank papers impressed only with the royal sign manual. Thus armed, he felt that he could act as he thought best, without being harassed by continual instructions from the distant and excitable powers of his own country. His very first policy was such as would never have been acted on by one differently situated. He remained for months absolutely passive, as though he had crossed the Atlantic in vain; but he knew that his quiet influence was all the time preparing the way for a better state of things, more effectually than would immediate hostilities: he preferred patience to violence, and his reward was, that he most quickly arrived at the triumphant completion of his embassy, and was spared all the evils of a violent policy. Mr. Brooke was in so far a similar situation, that he was able to bide his own time, without fear of being recalled from any misconstruction of his actions, or without the temptation to gain favour at home by active measures and gallant exploits, ending only in self-display, when a quieter line would in the end be most efficacious. Prompt, resolute, and courageous when necessary, he yet preferred showing to the natives the more peaceful aspect of his national character: Would that, amid all the valiant achievements which have filled the annals of our country's foreign policy, there had been a greater proportion of peaceful victories! Many no doubt there have been, where our moral pre-eminence has taken the place of sword and bayonet; but those weapons of blood have been but too active, and where they have been used in any but the cause of just vengeance, we may boast indeed of a conquest over the bodies of men, but not over their hearts or souls.

For the benefit of those who may not be acquainted with the circumstances of Mr. Brooke's expedition, we will now, as much as possible in his own words, give an outline of that career which has brought him into notice. This outline shall be brief, for we hope afterwards to consider, as distinct topics, the passages of the book before us which refer to the physical nature of the island of Borneo, and also to the characters of its native inhabitants, especially as that may affect their ultimate conversion to Christianity.

In the year 1838, Mr. Brooke made a statement of his proposed object, which forms a most interesting appendix to Captain Keppel's book. The commencement of this we will extract here:

'The voyage I made to China opened an entirely new scene, and showed me what I had never seen before, savage life and savage nature. I inquired, and I read, and I became more and more assured that there was a large field of discovery and adventure open to any man daring enough to enter

upon it. Just take a map and trace a line over the Indian Archipelago, with its thousand unknown islands and tribes. Cast your eye over the vast island of New Guinea, where the foot of European has scarcely, if ever, trod. Look at the northern coast of Australia, with its mysterious Gulf of Carpentaria; a survey of which it is supposed would solve the great geographical question respecting the rivers of the mimic continent. Place your finger on Japan, with its exclusive and civilised people; it lies an unknown lump on our earth, and an undefined line on our charts! Think of the northern coast of China, willing, as is reported, to open an intercourse and trade with Europeans, spite of their arbitrary government. Stretch your pencil over the Pacific Ocean, which Cook himself declares a field of discovery for ages to come! Proceed to the coast of South America, from the region of gold-dust to the region of furs-the land ravaged by the cruel Spaniard, and the no less cruel buccanier-the scene of the adventures of Drake and the descriptions of Dampier. The places I have enumerated are mere names, with no specific ideas attached to them: lands and seas where the boldest navigators gained a reputation, and where hundreds may yet do so, if they have the same courage and the same perseverance. Imagination whispers to Ambition, that there are yet lands unknown which might be discovered. Tell me, would not a man's life be well spent-tell me, would it not be well sacrificed, in an endeavour to explore these regions? When I think on dangers and death, I think on them only because they would remove me from such a field of ambition, for energy, and for knowledge.

'Borneo, Celebes, Sooloo, the Moluccas, and the islands of the Straits of Sunda and Banka, compose what is called the Malayan group; and the Malays located on the sea-shores of these and other islands may with certainty be classed as belonging to one people. It is well known, however, that the interior of these countries is inhabited by various tribes, differing from the Malays and each other, and presenting numerous gradations of early civilisation; the Dyaks of Borneo, the papuans of New Guinea, and others, besides the black race scattered over the islands. Objects of traffic here as elsewhere present interesting subjects of inquiry; and whilst our acquaintance with every other portion of the globe, from the passage of the Pole to the navigation of the Euphrates, has greatly extended, it is matter of surprise that we know scarcely anything of these people beyond the bare fact of their existence, and remain altogether ignorant of the geographical features of the countries they inhabit. Countries which present an extended field for Christianity and commerce, which none surpass in fertility, rich beyond the Americas in mineral productions, and unrivalled in natural beauty, continue unexplored to the present day; and, in spite of the advantages which would probably result, have failed to attract the attention they so well deserve. The difficulty of the undertaking will scarcely account for its non-performance, if we consider the voluntary sacrifices made on the shrine of African research, or the energy displayed and the sufferings encountered by the explorers of the polar regions; yet the necessity of prosecuting the voyage in an armed vessel, the wildness of the interior tribes, the lawless ferocity of the Malays, and other dangers, would prevent most individuals from fixing on this field for exertion, and points it out as one which could best and most fully be accomplished by Government or some influential body.'—Vol. i. pp. 367, &c.

The conclusion of the same document is also most interesting, especially when we know of his final success.

'I cannot but express my regret, that from pecuniary considerations as well as the small size of the vessel, and the limited quantity of provisions she carries, I am unable to take a naturalist and draughtsman; but I should