An English Adventurer Becomes the White Rajah of Sarawak

In August 1839, an English adventurer named James Brooke sailed his private schooner into the river settlement of Kuching on the northwest coast of Borneo. Born in India, Brooke had served in the East India Company's army before being severely wounded during the First Anglo-Burmese War. After resigning his military commission and failing to establish a commercial trading career in the East, an inheritance of 30,000 pounds in 1835 enabled him to purchase the 142-ton vessel Royalist and set out on an independent expedition across the Malay Archipelago.

Upon reaching Kuching, Brooke encountered a region destabilized by an uprising against Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddin II of Brunei. Pengiran Muda Hashim, an uncle of the sultan who was struggling to subdue the insurgent population, welcomed Brooke's military assistance. Brooke used his schooner and crew, with Malay, Dayak and Chinese allies, to help put down the rebellion. In gratitude, Muda Hashim proclaimed him Rajah and Governor of Sarawak on 24 September 1841. Because Sarawak still belonged to Brunei, Brooke then travelled to Brunei, and in 1842 Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddin II accepted the arrangement and recognised him as ruler, inaugurating a personal European dynasty in northern Borneo.