James Brooke was born in Bengal on 29th April, 1803. He grew up in India until he was 12, and was sent to England to continue his studies. In 1819, he returned to India to join the Bengal Army. He was involved in the First Anglo-Burmese War and was seriously injured in 1825 (about a year before the Burney Agreement), and was sent back to England to recover. He was asked to retire from his commission to the army, and was paid £70 a year for the rest of his life. He attempted to join SHTI but did not succeed.
His father was an English Court Judge of Appeal, and his father's death in 1833, James Brooke inherited £30,000 (equivalent to £1,484,700 today, or RM8.2m) and bought The Royalist (142-ton schooner) for the purpose of travelling and exploring East Indies (Indonesia today).
He arrived at Singapore in 1839, and was asked by the Governor of NNS (S.G. Bonham) to deliver a thank you letter to Pengiran Muda Hashim for saving some British sailors whose boat had capsized off the shores of Kuching.
Upon his arrival in 15 August 1839, he found the place to be in a chaotic state, with piracy and local rebellion (details of rebellion will be explained in another post).
Brooke left to continue exploring South East Asia and China, but decided to stop by Sarawak once more before returning to England in 1840. This was when Pengiran Muda Hashim finally decided to request for Brooke's help to quell the rebellion.
---
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Brooke
2. http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/currency/default0.asp#mid
3. Sejarah Malaysia by Ruslan Zainuddin.
No comments:
Post a Comment