In the settlement which followed the conclusion of the Napoleonic wars Great Britain decided to restore to Holland the Island of Java, which she had occupied since 1811. She also gave up all other Dutch possessions in the Malay Archipelago, and compensated herself by the establishment of Singapore and the elimination of Dutch rule from the Malay Peninsula. Thenceforth—from 1818—the kingdom of Holland extended its sway through the nineteenth century over all parts of Malaysia, except the Philippine Islands (which belonged to Spain down to 1898), the Portuguese portion of the Island of Timor, and the northern parts of the great island of Borneo. It is difficult to understand why the Dutch left North Borneo alone. That region had been, however, for centuries, more or less under the dominion of a once powerful Muhammadan prince, the Sultan of Brunei, and it may be that he was too strong (possessing, as he did, in the early part of the nineteenth century, a great fleet of pirate ships) for the Dutch to tackle. This potentate occasionally entered into relations with the East India Company, but was not infrequently called to account for the piracies committed by his subjects or his allies the "sea-gipsies" (see p. 55) in the narrow seas between Borneo and Indo-China.
The possibilities of North Borneo attracted the attention in 1830-2 of a notable pioneer of the British Empire, James Brooke, who had been an officer in the service of the East India Company, but was taking a journey to China on account of his health. Learning that the Sultan of Brunei wished for assistance to enable him to put down piracy and overcome rebellious chiefs, Brooke, having inherited his father's fortune, fitted out an expedition at his own expense in England and left the mouth of the Thames in 1838 for North Borneo in a ship of his own, a sailing yacht of only 140 tons. It would somewhat daunt the modern adventurer to embark on a little sailing vessel of that size and voyage round the Cape of Good Hope and across the stormy southern half of the Indian Ocean to the Sea of China. Brooke found on his arrival at Brunei that the uncle of the sultan was engaged in a difficult war with the Dayaks in the western part of northern Borneo (Sarawak). On condition that he subdued the rebels and pirates in the western part of his dominions the Sultan of Brunei agreed to confer on Brooke the chieftainship of this region; and this delegation of authority developed (not altogether, however, to the liking of the Sultan of Brunei) into the creation of the very remarkable State of Sarawak, which ever since 1841 has been a sovereign state in Malaysia, under the rule of an English raja. Indeed, although Sarawak was founded in 1841, it has only known, so far, two rulers, firstly, Sir James Brooke, and secondly, his nephew Sir Charles Johnson Brooke. Ever since 1888 Sarawak has been under British protection. The British Government had annexed the Island of Labuan, near Brunei, in 1846, as a basis from which they might attack the pirates who infested the Malaysian seas. In 1881 a charter was granted to a company of British merchants for the foundation of the State of North Borneo, originating in concessions made by the sultans of Brunei and Sulu. The historic Sultanate of Brunei itself was brought under British protection in 1888, and finally under British administration in 1906, so that the whole of the northern third of Borneo is now within the limits of the British Empire.
Germany first began to take an interest in Australasia about 1850, when German steamers or sailing vessels from Hamburg and Bremen found their way to the South Seas. Especially noteworthy was the house of Godeffroy, founded originally by French Huguenots. Although this firm eventually failed, it did much to lay the foundations of German commerce in the Pacific, and took an especial interest in the Samoa archipelago. As a result of its work the German Government decided to acquire possessions in this direction where other European nations were not already established. The Marshall Islands were annexed in 1885; and the Caroline Islands, with the exception of the island of Guam (which was ceded by Spain to the United States), came under the German flag by purchase in 1899. The Dutch had laid claim to the western half of New Guinea during the middle of the nineteenth century, when all that region was being explored with great advantage to science by Alfred Russell Wallace; but at the same period it was almost taken for granted that the eastern half, and especially the parts of New Guinea nearest to Australia, would eventually become British.
The Government of Queensland, indeed, annexed all the eastern half of New Guinea in 1883; but their action was disavowed by the British Government. Shortly afterwards, however (in 1884), seeing that other European powers were considering the possibilities of New Guinea as a suitable region for annexation, the British flag was raised there, and eventually, by agreement with Germany, Great Britain added to her empire the south-eastern parts of New Guinea, together with nearly all the Solomon Islands and the Santa Cruz archipelago. Germany, in the same year (1884), had annexed north-eastern New Guinea (Kaiser Wilhelmsland) and the Bismarck Archipelago (New Britain, New Ireland, the Admiralty Islands, &c.). She also acquired Bougainville and Buka Islands in the Solomon archipelago. France attempted about the same time to claim the New Hebrides, but Australia objected, with the result that the New Hebrides are at present administered jointly by Britain and France. In 1899 Germany annexed the two principal islands of Samoa, the smallest of the three falling to the United States, which, by its successful war with Spain, had acquired the Philippine archipelago and the island of Guam. Fiji had been ceded to the British Government in 1874 by its chiefs and people. In 1899-1904 the Tonga or Friendly Islands became a British protectorate; and at earlier and later dates many small Pacific islands and groups not important enough to need special mention were brought within the British Empire.
The people of Hawaii archipelago, where Cook lost his life, had been converted early in the nineteenth century to Christianity by missionaries, British and American. The islands were ruled in a more or less civilized fashion by a native dynasty of kings, but at the same time were increasingly settled by white men as planters and merchants. The white population became too difficult of government by these half-civilized Polynesians, a revolution was brought about, for a few years Hawaii was an independent republic administered by Americans, and finally was annexed by the United States in 1898. Consequently there remains at the present day no territory whatever in Australasia which is not under the flag of some European or American power. In Australia—which became a homogeneous state by the institution of federal government in 1900—we have the beginnings of a mighty nation; likewise in the Dominion of New Zealand, which now has a white population of over 1,000,000. New Guinea is still a land mainly inhabited by savages, and it is probable that owing to its unhealthiness it will remain more or less a domain of the black man, and the same may be the case with the Solomon Islands. But elsewhere, though the Polynesian and Melanesian peoples are far from being exterminated, they are diminishing in numbers from one cause and another, and those that survive will probably fuse in blood with the white colonists. Many of these Pacific islands are earthly paradises, so far as climate and fertility of soil are concerned. They will doubtless some day become densely inhabited, and their prosperity will justify the efforts, the sufferings, and even the crimes and mistakes of the Pioneers.
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FOOTNOTES:
[1] It has been computed that, during the years between 1510 and 1530, the Spanish and Portuguese ships exploring the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian oceans lost ten thousand seamen from scurvy.
[2] At this stage it may assist the reader if I give in a footnote the principal geographic divisions of Australasia.