Tunjang's fate is not recorded. The Dutch offered to deliver him up for punishment, but it was left to them to deal with him, and no doubt they dealt severely. The Datu Haji died at Malacca, and Bandar Kasim in Kuching. The confiscation of his property was deemed sufficient punishment, but he was not permitted to return to Sadong. The last phase of Sherip Masahor is recorded in the next chapter.
We will now briefly follow the Rajah's movements in England, whither he had gone mainly for a rest, which was, however, denied him. To add to the mental worries caused by intense desire to safeguard the future of his adopted country, he was visited by a grave bodily affliction.
His reception by Court and by Ministers was more cordial than on his previous visit to England, and he was publicly entertained at Liverpool and Manchester, but shortly afterwards he was struck down by a stroke of paralysis. Though some months passed before he recovered his bodily strength, the vigour of his mind remained unimpaired.
In his efforts to obtain protection he was backed by many influential friends, and by public bodies. The Birmingham Chamber of Commerce memorialised the Government to restore the protection afforded to Sarawak up to 1851, and a large and influential deputation, representing the mercantile interests of Liverpool, Manchester, Glasgow, and, to some extent, London, with several members of Parliament, waited upon Lord Derby with the same object. Lord Derby's refusal was severely commented upon by the Times, and it occasioned a difference in the Cabinet. The subject would again have been entertained, had not the Government shortly afterwards gone out on their Reform Bill.[[250]]
The Rajah was left with but little hope. He felt that the Government of both parties desired to be rid of Sarawak, and that the country was indifferent; moreover he was fully assured that Sarawak could not stand alone. England failing, Holland was tried, but "Holland," he writes, "declares openly that there is an understanding the country shall fall to them after my death." Then France was tried; and the protection of France, the Rajah was of opinion, could have been gained had the Tuan Besar been whole-hearted in the negotiations. But the Tuan Besar did not share the Rajah's opinion that Sarawak could not maintain its independence unsupported, and disliked the idea of handing the country over to a Foreign Power, and in this he was supported by the Tuan Muda. The Rajah wisely gave way to what has since proved to be the better judgment of his nephews, and he wrote to the Tuan Muda, "as my views for Sarawak are at an end, and as we are now to run the risk, with a rational prospect of success, to sustain the Government I will loyally and cheerfully work to falsify my own convictions. Time brings changes, and may work upon the British Government. But it was a fatal mistake to let slip an opportunity of safety, recognition, and permanency,[[251]] and to allow an English prejudice to interfere with Sarawak. However, it is past, and the juncture requires union, and united we will cheerily work,"—and time was very shortly to work on the British Government in favour of Sarawak.
But pecuniary failure was also staring Sarawak in the face. The Borneo Company, Limited, suffering under severe losses consequent on the Chinese insurrection and the continued disturbed state of the country, were losing heart; they considered it advisable to withdraw from Sarawak, and such a step on their part would have been fatal to the investment of further British capital in the country. In the next place, the Rajah was being pressed for repayment of a large sum of money, which, for the purposes of the Government, he had found it necessary to borrow after the ruin caused by the Chinese insurrection. But "the Borneo Company persevered, and has long since reaped the benefit of so doing,"[[252]] and a kind and ever staunch friend, Miss (afterwards Baroness) Burdett-Coutts, relieved him of his pressing debt by a loan free of interest. She further advanced the money to purchase a steamer, a very urgent need, and the Rajah bought a little vessel which he named the Rainbow—"the emblem of hope," and never was a rainbow after a storm more welcome. Of her the Tuan Muda wrote that "she was welcomed as a god-send of no ordinary description, whereby communication could be quickly carried on and outposts relieved or reinforced within a short time. She was the small piece of iron and machinery which could carry Sarawak's flag, and raise the name of the Government in the minds of the people along the coast."
KANOWIT.
A testimonial to the Rajah had also been raised by public subscription "as a simple, earnest, and affectionate testimony of friends to a noble character and disinterested services—services which, instead of enriching, had left their author broken by illness and weariness of heart, with threatening poverty."[[253]] With a portion of this fund he purchased Burrator, a small estate in the parish of Sheepstor, on the fringe of Dartmoor, in Devon. It was then very much out of the world, having no station nearer than Plymouth, some miles off, and the intervening roads were steep, narrow, and bad. The situation is singularly picturesque; a moorland village, with a church of granite under the bold tor that gives its name to the place. Its wildness and seclusion charmed him, and there he settled in June, 1859, "trusting to live in retirement, in peace; but there is no peace for me with Sarawak in such a state," for the news of the Malay conspiracies caused him further distress of mind, and he resolved to return to Sarawak.