Golden Land , chapter 17 , Sir Henry Keppel

Written by Dr. James M C Chong


Golden Land -- Sarawak

Chapter 17
Sir Henry Keppel
Sir Captain Henry Keppel was the admiral of the fleet against slavery and piracy at west Africa since 14 June 1809.
He became a great friend of James Brooke and helped him with HMS Dido. I read the original type writting memoir of Sir Henry Keppel and here is the text,

' MEMOIR OF MR. RROOKE.

to preparation and inquiry — a year spent in the
Mediterranean had tested his vessel, the Royalist,
and his crew — and so completely had he studied
his subject and calculated on contingencies, that
the least santjuine of his friends felt as he left the
shore, hazardous and unusual as the enterprise
appeared to be, that he had omitted nothing to
insure a successful issue. ' I go,' said he, ' to
awake the spirit of slumbering philanthropy with
regard to these islands ; to carry Sir Stamford
Raffles' views in Java over the whole Archipelago.
Fortune and life I give freely ; and if I fail in the
attempt, I shall not have lived wholly in vain.'

" In the admiration I feel for him, I may far-
ther be permitted to add, that if any man ever
possessed in himself the resources and means by
which such noble designs were to be achieved, that
man w^as James Brooke ! Of the most enlarged
view^s ; truthful and generous ; quick to acquire
and appreciate ; excelling in every manly sport
and exercise ; elegant and accomplished ; ever ac-
cessible ; and above all, prompt and determined to
redress injury and relieve misfortune, — he was of
all others the best qualified to impress the native
mind with the highest opinion of English charac-
ter. How he has succeeded, the influence he has
acquired, and the benefits he has conferred, his
own uncoloured narrative contained in the follow-
ing pages best declares, and impresses on the world
a lasting lesson of the good . '