![BROOKE, James, Rajah of Sarawak (1803-68). Autograph letter signed (‘J Brooke’) to Colonel [?John William Thomas] Angelo, Sarawak, 1 September 1857.](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2017/CKS/2017_CKS_14301_0040_001(brooke_james_rajah_of_sarawak_autograph_letter_signed_to_colonel_john023212).jpg?w=1)
![BROOKE, James, Rajah of Sarawak (1803-68). Autograph letter signed (‘J Brooke’) to Colonel [?John William Thomas] Angelo, Sarawak, 1 September 1857.](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2017/CKS/2017_CKS_14301_0040_000(brooke_james_rajah_of_sarawak_autograph_letter_signed_to_colonel_john023203).jpg?w=1)
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BROOKE, James, Rajah of Sarawak (1803-68). Autograph letter signed (‘J Brooke’) to Colonel [?John William Thomas] Angelo, Sarawak, 1 September 1857.
Three pages, 180 x 117mm, bifolium, (transcription on the verso in another hand).
‘Never had men less cause for complaint, or bad conduct, but urged by their national vanity, and the dictates of ambition, they risked all and lost all’: Sir James Brooke writes with disgust of the so-called ‘Chinese Rebellion’ of Sarawak in 1857. He thanks his correspondent ‘for your congratulations on my escape from the Chinese, who for their own purpose tried to get rid of me. I had fed the greatest number of these rascals when starving, and established them in this country, til growing over fat and saucy, they resolved on seizing the government. Never had men less cause for complaint, or bad conduct, but urged by their national vanity, and the dictates of ambition, they risked all and lost all’. Brooke goes on to assure his correspondent that order now reigns after the ‘sharp but short’ attack.
Sir James Brooke, first Rajah of Sarawak, narrowly escaped with his life during the 1857 ‘Chinese Rebellion’, when 4,000 Hakka Chinese goldminers descended on the capital at Kuching with the aim of establishing an autonomous government. The defeat of the rebels was largely thanks to the Borneo Company's steamer, and Charles Brooke and his Dayak forces from Lingga, and the retribution of the shaken Rajah was terrible; hundreds of the miners were killed whilst attempting to flee across the border into Dutch Borneo, and some of their heads smoked in the Kuching bazaar.
Three pages, 180 x 117mm, bifolium, (transcription on the verso in another hand).
‘Never had men less cause for complaint, or bad conduct, but urged by their national vanity, and the dictates of ambition, they risked all and lost all’: Sir James Brooke writes with disgust of the so-called ‘Chinese Rebellion’ of Sarawak in 1857. He thanks his correspondent ‘for your congratulations on my escape from the Chinese, who for their own purpose tried to get rid of me. I had fed the greatest number of these rascals when starving, and established them in this country, til growing over fat and saucy, they resolved on seizing the government. Never had men less cause for complaint, or bad conduct, but urged by their national vanity, and the dictates of ambition, they risked all and lost all’. Brooke goes on to assure his correspondent that order now reigns after the ‘sharp but short’ attack.
Sir James Brooke, first Rajah of Sarawak, narrowly escaped with his life during the 1857 ‘Chinese Rebellion’, when 4,000 Hakka Chinese goldminers descended on the capital at Kuching with the aim of establishing an autonomous government. The defeat of the rebels was largely thanks to the Borneo Company's steamer, and Charles Brooke and his Dayak forces from Lingga, and the retribution of the shaken Rajah was terrible; hundreds of the miners were killed whilst attempting to flee across the border into Dutch Borneo, and some of their heads smoked in the Kuching bazaar.
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