In fact, it was during this interval of leisure that he embarked for China, and on his passage saw for the first time the Eastern Archipelago.  He was painfully interested in the condition of Borneo and Celebes, those great islands, sinking apparently into hopeless decay.  His sympathies were awakened by the sufferings of the helpless natives, and his indignation was aroused by the outrages of an unbridled piracy.  His feelings can be best gathered from his own language.  “These unhappy countries afford a striking proof how the fairest and richest lands under the sun may become degraded by a continuous course of oppression and misrule.  Whilst extravagant dreams of the progressive advancement of the human race are entertained, a large tract of the globe has been gradually relapsing into barbarism.  Whilst the folly of fashion requires an acquaintance with the deserts of Africa, and a most ardent thirst for a knowledge of the customs of Timbuctoo,—­whilst the trumpet tongue of many an orator excites thousands to the rational and charitable object of converting the Jews or of reclaiming the Gypsies,—­not a single prospectus is spread abroad, not a single voice is raised in Exeter Hall, to relieve the darkness of this paganism and the horrors of this slave-trade.  Under these circumstances I have considered that individual exertions may be usefully applied to rouse the zeal of slumbering philanthropy.”

The feelings thus awakened were not of a transient character.  His dreams henceforth were to visit these islands, see them for himself, study their natural history, understand their social condition, and ascertain what avenues could be opened for trade, and what steps taken to redeem the oppressed native races.

* * * * *

In 1835 the death of his father, leaving him master of an independent fortune, enabled him to realize his dreams.  He was a member of the Royal Yacht Club, as well as owner and commander of a yacht,—­a position which admitted him in foreign ports to all the privileges of an English naval officer.  In this little vessel he resolved to undertake an adventurous voyage of discovery.  He approached his enterprise with a wary forethought.  “I was convinced,” he says, “that it was necessary to form men to my purpose, and by a line of steady and kind conduct to raise up a personal regard for myself and an attachment to the vessel.”  He cruised three years in the Mediterranean, carefully selecting and training his crew.  He studied thoroughly the whole subject of the Eastern Archipelago, and acquainted himself as perfectly as possible with the minutiae of seamanship and with every useful art.  And when his preparations were all complete, on the 16th of December, 1838, he set sail for Singapore, in the yacht Royalist, a vessel of one hundred and forty-two tons, manned by twenty men and officers, with an armament of six six-pounders and a full supply of small arms of all sorts.  Such were the mighty resources wherewith he began an enterprise which has ended in raising him to the government of a petty kingdom, and to almost sovereign influence over the whole empire of Borneo Proper.