The Expedition to Borneo of H.M.S. Dido: For the Suppression of Piracy

A vivid, firsthand dispatch from the age of sail and empire. Captain Henry Keppel commands HMS Dido to Borneo in the wake of the Chinese War, tasked with eradicating piracy in these treacherous waters. What he finds is far more complex than simple suppression: the island is a chessboard of local power, where the ambitious English adventurer James Brooke has made himself Rajah of Sarawak, dreaming of bringing trade and 'civilization' to the region. Keppel chronicles his diplomatic dances with Brooke and the powerful Rajah Muda Hassim, his encounters with the Dyaks and other native peoples, and the uneasy calculus of colonial power meeting indigenous politics. Written with the confident prose of a man who commanded warships, this is both a ripping adventure narrative and an invaluable primary document revealing how Britain extended its reach into Southeast Asia, one treaty and show of force at a time. For readers hungry for the real history behind the myths of the White Rajahs, or anyone who wonders how empire actually worked on the ground.