Pirate hunter James Brooke peered helplessly through his telescope as the small spy boat he had sent ahead was surrounded by hundreds of merciless killers.
It was August 19, 1844 when Borneo’s “White Rajah” and his 200-strong crew arrived at the mouth of the Sakharan River, a pirate stronghold.
A lightweight boat went to scout the area, but it was suddenly ambushed by six canoes of around 100 men armed with spears and poisoned blow darts.
All 16 crew members were killed but the hunters’ firepower – supported by a Royal Navy warship – was far superior, and they won a fierce battle of cannons, blunderbusses and cutlasses.
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The clash was the deadliest yet in Brooke’s campaign to eliminate the fearsome pirates who had been terrorising the seas around Borneo for decades.
And it established him as a revered leader whose family would rule Borneo’s Sarawak kingdom for the next 100 years.
His story is now being told in a new film, Edge of the World, starring Jonathan Rhys Meyers as James Brooke, alongside co-stars Dominic Monaghan, Ralph Ineson and Josie Ho.
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Brooke’s exploits on the South East Asian island made him one of the most romantic figures of the Victorian age, a dashing brave adventurer who was knighted in 1847.
The Tudors star Jonathan believes Brooke was actually a complicated man, wracked by shame and self-doubt, who was “running away” from the disappointment he’d caused his family back in England.
Jonathan, whose own struggles with alcohol have led to him to seek refuge from the limelight, felt a strong connection. He says: “No one runs away to the other side of the world because they’re having a good time at home.
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“He was looking to run away and find paradise, a place he could hide from what he had done back in England and India. Or maybe not hide, maybe to explore and heal.
“It’s the shame of a man who wanted to lose himself in another world. Yet he ended up bringing a lot of it with him.”
The White Rajahs’ rule ended in 1946 when Anthony Brooke ceded it to the British Crown, making Sarawak Britain’s last colonial acquisition. It was granted self-government in 1963, when it became a founding member of Malaysia.
Irishman Jonathan stresses the history is difficult. Having grown up in India with Indian friends, Brooke was not your typical colonialist. Yet he was still handed rule over a foreign land.
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“I’m from a colonised country,” Jonathan says. “It’s the same in 1841 as it was in 2021 – the most powerful countries enforce their will on other countries. So it will be difficult.”
Born in Benares, India, in 1803, Brooke was the son of an English judge who worked for the East India Company.
Aged 12, he was sent to a Norwich boarding school, but ran away.
His parents retired to Bath and had him tutored at home. He returned to India as a young man to join the East India Company’s Bengal Army but was shot during a battle in 1825.
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Quite where the bullet hit him was never confirmed but many historians believe it was in the most intimate part of the male anatomy.
During a five-year convalescence, aided by daily cold baths, he began reading books about the Far East.
In 1829, he attempted to return to duty in India but was shipwrecked off the Isle of Wight and had a relapse.
An 1834 trade mission to China ended after he lost all his money. His father told him: “About trade you are quite ignorant, and… there is no pursuit for which you are less suited.”
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Undeterred, after his father died in 1835 he used his £30,000 inheritance to purchase a schooner, which he named The Royalist, leading his crew on another adventure to Borneo in the South China Sea.
He arrived in 1839 to find a region facing an uprising by local Malays against the Sultan of Brunei.
Brooke helped suppress the rebellion, and the grateful Sultan appointed him the Rajah of Borneo’s northern kingdom of Sarawak, a vast area of swamp, jungle and river, populated by the indigenous Dyak people.
One of the Brooke’s first moves was to outlaw the centuries-old Dyak tradition of headhunting.
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Locals marked important life events by killing someone from another village, and returning with their head to display.
If a Dyak husband failed to present a human skull after the birth of his child it was feared the newborn would be ill or die. Likewise, no Dyak went courting without the head of a woman or child to present to his intended.
As self-appointed supreme judge, Brooke presided over court sessions in the front room of his house, often accompanied by his pet orangutan, Betsy.
It was Brooke’s campaign against the Dyak sea pirates, who would raid local villages as well as attacking merchant ships, which would establish him as a powerful leader.
A series of skirmishes over five years ended on July 31, 1849 when Brooke attacked the main pirate base. Several thousand were killed on the pirates’ side, including women and children, with 29 British casualties.
Back in England there were protests in Parliament, but in Sarawak he was still respected, with some believing he was a demi-god with magical powers.
He never married and before his death in 1868, he nominated his nephew Charles to succeed him.
Historian Tom Williams, author of The White Rajah, says: “After the destruction of the pirates there was more security for the locals. And the eradication of headhunting meant people could trade more easily.”
- Edge Of The World is out to buy or rent on streaming platforms now.