The desire to visit England was now strong upon the Rajah. Besides personal reasons, the wish to see his relations and friends, and to obtain change and rest, he also felt that he could effect more than by correspondence were he personally to interest Ministers in Bornean affairs and urge on them the necessity of a decided course for the suppression of piracy, which could be put down were a steady course pursued instead of mere convulsive efforts, and Sulu he wished to see crushed.[150] Sarawak, where all was peaceful, would be safe under the administration of his connection, Mr. A. C. Crookshank.[151] Labuan was established as a naval station under naval administration. Bruni had been reduced to subjection, and was powerless to give further trouble, and the coast was generally quiet; so, there being nothing requiring attention in the immediate future, he sailed from Singapore in July, and arrived in England early in October.
And now honours rained on him. He was presented with the freedom of the City of London; Oxford University conferred upon him the degree of LL.D.; he was graciously received at Windsor by the Queen and the Prince Consort; was appointed Governor of Labuan, and Commissioner and Consul-General in Borneo, and made a K.C.B.[152] The United Service, the Army and Navy, the Athenæum, Travellers, and other Clubs elected him an honorary member. He was lionised and fêted, and was received with marked distinction by every one, including Ministers.
He sailed from England on February 1, 1848, with his Labuan staff, in the _Mæander_, commanded by his old friend and ally, Captain Keppel, and having the present Rajah on board as sub-lieutenant.[153] After spending a few months in Singapore making preparations for the establishment of his new colony, he arrived at the Muaratebas entrance of the Sarawak river in September; here he left the _Mæander_, and was triumphantly escorted up-river by the whole Kuching population amidst general rejoicings.
He found affairs in his little raj had not been conducted quite so well as he could have wished, and that there were evidences of renewed activity on the part of the pirates. Pangiran Makota was in power at Bruni, and that was a menace to the good conduct of both the external and internal affairs of the Sultanate. The Sultan had been in direct communication with the Sekrang Dayaks, amongst whom both Sherip Mular and Sherip Ahmit were busy intriguing, and collecting the dissatisfied party which had been scattered. Hostile operations on the part of the Saribas were only checked by the arrival of the _Mæander_.