 James Brooke was appointed the White <unk> of <unk> ( now known as <unk> ) by the <unk> Empire in 1841 . In 1861 , the Sultanate of <unk> ceded the <unk> region to Brooke . <unk> was a small settlement at that time . A wooden fort named Fort <unk> was built in the village , named after Sir Henry <unk> , who was a close friend of the <unk> James and Charles Brooke . Sir Henry <unk> was responsible for crushing the <unk> piracy in the <unk> between 1840 and 1850 . Meanwhile , Charles Brooke was a nephew of James Brooke and would later become the latter 's successor as the second <unk> of <unk> . <unk> <unk> , an Italian botanist , visited <unk> in 1867 . On 4 August , he started his journey on a gunboat named " <unk> " , which was to send $ 6 @,@ 000 to <unk> for concessions being made to James Brooke in the <unk> and <unk> regions . He went to <unk> before coming back to <unk> . He dropped off at <unk> River on 13 August 1867 . His observations of the village were recorded as follows : 
