In October 1838 he had published a prospectus of his voyage, reflecting the influence of George Windsor Earl's The Eastern Seas (1837) and indicating his desire to counter Dutch influence in those areas of the eastern archipelago not divided into clear spheres of influence by the Anglo-Dutch treaty of 1824. After a practice voyage in the Mediterranean in late 1836, he sailed on 16 December 1838 for Singapore. there is no pursuit for which you are less suited'Īfter his father died on 12 December 1835, leaving him an unencumbered 30,000 pounds, Brooke purchased a schooner of 142 tons which he named the Royalist. There was reason now to accept what his father had told him earlier: 'about trade you are quite ignorant, and. In 1834 he purchased a brig, the Findlay, and made an unsuccessful trading voyage to China. Presumably about then he had the idea of exploring the Indian archipelago. Unable to reach India before the expiry of his five years' leave, Brooke resigned his commission and returned home in 1831 on the Castle Huntley after visiting China, Penang, Malacca, and Singapore. There is no truth in the often-repeated story that the wound he suffered in Burma was to the genitals, and it may be significant that during his long recuperation at Bath he was briefly engaged, possibly to the daughter of a Bath clergyman. He was awarded a wound pension of 70 pounds per annum. Promoted lieutenant in August 1821 and sub-assistant commissary-general in May 1822, he commanded a troop of irregular cavalry in the First Anglo-Burmese War and was seriously wounded in one lung during an action at Rangpur, Assam, on 27 January 1825.

On, aged sixteen, he entered the service of the East India Company as an ensign attached to the 2/6th regiment Bengal native infantry, and transferred to 18th native infantry in 1824.

When his parents returned to live in Bath, he joined them there and was placed under the charge of a hapless tutor. His only formal schooling was as a boarder at Norwich grammar school, which he hated and ran away from after two or three years. He remained in India until the age of twelve when he was sent to stay with his paternal grandmother in Reigate.

Sir James Brooke was born at Secrore, a suburb of Benares, India, on 29 April 1803, the second son of Thomas Brooke, chief judge of the East India Company's court at Moorshabad, and his Scottish second wife, Anna Maria (nee Stuart).

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