To prevent any further dispute with Brunei, Brooke hoped to reform the administration of the Sultanate and establish a pro-British government through Hashim and his brother Pengiran Badruddin. By October 1843, Brooke returned the two brothers to Brunei, bringing along Admiral Edward Belcher of the Royal Navy in HMS "Samarang" and the EIC "Phlegethon". The vessels anchored at the Sultan's audience chamber, requesting Pengiran Yusof's position as "Bendahara" to be replaced by Hashim and asking the Sultan to pledge to suppress piracy in his dominions, as well ceding the island of Labuan to the British (although the British government had not asked for this). The status of Brooke as a Rajah and consul for the British at the time also remained controversial in the United Kingdom as he was not recognised by the British government to represent the British subjects. Indirectly, Brooke had become involved in an internal dynastic dispute of Brunei. From 1844, Brooke actively assisted the suppression of piracy on the coasts of western and northern Borneo together with Admiral Henry Keppel in HMS "Dido" along with "Phlegethon"; where during the course of piracy suppression they encountered Mahkota, the former administrator of Kuching area who had formed an alliance with a Sea Dayak pirate chief on the Skrang River in Sarawak and captured him in the same year.