In 1846, Phlegethon ship commanded by Captain Rodney Mundy and James Brooke sail up the Rajang River to combat Dayak piracy that frequently threatened the borders of Sarawak (Kuching area). On 29 June, Rodney and James arrived at Kanowit and their first contact with the "Kanowit" people there was peaceful. In 1851, Fort Emma was built by the Brookes although Kanowit was still under the control of Bruneian empire. The fort was named after the sister of James Brooke, Emma Brooke. Emma Brooke was also the mother of the second Rajah of Sarawak, Charles Anthony Brooke. In 1853, James Brooke was able to take over Rajang River and its surrounding settlements from the Brunei Sultanate. Fort Emma offered protection against Dayak piracy along the Rajang river. Therefore, Hokkien Chinese from Singapore and Fujian province of China came to settle in Kanowit during the 1870s, while Sibu was still a small Malay village at that time. Chinese traders from Singapore brought clothes, jars, salt, and other daily necessities in exchange for rattan, hides of wild cattle, camphor, rhinoceros horns, and monkeys gall stones. The Cantonese people later arrived in the 1880s. They were involved in timber exports. The Foochow people arrived here from Sibu in 1910. Besides, Malay villages also established just immediate south to the fort. In 1883, Father Edmund Dunn of St Joseph College, Mill Hill, England, established the first Roman Catholic Mission headquarters at Kanowit. The missionary at that time worked almost exclusively amongst the Iban people In 1885, St Francis Xavier Church was built. The church was demolished in 1967 to pave the way for new modern building construction. Later a mission hospital and a primary school was built. A boat to bring emergency cases to Sibu was provided.