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In December he complains still of his health, but says, 'I shall make my visit to Labuan this next year as early as possible to avoid the unhealthy season.' At this time also he had the pleasure of receiving a letter from Mr. Harvey, the representative at Singapore of the Borneo Company, to say that he had instructions from the directors in London to pay him 2001. a year for three years for the establishment of a new mission at a place called Si-Munjen, on the Sadong river.

In a letter written in the first week of 1857, Mrs. McDougall mentions that on December 27 preceding, Miss Woolley, afterwards Mrs. Chambers, had arrived. I am delighted with her; she is gentle, kind, sensible, and clever; I think she likes the look of Sarawak, and the general prospect before her, and is very easily pleased and contented.' She has taken the boys' singing regularly in hand for Sundays, and means to organise a general singing class for everybody who will learn to sing in parts, and give an interest to the Sunday services. We are to have a musical service for Easter Sunday.' 'We had an evening party on December 31, and it passed off very nicely, without any over-riotousness. At midnight the boys ran to church and rang the new year in, and then sang the Morning Hymn; after which they were very glad to come home and eat sandwiches and cakes and go to bed. We went to bed at 2 A.M., which I thought quite late enough, as next day were the boat races.' At these races the children appeared; Mab very gay in pink and white sent from home, Edith in a blue muslin, 'which her ayah had sat up at night to make her, and which, therefore, I had not the heart to refuse her wearing, although it became her very ill.'

On January 2 the Bishop writes: 'One of our great drawbacks is that, whether we will or no, we must take strangers in when they come, as the Rajah's and this are the public houses, and it often entails no small cost upon us in this most expensive of places, especially with our missionaries, who

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think it is the Bishop's business to fatten them up when they get thin upon their jungle fare, and it suits my vein though not my pocket to do so. Thanks for the preserved meats; they are a capital stand-by. We are thankful for them, as they cost less than half the Singapore price for such things; 100 per cent. is the least we have to pay beyond English prices for goods. The Rajah was not here at Christmas, so we had all the Christians to dinner-seventy fed at the school-house, including school children, and eighteen at our own table-so we were very gay.

'The church was beautifully dressed. I had two communions and five services, English and native, in the course of the day, and at night magic lantern and Christmas hymns, so I had a pretty good share of work for an invalid. Harriette and Mrs. Harvey were as busy as bees with the domestic and pudding arrangements. We killed a bull and a sheep, and luxuriated for once in beef and mutton. Harvey gave me the sheep, I bought the bull in Labuan. We have had nice. cool healthy weather lately, and Christmas was a delightfully cool day for us. As soon as the weather moderates I am going to Sadong to see about a house for a missionary, and I purpose holding a monthly service there myself until a missionary comes; this is the sort of work I want a vessel for; I could live in her and make my voyages without the risk and exposure of boats. Chambers and Johnson got into trouble between this and Sadong the last time they came-had to leave their boat and walk for miles in the mud and surf until they found a canoe, in which they paddled themselves up here, some thirty miles. I am getting too old for that sort of fun, and it makes me ill, moreover.'

On July 9 he enumerates the duties falling on him personally. I will just give you a brief sketch of the work of this station alone, that I am responsible for. First, there is the school, of which the teachers, Koch, Owen, Rijab, and Toon Fa, have to be instructed by me, to fit them for their present

and future work. Koch, indeed, I ordained deacon in September, to keep up the services whenever I go away on Sunday, which I have not done but once since, to confirm at Lundu; but he is still my pupil, and is not yet licensed to preach. Then there is the general superintendence of the school and the examination of the boys, which I conduct myself always. The daily services of the church are always said by me morning and evening, also the weekly evening lectures to the Chinese Christians, and all parochial visiting and work, which is now something, falls on me, and also every case of sickness among Europeans is, as it were, forced upon me, and will be until there is a medical man they can trust here. Then, on Sundays, bell rings at 7.30 A.M.; I then say the Litany or Communion Service alternately, and directly this is over Chinese morning service begins, which I conduct in Malay; I get home about a quarter or half-past ten. At II A.M. English service; I read prayers, &c., and preach (Mr. Koch plays the harmonium and reads the lessons only); afternoon Sunday school; 4.30 P.M. English service; 5.30 Chinese prayers-which last I leave to Mr. Koch. In fact, on Sundays I am in church some five hours, working myself the whole time, and on Communion Sundays longer, as I have separate communions for natives and English. On all saints' days I give a lecture at morning service. This is the regular home work. Then there are to be visited once a month:

'I. Bow, twenty-five miles by water, and a ten miles' walk up the right branch of this river.

'2. Quop Dyaks, on a high hill about twenty miles from this up the river of that name.

'3. Sadong, or rather Simunjen, up the Sadong, which I reckon seventy miles by sea and river and land. Eight of my Europeans are there, and some of my Chinese Christians, and from eight to ten thousand Dyaks.'

This Simunjen, or Simunjan, was the station for which the Bornco Company's grant had been made.

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CHAPTER V.

SOCIAL LIFE AT SARAWAK.

BUT, hopeful as the prospects of the mission seemed in its early years, there were unexpected trials which beset it from its commencement. When Sir J. Brooke invited it to Sarawak it is certain that his motives were in the first instance political. He was anxious to civilise his people, and acknowledged in Christianity 'the highest form of religion,' and invited the Church of England to be the channel,' as his biographer writes, 'because he believed her to be the most free, as he trusted that she would be the most patient and loving,' of communions. But his views were scarcely those of the persons who set the Borneo Mission on foot. The conversion of the Malays was probably never contemplated by him at all, and that of the Dyaks was looked to as a counterpoise to Mohammedan influence, and very desirable as a matter of statecraft for the consolidation of the power of a European ruler. There was a strong element of scepticism or agnosticism in the little community, which soon showed itself.

At a very early date it was determined to try of what sort of stuff the new missionary was made, and after dinner at Government House words were spoken which it was impossible that a clergyman who was loyal to his faith could tolerate. McDougall did not hesitate for an instant, but rose from his chair and left the room, to be followed by the Rajah,

who lamented what had passed, and promised on his honour that it should not happen again. Nor did it in that offensive form, but the feelings which prompted it bore bitter fruit afterwards, and there was an undercurrent of opposition which may be traced in the events that followed. This story was told by the Bishop within the last two years of his life, but is also referred to in his most confidential letters to his brother-in-law. The position in which Mr. McDougall was placed was a difficult one. The English community was too small to ignore any part of it, nor could he well refuse to associate with any of its members, and the alternative that he adopted was, by steady kindness and constant exercise of influence for good, holding his own and preaching the truth, and in his medical capacity ministering to all in sickness, to seek to win rather than repel those who differed from him. It is certain that at one time he possessed great religious influence with the Rajah, whose turn of mind was sceptical and controversial rather than unbelieving, and this is proved by the Rajah's private letters to the Bishop, and perhaps by the history of his last years in Cornwall. Why then, it may be asked, revive forgotten controversies? The answer is clear. It is not desired to refer unnecessarily to any individual, far less to give any pain, but if this subject is wholly suppressed justice cannot be done either to the Bishop or his work. A good argument was the Rajah's delight, and all who knew Sarawak at the time of which we are writing speak of the noble library which he had collected-perfect, we are told, in everything except the classics in the original, which were presumably useless to those likely to consult it; all the poets, the best historians and essayists, books of reference, theology, and philosophy, from Hume and Toland to 'The Vestiges of Creation,' were collected in it, rendering all other teaching superfluous, and justifying every man who had the privilege of access in creating a summa theologia for himself. Fast and furious ran the arguments and debates on

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