their want of unanimity, and the variety of their denominations, they have nevertheless founded Churches which have experienced and triumphed over persecution, until we are now told that Christianity has taken its place among the religiones licite of the empire. To the cause of law and order at Sarawak its reception must, even to a limited extent, have been an unmixed good, and a notable proof of the fidelity of the converts to their European teachers may be found in the fact that had their warnings conveyed by the Bishop to the Sarawak Government been attended to, the great rebellion of the Chinese gold-workers, which nearly destroyed the settlement in 1857, might have been prevented. It must not be supposed that the heathen Chinese approved the adoption of Christianity by his fellows. Writing in Nov. 1857 on this subject Mr. McDougall says: 'Our Chinese converts and catechumens progress satisfactorily and attend both the daily services and the cottage lectures very regularly. Some evil-disposed persons among their countrymen revile them, and subject them to all sorts of petty annoyances because they have turned Christians, but it is very encouraging to see them steadfast under this trial of their faith. One argument used by the gainsayers is a quaint one and will amuse you, as it did me when I heard it. They say that God is very manifestly displeased with me for persuading the Chinese to forsake the religion of their fathers; that whereas the Padre used to be an active man and walk like others on two legs, since he has led the Chinese to follow him he has been compelled to crawl about on four legs like a beast (alluding to my crutches), and that, as God has punished him for misleading them, so will He punish those that follow him. However, in spite of this threatened Nebuchadnezzar-like fate, new inquirers come, and the old ones continue.' And in the May following, mentioning four baptisms of children, he adds that three Chinese women had offered themselves as candidates, of whom the cases of two were remarkable. 'One was the wife of a DEATH OF ANOTHER CHILD 91 Chinese writer or teacher, who when her husband was baptised went into a paroxysm of grief, declaring that she would leave both him and her children, as they had ceased to be Chinamen. She was for some time a great trouble to the poor fellow, but has at last brought her two infants for baptism and proposes herself as a catechumen. She is what is very rare out of China, a true born and bred Chinese. The other was the wife of one of their most consistent converts, a Government workman. He was baptised last August, and was much annoyed and railed at by his fellows on that account, and his wife took the persecution so much to heart, that some weeks after, as I left the church, he came running up in the greatest distress declaring that she had poisoned herself while we were in church, and was nearly dead. I immediately went down and found her as he had said. She had swallowed a large dose of opium, and I was obliged to use the strongest measures to restore her, and with God's help brought her round, though not without great difficulty.' Under the circumstances of the mission, Mr. Horsburg, with his knowledge of Chinese, was evidently the man to leave in charge at Sarawak, with the assistance of Mr. Fox. Mr. Nicholls was to return to Bengal by the advice of the Bishop of Calcutta, and Mr. Chambers was settled at Sakarran. The Rev. W. H. Gomes, a Bishop's College man of Cingalese extraction, but described as well-informed, modest, and ready to work, had instructions to proceed to Lundu, where he was afterwards for many years established, and in this manner Mr. McDougall's arrangements for his clergy were made. At the end of July they returned to Singapore, looking out for a ship. On August 7 he writes to this effect, and adds: 'Meanwhile my dear wife has again had another trial and sad disappointment in the loss of another boy, who was born on the morning of the 1st. He came into the world to all appearance healthy and strong, but notwithstanding every care and precaution on the part of Dr. Oxley, a very experienced prac titioner, who attended, it pleased God to call the infant to Himself a few hours after his birth, just as was the case in the three preceding instances. I am now very glad that this did not happen at sea, or at Sarawak, as my wife's mind is more at rest, so far that she feels that everything was done for her that could have been done.' In the former cases she had had no help, alas! but that of her husband. Absolute rest for a time was then necessary for her, and as she favourably recovered he left her at Singapore to make a rapid visit to Labuan and Sarawak, and proposing they should both leave together by the October mail. During the interval she wrote to her brother (August 30, 1852) rejoicing over their expected meeting, but she says: 'During these five years I have had nearly all my sorrows, for I have lost five children, and I do not think that I can ever forget this, whatever else I may be talking or thinking of. You must not expect to see me very sad or grave—I do not think I am that- but I am more absent than formerly and always have this on my mind.' 'I am living a quiet and pleasant life with dear Mrs. Man, whose husband is at Moulmein.' After such trials many people might ask how she could ever think of returning again to the East, and whether she did not hate the country which had inflicted them. A year before she answered that question herself. In 1851, shortly after the death of her infant, she wrote to her sister-in-law: 'When I think of our little Edward, Tom, and Robert lying side by side at Sarawak, and Harry at Singapore, I wonder that I do not hate the place and everything belonging to it. However, it is equally true that I do not, that the place seems consecrated to me by sufferings, and that I feel that it is really worth while living here without children, that Frank may follow his vocation.' When he returned to her on September 25, 1852, he found that a serious accident had befallen her. She had recovered from her illness, when, about the 15th of that month, a friend, Madame Gautier, the wife of the ACCIDENT TO MRS. MCDOUGALL 93 French Consul, 'a very lovely and charming person,' had sent her pony-carriage for her that she might spend the day with her, and the pony descending a hill bolted and fell, rolling over and over down a steep pitch. The carriage, a palanquin, was smashed. Mrs. McDougall escaped, but with a fractured arm and severe contusions. Both bones of the right arm were broken, and she was greatly shaken; but when the time came for leaving by the October mail, although the doctors counselled delay, she would not consent to stay behind or linger at Singapore, where their passage by the steamer had been taken; and, as reported by her husband's letters to her brother from Point de Galle and Malta, she was rewarded for her courage by a rapid recovery. CHAPTER IV. SECOND VISIT TO THE EAST-CHURCH WORK IN BORNEO- THE October mail from Singapore brought them to London in November, and they were met at the Waterloo Station by their brother and sister, who took them straight to her mother's house at Kensington and there established them at her brother's, which was to be their headquarters while in England. They had the delight of receiving their boy from the hands of their friends, Mr. and Mrs. Robson. In January 1853 Mr. McDougall made a long report to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel-which had now taken up the work of the Borneo Church Mission-on the subject of his operations in Borneo. He recapitulated his plans, with which we are already familiar, proposing, in addition the establishment of a mission ship, the enlargement of the medical part of his work, and the gradual introduction by the missionaries of industrial and agricultural teaching among the Dyaks. June 1853 found them at the rectory of Forncett St. Mary, in Norfolk, with her sister, Mrs. Colenso, and the future Bishop of Natal, and there her eldest daughter was born, Mary Colenso McDougall, who is still living, and is so often mentioned as Mab in her mother's letters. The birth of this child was a great cause of rejoicing to her parents, who had suffered such distressing bereavements with their children. But their sufferings on this score were not over, for in the same month in the following year they lost their eldest boy, who died at the |