FUNERAL OF HIS ELDEST SON

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Grammar School at Ipswich, where he had been sent in the previous February. Dr. Rigaud, who was then head master and some time after became Bishop of Antigua, where he died, was very anxious to receive him, and sent his own son of the same age into the school with him; but it must be doubted whether the child was strong enough for so large a school, and, although he was kindly treated, his health failed, and he succumbed on receiving a chance blow from a cricket-ball and a chill in the cricket field. He was buried in the centre of the school chapel amid much lamentation; and certainly no more piteous sight ever struck the eyes of the narrator than that of his little coffin lying in the midst of his school-fellows great and small, but all in health and vigour, around it. He had never been a strong child, for the keen north-east wind at Norwich on a bright sunny day had stricken him when an infant, and his chest never wholly recovered it.

His death is mentioned by his mother in the following letter, which was written to a relative of Mrs. McDougall's, a lady whom they had wished to accompany them to Sarawak, a fund having been raised for sending out female missionaries, of which her sister-in-law was treasurer :—

7 Hyde Park Gate South: June 11, 1854.

'I do not know whether Ellen Robson has written to you since last Wednesday, when we all met at Ipswich for the funeral of our child, both theirs and our best and brightest hope. We laid our part of him in the chapel of the school, in the centre where no foot will pass, and where God's word will be read over him every Sunday. I think we all felt, as we stood by the coffin so dear to us, that our darling was not there but mingling his voice with the choir who sang over the grave and joining us in our thanksgiving to God, who had delivered him from this evil world to await us in Heaven. And, as John says, time is short, and we have already climbed the hill of life from whence we ought to see even through our

tears the land of promise. It makes one in love with death to lose so many sweet ones, and most of all our first-born and dearest boy. But he was spared all the sorrow of parting with us, which had long lain heavily on his gentle loving spirit, and, thank God, the pain and the fear of death came not near to him. His Saviour gathered him in His arms and laid him in His bosom without a struggle. For all this we are thankful and desire to be patient. The sting of our leaving England is taken away, and at Sarawak we shall feel our Charley nearer to us than he would have been for many years had he lived.

'And to Sarawak we turn for comfort, for in this world action is the best balm for a wounded spirit. I think we both begin to long for our departure for our Eastern home, and our quiet round of duties there and wholesome excitement. I am writing to you to-day to ask you in Frank's name and my own whether you will go with us. Some little time ago I wrote you an account of our desire to take a lady with us, or two if we could get money enough, who would help me in forming a girls' school and in visiting the women of Sarawak, either Malay or Dyak, wherever we could gain entrance into their houses. Alone I can do little, but with companions I think much good might be effected by such a system of visiting and teaching by word of mouth.'

This letter was unsuccessful so far as it sought to enlist a recruit, for neither the recipient nor another lady who is mentioned as contemplating joining the mission ultimately consented to do so.

With Charley's death their misfortunes with their children came to an end. After Mab's birth they were blessed with three other children, two girls and a boy, all of whom did well and lived to survive their parents.

During the eighteen months which followed their arrival in London Mr. McDougall was engaged for the Society and his own mission, and in the meantime the project of the bishopric

CHOSEN AS BISHOP

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was pushed on by its supporters. There does not appear to have been any difficulty as to the funds; a large endowment was not sought for, nor was it intended to alter the character of the undertaking. The main point,' wrote the Rev. Ernest Hawkins, the wise and influential Secretary to the S.P.G., to whom more than perhaps to any other man the rapid extension of the Colonial Episcopate was due, 'was to add to the existing missionary the spiritual powers belonging to a bishop, and not to make him less a missionary than before, or much to add to the state or expense of his living. Some additional income was, however, required from the nature of the case, and, an endowment fund producing in interest about 350% having been raised, this income was added to the missionary salary of 300%, which was still to be allowed by the Society. No question arose as to whether Mr. McDougall should be chosen as the first bishop of the new see, if see there was to be. It was recognised at home that he was the man most suited to the post, and it was felt that the sacrifices and domestic sorrows which he had incurred had given him a special claim. Even the death of poor Charley, if we may judge from the letters of some of his most eminent friends, notably the Archbishop, the Bishop of London (Dr. Blomfield), and Professor Jacobson, must have had an influence, by exciting their personal sympathies, in determining them to carry the project through; his case not being either the first or the last in which, owing to the good feeling which exists in the highest quarters in such matters, bereavement has been followed by preferment in the Church.

There were many technical difficulties. The erection of a missionary bishopric beyond the dominions of the Crown was then thought impossible, and the royal licence was required as a condition precedent to obtaining episcopal orders from the bishops of the Anglican Church. These difficulties were solved by taking the title of the new bishopric from the island of Labuan. This little island, no larger than the Isle of Wight, gave, Mrs. McDougall says, only the English title to a

bishopric which was then almost entirely a missionary one. was the only spot of land in those seas under the immediate control of the Colonial Office; the Straits Settlements, including Singapore, Penang, and Malacca, being then under the Government of India. It was not until the transfer of the Indian Government to the Crown, and the abolition of the East India Company, that there was any alteration in the jurisdiction, so that until then, although the Bishop of Labuan became virtually Bishop of the Straits, all formal acts performed by him in his character of bishop, such as the consecration of a new cemetery at Singapore, were done under the special powers of a commission from the Bishop of Calcutta, just as the latter required a commission from England for the consecration of the church at Kuchin, which was out of his diocese.

He was anxious to return to Borneo, having been delayed longer than he wished by these negotiations. It was therefore decided that his consecration should take place at Calcutta, and that he should proceed there in October by sea, to be followed by a commission to be sent out overland to authorise the Bishop of Calcutta and his suffragans to consecrate, whenever three bishops could be assembled together for that purpose.

At the Commemoration before he left England he received the honorary degree of D.C.L. from the University of Oxford. No other very notable events are remembered as having occurred in the summer of 1854 except their visits to Little Massingham, in Norfolk, and Kilgraston, in Scotland. In the former Mr. McDougall laid the foundations of a warm friendship with the Rev. C. D. Brereton and his family, which lasted through life, and in the latter with Lady Lucy and Mr. John Grant and their children. In the case of the Grants, this visit was followed by taking back with them to Sarawak their youngest son Alan, a child of eleven years, whose health was delicate, but which Mr. McDougall thought, and as the event proved rightly, would be established in a warm climate. Alan Grant was for some years a resident with Mrs.

RETURN TO THE EAST

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McDougall, his expenses being of course borne by the laird, whose name is already familiar to us as the father of Mr. Charles Grant, who was long one of the Rajah's most trusted lieutenants in his Government, and is now himself Laird of Kilgraston. But the visit was most memorable in their then making the acquaintance of Mr. Grant's second daughter Annie, who afterwards married Captain Brooke. She, as we shall hereafter see, has passed away, but to those who can remember her at home, or galloping her pony over Kilgraston Moors, her memory comes back as that of an ideal woman to lead at once a refined and an adventurous life. It is somewhat hazardous to describe a lady, but when Mrs. McDougall wrote to her sister in Norfolk depicting Captain Brooke and the woman that she would desire to see his wife and the future Ranee of Sarawak, we may fairly say that she must have been gifted with something like second sight. 'She must have something distingué about her, a graceful dark creature, cheerful, for he is grave; chatty, for he is reserved; musical if possible. She must like the country and retirement, and yet enjoy seeing her house full, and have a talent for entertaining all ranks, classes, and nations. I can promise her a very superior husband, handsome and with a most winning smile, thoughtful and affectionate, with excellent abilities and judg ment, a good temper and high principles; moreover, a soft heart easily influenced by love, but rather fastidious and a little inclined to satire. He is an especial favourite of mine, but I have only lately learnt to know him well; he is so fond of wrapping himself in a mist.'

It was in the autumn of 1854 that Mrs. McDougall and her sister Mrs. Colenso last met. The latter is still living, but was never afterwards in England at the same time as Mrs. McDougall.

The mission party was now a large one-Dr. and Mrs. McDougall, their child and an ayah, the Rev. J. Grayling, Miss Williams, and another lady proceeding to join the mission,

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