THE CHINESE INSURRECTION 155 in the boat with Stahl and Kimchack, one of our schoolboys, whose family were moving away in the schooner. I found the deck covered with Chinese, and when I said to the Portuguese captain, "Where is the little cabin Mr. Ruppell promised me that I should have?" he answered, "Oh, ma'am, pray go back to your boat; I have neither water nor fuel for the people who are already on board. The cabin is filled with the family and friends of the Chinese owner of this schooner, and I cannot give you even room to sit down anywhere." It was indeed true. My friend the court scribe's wife, said, “Come and sit by me on deck. But the children-they cannot be exposed day and night on deck." "Oh, well, there is no other place for them." So I jumped into the lifeboat again and reclaimed my treasures. “Rather," said Miss Woolley and I, “die on shore than in that horrid schooner." Indeed, we felt quite cheerful now we had the boat to ourselves, and Kimchack said he had already been two nights on board the "Good Luck," and had had no room to lie down. There we were, however, in the middle of the river, with no one to row the boat, and Stahl could not move it by himself. At this moment a small boat pulled alongside and Mr. Helms's face appeared in the darkness. We were truly glad to see him, and he, faint and exhausted with wandering all day in the jungle, was thankful for a glass of wine, which was soon got out of the provision basket. Then we opened a tin of soup, and fed our tired and hungry children, who behaved all through these terrible days as if it was a picnic excursion got up for their amusement. 'They enjoyed everything, and were no trouble at all, neither Alan nor Mab. Edith was a baby, and suffered very much from want of proper food; but that was later on. Mr Helms and his crew rowed our boat into Jernang Creek, where there were some Malay houses. In one of these he and Alan went to sleep, but he advised us to remain in the boat until the morning. We laid Mab and Edith on one of the seats; Miss Woolley lay on the other, and I sat at the bottom of the boat to prevent the children from falling off. The mosquitos were numerous on that mud bank, and I was very glad when the morning dawned. At six o'clock Mr. Helms came to say we could have an empty Malay house on shore for a few days, so we gladly mounted up the landing-place and found a kind and hospitable reception from our Malay friends. 'Late on Saturday night I had a note from my husband, saying that he thought that we might return to Sarawak, for all was quiet, and he hoped that the Rajah would come back early the next morning.' This they did, but only to find the Malay town on fire and all panic and confusion. 'We lay off the town in the lifeboat, and saw one boat after another rowing fast towards us; in one Mr. Koch, the missionary, with a number of schoolboys; in another Mrs. Crookshank, laid on a mattress, Mrs. Stahl, and Miss Coomes, and the schoolgirls; then the Channons families and some Chinese; then the Singsongs family and more boys. "Where is the Bishop?" I shouted. "In the Rajah's war-boat. We had the greatest difficulty in getting boats enough for us. The Chinese were running up to the house when he sent us off." This was an anxious moment; but before long a message arrived from my husband to return to Jernang and wait for him there. Our Malay friends then left us to join their families anchored in boats by the banks, and I filled the lifeboat with the schoolchildren to lighten the other boats. Then we pulled slowly back against the tide to Jernang. The little landing-place was crowded when we arrived. I had the greatest difficulty in persuading the Malays to give shelter to the Chinese Christians and children. I answered for their good behaviour, but all Chinese, whether rebels or no, were in sufficiently bad odour. 'No sooner was all arranged than the Bishop appeared in his little boat. It was like receiving him from the dead. Presently appeared the Rajah's war-boat, he standing in the stern. We all ran down to meet him and Mr. Crookshank, and take them to Bertha, who had been carried into a house. THE CHINESE INSURRECTION 157 The Bishop then decided what to do with his large party. Mr. Helms, who had a schooner close by in which he was going to Sambas to seek assistance from the Dutch, offered to take Miss Woolley, Miss Coomes, and two of our eldest schoolboys with him, but they ultimately returned to Sarawak by the steamer. The rest of us could go to Linga, where there was a fort, as a little pinnace belonging to Mr. Steele lay handy at the mouth of the river. The Chinese, however, implored to go with us; and, indeed, it would have been cruel to leave them a prey to the Malays, the bad Chinese, and the Dyaks. The Bishop, therefore, packed all our Chinese into the lifeboat, which was attached by a rope to the pinnace, so that we were all together. It was nearly dark when we weighed anchor and left the mouth of the river. There was a tiny cabin just large enough to hold Bertha on her mattress, a fowl-house into which our native children crept, an open hold where we women sat on our bundles with our children in our arms, and there was a place for cargo forward, where the men settled themselves. The night was very dark and wet, and the deck leaked upon us, so that we and our bags and bundles were soon wet through. But we neither heeded the rain nor felt the cold. We had eaten nothing since early morning, but were not hungry. Although for several nights we could scarcely be said to have slept, we were not sleepy. A deep thankfulness took possession of my soul; all our dear ones were spared to us. My children were in my arms, my husband paced the deck over my head. I seemed to have no cares, and to be able to trust to God for the future, who had been so merciful to us hitherto. I remember, too, that when Mrs. Stahl opened the provision basket and gave us each a slice of bread and meat, how very good it was, although we had not thought of wanting it.' On reaching Linga they took refuge in the fort, and on the next day, when Mr. C. Johnson joined them from Banting, moved to his house, which he kindly placed at their disposal, but which they had found shut up on their arrival. Their first care was for Mrs. Crookshank, and it is pleasant to be able to state that eventually she completely recovered from her very serious wounds. They suffered much, however, as already related, from starvation and bad water at this place, and became seriously ill from these causes, following on the exposure and excitement of their flight; and after a detention of some weeks, including a few days at Banting with Mr. Chambers, started, as we have seen, for Sarawak. They then left for Singapore, from whence Mrs. McDougall writes on April 19, having reached that place by the next steamer, and where she was daily expecting to meet the Bishop, who, with Alan Grant, had been kindly offered a passage by Sir William Hoste in H.M.S. 'Spartan.' There was certainly no lack of sympathy shown to the Rajah. His neighbours the Dutch sent round a steamer and troops as soon as they heard of his disaster, and Sir W. Hoste came over from Singapore with the 'Spartan.' There was, however, nothing for the man-of-war to do but to show herself. Her presence was in itself a support and protection, just as the cessation of the visits of British cruisers, as the result of the attacks of the Rajah's enemies at home, had done much to weaken his position. Such times of trial brought out men and women's hidden qualities many virtues and some failings. Mrs. McDougall mentions two persons especially helpful to her, Miss Woolley, 'so brave, calm, self-possessed, and thoughtful for others;' Elizabeth Stahl, who had nursed Bertha as if she had been her own child day and night, and, as usual, been most useful to us all.' On the other hand, one of the missionaries in the flight down the river had greeted the Bishop with, 'My lord, my lord, I beg to resign my post as missionary in Sarawak.' To which the Bishop replied, 'Well, you will completely cut your own throat with S.P.G. if you resign now.' An unlucky answer, because not understood; for this wise man, ignorant THE CHINESE INSURRECTION 159 of the vernacular, for he had not been educated in England, afterwards gave out that the Bishop had threatened to cut his head off if he resigned his post. And there were, as is usually the case, ludicrous incidents as well as both heroic and vexatious ones. 'I do not think that I told you,' Mrs. McDougall wrote some time after, ' an anecdote of Miss the night of the Chinese attack. We had all gone to the school-house and were watching the Middletons' house burning, when she said to me, "If we have to run into the jungle, ma'am, you have brought nothing for yourself; shall I go to your room and put up a few things which would be useful?" "How kind of you!" I replied, "I wish you would." So off she set, and what do you think she brought me? a pair of stays and a black silk apron, nothing else. The idea of myself in the jungle in this attire made me laugh until I almost cried when I told Lizzie the night after our return to our own house.' This poor lady was one of their bad bargains. She was not engaged by the McDougalls or their friends, but she cost the mission a good deal of money, and gave up before she had done any work. She had been sent to an out-station, where there were a missionary and his wife in charge, and she resigned, declaring that the dirt and smells at the Dyaks' houses were too much for her. But the missionary wrote to the Bishop that he did not think that this was a sufficient reason, for Miss tomed to keep two small pigs in her bedroom, and he thought that they might overpower everything else that could be complained of. She retired, like a great many incapables, to be an assistant at a school, not in Sarawak. was accus Having spoken of the severity with which the insurgents were dealt with, it is right to add that there does not appear to have been a desire of vengeance on the part of the Rajah, nor was there any intention to punish indiscriminately. On the contrary, it is noted by one of his biographers that, a few days after they had been driven out of the town, 'news came |