letter goes with it. Meanwhile I trust that all immediate danger is past, and that things will settle down for a whilefor a year or so, perhaps; but sure I am, my dear Charley, that neither Rajah, Brooke, nor anybody else can long hold this country unless we have a steam gunboat and better men in our forts. Communicate what you think fit of this to S.P.G., to whom I do not write officially for prudential reasons. When I go home I can speak my mind and arrange about the future.'

In writing to her sister respecting the expedition against the Kanowits, Mrs. McDougall says (August 24): 'The war fleet returned in procession yesterday, and was saluted at the fort with twenty-one guns, and we had a dinner party in the evening. The expedition has been perfectly successful, and I think that our Malays have redeemed their character for bravery, which has been under a cloud since the Chinese insurrection. They stood by their guns very well, and Charley Johnson had to depend on them entirely, for his own Dyaks did not get up in time, and he saw many amongst the others there who would have as readily taken the opposite side as not, if any chance of success had appeared. The sumpitans used by the Kanowits were very deadly; the wounds from them killed in a few minutes, so strong was the poison on the arrows. How thankful I am that our dear friends have returned safe! But some eighty or ninety of our people were killed, which we think a great many, not being used to the horrors of modern warfare. How sick it makes one to read of the battles in Italy: perhaps while I write they are also raging on the Rhine, and brave English hearts are falling amongst them! There seems to me something quite wrong in Christian nations thus dealing death and misery. Oh, I hope we shall keep clear of it-it will be almost a miracle if we do!' Happily we did.

She speaks also of her daughter's serious illness and re

covery.

I was so absorbed with Mab's illness that I did not heed the fears which tormented other people, but I had to pack and nurse at the same time, and keep the room quiet, dark, and cool, all the time I was filling one box after another to send to the ship.'

On August 16 the Bishop also wrote to the Rev. Ernest Hawkins: 'Recent events here, of which you will have been informed by Mr. Bunyon, will prove to you that my views. have not been far wrong. It is natural that those connected with the government of the place should take the bright side of things and represent them somewhat couleur de rose to their friends in England. My standpoint is different, and my view, as one uncoloured by personal interests, is likely to be the true one. It was so in the case of the Chinese revolt, when my warnings were disregarded. Now we have had another shake, for which I was not unprepared, and was therefore less alarmed than others, who would not foresee the danger. I thank God that the affair has been got over as well as it has, and that the conspiracy did not prove so formidable as we at first had reason to suspect, and, for awhile at least, I hope things will be safe and quiet here; but of course the Dyaks' minds are again disturbed, head-taking has received another impulse, and it will be some time before we can push our work in fresh places.' And on October 18: We are now passing through a time of great trial, and, as it seems, of imminent danger. The Datu Hadji and others, of whom I have so long had my suspicions, have been detected in a conspiracy, the particulars of which I have detailed in a private letter to my brother-inlaw, as I did not wish to make any public communication which might embarrass the Government;' and he adds: 'My colleagues' views of affairs are much more desperate than mine, and I shall have some difficulty in preventing too precipitate an action on their part.' And on November I he speaks of the issue of the plot: 'The great doubt was, whether the other Datus in power would take part with the arch-conspirator

and his accomplices, and then whether the last would rise and fight, or attempt to assassinate us as they had planned. But the other Datus acted unanimously against their former colleague, who with his most active accomplice Matgapar was put on board a vessel with a strong guard to see them out of the river. They got away finally on the 27th, and everyone then began to breathe more freely.'

In answer to another letter to Sir R. McClure, the Governor at Singapore also sent the Hooghly Straits Government steamer' to Sarawak. Her going, and remaining there a week, had the good effect of reassuring the bazaar and the well-disposed Malays, as well as of comforting the Europeans by the sight of the red bunting and of friends ready to assist them in case of need.' Until tranquillity was restored he would not leave Sarawak, but he had become very anxious to send his wife and children home, more especially on account of his eldest daughter, to whom every month in that climate had become dangerous. Accordingly, things having quicted, he accompanied them to Singapore.

On December 5 he wrote from that place, and stated that Dr. Cowper had ordered him to return home at once with them, lest he should have a relapse of fever and be rendered useless altogether, and had given him the usual certificate which would enable him to obtain a P. and O. passage on the Government contract terms, but that he thought that they should leave by the 'Bahiana,' a large steamer which had brought out the telegraphic cable, and was shortly expected from Batavia. This they did, proceeding to Bombay, where he took the overland route, leaving his family to follow round the Cape. He explained that he was induced to accelerate his own journey from hearing that Labuan affairs were to be brought on in Parliament, and from his desire to speak a good word for the place to those who were in power.

During all this period Captain Brooke as well as the Rajah were still in England, and, notwithstanding Lord

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Derby's refusal to take over the country, efforts were made to place the political relations of Sarawak on a more safe and permanent footing. In approaching the English Government the management appears to have been left by the Rajah, who was indisposed to be subjected to another rebuff, in the hands of Captain Brooke, but the latter was controlled by the former.

From the protection of British subjects as such in a native state, it seemed only a step to the protection of the state, when those British subjects or some of them represented the native Government. Sarawak had been virtually acknowledged when Sir James Brooke had been made Governor of Labuan and Commissioner to the native states of Borneo, and on many subsequent occasions, while the power of the English navy had been repeatedly exerted on its behalf. The acknowledgment had fallen into abeyance rather than had been withdrawn, while protection to the English inhabitants had been given, but so rarely and grudgingly as to have become ineffective. What was required was patience, and a steady claim upon Great Britain as the paramount power at sea to enforce the Pax Britannica in the Eastern Archipelago, and to put down piracy; and while virtual protection would give peace and prosperity, a formal protectorate was sure to follow. Such has, in fact, been the course of events, for while Sarawak has gradually grown in wealth and importance it has only been in the year 1888 that the protectorate by Great Britain of North Borneo, including British North Borneo, Brunei, and Sarawak, has been proclaimed.

These were in a great measure the opinions of Captain Brooke, for when he returned to the East, crossing in his outward route the homeward path of the Bishop, he wrote. to the author:

'Feb. 25, 1860.

'I was very sorry to leave without seeing you again; perhaps I may have the luck to meet the Bishop in Egypt. It would

be very satisfactory to me to have a talk with him on the state of affairs in Sarawak.' 'I was not allowed to have my way, or I believe that I might have gained all that is absolutely necessary, that is, the substantial support of English men-ofwar. I was forced into demanding the formal recognition of our Government or nothing at all; this, I am convinced, the Government never will give. The Bishop, as an independent man, with his energy and high position, may do a deal of good by working on public opinion. It will be a disgrace to England and the Church of England if they allow Sarawak to pass into the hands of foreigners and Roman Catholics, but this must soon be the consequence of our remaining unsupported.'

The views of the Rajah were different. He wanted a transaction and the return of, or security for, his advances. Broken in health and fortune as he was, and wearied with official procrastination and the indifference if not injustice of public men, it was not surprising that he should be impatient. His views and the representations made by him to Government will be found very accurately set forth in Miss Jacob's book, which on these subjects may fairly be treated as his own case drawn up by himself. They only incidentally affect the Bishop, and the reader must therefore be referred for them to that work; they are, however, in part set out in the following letter, which the author ventures to insert, as it illustrates the difference of position of the persons playing the principal parts in these affairs, and is interesting at the present time not as regards Sarawak alone, but as applicable to the burning question of the day, if the reader will insert the name of another country in the place of that of Sarawak :

Burrator: Sept. 30, 1859.

'Thank you for your letter, and in reply I will state my view briefly. The protection of British subjects by the British