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And in another letter of early date, 'I have established a music class every week and have eight pupils; we dine at five and sing from seven to nine. Mr. Crookshank, Crymble, Steel, Peter, the Stahls, and Susan are among the learners. We practise the hymns for Sunday and chants, and I deliver a small lecture on thorough bass, which I write out and give them copies to learn in the ensuing week. This part of it is, I think, more trouble to me than use for them, for I do not find them very apt at learning the theory. The only thing is, that it gives an interest to the whole affair, and makes them think themselves wonderfully wise. It really has made some of them regular at church since it began, for they must come and sing their parts in the chant, and this is the principal use of it.'

At any times of special festivity, such as weddings among these converts or followers, or at Christmas time for their Chinese Christians, with whom, in the days of their heathenism, feasting formed a principal part of their religion, the Bishop's house was thrown open, and his purse provided the cost of the entertainment.

When Captain Brooke and Mr. Grant came out with their brides in 1857 there was much pleasant intercourse between the ladies, and, except when prevented by their arrangements for their nurseries, they were very much together. But there was a slackening in the intercourse between the Europeans and the natives. In the earlier days,' observes the Rajah's biographer, 'every evening after dinner the chiefs would assemble in the great hall, sit amongst us, and conversations were freely carried on as between equals. But when the ladies arrived all was changed. After dinner the ladies retired into the drawing-room, where the gentlemen soon followed, or remained impatiently waiting for the natives to go. This they soon observed, and gradually they left off coming. No wonder that the bonds of sympathy between the native and European became slacker.' And this showed itself still

more after Sir James left at the end of the year.' It was not that there was any intention to throw off the cares of State in the management either at the capital or in the districts, however content the young married people were with their own society; on the contrary, their interest in public affairs was enhanced, as their stake in the country grew larger, but they were, as a very friendly observer remarked, 'like boys and girls playing at Kings and Queens,' and the settled order was too much taken for granted. The peculiar fascination which the Rajah exercised over the natives thus grew feeble in his absence, and was not possessed by his successors in the same degree, until, perhaps, in later years by the present Rajah, who seems to have been endowed with much more of his uncle's special faculty than any other administrator, and is now a still more powerful ruler in the increased prosperity of the State.

One of the delights of such a country as Borneo must always consist in the little excursions which may be made for health or relaxation. The Rajah had a sanatorium upon the mountain at Peninjaub, more than 2,000 feet above the level of the sea, which was constantly in use although difficult of access.

The Bishop had a cottage at Santubong on the very edge of the shore, a thing of reeds and palm-leaves, originally built at the cost of sixty dollars, but afterwards added to. This also the McDougalls delighted to fill, until the readers of their letters might marvel at its expansiveness. When unoccupied by them it became a pleasure-house for others. 'We often lent it,' Mrs. McDougall said, 'to invalids and sometimes to newly-married couples, who certainly had a good opportunity of studying each other's characters and tastes in that lovely solitude.' When the Bishop had his mission ship afloat it was especially convenient to them, as he could visit his family there more readily than if they had been at Kuchin. Writing from it in June 1859, Mrs. McDougall says: 'While the "Sarawak Cross" was here, Frank and baby and I, the Crook

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shanks and the Grants, went on a two days' excursion in her to the islands of Satang and Sampedian. We enjoyed the cruise very much with the exception of two hours of sickness, for the cutter is, it must be said, very lively. We landed at Sampedian, Mr. Crookshank's island, where he has a cocoanut plantation and a flock of goats. We had a most romantic walk over the rocks by the seashore, under great flowering trees with scented blossoms, and wax plants and air plants waving from them in full flower. The shore was one mass of those minute shells which are so delicate and pretty when you look closely into them. We all separated and wandered, each alone, enjoying ourselves, and drinking the purest water out of any big leaf that we could hold under the little streams from the rocks. The next morning, after sleeping on board, we landed at six to bathe under these rock streams, and as bathing in the open air is a laborious business, more romantic than convenient, we did not return until eight. I got a fine sun headache, but I wish you could have seen ayah and baby bathe! Fancy a pile of dark rocks and a little stream like a douche pouring out into arock basin, in which sat ayah holding up the fair fat child under the douche, which splashed all over him, and he crowed and jumped, stretching out his arms to the water.'

Such scenes to the wanderers must have represented an Oriental paradise full of enjoyment; and have not, to all the minor poets since Milton, 'paradise' and 'picnic' had a tendency to become convertible terms? But Mrs. McDougall delighted to dwell upon the fact that they sometimes reached solitudes which seemed as if the foot of man could have never trod them, and where Nature revealed herself in peace and perfect beauty, as she did when first called into existence for 'the pleasure of the Creator.' Listen to her description of one of these wildernesses: In the north-west monsoon, we sometimes went to Buntal, a bay on the other side of the mountain of Santubong. No soul resided there, but it was the resort

We rowed into

of great flocks of wild fowl at that season. the bay while it was still high tide, and then left the boat; and our men made little huts of boughs at some distance from the shore, where we could sit without being perceived. As the tide ebbed the birds arrived-tall storks, fishing eagles, gulls, curlew, plover, godwits, and many others that we did not know. They flew in long lines till they seemed to vanish and reappear, circling round and round, then swooping down upon the sand, where the receding waves were leaving their supper. I never saw a prettier sight. The tall storks seemed to act like sentinels watching while the others fed. At a note of alarm they all rose into the air, flew round screaming, and then resettled on the sands in long lines, the smaller birds together, the larger ones in ascending rows. At last, alas! a gun fired into their midst caused death and dismay. A few fell dead, and the rest flew to some distant shore, where no destroying man could mar their happiness. And there are many such spots in Borneo, where no human foot ever trod, and where trees, flowers, and insects flourish exceedingly; where the birds sing songs of praise which are only heard by their Maker, and where the wild animals of the forest live and die unmolested. There is something delightful to me in this idea. We are apt to think that this earth was made for man alone, but after many ages there are some parts of his domain still unconquered, some fair lands where the axe, the fire, and the plough are yet unknown.'

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CHAPTER VI.

THE CHINESE INSURRECTION.

We now arrive at an important epoch, well known to all those who have been interested in the fortunes of Sarawak as that of the Chinese insurrection. The story has been told by several pens, and from more points of view than one. In these pages, therefore, it seems most appropriate to give it in the Bishop's own words as contained in his first letter to the Rev. Ernest Hawkins after the catastrophe :—

(

Linga, Borneo: March, 1857. My previous letter will in some measure have prepared you for the sad events which I have now to communicate.

'On the night of February 18 the Chinese gold miners from Bauh came down in large force and simultaneously fired the Rajah's and other European houses, having first surrounded them in order to prevent the escape of their inmates. The two forts were at the same time attacked and soon taken, when the insurgents possessed themselves of all the arms and ammunition in the magazines and money in the treasury. We were startled out of our sleep by the firing and fearful yells of the rebels, and our hearts sank within us when we beheld what was going on. I had long feared this, but the Rajah and others made light of the reports and symptoms which alarmed me, so we were found unprepared when the danger came.

'I soon concluded that all resistance on our part would be vain; so we all assembled together, and after prayer and