CHAPTER X.

LAST YEARS IN BORNEO.

AFTER the events mentioned in the last chapter, the charm of Sarawak life appears to have departed. Old friendships had become cold or had been outraged, and the voices of their children at home seemed to call upon the Bishop and Mrs. McDougall to return. But he had no intention of abandoning his work, and consoled himself by turning to it with increased energy. The country had become more settled, and he hoped that the great drawback to his efforts among the Dyaks would cease to operate with the return of peace. He was on good terms with Mr. Charles Johnson, who had taken the name of Brooke at the Rajah's desire when he left the country, and who governed it under the title of Tuan Mudah during the life of his brother. On his death, and that of his uncle Sir James, this gentleman, now Sir Charles Johnson Brooke, G.C.M.G., to whom the Rajah bequeathed all his rights in Sarawak, succeeded to the full sovereignty, which he has held with great benefit to the country up to the present time. No voice seems ever to have been raised against his succession, which appears to the author entirely right and just according to the principles upon which the succession of an Oriental State depends. The long-desired recognition by Great Britain took place in 1864 by the appointment of a consul accredited to Sarawak, and this recognition, followed by periodical visits from one of Her Majesty's ships placed upon the station, gave stability to the struggling Government.

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Not until 1889, as has been already stated, has a complete protectorate been conceded.

On the Bishop's last return to Sarawak he found much to be done. New work had to be opened up, and the old repaired. The congregation of Churchmen at head-quarters had, as the missionary in charge reported, fallen off owing to the removal by death of some of the community, while others who had been steady supporters of the Church, such as Mr. and Mrs. Grant, had left the country. Some dissatisfaction had sprung up during his absence with some of the missionaries and he had apprehensions of defections, but under his personal influence the clouds were soon dissipated. It is true that in consequence of the difficulties with which he was surrounded and the infirmity of his health, which gave great anxiety to his friends at home, they would gladly have seen him removed to some more healthful and congenial position; but he was no party to any movement for that purpose, although, as we have seen, he was very anxious for the incorporation of the Straits with the diocese of Labuan. Early in 1863 the bishopric of Gibraltar became vacant, and an effort was made to obtain his removal to it. Amongst others the Bishops of London and Lincoln, as well as Mr. Beresford-Hope and Sir G. Dasent, corresponded with the author with a view to carrying the project into effect. Ultimately it was given up, and it must be admitted that the unlucky letter to the Times' was felt to be a difficulty, as likely to arouse controversy which no Government desires; but with the movement Bishop McDougall had nothing whatsoever to do.

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From the beginning of 1862, as we have mentioned, the proposal for the separation of the Straits from the Indian Government, and making them a Crown colony, was under discussion, when the bishopric of Labuan would have naturally merged into a united diocese. There was much correspondence thereon; but in this case the ecclesiastical depended on the civil arrangements, and it was not until after the session of

1866, on the eve of his departure from Borneo, that the royal assent was given to the Act for the transfer of the Straits Settlements to the Crown, which rendered the change practicable, and which was finally carried out in favour of Bishop McDougall's successor in the see of Labuan. The details of the negotiations, although relating to his see, were really outside of his life, and may therefore be passed over. They took place in England, and, although his wishes were known, his absence prevented his taking any active part in them.

There is nothing more tedious and distasteful than seeking to move official people on behalf of a friend, unless it might be to try and do so on one's own account, when it would become intolerable; but even in such an undertaking something occasionally occurs which is both amusing and instructive. Such is the following extract from a letter written on one of these occasions, but not to the author, by a very eminent person, which may be useful to all waiters on official providences and many others: I spoke last night to the Minister on the Bishop's business. He was very kind about it, but said that he did not at all remember what he had been asked to do. I therefore engaged to let him have in writing a statement of the case, and what we wanted him to do. If you will let me have such a statement, either very legibly written or printed (for official men are very particular about this, and in general pretend to have read anything that is not very clearly written, instead of reading it), I will send it with a letter from myself.'

But to return to the events of 1862. The Bishop was quite unaware for some time of the effect of his letter of May to the Times,' and in the following month (June 16) writes in his usual spirits: 'Yesterday I ordained our four deacons, Abé, Zehnder, Crossland, and Mesney,' who had reached Sarawak almost simultaneously with himself. 'We have had a houseful for the last fortnight, but I like to

have my men

with me at times -- it does us all good, I hope. I had a confir

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mation on Whit Sunday and confirmed our two Germans, as I thought that they should be publicly confirmed before I admitted them to holy orders.' He refers to the engagement with the pirates, and to the counsel which he had given as to the tactics to be pursued, which he said had made him 'feel quite sick and guilty until he saw the ferocity of the wretches to the very last-their utter refusal to take quarter when we offered it, hacking away at their captives in mere spite, spitting in the faces of our men, and throwing their knives and spears at us from the water, when we endeavoured to save them in our boats. I had then no longer any compunction, but felt that we had done that which it was our duty to do. Only I hope that I shall never have so unpleasant a duty again, for it is a strangely distracting thing to be fighting pirates one week, and confirming and ordaining the next.' He speaks with thankfulness of his own escape, as his dress had attracted 'the particular attention' of the enemy, 'and the balls fell smartly about my station on the poop. Once I was returning to my post after helping a wounded man on the quarter-deck, and as I was near to the top of the ladder I saw a fellow in the prahu nearest to us take a deliberate aim at me with his rifle; the ball whizzed by my ear and went into poor Hassein's heart, who was standing behind and above me.' 'When the affair was over and I was dressing the wounded, a Malay friend of mine, Hadji Mataim, came to me and said, "Tuan, this is terrible work for you and me, men of prayer; you are all over blood;" and so I was, the decks were slippery with it, so many bleeding men were lying about on all sides. "You can't say your prayers, there is not a pure place in the ship where one can stand or kneel; do give me a pair of your shoes, and then I can say my prayers and thank God for this great victory." I told him that I had none to give, mine were all bloody, but that he had better say his prayers and thank God at once, as I was doing in spite of the blood; as God looked at our hearts and not at our feet. "Oh,"

he said," you white men fear nothing; I dare not pray to God so, it is forbidden;" nor did he, although a religious man, say his prayers until evening, when he got into a boat alongside, and washed her out for the purpose.

'But enough,' he says, 'of these horrors,' and then observing that he feared that his brother-in-law's absence from England had retarded the move about Singapore, he turns to more common-place and peaceful matters.

On July 24 he writes from Sarawak to the Rev. J. Rigaud at Magdalen College, who acted for him as his commissary and clerical representative in England:

'I long to hear something of you and dear old Oxford, so I must excite you to communication by opening the fire. Just as I sat down and wrote the above I was called out by the headmen of a tribe of Dyaks, who had come a long way to see me, to talk about building a house for a missionary, and a church for them 'to learn to pray in,' and they have detained me so long that I cannot, as I purposed, spin you a long yarn, as the mail closes at 11.45, which is near at hand. On my return here I found things in a dead state, and have had to stir up all hands and renovate my school or rather college, which is now, I hope, in a satisfactory state again. The four new missionaries were ordained on Trinity Sunday and are now away at their stations, but they will be of little use for a year or two, in which they must give their chief attention to learning the languages. If it were not for the constant warfare we are in here, either with pirates on the coast or enemies in the interior, our work, I feel persuaded, would, humanly speaking, make much greater way; but every time the natives are called out (which they are just about to be to go against the Kyans, who are threatening from the interior) we are thrown back incalculably by the revival of the lust for head-taking, and all their old heathen ceremonies connected with it. But that work done in past years tells,