from tribe to tribe, from nation to nation, until it embraced the whole of the mighty island. The first teacher might not accomplish much; his work might be long and disappointing, in weariness and sickness, and through many perils; but if as a wise master-builder he could lay a sure foundation, how great would be the reward, and how great the glory to be remembered hereafter as the Apostle of Borneo !

CHAPTER II.

LEAVING FOR THE STRAITS FIRST RESIDENCE AT SARAWAK

LOSS OF CHILDREN.

ON December 30, 1847, our missionary and his wife sailed from the port of London. They had insisted on their brother seeing them off, which he did with a heavy heart; and when he saw their vessel, the 'Mary Louisa,' a miserable barque of 400 tons, laden as it turned out with coals and gunpowder for Singapore, lying in the Gravesend reach of the river, his dissatisfaction was complete, although on their account he did not dare to express it. No such a party in these days would sail in such a vessel, to start in mid-winter upon a four months' voyage to the East and round the Cape of Storms. But they were brave and cheerful, with as little apparent anxiety as most people now express on starting for a winter residence on the coasts of the Mediterranean. No white feather was shown by them, for the best possible reason, namely, that there was none to exhibit. For him it was sufficient that he was commencing his much-desired enterprise, for her that she was with him, and must bear herself bravely as became his wife; nevertheless the trial must have been far greater for her than for him, for she left behind her at Winston Vicarage in Suffolk, under the care of the Rev. J. N. Robson, one of his warmest friends, her eldest child, a boy of two years old, and no one can tell the pangs which that parting must have cost her. Their party consisted of themselves and their second child, Harry, an infant in arms, with one servant, their

VOYAGE TO SARAWAK

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faithful Elizabeth Richardson, and the Rev. W. Wright, then in deacon's orders, and his wife, who was expecting the birth of her first child—an event which occurred on the voyage—and who were also accompanied by one servant. It looked like a parting for years, but it was not so-in three days a letter was received from them. They had encountered rough weather in the Channel, and had been run down, with the loss of their bowsprit. The ship had put into Deal to refit, and they were on their road homeward to her brother to stay until the repairs could be made good, and might be expected in a few hours from Canterbury, where they had gone to return thanks for their escape in the metropolitan church of the kingdom. All this seemed perfectly natural to them, and they shortly after made a fresh start, which was successful, and they arrived at Singapore on May 23 following. Mrs. McDougall describes this voyage in her little book, 'Letters from Sarawak addressed to a Child.' It had the usual incidents and more than the usual perils, for she observes: Sometimes when storms of lightning and thunder burst upon us in those high latitudes, where coals will even catch fire of themselves, I could not help picturing to myself what a bonfire we might make on the open sea if the lightning struck us! How those casks of gunpowder might send us with one cry of horror and agony to our last home, without any witness to our fate but God Himself. But in His mercy He kept us through all the dangers of fire and water, and brought us to the haven where we would be.' And in another letter describing one of the storms that met them she says: 'The night before last we had a violent storm of lightning and thunder with the rain. I was woke up with the brilliancy of the forked lightning in my eyes, and could not but think with some alarm of the quantity of gunpowder on board, as the clap followed the flash immediately and made the ship tremble. "Frank," said I, "this is very dangerous." "Yes, it is indeed," he replied; "I hope that we shan't be blown up. We are in God's hands,

dear." So calmly was this said that I felt ashamed of my fears, and could only pray to God that I might be as ready to meet death as my dear husband.'

During the voyage they did not let the time slip away in mere idleness. They busied themselves in studying 'Malay and its Arabic characters with the help of Marsden's grammar and dictionary, and the Malay Bible in its Dutch translation.' The two clergymen had service on board and devoted themselves to teaching the sailors, and as there was no surgeon Mr. McDougall became physician for their bodily ailments also. They looked up to him, therefore, with love and reverence, and when he left the ship it was amid the cheers of the crew, the last words that they heard as they pushed off being 'One cheer more for Mr. McDougall.' 'We have found since,' Mrs. McDougall afterwards wrote, 'that with many the memory of his good advice did not pass away with the voyage.' But whenever he was afloat he made it his constant practice to find a parish in the crew.

It is worthy of note that the 'Mary Louisa' was lost on her return voyage, although the crew were saved.

It was not until June 29 that they reached Sarawak, having to wait for a trading schooner, the 'Julia,' which was sent to fetch them. After a disagreeable passage, but in which they made light of their discomforts, they entered the Morotabas mouth of the river, twenty-four miles from Kuchin, the town or capital of Sarawak. 'Our first sight of the country and the people,' Mrs. McDougall wrote, 'was indeed exciting, and filled us with delight. Nothing can exceed the beauty of this river and country-it is wild without being savage and soft without tameness. High purple mountains tower over slopes covered with splendid foliage, the trees grow until they dip their branches in the river, and the cottages nestle amongst them at the margin.'

On reaching Kuchin they found the Rajah absent on an expedition, but were hospitably received at his bungalow by

THE RAJAH'S ARRIVAL

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his locum tenens, Mr. Crookshank, until a temporary home could be made for them elsewhere, while the mission house was building.

Their arrival was a very timely one, for immediately after Willie Brereton, the young son of the Rev. C. D. Brereton, of Massingham, who had had much to do in persuading them to go to Borneo, came in from a shooting excursion and fell ill with jungle fever. There was no other medical man in the place, and for a time McDougall had but little hopes of his life, but by God's mercy through the medical skill and nursing bestowed upon him he recovered. This illness, on account of the silence and quiet demanded by sickness in the house, accelerated their removal to their temporary dwelling. This building, built originally by a German missionary for himself, consisted of a ground story forming a large room in which justice was administered, which gave it the name of the Court House, and one or two smaller rooms adjoining, with four rooms over. It gave but poor accommodation for two families and Mr. Harrington Parr, a young friend who had accompanied them from England, but made them only the more eager to commence the mission house. Mrs. McDougall in her journal describes their settling into the Court House, and that scarcely had they done so when the Rajah reached the mouth of the river in the Meander,' with Captain the Hon. H. Keppel, on route for Labuan. On his arrival at Sarawak on the evening of September 5 the town was en fête ; 'the native boats which had gone down the river to meet him returned with their gongs beating, guns began to fire from all quarters, and illuminations were lit up,' to which they did their best to add their quota. Our gentlemen,' she said, ' went over to see Sir James Brooke, who had also a complete levée of natives around him before he had done dinner. The next day he came over to see us, with such a retinue that our little room was full to overflowing. He is the kindest and most considerate person in the world. He walked up the hill with Frank to see about the place for