ne of the most pleasing converts, and Tongkat was wavering--had not
leisure at present! The necessity of forswearing the practise of
head-taking deters the old men from becoming Christians: they fear to
lose influence with their tribe. The little party then fixed upon the
spot where the church should be built, a permanent bilian chancel to
which a nave could be added when the additional room was required.
Twenty-five pounds from the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge
was all the money then in hand to begin with; but very soon more was
collected, and when I visited Banting in 1857 there was a lovely little
church standing on the hill overlooking the village, and surrounded by
beautiful trees. The walk to it from the mission-house was just like a
gentleman's park, the green sward and groups of trees with lovely peeps
of hill and valleys and winding streams between. Again in 1864 we went
to Banting, that the Bishop might consecrate the church. The nave was
then built. Every stick in the church was bilian. The white ants walked
in as soon as the workmen left. In one night they carried their covered
ways all over the inside of the roof, the walls, the beams, and rafters;
and finding nothing they could bite, they walked out again, leaving
their traces plainly marked. Since then a coloured-glass window,
representing our Lord's Resurrection, has been added at the east end of
the church; and, what is better far, the church is full of Dyak
Christians every Sunday, and from this living Church many branches have
been planted, so that the Banting Mission now includes seven stations,
where there are school-churches built by the natives themselves, and
many hundreds of Christian worshippers.

In 1854, six years having passed away since a little band of Sir James
Brooke's friends founded the Borneo Church Mission, the funds of the
Society came to an end; and the mission would have collapsed also, had
not the venerable Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign
Parts consented to become responsible for it. As the missionaries and
catechists increased in number, and fresh stations were added to the
church, they opened their arms wider to receive them, until they set
apart L3000 a year for Borneo. Under their fostering care the mission
flourished, as it could not have done under the management of any
private society.

CHAPTER VIII.

A BOAT JOURNEY.

Throughout the year 1852 and part of '53 my husband was much