tried with
rheumatism in his knee, which made him quite lame, though he would
hobble to church on crutches, and to hospital to look after his poor
patients. Meanwhile he taught the young missionaries something of the
art of healing, dressing wounds and broken bones, and physicking the
ailments to which natives are most subject--fever, dysentery, etc. It
was quite necessary they should know something of these subjects before
they could be any use in the jungle. The first question the Dyaks asked,
if told a new missionary was coming, would always be, "Is he clever at
physic?" Medicines and simple remedies were always furnished to every
mission-station, and the Rajah supplied all the stores that were needed
for Kuching or elsewhere. We had taken a good stock with us at first,
and all sorts of surgical instruments, but the Government kept it
replenished.

The hospital was set up when the great influx of Chinese brought numbers
of sick people to the place. A long shed was built, and twenty beds
immediately filled; but the next day, one of the patients having died,
all the others who could move ran away. They have so great a horror of a
dead body that they never suffered any one to die in their houses if
they could help it, but built a little shed for the sick man, and
visited him twice a day with food and opium while life lasted. A
separate room was therefore added for the dead. This hospital furnished
good instruction to the missionaries. It was also their duty to teach
the sick every day, and the result was that several Chinese were
baptized on their recovery. This shed was afterwards exchanged for a
long room above the fort, which was both more airy and substantial. A
dispensary was attached to it.

When Mr. Chambers came from England and was able to undertake the duties
at Kuching, my husband accompanied Captain Brooke and some of the
Government officers in a tour up the Batang Lupar and Rejang Rivers. He
was very lame at the time, but had no walking to do, only now and then
to get out of his large boat and scramble up into a Dyak house. How he
managed it under the circumstances I never could imagine, for the
staircase from the water to a high Dyak house is only the trunk of a
tree with a few notches in it, and, at low tide, a case of slippery mud;
this, placed at a steep angle, without any rail, is not easy climbing
for any one, but a stiff knee made it still more difficult.

The object of the expedition was to make