used by shouts and screams, and the
firing of guns. We got up and looked out. The Rajah's bungalow was in
flames across the river. On our side the Middletons' house was burning,
and Mr. Crookshank's new house, a little way up the road, was soon after
on fire. The most horrid noises filled the air, there was evidently
fighting going on at the two forts at either end of the town by the
river's side. We knew there were very few defenders at either of these
two forts, and that they would soon be taken; for by this time we were
sure it must be the Chinese miners who had fulfilled their threat to
take the town. We thought, "When the forts are taken they will come to
us." Presently the brothers, William and John Channon, who lived near
us, came to our house, bringing their wives and children for shelter.
They brought news that the fort near their houses was taken and burnt,
and they dare not stay in their own cottages, as they were Government
servants, and would be obnoxious to the rebels.

We took our children out of bed and dressed them, and then we all went
down to the school-house, from whence we could see the burning houses
and hear what was going on in the town. A Chinaman came up from the
bazaar, begging us not to go to them for shelter, for they had been
warned by the kunsi not to harbour any English people, and they dared
not take us in. Poor creatures, they were in terror for themselves, as
they were not of the same tribe of Chinese as the Bau people. What
should we do?

[Illustration: WE ALL WENT DOWN TO THE SCHOOL-HOUSE, FROM WHENCE WE
COULD SEE THE BURNING HOUSES.

_Page_ 128.]

We were so large a party, and had so many children amongst us, that we
did not venture to hide in the jungle: the night was quite dark and we
might lose one another. Then the Bishop said, "We cannot make any
resistance: we will hide away the guns we have in the house, and unite
in prayer to God." So we all knelt round him while he commended us to
the mercy of our Heavenly Father, and prayed for all our dear friends
who were exposed to the fury of the Chinese. Then we sat and waited.
Miss Woolley, who had only been three months in Sarawak, read aloud a
psalm from time to time to comfort us; but the hours seemed very long.
At five o'clock in the morning the kunsi, having possessed themselves of
the Chinese town, sent us word that they did not mean to harm us--"the
Bishop was a good man and cared for the Chinese," but he must go down to