best friend; to Him you may tell all your
little troubles and confess all your faults, for He is very
pitiful and of tender mercy.

I gave my school-girls a box of dominoes and a set of
draughtsmen with a board for their Christmas present. They play
very well. All the sewing-class boys, too, had each a
present--either a knife, or belt, or box or basket to keep
their treasures in, or a head-handkerchief; but the Sarawak
bazaar does not furnish many desirable things, even for
school-boys. H.M.S. _Renard_ has arrived since I wrote thus
far, and we have had the boat races, which always take place in
January. Eleven of our school-boys won the boys' race, pulling
against Inchi Boyangs' school, the Mahometan school, and some
other boats. We dressed our boys in white and blue, and they
pulled beautifully. Papa had taught them to pull all together,
when they went to mission stations with him, and they are
really good paddlers. They disdained the short course marked
out for the boys, and pulled all the way out to the
winning-post, a boat anchored near the wharf, round it, and
back again, winning by two boats' lengths. They won five
dollars, and papa added two more; they gave some of the money
to their school-fellows, and celebrated their victory by
singing all the evening so nicely, and hurrahing at the end of
each song. They are good boys, and much happiness to us.
Good-bye.

CHAPTER XVI.

ILLANUN PIRATES.

I have described in a former chapter the habits of the Dyak pirates of
Sakarran and Sarebas, and how, after being punished by Sir James Brooke
when they were caught at the entrance of their river, with captives and
plunder in their boats, they were required to live at one with their
neighbours, and to study the arts of peace. Happily for them, they had a
wise and paternal Government to repress their vices, and, after a time,
Christian missionaries to teach them the fear and love of God. But the
Malay pirates who lived on the islands and coasts of North Borneo were
governed by sultans who encouraged piracy, and insisted on sharing their
spoils; moreover, they are Mahometans by religion, and that is not a
faith which teaches mercy or respects life. To this day, therefore,
these Illanuns remain pirates. They have larger prahus and carry heavier
guns than the Dyaks, and nothing can exceed their cr