or build a
house; they never consult a manang[1] in sickness or difficulty; above
all, they set no store by the blackened skulls which used to hang from
their roofs, but which they have either buried or given away to any
people from a distance who cared for them, assuring them at the same
time that they 'were no use.'"

[Footnote 1: Heathen doctor.]

Thus we see what a just punishment and a fostering Government, added to
the sweet influences of Christianity, have done for these people; but it
took years of patience and faith to effect so great a change.

After the pirate fight of 1849, the evil disposed and turbulent, both of
the Sakarrans and Sarebas, found a leader in Rentab, a Sarebas chief. He
braved the Government for years. In 1852 his war-boats appeared above
the Sakarran Fort, and the two young Englishmen there, Mr. Brereton and
Mr. Lee, too confident in their strength, attacked the boats with a
small force. In this engagement Mr. Lee was killed, and Mr. Brereton
escaped with difficulty. Several expeditions were taken into the
interior against Rentab; but he was so clever, that even when Captain
Brooke battered his stronghold to pieces by having guns dragged up the
steep hill on which his fort was built, Rentab managed to escape, and
was never taken. His followers, however, fell away from him by degrees,
and there are now no pirates in those rivers.

CHAPTER V.

THE CHURCH AND THE SCHOOL.

As soon as we removed to College Hill, the building of the church began.
On the 28th August, 1850, a few days after the return of the expedition
against the pirates, the summit of a rising ground about two hundred
yards from the house having been cleared and levelled, a large shed was
built over the ground, which the sailors of H.M.S. _Albatross_, and our
workmen, adorned with gay flags and green boughs.

A little procession left our house, the rajah walking first, dressed in
full uniform as Governor of Labuan, and Suboo, the Malay executioner,
holding a large yellow satin umbrella over his head, as is the custom on
all state occasions, for yellow is the royal colour in Borneo; then my
husband, in surplice and hood, the English residents, naval officers,
and, last, a crowd of Malays and Chinese followed, to witness the
ceremony of laying the first great block of wood in the foundation of
St. Thomas's Church. After prayers had been read, the rajah lowered the
great sleeper into its place, and we all returned