hed morning and afternoon. On Wednesday the church
was ready. Mrs. Stahl and I were up before dawn, covering hassocks with
Turkey red cotton. The church was tiled, but platforms of wood, covered
with mats, which were a present from Mr. and Mrs. Stahl, were placed on
the tiles, and the chairs just arrived by _Semiramis_ stood on them. We
afterwards had to clear the platforms away--they became full of white
ants; but they looked very well at first.

When all was ready, Captain Brooke and all the principal English
inhabitants met the Bishop at the church door, and presented a petition
that he would consecrate the building. He then entered, and walked up
and down the church repeating psalms, etc. Then came morning service;
afterwards, the Bishop preached, and as he was very energetic and struck
the desk with his hand, our gentle Datu Bandar thought he was angry, and
slipped quickly out of church. There was a confirmation of a Chinese
teacher and my little maid Susan after the celebration of Holy
Communion, and then, after three hours and a half service, we returned
home. The next morning, early, the Bishop consecrated the burial-ground.
He was carried round it in a chair, for he was unable to walk much; and
though he was a hale old man of seventy-two, his many years' residence
at Calcutta had, I imagine, spoilt his walking powers.

He was very kind and friendly to us all, and admired the church very
much. His visit was a boon to the mission. It impressed the native mind
with the importance Christians attach to their churches and to public
worship. When our church bell called us to prayers twice every day, the
Mahometans revived the daily muezzin at the mosque; and the sight of the
public practice of religion amongst us quickened the Malays in the
performance of their own religious rites, and from that time there were
many more pilgrims to Mecca from Sarawak.

CHAPTER VI.

THE GIRLS.

Having said so much about the schoolboys, it would be unfair not to
mention the girls. Mary, Julia, and Phoebe, the half-caste children,
grew up beside us, and so did Polly, who was a Dyak baby brought to me
after the pirate expedition of 1849. Her mother fled, and dropped her
baby in the long grass, where it was found by an English sailor, who
carried it to the boats and gave it to one of the women captives to
bring to me--a poor little, skinny thing, with long yellow hair, like a
fairy changeling. I got a wet nurse for her and fe