Produced by a Project Gutenberg volunteer working with digital material generously made available by the Internet Archive [Cover] [Illustration: HAPPILY HE HAD A STOUT WALKING-STICK, AND AT ONCE FELLED THE REPTILE. _Frontispiece._ _Page_ 26.] SKETCHES OF OUR LIFE AT SARAWAK BY HARRIETTE McDOUGALL. _WITH MAP._ PUBLISHED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE TRACT COMMITTEE. LONDON: SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE, NORTHUMBERLAND AVENUE, CHARING CROSS, W.C.; 43, QUEEN VICTORIA STREET, E.C.; 26, ST. GEORGE'S PLACE, HYDE PARK CORNER, S.W. BRIGHTON: 135, NORTH STREET. NEW YORK: E. & J. B. YOUNG AND CO. CONTENTS. PART I. CHAPTER PAGE I. INTRODUCTORY 7 II. THE COURT-HOUSE 13 III. COLLEGE HILL 21 IV. PIRATES 32 V. THE CHURCH AND THE SCHOOL 45 VI. THE GIRLS 58 VII. THE LUNDUS 68 VIII. A BOAT JOURNEY 82 IX. CONTINUATION OF THE TRIP TO REJANG 92 PART II. X. RETURN TO SARAWAK 105 XI. CHINESE INSURRECTION 120 XII. CHINESE INSURRECTION (_Continued_) 139 XIII. EVENTS OF 1857 157 XIV. THE MALAY PLOT 174 PART III. XV. THE CHILDREN'S CHAPTER 189 XVI. ILLANUN PIRATES 204 XVII. A MALAY WEDDING 215 XVIII. LAST YEARS AT SARAWAK 228 XIX. THE ISLAND OF BORNEO 239 PART I. [Map: BORNEO] SKETCHES OF OUR LIFE AT SARAWAK. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY. Nearly thirty years ago I published a little book of "Letters from Sarawak, addressed to a Child." This book is now out of print, and, on looking it over with a view to republication, I think it will be better to extend the story over the twenty years that Sarawak was our home, which will give some idea of the gradual progress of the mission. This progress was often unavoidably impeded by the struggles of the infant State; for war drowns the voice of the missionary, and though the Sarawak Government always discouraged the Dyak practice of taking the heads of their enemies, still it could not at once be checked, and every expedition against lawless tribes, however righteous in its object, excited the old superstitions of those wild people. When their warriors returned from an expedition, the women of the tribe met them with dance and song, receiving the heads they brought with ancient ceremonies--"fondling the heads," as it was called; and for months afterwards keeping up, by frequent feasts, in which these heads were the chief attraction, the heathen customs which it was the object of the missionary to discourage.