Sketches of Our Life at SarawakMcDougall, Henriette
History
Sketches of Our Life at Sarawak
McDougall, Henriette
McDougall, Henriette, 1817-1886 -- Travel -- Malaysia -- Sarawak; Sarawak (Malaysia) -- Description and travel
It used to startle strangers to hear "The Hardy Norseman," "The Cuckoo,"
and such-like songs from the lips of little Chinese boys. Every Saturday
evening they came to the house to practise the hymns and chants for
Sunday; I had an harmonium in the dining-room. On these occasions they
all had a cup of tea and slice of cake, and used to look at the picture
newspapers which had come from England the last mail. They were very
intelligent boys. It was necessary they should learn Malay and English
as well as Chinese, and of course arithmetic, geography, and the usual
rudiments of learning. I have often watched the Chinese writing-lesson:
it seemed the most difficult branch of their education--one complicated
character, something like a five-barred gate, representing a variety of
sounds as well as meanings; but our little fellows learnt it all. They
had a Chinese master as well as an English, and they soon spoke English
as well as we could desire. My husband took the greatest interest in
this school. When the children first came he taught them games and made
them playthings, and they were always about him. Whenever we went
anywhere by boat a crew of boys was added to the rowers. They soon
learnt to use their paddles well, and at the public boat-races, on New
Year's Day, pulled their own boat in the race and sometimes won it. When
my husband became Bishop of Labuan and Sarawak, he always took some of
the schoolboys with him in his visits to the different stations. They
helped the church services by their singing, and had their especial
chums among the Dyak Christian boys in the different tribes. So many
boys passed through the school during the twenty years we took an
interest in it, that I cannot even remember all of them. Some are now
catechists among the Dyak tribes; many entered the service of the
Government or the Merchant Company as clerks; some went to Singapore and
found employment there. I know of only one who has as yet been
ordained, but perhaps that time has scarcely yet arrived in Sarawak. It
is difficult for Malays or Dyaks to look up to a Chinaman sufficiently
to make him their minister: they are less clever than the Chinese, but
look down upon them nevertheless--the Malays, because the Chinese are
the workers, and they the gentlemen; the Dyaks, I suppose, because they
gave them such a thrashing in 1857. One good consequence of the Chinese
school was, that it attracted the attention of the parents towards
Christianity, and they presented themselves as catechumens. There were
many difficulties with the languages, for the Chinese at Sarawak were
not all of the same tribe, and could not understand one another.
However, after a while a Chinese professor arrived at Sarawak, bringing
his wife and family with him. In those days the women were forbidden to
emigrate with their husbands, but Sing Sing put his wife into a large
chest with air-holes at the top, and brought her safely from China. The
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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