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
We were so large a party, and had so many children amongst us, that we
did not venture to hide in the jungle: the night was quite dark and we
might lose one another. Then the Bishop said, "We cannot make any
resistance: we will hide away the guns we have in the house, and unite
in prayer to God." So we all knelt round him while he commended us to
the mercy of our Heavenly Father, and prayed for all our dear friends
who were exposed to the fury of the Chinese. Then we sat and waited.
Miss Woolley, who had only been three months in Sarawak, read aloud a
psalm from time to time to comfort us; but the hours seemed very long.
At five o'clock in the morning the kunsi, having possessed themselves of
the Chinese town, sent us word that they did not mean to harm us--"the
Bishop was a good man and cared for the Chinese," but he must go down to
the hospital and attend to their wounded. Then came the welcome news
that the Rajah had escaped, and Mr. Crookshank and Middleton--the three
people whom the Chinese most desired to kill, for the one was chief
constable and the other police magistrate, who carried out the Rajah's
sentence on the kunsi. A price was set on their heads, but the Malays'
love of their English Rajah made that only an idle threat. We were told
that Mrs. Crookshank was dead, and the little Middletons, as well as Mr.
Wellington, who lodged in their house, and Mr. Nicholetts, who was
staying at the Rajah's house. Mrs. Crookshank, however, was not dead,
but lying wounded in a ditch near the ashes of her house. When the
Bishop knew this he demanded her of the kunsi. They said no, at first,
for they were angry that her husband had escaped; but Bishop refused to
attend to the wounded unless they gave her up, so at last they gave
leave to have her carried to our house.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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