I will first notice the Roman Catholic, as it has proved of the least importance; and perhaps I shall best explain its complete failure by giving an account of its chief.

In the spring of the year 1857, a Roman Catholic mission arrived at our colony of Labuan. Its principal, Signor Cuarteron, a Spaniard, soon became an object of interest, from the various reports that were spread respecting his previous life, and from its becoming generally known that he was the possessor of great wealth acquired by extraordinary means. Strange stories were soon afloat, which would have done more credit to his adventurous spirit than to his honesty: it was asserted—and with truth—that the Manilla government had once set a price upon his head; and absurd whispers were abroad that he had been concerned in the slave-trade, and in buccaneering pursuits.

I have often heard him tell his own story, and it is a curious one. He had noticed a ship loading treasure in Hongkong harbour, and accidentally heard afterwards that a wreck had been seen on a certain shoal in the China seas which answered the description of the treasure ship: he went there and recovered a large amount of silver. He took it to Hongkong, and ultimately, there being no claimants, received the whole. Some of his enemies in Manilla took offence at his not bringing it to his own port, and accused him of having committed acts of piracy during the time he was engaged trading in the isles farther east. He heard of this charge while cruising in the Sulu seas, passing the necessary time before the treasure would be adjudged to him. Distrusting colonial justice, and to avoid pursuit, he burnt his vessel and escaped in a native boat. After some months all charges were withdrawn, and he returned to Europe, and presenting himself before the Pope, explained his desire to found and manage a mission in Borneo. He was permitted to do so, and remained in Rome some years, in order to study, and after visiting Spain and Manilla, at last reached Labuan, with four Italian priests, two destined for the Bornean mission. I need not comment on the singularity of some parts of this history.

He placed one of the priests at Brunei, the other at Labuan, while he himself commanded a station at Gaya Bay. His principal object in establishing the mission was, he said, to recover from slavery those poor Christian brethren who, having been captured by pirates, had been sold on the north-west coast of Borneo. They are there doubtless, but he never appears to have made a sensible effort to free them. There are three hundred in Brunei, all of whom could have been obtained at 7l. a head, but I never heard of his paying but for one old woman. He used to threaten the Brunei authorities with Spanish steamers, but I imagine his own Government was too well aware of the real state of the case to listen to him. Nine-tenths of the Manilla captives could be free if they chose, as they might easily escape to our colony of Labuan, but the fact is, they have intermarried with the inhabitants and turned Mahomedans, and, therefore, will not leave the country, except under compulsion.

Signor Cuarteron entrusted a large amount of his funds to the Papal Government, as a permanent support for his mission, but they have been applied to the pressing secular needs of the Pope; and, on my return to Borneo, last year, I found the Italian priests had left, and nothing of the mission remained but closed churches and Signor Cuarteron, and that the funds he had retained in his own hand were being rapidly dissipated by his own unsuccessful commercial pursuits. I believe he has since returned to Manilla; so that practically the mission has closed. This I think a very fortunate circumstance, as Signor Cuarteron was totally unfit to conduct so important an undertaking, and his constant intriguing and mixing in political affairs were productive of serious mischief.

I may add that the courtesy shown by the authorities of Brunei was exemplary; they submitted patiently to language to which they were totally unaccustomed, and put no obstacles in the way of the missionaries. The sultan made them a present of a piece of ground on which they built a church, and said they might have as much land as their converts could cultivate. Signor Ripa, the Italian priest who had charge of this mission, intended to have made it the nucleus round which those among the Manilla men who desired to rejoin the Church, might congregate, and his object was to afford them sufficient assistance to enable them to make gardens round the church, and support themselves by their agricultural operations. As he was himself well acquainted with agriculture, being the son of a landed proprietor living near Lecco, he hoped in time to establish a sort of model village, and a superior kind of cultivation.

All the Italian priests who came with this mission were from Milan, and had an interesting story to tell, as they had all been engaged in the effort to throw off the yoke of Austria in 1848. Two had carried muskets, and two had attended to the wounded on the field. The eldest, Signor Reyna, appeared to me to be one of those remarkable men occasionally found among the missionaries of the Romish Church, of the most pleasing manners, winning address, and acute mind, and yet he was sent with four companions to New Guinea, where three of them were killed and eaten by the inhabitants, while he escaped in shattered health to die shortly afterwards.

The church in Brunei was built on a remarkable headland called Brambañgan, where formerly was erected a battery to play upon the boats of Sir Thomas Cochrane’s squadron, and where even now may be seen the iron guns thrown down the bank by the marines and blue jackets, but rendered useless by having their trunnions knocked off. The church looks well amid the pretty hills that rise around it. At Labuan a church was also commenced, but I believe never quite finished; and at Gaya Bay, the chapel when I saw it consisted of a little leaf house, which would not last a couple of years. No difficulty appears to have been thrown in the way of the mission, even in these distant stations; in fact, the people believing that all Europeans are under the protection of England would never think of injuring them.

In many respects it is to be regretted that the Roman Catholic mission was not more fortunate in its head, and that the funds should have failed, as though we must all be anxious to extend the influence of the English Church throughout the world, yet it is better the natives should be Roman Catholics than remain in their present low state of civilization. Nothing but Christianity can alter the real condition of the people, as that only will turn their minds in a new direction and free them from practices and habits which keep the country poor and undeveloped. Some enterprising missionaries who would abandon all regular communication with the world, and establish themselves in the upper Trusan, among the Adangs, far from all Mahomedan influence, and beyond the reach of the Malay government, might have even a greater effect than those Roman Catholic missionaries had, whom Dr. Barton mentions having met in the far interior of the Yang-tse-kiang, during that enterprising expedition under Colonel Sarel.

I will now make a few remarks on the Protestant Mission, which left England in 1847, to establish itself in Sarawak. I think the object so very important, even regarded solely from a political point of view, that I shall not hesitate freely to explain what I think the causes of its comparative failure. Its condition, when I left Borneo in September, 1861, was this: Mr. Koch, and a schoolmaster, Mr. Owen, superintended the head mission at Kuching; Mr. Chambers was at his station at Lingga, and Mr. Gomez at Lundu, both Sea Dayak tribes; while Mr. Chalmers was at Quop, but had given notice of his intention to quit the country at the end of the year, and now he has left.

Mr. Chambers and Mr. Gomez, though their actually baptized converts are not numerous, have done great good at their respective stations. It is not generally a just course to reckon results by the number of converts in a tribe, as the majority may be almost prepared to join the church, though kept back from a variety of motives. And this I believe to be practically the case at both these stations, but especially at Lundu.

The Borneo mission has been fortunate in securing these men, as they appear thoroughly to act on what should be the guiding principle of a missionary—that once he has entered on the profession, he should not be turned to other paths, or forsake his work on account of personal fears or petty annoyances. Of the numbers who have joined this mission but four remain.

Mr. Chalmers is the only one who has attempted the task of converting the Land Dayaks, and also the only one who ever made the slightest progress in their language. He was beginning to have a great influence over the Quop Dayaks, even inducing the girls to attend his school, and in a short time, I believe, would have brought to baptism the whole of this section of the Santah Dayaks. I hear they sincerely regret his departure; and well they may, as it will be difficult to find another so suited to the work. He had an aptitude for learning languages, a genuine kindliness of disposition, and with ability to have ultimately influenced the whole Land Dayaks through his converts at the Quop.

His influence partly arose from his determination not only to live among them, but to speak to them in their own language. Most of our intercourse with these people is carried on in the manner in which a Frenchman would speak to a Spaniard through the means of imperfect English. It is impossible properly to explain religion through such a channel. Some of the Dayaks, but comparatively few, speak Malay well.

I am afraid a summary of results will show that little has been yet done towards christianizing the Dayaks of the Sarawak districts, and this failure has, I believe, arisen from many causes: among others, from the position of the head mission, and from a mistaken view of the way in which it should be conducted.

I am not aware of the exact amount granted to the Borneo mission, but it appears to a looker-on that the greater portion is expended in keeping up the staff and disbursements for the head mission at Kuching, which does not, in fact, much influence the missionary work. Kuching is a town almost exclusively composed of Mahomedan Malays and Buddhist Chinese; and the only effect of establishing the mission among the former is to have rendered them more zealous Mahomedans. Before the arrival of the clergy, the mosque was nearly deserted, now it is crowded. The same effect followed the arrival of the Catholic priests at Brunei. It may be better for men to be earnest in a mistaken religion than lukewarm; but to arouse their zeal will not assist our efforts to spread Christianity.

The Chinese are almost impassible to the missionaries’ doctrines, and always must be so, while their teaching is through interpreters, or the medium of a foreign language.

The pretty church, the expensive and uncomfortable mission-house, the schools, are all interesting objects at Kuching, but they do not further the work among the aborigines.

There is another great objection to the present position of the schools: it is too close to the trading town, and the children are consequently exposed to every temptation; in fact, the girls’ school was entirely ruined; and the boys must be injured by the constant contact with the vicious among their countrymen. Since I left last year, the Government have established a girls’ school in a situation that promises greater success.

The proper position for a mission undertaken to christianize the Land Dayaks should be among them, not twenty miles from the nearest tribe. If the head mission had been established at San Pro, on the left-hand branch of the Sarawak—and what lovelier position could be desired?—or about Siniawan, on the right-hand branch, I believe I should have had very different results to record.

It would not have been a popular recommendation to banish the bishop of Labuan and his staff from the charming society that was always to be found at Kuching to what would have been called the wilds of the interior; but they would not have been in so isolated a position as the Government officers who live in the out-stations, San Pro being within four hours’ pull of the capital.

At Kuching, a chaplain is required to perform the services of our Church for the Europeans resident there, but this clergyman should be paid from some special fund by Government, or by the inhabitants, and not from the allowance to the Bornean mission.

I have mentioned that there are at present three stations besides Kuching where missionaries are established. The first is Lingga, which requires a coasting voyage of thirty miles; the second, Lundu, which in rough weather may be reached by inland water passages; and the third is the Quop, a branch of the Sarawak.

None of these stations necessitates the expensive modes of communication adopted: there was, first, a life-boat, which proved useless; then the “Sarawak Cross” was bought and fitted up at an expense of 1,200l., to be sold for a third of its cost; and now I hear another life-boat is to be purchased. The last kind is neither so safe for a shore voyage, nor so comfortable as a well fitted up native prahu, which would cost less than 20l. All this appears to be a great waste of the mission funds. It was necessary for Bishop Selwyn to have a schooner in New Zealand, as he had many islands to visit; but the Bornean Mission does not require it.

I have heard that several missionaries are on their way out. If these be kept at Kuching, or sent to the very distant out-stations, they will prove nearly useless, as in these positions there is no familiar intercourse with the natives on account of a variety of circumstances. Efforts should be concentrated, not scattered; and the best way of influencing the Dayaks is to let the missionaries proceed to their villages and learn their language. There are fifty thousand Land Dayaks in Sarawak, Samarahan, and Sadong, who have not a missionary among them, and any work undertaken there will yield good results.

I am not anxious to find fault with past mismanagement, but to recommend to the bishop of Labuan and the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, the abandonment of a system which has proved a failure. If I rightly understand the intention in establishing the mission, it was to endeavour to spread Christianity among the Dayaks, and this has not been as yet fairly attempted. I believe one of the reasons for the deplorable secession of men who had acquired some knowledge of the language and the people, was keeping them too much at Kuching. They wanted to have a home of their own among the Dayaks, where a personal interest could be created, where their work would be clear to them, and where their efforts would produce results.

Ten missionaries out of fourteen have abandoned their duties in Borneo, and it is most probable that few of them would have left had a defined work been placed before them, and had they been told to consider a certain tribe, or a certain group of tribes, as their own to manage;—in fact, placing them in a similar position to a clergyman in his parish in England.

I think this plan should be well weighed before it is rejected, as in two instances it has been partially tried, and has in some degree succeeded, as at Lundu and Lingga.

That the present management is decidedly faulty, may be gathered from this, that of all the officers in the Sarawak government service who have been employed there during the last fourteen years, I only know of one who has abandoned his position, and that one under peculiar circumstances; while, as I have said, five-sevenths of the missionaries have left their posts, though their work is not harder, certainly not nearly so dangerous as that of the officers, and is as well paid.

I am quite sure that a missionary placed as Mr. Gomez is, among an interesting people like the Sibuyaus of Lundu, would never think of abandoning them, unless from being disheartened by ill-considered and unnecessary interference. He has acquired a great influence among them, and is personally liked by the whole tribe. I have heard the Dayak Chief speak of him with the greatest respect, saying, “He is to us as our father—he watches over us, and does everything to produce unanimity among us.” It was one of the Lundu converted Dayaks who in the year 1859 first gave notice to the Government that some discontented, discarded Malay chiefs were hatching plots against the Europeans.

At Lingga, also, one of Mr. Chambers’s Dayak friends sent the same warning; and this leads me to the consideration of what a change it would effect in Sarawak if the mass of the Dayaks were Christians. The Sarawak government officers are fully alive to this, and the missionary is heartily welcomed at every station, and every assistance and encouragement given him that can be done without awakening the jealousy of the Mahomedans. Care, of course, is necessary where a government rules all religions, and depends for its principal support on the Malays. If a few thousand Dayaks were Christians, they would become the mainstay of the Europeans.

It has been partially forgotten that the Dayak will not generally come and ask to be converted, particularly if it involves a journey of twenty miles. The missionary must be with him always, understand his ways and his language, feel an interest in his local affairs, and assist him with his matured advice.

With regard to the missionaries themselves, they should not only be earnest men, but have a practical acquaintance with the world, and this knowledge cannot be better obtained than at Oxford, Cambridge, and our other universities. Medical acquirements are also of singular use to the missionary. The present bishop of Labuan possesses them to a remarkable extent; and I, among the other Englishmen who have dwelt in Sarawak, have to thank him for a patient and skilful attendance.

Perhaps no position is more difficult than that of the head of a mission; it requires the greatest tact, the calmest temper, the most complete government of tongue, a generous enthusiasm to warm the enthusiasm of others, a knowledge in the management of men and things, rarely found. I have heard that the bishops of New Zealand and Columbia answer to my description. Too often men otherwise estimable, when they are placed in authority, become overbearing, coarse in their manner towards subordinates, hasty in temper, uncertain in arrangement, and ungenerous to the foibles of their associates; and, if to these unfortunate qualities be added a systematic disparagement of the work done by others, unwarranted expressions about their neighbours, and continued and unnecessary absence from their posts on trifling pretexts, much injury must be done to the missions placed under their care, and would account for the failure of many.

In thus publishing my own opinion of the mission, I am but giving the result of the experience of a looker-on, who has no practical acquaintance with the management or working of religious societies; but as a disinterested observer, I have made some recommendations which cannot at once be followed, though all may be in time.

First. The head mission should be placed among the Dayak tribes, and a chaplain left at Kuching, as work, not society, should be the object aimed at.

Second. The schools should be removed from the contaminating influence of the town, and the left-hand branch of the river offers suitable spots.

Third. The missionaries should be placed in responsible positions over certain tribes, and with the same kind of authority as a clergyman in a parish at home.

Fourth. The bishop should not interfere with the internal management of the local mission and the local schools, more than is at present done in England.

Fifth. The funds should not be dissipated in buying useless boats, or in trying to keep up abortive plantations, on which already large sums have been wasted. Enough has been lost to have built a church and missionary house in every section of Sarawak.

If these recommendations be stringently carried out at the first opportunity, there may be yet a bright future for the Sarawak Mission, which is, without doubt, one of the most interesting in the world.

I would earnestly draw attention to the fact that there is unoccupied room for missionaries in nearly all the rivers. Mr. Gomez does his duty well at Lundu, but there are not perhaps more than a thousand Dayaks there. Mr. Chambers at Lingga has probably seven thousand around him, and requires assistance to enable him to influence the whole tribe. There remain, therefore, nearly two hundred thousand Dayaks without a teacher among them, and there would be work there for a hundred missionaries. I am, however, convinced that spreading your strength is comparative weakness. The ground should be gradually occupied; and when one tribe had its teacher, it should not be considered enough to influence all the surrounding ones; but as the missionaries arrived, they should be sent to the very next tribe, and not away a hundred miles. The teaching would then act and react: the Dayaks would take an interest in comparing the ways and methods of their different pastors; and once awaken an interest, half the work is done.

One missionary left among a large population is lost. I have heard it said that occasional preaching in a tribe would do great good. I think not. Influence in the East depends on the personal character; but even defects may, and would be overlooked if the missionary showed a real interest in the affairs of his people, and this can only be displayed by one who has acquired his knowledge by continued and familiar intercourse with the tribe.

I think those who have read my chapters on the Dayaks will not fail to observe that they are an improvable race; that they do not possess any superstitions or beliefs likely to offer great obstacles to Christian teaching. If I have not created an interest in them, the fault is mine, not theirs.

Another point is worthy of attention. In the districts lately ceded to Sarawak, there is a curious population of Milanaus, half of them Mahomedans, the other half Pagans. They live together in the same villages, and probably their conversion is but skin-deep. At all events, the rest have refused to join the Islamites, as pork would then be forbidden. It is a great satisfaction to all the Dayaks, Kayans, and unconverted Milanaus, that the English, the superior and governing race, indulge in the flesh of the prohibited animal: they often talk of it with pleasure.

Within the territory of Sarawak there are, as I have said, many districts totally unoccupied—as Samarahan and Sadong, with its population of Land Dayaks. And the branches of the great river Batang Lupar, occupied by Sea Dayaks, are all free to new-comers, except Lingga. The Seribas, the Kalaka, the Rejang, and the rivers flowing out of the hundred and thirty miles of coast between the last and Bintulu, are totally untouched by the missionaries.

What a field it offers to brave and earnest men! No officer who has dwelt among these people has left them without regret: the desertion of so many missionaries must be ascribed to defects of management rather than to dislike of the country. In Sarawak missionaries possess this great advantage, that they associate freely, and of course on terms of the most perfect equality with all the officers of the government, an advantage which I have heard said is not extended to them in India. It is useful in many ways, as it shows the Dayaks that all the English take a warm interest in their religious welfare; and the very fact that many of the missionaries have accompanied the government officers on their official tours has not been lost on these tribes.

I may repeat that I am not sufficiently acquainted with the practical working of our great Religious Societies to know what action could be taken on this question, but I am convinced it is an important one, and that all missionaries who go to convert the Dayak, and spread our religion in Borneo, will be heartily welcomed by the Sarawak government.