ch. viii.] Old Mission Church. 169 



now and then from epidemic diseases, cholera and small- 

 pox being the most common. Senor Quateron. the old 

 padre, now resident in Labuan, formerly had a mission 

 here, and the remains of his chapel still stand on the left 

 bank of the Brunei river, a little below the town. As seen 

 coming down the stream, it forms a picturesque object, a 

 white campanile standing on a grassy knoll, the blue peaks 

 of Molu towering up into the sky behind. I should think 

 that Brunei, of all other places in Borneo, is the last at 

 which missionaries of any denomination would be likely 

 to succeed. Their sphere is not with Mahomedans, 

 whose faith is good, so far as it teaches cleanliness and 

 temperance ; but with the aboriginals of the interior, who 

 are thrifty, honest, and truthful to a fault, and who have 

 no systematic faith unless their belief in the cries and 

 motions of birds and animals, and other omens can be so 

 called. With these people missionaries would doubtless 

 be successful, but they must be hard-working men who 

 could teach these gentle savages the benefits of civilisa- 

 tion without introducing its vices. 



A missionary has thus recorded his impressions of life 

 among the natives near Sarawak : — "A message came to 

 me from one of the Christians on the Kabo, asking me to 

 go up and see them. Accordingly, as soon as I could 

 get a boat ready we were on our way down the Sebetan 

 river .... the wild, sombre, solitary feeling of the 

 primeval forest, the easy motion of the boat, the cheeri- 

 ness of the paddling Dyaks, united to produce a sensa- 

 tion of repose and awe Next morning we soon 



came to the first waterfall rushing and roaring over the 

 rocks. Here we had to halt and stow away the palm-leaf 

 awnings, and pull the boat over the fall. Then one could 

 not help feeling the charms of tropical scenery, — the clear 

 stream running over a pebbly bottom, rocks here and 



