begun to admire the scene, when a
gentleman in a blue flannel sort of dress, with a roughish beard and a
cigar in his mouth, made his appearance, and was presented to me as
the Bishop of Labuan! He was there endeavouring to recruit his health,
which has suffered a good deal. He complained of the damp of the
climate, while admitting its many charms, and seemed to think that he
owed to the dampness a very bad cold by which he was afflicted. Soon
afterwards his wife joined us. They were both at Sarawak when the last
troubles took place, and must have had a bad time of it. The Chinese
behaved well to them; indeed they seemed desirous to make the Bishop
their leader. His converts (about fifty) were stanch, and he has a
school at which about the same number of Chinese boys are educated.
These facts pleaded in his favour, and it says something for the
Chinese that they were not insensible to these claims. They committed
some cruel acts, but they certainly might have committed more. They
respected the women except one (Mrs. C., whom they wounded severely),
and they stuck by the Bishop until they found that he was trying to
bring Brooke back. They then turned upon him, and he had to run for
his life. The Bishop gave me an interesting description of his school
of Chinese boys. He says they are much more like English boys than
other Orientals: that when a new boy comes they generally get up a
fight, and let him earn his place by his prowess. But there is no
managing them without pretty severe punishments. Indeed, he says that
if a boy be in fault the others do not at all like his not being well
punished; they seem to think that it is an injustice to the rest if
this is omitted. I am about to do with a strange people; so much to
admire in them, and yet with a perversity of disposition which makes
it absolutely necessary, if you are to live with them at all, to treat
them severely, sometimes almost cruelly. They have such an overweening
esteem for themselves, that they become unbearable unless they are
constantly reminded that others are as good as they.... The Bishop
seemed to think that it would be a very good thing if the Rajah were
to go home for a time, and leave the government to his nephew, whom he
praises much.... When we came down from the mountain we went to the
house of the Resident on the