a single case of theft has not come under my observation, even when surrounded by objects easily appropriated, and tempting from their novelty. In their domestic lives they are amiable, and addicted to none of the glaring vices of the wild state: they marry but one wife, and their women are always quoted among the Malays as remarkable for chastity: nor are they degraded as in many other communities. In general, however, they are sunk in misery, and too frequently exposed to famine. Never indeed were people more oppressed or more wretched; and, although to those far removed from witnessing their sufferings and their patience, the enthusiasm I feel, and cannot help expressing, may appear exaggerated: yet probably were they themselves to change situations with me, they would perhaps speak, if not feel, more warmly than I do.'

After describing the extortions, exactions, and cruel oppressions to which this interesting and innocent race are exposed, Mr. Brooke describes the extent to which their wives and children are sold for slaves.

'This practice is carried on to an extent revolting to Christianity. A few facts which have fallen under my own observation, will speak for themselves. Of twenty Dyak tribes under this government, more than half have been robbed of their wives and children in part; and one tribe is without women or children amongst them, upwards of two hundred having been led away into slavery at Sakarran and Sadong. The chief of this tribe, when he met me a short time since, described their former and their present condition with great truth and force, and concluded his appeal in the following words: "For more than a year we have asked the Pangerans to restore our wives and children; they have promised and deceived us. If you will get our families

-we

-if you will give us our wives and children backwill be faithful in prosperity and adversity, we will work for you, and all we have or can get shall be yours."

Mr. Brooke negotiated the release of these unhappy victims, and is abolishing slavery in his government.

'The Dyaks seem to have little or no idea of a God. They offer prayers to Biedum, the great Dyak chief of former days. Priests and ceremonies they have none; the thickest mist of darkness is over them; but how much easier is it to dispel darkness with light, than to overcome the false blaze with the rays of truth. Religion they have none; and though they know a name for God, and entertain some faint notion of a future state, yet it is only in the abstract, for practically the belief seems to be a dead letter. They have no priests nor idols, say no prayers, offer no offerings to propitiate the Deity; and it is little likely therefore that human sacrifice should exist among them. In this respect they are different from any known people who have arrived at the same state of civilization. The New Zealanders, the inhabitants of the South Seas, &c. &c., for instance, all bow to their idols, towards which the same feelings of reverence and devotion, of awe and fear, obtain as with more civilized beings in regard to the invisible Deity, but here are the mere words, barren and without practice.

'It seems to be a maxim amongst all classes of Malays, that force alone can keep the Dyaks in proper subjection; which is so far true, that force alone, in the hopelessness of resistance, could induce a wild people to part with the food on which they depend for subsistence. At a distance I have heard of and pitied the sufferings of the negroes and the races of New Holland;

yet it was the cold feeling dictated by reason and humanity; but now, having witnessed the miseries of a race superior to either, the feeling glows with the fervour of personal commiseration : so true is it that visible misery will raise us to exertion, which the picture, however powerfully delineated, can never produce. The thousands daily knelled out of the world, who lie in gorgeous sepulchres, or rot unburied on the surface of the earth, excite no emotion compared to that conjured up by the meanest dead at our feet. We read of tens of thousands killed and wounded in battle, and the glory of their deeds, or the sense of their defeat attracts our sympathy; but if a single mangled warrior, ghastly with wounds, and writhing with pain, solicited our aid, we should deplore his fate with tenfold emotion, and curse the strife which led to such a result. Among the thousands starving for want of food, we trouble not ourselves to seek one; but if the object is presented before our eyes, how certain a compassion is aroused! To assist is a duty but in the performance of this duty, to be gentle and feeling is godlike; and probably between individuals there is no greater distinction, than in this tender sympathy towards distress. Poor, poor Dyaks! exposed to starvation, slavery, and death! you may well raise the warmest feelings of compassion -enthusiasm awakes at witnessing your sufferings ! To save men from death has its merit; but to alleviate suffering, to ameliorate all the ills of slavery, to protect these tribes from pillage and yearly scarcity, is far nobler; and if, in the endeavour to do so, one poor life is sacrificed, how little is it in the vast amount of human existence.'

:

This is the man, christian friends, whom you are called on to help; to share-not his perils, his anxieties,

his sufferings; he was content to brave these alone, when he went forth as a pioneer to prepare your way— but to participate in some measure of that spirit of zeal and love, which made him willing to sacrifice his all for the benefit of his race. He has laboured seven years in Borneo, and British Christians have never, till now, come forward to fulfil the earnest desire of his heart, and send the missionary to his heathen isle. The different church societies have been applied to, but with funds already overburdened by the demands of their existing stations, they were afraid of undertaking fresh responsibilities. A committee has therefore been formed to carry on the project of founding a church, missionhouse, and school, at Sarawak, under the protection of J. Brooke, Esq.: the prelates of our church have given some noble subscriptions, and a clergyman is already appointed, who hopes to set sail with his family for Borneo, in the month of July or August. Joined to an earnest desire to spread the Saviour's name, and reap the first-fruits to his glory from this untilled soil, he has other peculiar qualifications for the work he has undertaken. He was brought up for the medical profession, and gave up promising openings in it, to enter the ministry of the church: he will now, therefore, be able to imitate the example of his blessed Master, and, welcomed by the natives, as one able to bring healing to the body, may lead a simple and grateful people to the true Physician of their sin-sick souls. To avail himself of such opportunities, he is anxious to carry out with him all that is necessary for establishing a dispensary at Sarawak, and is now raising a fund for this purpose, and to obtain a small musical instrument for his new church. Any trifling articles of cutlery, toys, &c., comparatively of little value in England, may be JUNE, 1847.

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most useful to him in winning the attention of the na tives. Some of our friends residing near Birmingham or Manchester, may be able easily to procure hardware articles of the commonest kind, or remnants from the fag-ends of pieces of cotton, of which the manufacturers make no use. Such articles, or any subscription for the dispensary fund, will be most gratefully received, if addressed-Rev. T. F. M'Dougal, 7, Tavistock-place, London.

And now, before we close, we would commend this infant society, and all connected with it, both at home and abroad, to the prayers of our Christian friends. We would entreat them especially to pray, that not merely the forms of the English church, but the lifegiving knowledge of that Saviour, whom it is her glory to exalt, may be the boon conferred through the means of British Christians upon Borneo. The Romish church of the sixteenth century was invited to a virgin soil, a fresh bright world, but the spirit of life from above rested not upon her, and the preaching of priestly dominion, or the elevation of a cross of wood, had no power to touch the native mind; everywhere a blighting curse marked her steps. Hear the poetical description given by a recent French author, of the christianity of the middle ages when transplanted in America :

The morning breath of the universe passed over man's brow, but it could not revive this aged one. He sees this immaculate world; he comprehends it no more. Sorrowfully he sits, immoveable on the shore of the great rivers, having only remembrances in a world that has past, not knowing how to associate himself to so much youth, soon renouncing it, doing once more at the foot of the Cordilleras, what he had done under the Merovingians, without the choir of adoration ema