Baring-Gould Sabine
A History of Sarawak under Its Two White Rajahs 1839-1908
Sarawak possesses extensive coal-fields, and anthracite and steam and cannel-coal have been found throughout the country; but so far coal has been mined only at Semunjan in the Sadong river.360 This colliery has been worked for many years by the Government. The coal is of good steaming quality, leaving little ash, and there is plenty of it. Like the Brooketon Mine, this mine would pay if a market could be found for the coal. The average yearly output is now about 20,000 tons, a little more than sufficient to supply local steamers. At Selantik, up the Lingga river, very extensive coal seams have been proved; but to work these a large outlay would have to be incurred in the construction of a long railway over the swampy land lying between the Selantik hill and the nearest place in the river where steamers could load.
Diamonds are found in the upper reaches of the Sarawak river, and these are brilliant and of good water; the largest known to have been found is seventy-two carats, and was named "The Star of Sarawak." Diamonds have never been sought for in a systematic manner.
Iron ore abounds; and, as has already been noticed, it is smelted by the Kayans and Kenyahs for the manufacture of weapons and tools.
Sarawak has no mechanical industries of importance or capable of much development. Many Melanaus are able carpenters, boatbuilders, and blacksmiths. Amongst Malays are to be found some good shipbuilders and coppersmiths, and a few fairly skilful as silver and goldsmiths, but almost all the skilled labour is in the hands of the Chinese. In such domestic arts as weaving cotton and silk cloths, and plaiting mats, baskets, and hats, the native women are expert, and produce very excellent work.
CHAPTER XVII
EDUCATION – RELIGION – MISSIONS
Many changes of opinion must take place upon the subject of the education of natives before it is exhausted and the best way of teaching found, and such changes of opinion and the improvements in methods which follow in their train can only be the result of experience, or of conclusions drawn from successful or unsuccessful experiments.
So the Rajah wrote thirty years ago, but hitherto experience has taught little that gives any encouragement to the expectation that the present condition of the natives will be improved by any form of education based upon accepted ideals. Though the difficulty lies perhaps not so much in knowing what or how to teach the natives, but in getting them to come to be taught; especially is this the case with the dominant Sea-Dayak race, a fact which should not be lost sight of in considering how missionary efforts in this direction have met with such small success.
If he would learn, a Sea-Dayak could be taught almost anything; but what should we teach him? A common school board education is of no value to him. He may learn to read and write, and gain a little rudimentary knowledge utterly useless to him after leaving school, and therefore soon to be forgotten. If he is placed in one of the larger schools in Kuching he will there receive impressions and imbibe ideas which may render a return to his old surroundings distasteful to him, and unfit him for the ordinary life and occupations of his people. He will be left with one opportunity of gaining a living – he may become a clerk, though the demand for clerks is limited; but if he is successful in obtaining a clerkship he will be beset with temptations which he will be unable to resist, and which will soon prove his ruin; and unfortunately this has been the rule and not the exception. There are some who advocate technical education, and who rightly point out that the Sea-Dayak would make an excellent artisan, though the same argument applies equally against the utility of such a training. He may become a clever carpenter or smith, but there would be few opportunities for him to benefit himself by his skill, for he could never compete with the Chinese artisan, into whose hands all the skilled labour has fallen.
But if elementary and technical education were to meet with all the success one could desire, that success would needs be exceedingly limited, for, though some good would be done, only a few could be benefited. A broader view must be taken, a view that has regard not to the improvement of a few only, but of the people generally, and how this can best be done is a question that has brought forth many and various opinions, all more or less impracticable.
The Sea-Dayak has all he wants. He is well off, contented, and happy. He is a sober man, and indulges in but few luxuries. He is hard-working and he is honest, but he lacks strength of mind, and is easily led astray. Therefore, the longer he is kept from the influences of civilisation the better it will be for him, for the good cannot be introduced without the bad. Perhaps the problem of his future will work out better by a natural process. When his present sources of supply fail him and necessity forces him into other grooves, then, and not before, will he take up other industries, which his natural adaptability will soon enable him to learn.
To learn how to read and write and a little simple arithmetic is as far on the path of education as the average Malay boy can reach; and perhaps it is far enough. There are two Government Schools in Kuching for Malays, which are fairly well attended, though attendance is not compulsory. For those who may desire an education of a higher class than can be obtained in these schools, those of the S.P.G. and the R.C. Missions are always open; and Malays, though Muhammadans, do not hesitate to attend these schools, and even to be taught by the priests, for they know that no attempt will be made to proselytise them. They are encouraged to attend for their own good; they would be kept away if there was the faintest suspicion that it was for the sake of converting them. In Kuching, the Government has a third and larger school, the High School, entirely secular in character, which is open to boys of all races, who are taught by Chinese, Malay, and Indian schoolmasters, and this school is well attended.
The large S.P.G. Boys' School is under the management of an English headmaster, and the boys are well educated. The pupils are chiefly local Chinese, and there are a few natives from the out-station missions. Old boys from this school are to be met with throughout the Malay Peninsula as well as in Sarawak, maintaining in positions of trust the credit their school has so justly gained. The S.P.G. Mission has also a Girls' School, conducted by two English Sisters, and here good work is also done.
Perhaps the largest school in Kuching is that belonging to the R.C. Mission, which is very ably conducted by the priests. As in the S.P.G. School, the pupils are chiefly Chinese boys. Attached to the Convent is a Girls' School under the control of the Mother Superior and four Sisters.
In the provinces, the S.P.G. Mission has schools at five different places, but only two are now under the control of priests: the R.C. Mission has the same number of Boys' Schools, all under the control of priests, besides three convents where girls are taught. The Methodist Episcopal Mission has a school at Sibu. All these schools receive State aid. Chinese have their own little schools scattered about, for which they receive small grants, and in Upper Sarawak there are two Government Chinese Schools. Efforts to start schools amongst the provincial Malays have not met with success; they have their own little village schools conducted by hajis, in which the teaching of the Koran is the main curriculum.
Writing in 1866, the present Rajah says: —
Twenty years ago, the Sarawak population had little religion of any sort, and the first step towards bringing it to notice was when the English mission was established. The Christian Church gave rise to a Muhammadan mosque. Subsequent years of prosperity have enabled the Malays to receive instruction from the Mecca School. Those who are too old, or too much involved in the business of the country to go on the haj, send annual sums to the religious authorities there; but at the present time I feel sure there is no fanaticism among the inhabitants, and, excepting some doubtful points instilled into them in their education at Mecca, their religion is wholesome and happy. To the building of the mosque very few would come forward to subscribe.361
Forty years ago the pilgrimage to Mecca was a costly and a hazardous venture. The sufferings that pilgrims for months had to undergo on ill-found, overcrowded, and insanitary sailing ships, and the dangers to which they were exposed on the overland journey from Jedah to Mecca and back, were such that only fervent Muhammadans would face, and few Malays are such. Not many had the means to undertake a journey which would take the best part of a year to perform, as well as to satisfy the insatiable extortions to which they were subjected from the moment they set their feet in Arabia. Now, the welfare of the Muhammadan pilgrim is so well safeguarded by Christian ordinances, that his voyage to Jedah and back to Singapore presents to him but a pleasurable and interesting trip, on which his wife and daughters may accompany him with safety and moderate comfort. Steamers have taken the place of sailing ships, and competition has made the fares cheap. At Jedah the Malay pilgrim is under the protection of his Consul, and, beyond, the influence of a Great Power will protect him at least as far as his life and liberty are concerned, but he will suffer the common lot of all pilgrims, and be subjected to exactions of every kind, returning to Jedah with empty pockets.
Though, owing to the facility with which the pilgrimage can now be made, hundreds yearly go to Mecca and are brought into close contact with the bigotry of western Muhammadans, yet the Malay remains as he was, with an almost total absence of religious fervour. A sure sign of indifference to their religion in the majority of Malays and Melanaus is found in the mean, dilapidated buildings which are dignified by the name of mosques, to be seen in most of the towns and villages along the coast. Kuching practically owes its fine mosque to the benevolence of one man, the late Datu Bandar. There are some devout Muhammadans amongst the Malays, though not many, but there are no bigots. Some content themselves with a loose adherence to outward observances; many do not even do this, and not many attend the mosques for worship, but, however, all would be united in bitter opposition to any intermeddling with their religion.
The remnants of a former paganism still cling to the Malay, who is certainly more superstitious than he is religious. He still strongly believes in spirits, witchcraft, and magic – a belief his religion condemns; he will practise sorcery, and will use spells and charms to propitiate, or to ward off the evil influence of spirits – practices which his religion forbids.362
Toleration and a deficiency of zeal have made the Malays indifferent propagators of their faith amongst the pagan tribes around them; and the field has been left open to Christian missionaries, whose work of conversion they look upon with unconcern, so long as no attempt is made to convert a Muhammadan, and to do that is not allowed by the law of Sarawak. Their feeling towards the Christian religion is one of respect. They admit Christians readily to their mosques, and will attend church on the occasion of a marriage or a funeral in which they may be interested, and they will converse freely with Christians upon religious subjects, without assuming or pretending to any superiority in their own religion.
Mischievous and clever Arab impostors, usually good-looking men with a dignified bearing, meet with short shrift in Sarawak, and such holy men are very promptly moved on. The heads of the Muhammadan religion will have none of them. Their ostensible object is to teach, but their sole one is to make what they can by trading upon the superstition of the simple-minded. In these men the Dutch see fanatical emissaries sent from Mecca to preach a jihad or holy war, and have more than once warned the Government that such men had gone to Sarawak for this purpose. They may be right, but these pseudo Sherifs and Sayids363 have never attempted to do so in Sarawak, it would be a waste of their time, and be the ruin of their business.
The Sea-Dayaks, as well as the Land-Dayaks, and those tribes inhabiting the interior are alike pagans, and possess but a dim and vague belief in certain mythical beings who, between them, made man and gave him life. These gods are styled Batara or Patara and Jewata – Sanskrit names introduced by the Hindus.364 With them mythical legends, which vary greatly, take the place of religion. They have no priests, no temples, and no worship. They believe in spirits with controlling power over the air, the earth, and the water, and they place implicit reliance on omens as given by birds, animals, and reptiles, and in dreams, through which the spirits convey warnings or encouragement in respect to the affairs they may be engaged upon, or contemplate undertaking. They have a belief in a future life, which will differ in little respect from their life on this earth. These people are not idolaters; their religion is animistic.
The project of the establishment of a Church of England Mission in Sarawak was started by the late Rajah in 1847. The Earl of Ellesmere and others interested themselves in the project, and, sufficient funds having been subscribed, the Rev. F. T. McDougall and two other missionaries were sent out, and arrived in Sarawak in June, 1848. The Church of St. Thomas, now the Diocesan Church, was completed and consecrated by the Bishop of Calcutta in 1851. Two years later the Mission was transferred to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel; and, in 1855, to complete the organisation of the Church in Borneo, Mr. McDougall was consecrated Bishop of Labuan and Sarawak. He resigned in 1867, and died in 1886. Mr. Chambers, who had for many years been a missionary in Sarawak, succeeded him, and on his resignation365 the Venerable G. F. Hose, Archdeacon of Singapore, was consecrated Bishop in 1881, and the full designation of the diocese then became Singapore, Labuan, and Sarawak, by the inclusion of the Straits Settlements and the Federated Malay States.
The headquarters of the Mission is at Kuching, where the Bishop and the Archdeacon reside, the latter being also the Vicar of Kuching. The Mission Stations are at Lundu, Kuap, Banting, Sabu in the Undup, and Sebetan in the Kalaka, and at these places there are churches and schools. Hitherto all these stations, which were established many years ago, have been under the care of resident clergymen, but at present there are four vacancies. Attached to these principal Stations, and under the supervision of the missionary in charge, are many scattered chapels with native catechists and teachers.
In Kuching the work of the Mission lies chiefly amongst the Chinese. Kuap, which is within a day's journey of the capital, is a Land-Dayak village; the other Mission Stations are in districts populated by Sea-Dayaks, and the labours of the S.P.G. are chiefly confined to these people.
During the first six and a half years of Bishop Hose's episcopate, 1714 persons were baptized, and the number of native Christians had risen to 3480 in 1887.
For a full and interesting account of the work done by the Mission the reader is referred to Two Hundred Years of the S.P.G. (1701-1900).
That the Church in Borneo has done, and is still doing good, no one will dispute. It has not, however, extended its sphere of influence beyond its original limits, and within those limits, from Lundu to Kalaka, there is not only room, but the necessity for many more missionaries to labour than the Church is at present provided with. Missionary enterprise has not kept pace with the advance of civilisation. The large districts that since 1861 have reverted to the raj have been totally neglected by the S.P.G., and these districts, both in respect to area and population, constitute by far the greater part of Sarawak. But the Church in Sarawak is entirely dependent upon extraneous support, and when funds appear to be wanting, even to maintain the former efficient state of the Mission, and indications of retrogression are only too evident, there can be little hope for progression. A bishop cannot find missionaries, they must be sent to him, and he must be provided with the means to support them and their missions, and unless he is so far assisted he cannot be blamed for any shortcomings. To succeed, a mission, like other undertakings, must be based upon sound business principles. The isolated efforts of even the best men, men like Gomes,366 Chambers,367 Chalmers,368 and Perham,369 who have left their personal stamp upon the Mission, can be of little avail without continuity of effort and purpose, and to insure this a system is necessary, a system of trained missionaries, training others to take their places in due time, and for want of such a system the S.P.G. is now left with but two English missionaries in Sarawak.
To the deep regret of all in his diocese, failing health and advancing years necessitated the retirement of Bishop Hose at the end of 1907, after having spent the best years of his life in faithful service to the Church in the East. As far back as 1868 he was appointed Colonial Chaplain at Malacca. He was transferred to Singapore in 1872, and was appointed Archdeacon in 1874. For a little over twenty-six years he had been Bishop of a diocese of unwieldy size, over 120,000 square miles, containing a population of about two and a quarter millions, the supervision of which, with the two Archdeaconries separated by 450 miles of sea, necessarily entails a great deal of hard work and a considerable amount of travelling, and by reason of this it is proposed shortly to subdivide the diocese.370
The great Spanish Jesuit, one of the founders of the Jesuit Society, St. Francisco Xavier, the Apostle of India and the Far East, in 1542 laid the foundations of a missionary enterprise that scarcely has a parallel. Earnest and self-denying priests followed in his footsteps, and eventually some reached Borneo. Of the work of the earlier missionaries in Borneo we know hardly anything, but, as with Xavier at Malacca, they probably met with little success. They wandered away into the jungles, there to end their days amongst savage and barbarous people, at whose hands we know some met with martyrdom. They have left no traces and no records behind them, even their names are perhaps forgotten.
Fr. Antonio Vintimiglia, already mentioned in chapter ii. established a Roman Catholic Mission at Bruni, where he died in 1691; there may have been others there before him, but evidently he was the last Roman Catholic priest for many years in that part of Borneo with which this history deals.
In 1857, a Roman Catholic Mission was again established at Bruni, Labuan, and Gaya Bay, under a Spaniard named Cuateron, as Prefect Apostolic, who was assisted by two worthy Italian Priests. The romantic story of how Senor Cuateron became a priest, how he established the Mission, and how he obtained the means to do so, will be found in Sir Spenser St. John's Life in the Forests of the Far East. St. John tells us that the funds entrusted by Fr. Cuateron to the Papal Government as a permanent support for his Mission were diverted to other purposes, and the money he retained himself was dissipated in unsuccessful speculations. In 1861, nothing remained but closed churches and Fr. Cuateron. He remained for over fifteen years longer, and then he too disappeared.
In July, 1881, a Roman Catholic Mission to Borneo was founded in England, and attached to the foundation of this Mission there is also some romance, but of a different character to that which centred upon Fr. Cuateron. The Very Rev. Thomas Jackson, the first Vicar Apostolic, had so distinguished himself in the field in succouring the wounded during the last Afghan war as an acting Army chaplain, that he won a practical and well-deserved recognition from officers and men in the shape of a substantial testimonial, and this he devoted to the promotion of missionary work in Borneo. After travelling through North Borneo and Sarawak he selected Kuching as his headquarters. Supported by liberal aid from home, and well aided by zealous and self-devoted priests and sisters, before his retirement he had laid the foundations of a most flourishing mission. The Vicar Apostolic is now the Very Rev. E. Dunn, one of the first missionaries to join Mr. Jackson, and he, by his earnestness and kindliness, has won the respect of all. In Sarawak there are eleven European priests, two brothers, and eleven nuns and Sisters of Charity.
At Sibu, in the Rejang, there is an American Methodist Episcopal Mission under the charge of an American missionary. It was established in 1900, to look after the welfare of a number of Foo Chow Chinese agriculturists, who had been introduced from China and settled near Sibu, and who are all members of the American Methodist Church.
From every point of view, few countries offer such facilities and advantages for missionary work than are found in Sarawak. There is no spirit of antagonism to Christianity. Converts are exposed to no persecution, scorn, or even annoyance. By becoming Christians they do not lose caste, or the respect of their people. The lives and property of missionaries are absolutely safe wherever they may choose to settle, and, more, their coming will be welcomed. A man gifted with good sense and firmness, kindness of heart and courtesy, will soon make his influence felt, and gain, what is of paramount importance to the success of his undertaking, the respect of the people around him. Such a man will not fail to do a great deal of good, as such men have done before, but his labours will have been in vain unless there be another gifted with the same good qualities ready to take his place in due course.
