Life in the forests of the Far East (vol. 2 of 2)

by Sir Spenser St. John

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 After some months all charges were withdrawn, and he returned to Europe, and presenting himself before the Pope, explained his desire to found and manage a mission in Borneo.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.