Natives of Minahasa. 251 



tain trees and birds were supposed to have especial influence 

 over men's actions and destiny. They held wild and exciting 

 festivals to propitiate these deities or demons, and believed 

 that men could be changed by them into animals, either dur- 

 ing life or after death. 



Here Ave have a picture of true savage life, of small isolated 

 communities, at war with all around them, subject to the 

 wants and miseries of such a condition, drawing a precarious 

 existence from the luxuriant soil, and living on from genera- 

 tion to generation, with no desire for physical amelioration, 

 and no prospect of moral advancement. 



Such was their condition down to the year 1822, when the 

 coffee-plant was first introduced, and experiments were made 

 as to its cultivation. It was found to succeed admirably at 

 from fifteen hundred up to four thousand feet above the sea. 

 The chiefs of villages were induced to undertake its cultiva- 

 tion. Seed and native instructors were sent from Java ; food 

 was supplied to the laborers engaged in clearing and planting ; 

 a fixed price was established at which all coffee brought to 

 the Government collectors was to be paid for, and the village 

 chiefs, who now received the titles of " majors," were to re- 

 ceive five per cent, of the produce. After a time roads were 

 made from the port of Menado up to the plateau, and smaller 

 paths were cleared from village to village ; missionaries settled 

 in the more populous districts and oj)ened schools, and Chinese 

 traders penetrated to the interior and supplied clothing and 

 other luxuries in exchange for the money which the sale of 

 the coffee had produced. At the same time the coimtry was 

 divided into districts, and the system of " controlleurs," which 

 had worked so well in Java, was introduced. The controlleur 

 was a European, or a native of European blood, who was the 

 general superintendent of the cultivation of the district, the 

 adviser of the chiefs, the protector of the people, and the means 

 of communication between both and the European Govern- 

 ment. His duties obliged him to visit every village in succes- 

 sion once a month, and to send in a report on their condition 

 to the Resident. As disputes between adjacent villages were 

 now settled by appeal to a superior authority, the old and in- 

 convenient serai-fortified houses were disused, and under the 

 direction of the controlleurs most of the houses were rebuilt 



