Missionaries. 261 



facility of speaking and an endless supply of religious plati- 

 tudes to talk about, ride their hobby rather hard, without much 

 consideration for their flock. The missionaries, however, have 

 much to be j^roud of in this country. They have assisted the 

 Government in changing a savage into a civilized community 

 in a wonderfully short space of time. Forty years ago the 

 country was a wilderness, the people naked savages, garnish- 

 ing their rude houses with human heads. Now it is a garden, 

 worthy of its sweet native name of " Minahasa." Good roads 

 and paths traverse it in every direction; some of the finest 

 coffee ^plantations in the world surround the villages, inter- 

 spersed with extensive rice-fields more than sufiicient for the 

 support of the population. 



The people are now the most industrious, peaceable, and 

 civilized in the whole Archipelago. They are the best clothed, 

 the best housed, the best fed, and the best educated, and they 

 have made some progress toward a higher social state. I be- 

 lieve there is no example elsewhere of such striking results 

 being produced in so short a time — results which are entirely 

 due to the system of government now adopted by the Dutch 

 in their Eastern possessions. The system is one which may 

 be called a "paternal despotism." Now we Englishmen do 

 not like despotism — we hate the name and the thing, and we 

 Avould rather see people ignorant, lazy, and vicious, than use 

 any but moral force to make them wise, industrious, and good. 

 And we are right when we are dealing with men of our own 

 race, and of similar ideas and equal capacities with ourselves. 

 Example and precejit, the force of public opinion, and the 

 slow, but sure spread of education, will do every thing in 

 time, without engendering any of those bitter feelings, or 

 producing any of that servility, hypocrisy, and dependence, 

 which are the sure results of despotic government. But what 

 should we think of a man who should adtocate these princi- 

 ples of perfect freedom in a family or a school ? We should 

 say that he was applying a good general principle to a case in 

 Avhich the conditions rendered it inapplicable — the case in 

 which the governed are in an admitted state of mental inferi- 

 ority to those who govern them, and are unable to decide what 

 is best for their permanent Avelfare. Children must be sub- 

 jected to some degree of authority, and guidance; and if prop- 



