The Inhabitants. 359 



(the manager of the jilantations) and the native chief, obtain- 

 ed a small house, got all my things on shore, and paid and 

 discharged my twenty boatmen, two of whom had almost 

 driven me to distraction by beating tom-toms the whole voy- 

 age. 



I found the jjeople here very nearly in a state of nature, 

 and going almost naked. The men wear their frizzly hair 

 gathered into a flat circular knot over the left temple, which 

 has a very knowing look, and in their ears cylinders of wood 

 as thick as onie's finger, and colored red at the ends. Armlets 

 and anklets of woven grass or of silver, with necklaces of 

 beads or of small fruits, complete their attire. The women 

 wear similar ornaments, but have their hair loose. All are 

 tall, with a dark-brown skin, and well-marked Papuan physi- 

 ognomy. There is an Amboyna school-master in the village, 

 and a good number of children attend school every morning. 

 Such of the inhabitants as have become Christians may be 

 known by their wearing their hair loose, and adopting to 

 some extent the native Christian dress — trowsers and a loose 

 shirt. Very few sjDcak Malay, all these coast villages having 

 been recently formed by inducing natives to leave the inac- 

 cessible interior. In all the central part of Ceram there now 

 remains only one populous village in the mountains. Toward 

 the east and the extreme west are a few others, with which 

 exceptions all the inhabitants of Ceram are collected on the 

 coast. In the northern and eastern districts they are mostly 

 Mohammedans, while on the south-west coast, nearest Am- 

 boyna, they are nominal Christians. 



In all this part of the Archipelago the Dutch make very 

 praiseworthy efforts to improve the condition of the aborig- 

 ines by establishing school-masters in every village (who are 

 mostly natives of Amboyna or Saparua, who have been in- 

 structed by the resident missionaries), and by employing na- 

 tive vaccinators to prevent the ravages of small-pox. They 

 also encourage the settlement of Europeans, and the formation 

 of new jDlantations of cacao and coffee, one of the best means 

 of raising the condition of the natives, who thus obtain work 

 at fair wages, and have the opijortunity of acquiring some- 

 thing of European tastes and habits. 



My collections here did not progress much better than at 



