376 TRAVELS IN THE EAST INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO. 



tlieir bloody rites. As soon as a few natives had. 

 been taugbt to read and write, tbey were employed 

 as teacliers, and schools were established from place 

 to place, and from these centres a spirit of industry 

 and self-respect has diffused itself among the people 

 and supplanted in a great measure their previous 

 predisposition to idleness and self-neglect. In 1840, 

 seven years after Pietermaat gave the description 

 of these people mentioned above, the number of 

 Christians compared to that of heathen was as one 

 to sixteen, now it is about as two to five; and 

 exactly as this ratio continues to increase, in the 

 same degree will the prosperity of this land be- 

 come greater. 



The rocks seen on this journey through the 

 Minahassa, as noted above, are trachji^ic lavas, vol- 

 canic sand and ashes, pumice-stone, and conglome- 

 rates composed of these materials and clay formed 

 by their decomposition. They all appear to be of 

 a late formation, and, as Dr. Bleeker remarks, the 

 Minahassa seems to be only a recent prolongation 

 of the older sedimentary rocks in the residency of 

 Gorontalo. In this small part of the peninsula, 

 there are no less than eleven volcanoes. North of 

 Menado is a chain of volcanic islands, which form a 

 prolongation of this peninsula. On the island Siao 

 there is an active volcano. North of it is the large 

 island of Sangir. According to Valentyn, the high- 

 est mountain on the island underwent an eruption 

 in December, 1711. A great quantity of ashes and 

 lava was ejected, and the air was so heated for some 

 distance around, that many of the natives lost their 



