CHAP. XII.] THE DUTCH MISSIONARIES. 273 



missionaries and the residence of Mr. Wallace in 1858, is protected 

 on the east by the islands of Manaswari and Meosmapi. The 

 latter is uninhabited, but on Manaswari are the three villages 

 Menubabor, Mansinam, and Saraundibu, and the house of Mr, Van 

 Hasselt, the oldest missionary. Dorei itseK includes the villages 

 of Ambobridoi, Kwawe, and Easamberi, and is placed on the 

 northern shore of the harbour about two miles distant from the 

 island. Here Mr. Jens and Mr. Van Balen are settled, and a mile 

 beyond — close to the head of the bay — is Mr. Bink's house, behind 

 the villages of Eode and Monokware. The whole native population 

 numbers, or is supposed to number, over three thousand persons. 



We were soon surrounded by native praus and boarded by 

 Messrs. Jens and Van Balen. We had brought a mail for them, 

 which had been waiting for weeks at Ternate before it got into 

 our hands. Wlien they had received the last one we did not 

 inquire, but it was quite touching to see the poor fellows rush at 

 their letters, excitedly exclaiming, " This is from my mother !" 

 " Here is a book from my sister !" and so on, as they held them 

 up. All these missionaries have been chosen from the working- 

 class, as being more fitted to instruct the natives in the useful 

 arts, and can speak little but their own and the Nufoor language. 

 Mr. Van Hasselt, however, having married a German lady, spoke 

 that language fluently, and could also manage a little French and 

 English. He had lived no less than twenty years at Dorei, but 

 the terrible effects of the clunate were only too plainly apparent. 

 Bent nearly double, and so enfeebled by repeated attacks of fever 

 and other tropical disorders as to be incapable of much exertion, 

 he appeared to us to be over seventy years of age, and we were 

 astonished to learn that he was only forty-seven. The continued 

 heat and excessive rainfall of this part of New Guinea, especially 

 when combined with poor diet, make it almost as unhealthy as 

 West Africa, and the list of names of the missionaries who have 

 died here is a long one. I am, of course, speaking only of the 

 pestilential mangrove -clad coasts. Inland, on the slopes of the 



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