274 KEir GUINEA. [chap. 



great mountains, the climate is no doubt very niucli healthier, 

 although the rainfall at certain seasons must be enormous. 



Mr. Van Hasselt's house on Manaswari is the sole bit of 

 ci\'ilisation in Dutch Xew Guinea. Built a few yards only above 

 a pleasant coral-beach in the middle of a grove of coco pabns, the 

 neatness and order prevailing ought at least to have had some 

 effect as an example to the natives. Flowers are planted round 

 the house, and ferns and orchids hang in the verandah. In front 

 is a small lawn and a flagstaft", and at the back a good vegetable 

 garden and a cattle kraal. At a little distance stands the small 

 building which acts as church and schoolroom, erected by ]\Ir. 

 Bink and Mr. Van Hasselt with their own hands. A few children 

 were brought out for our inspection. They sang hjTuns remark- 

 ably well, and could read and write, but it seemed to us a pity 

 that the lesson of our Saviour's life on earth was less taught than 

 the dry details of Old Testament history. 



Judging merely from the inside of the schoolroom, the Dorei 

 mission would appear to be a success, but in reality it is to be feared 

 that it is not so. The entire result of twenty-eight years of mission- 

 work and the sacrifice of many lives is but sixteen adult and 

 twenty-six child converts. Children are bought by the missionaries 

 whenever possible, and brought up as Christians from their earliest 

 infancy, and it is in this way alone that any real success is possible. 

 It is not easy to obtain them, however, since the natives are un- 

 willing to sell then- own, and hence orphans or the offspring of 

 slaves alone come into the hands of the missionaries. The Papuan 

 is bold, self-reliant, and independent, and no rapid conversion to 

 Cliristianity, as has been the case m some of the Pacific Islands, is 

 ever Hkely to take place in Xew Guinea. As far as our short 

 experience of Dorei permitted us to form an opinion, it seemed to 

 us that the mission had little or no influence over the natives. 

 The latter have, of course, become quite accustomed to Europeans, 

 'and leave them unmolested, but their habits and customs remain 

 imchanged, and at the time of our ^'isit the Bum-slam or idol- 



