298 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL 



The effect of tli'e Dutch " culture-system " is perhaps 

 better seen in Minahasa than in Java, and no one could 

 visit the district without being struck with the example 

 of prosperity and happiness it affords. Some years ago 

 Mr. Wallace pointed out that it is only by some such 

 means that the gulf between savagery and advanced 

 civilisation can be bridged, and that the experiment of 

 introducing free trade and free labour among a childlike 

 and irresponsible people must inevitaljly be fraught with 

 disaster. Twenty years later Dr. Guillemard found the 

 Minahasans " a contented, happy people, among whom 

 drunkenness and crime were almost non-existent ; the 

 land highly cultivated, and the villages neater and cleaner 

 than in any part of the civilised world," and was con- 

 strained to agree with Mr. Wallace. A still later 

 traveller, the naturalist Dr. Hickson, who resided in 

 Northern Celebes for a year in 1885, thus speaks of the 

 corvde in Minahasa : — " The system of heercndicnst has 

 been very severely criticised by many well-meaning per- 

 sons as tyrannical and unjust, but I cannot help thinking 

 that every one who is really acquainted with the circum- 

 stances of these colonies and the character and condition 

 of the people must admit that it is a service which is 

 both necessary and just. The Dutch Government has 

 brought to the people of Minahasa not only the blessings 

 of peace and security, but also the possibilities of a very 

 considerable civilisation and commercial prosperity. The 

 natives are now able to sow their rice in perfect con- 

 fidence that they will gather the harvest in due season ; 

 they are able to send their corn, their chickens, and 

 other produce to the markets without fear of being 

 plundered on the road, and without experiencing the 

 horrors of war and bloodshed ; they pass their lives in 

 peace and quietude from the cradle to the grave. In 



