I 



CELEBES 209 



return for this it is only just that every able-bodied man 

 should be compelled to lend a hand in maintaining this 

 happy condition of afiairs. In a land where the neces- 

 sities of life are so easily obtained, and the wants of the 

 people are few, poverty is inexcusable and starvation 

 unknown. Under such circumstances it would be im- 

 possible for the Government to obtain a sufficient number 

 of men to labour on the roads at a reasonable wage, and 

 in consequence they would be either neglected or ex- 

 tremely costly to maintain. The heerendienst is, tlien, 

 the only system by which the roads can be kept in a 

 proper state of repair without over - burdening the 

 exchequer or increasing the taxation of the people 

 beyond their capabilities. If it is true that some of the 

 Dutch officials have occasionally used the heerendienst for 

 their own personal service, it is the abuse of the system 

 we should deprecate, not the system itself" 



West of Minahasa is Gorontalo, which gives its name 

 to the great gulf intervening between the peninsula and 

 the rest of the island. The district, which is inhabited 

 by native tribes under chiefs or rajas, is administered by 

 a Dutch Assistant-Eesident. Most of the people here 

 are of a markedly different type from the short, light- 

 coloured, and amiable-looking Minahasans, being taller, 

 darker, and with crisper hair, but nevertheless showing 

 no sign of Papuan blood. Many are Mohammedans, but 

 the greater number pagans, as are ahnost all the tribes 

 farther west, except on the coast, where are some settle- 

 ments of Bugis and Mandars who trade with the people 

 of the interior. The town of Gorontalo is situated close 

 to the Limbotto Lake, and contains about 3000 inhabit- 

 ants. Its chief exports are copra and copal. The 

 Dutch have been settled here from the seventeenth cen- 

 tury, and remains of an old fort still exist, willi \\alls 



