chap, xvii.] MISSIONARIES. 397 



cold work for his auditors, however warming to himself; 

 and I am inclined to think that these native teachers, 

 having acquired facility of speaking and an endless Supply 

 of religious platitudes to talk about, ride their hobby 

 rather hard, without much consideration for their flock. 

 The Missionaries, however, have much to be proud of in 

 this country. They have assisted the Government in 

 changing a savage into a civilized community in a wonder- 

 fully short space of time. Forty years ago the country 

 was a wilderness, the people naked savages, garnishing 

 their rude houses with human heads. Now it is a garden, 

 worthy of its sweet native name of " Minahasa." Good 

 roads and paths traverse it in every direction ; some of the 

 finest coffee plantations in the world surround the villages, 

 interspersed with extensive rice-fields more than sufficient 

 for the support of the population. 



The people are now the most industrious, peaceable, 

 and civilized in the whole Archipelago. They are the 

 best clothed, the best housed, the best fed, and the best 

 educated ; and they have made some progress towards a 

 higher social state. I believe there is no example else- 

 where of such striking results being produced in so short 

 a time — results which are entirely due to the system of 

 government now adopted by the Dutch in their Eastern 

 possessions. The system is one which may be called a 

 " paternal despotism." Now we Englishmen do not like 



